'One Piece' Creator Reveals Elderly Zoro

One Piece has been around for decades at this point, but its heroes are still in their prime. The Straw Hats are as young as ever, but that doesn't mean they will stay that way for good. The creator of One Piece knows age waits for no man, and Eiichiro Oda knows it might not treat Roronoa Zoro well.

After all, the artist just revealed his take on a much older Zoro, and the sketches have fans double taking.

Recently, One Piece fans were given a look at Zoro's future when a new SBS volume went live. The trade saw Oda answer fan questions per usual, and one fans wanted to know what Zoro would look like as an old man. So, Oda felt obliged to give the fan exactly what they wanted.

"If he survived that long, it would be like this," Oda captioned the image above.

As you can see, there are four images shown. Both rows depict Zoro at 40 and 60, but the top shows how he'd look if things go well for the pirate moving forward. As for the bottom row, it shows how Zoro would age if his story doesn't end as planned.

Clearly, the top row has got fans feeling optimistic as Zoro seems to age well. His once spiky hair has been slicked back, and Zoro has more wrinkles upon his face. However, the swordsman is very recognizable, and he only ages better as his 60s roll in.

Unfortunately, the same grace is not given to Zoro's dark future. At 40, the former pirate is seen balding with his teeth missing in action. Zoro's look at 60leaves him completely toothless and rocking some seriously scattered facial hair. The aesthetic is far cry from the one Zoro has under his good ending, and fans are keeping their fingers crossed the swordsman lives long enough to age so well.

So, what do you think about this hero's older look? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!

Eiichiro Oda's One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has since been collected into over 80 volumes, and has been a critical and commercial success worldwide with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author, and is the best-selling manga series worldwide with over 430 million copies sold.