‘One Piece’ Brings Zoro a Step Closer to an Important Sword

When it comes to swords, few characters in One Piece know them as well as Roronoa Zoro. The green-haired pirate is set on becoming the world’s best swordsmen, and he’s well on his way to that goal. And, if things go smoothly for Zoro, he may get a new sword soon enough.

That is, if he can get his captain to relinquish the cursed thing.

Recently, Weekly Shonen Jump put out its latest issue, and the update held the new chapter of One Piece. The issue followed Monkey D. Luffy as he and Zoro begin their battle with Basil Hawkins, and it didn’t take long for Zoro to notice what his friend was holding.

“By the way, where did you get that sword,” Zoro asks, nodding to the blade in Luffy’s possession. The captain shrugs off the questions, but Zoro isn’t about to lose his ground.

“No, I’m serious. It really does have the aura of a world-renowned sword. Let me hold it for a second,” Zoro continues before Luffy rushes into battle headlong. “Hey, I just want to borrow it for a bit. You don’t know how to use a sword anyway. Don’t throw the sheath away!”

While Zoro may not know the blade’s history, he is a keen enough swordsmen to spot its importance. The sword is one of the 21 Great Swords, and it goes by the name Nidai Kitetsu. The cursed blade came from O-Tama’s master, as his ancestor Kotetsu made the blade, but it is hard to wield because of its cursed status.

Obviously, such history means little to Zoro. He wields two Great Swords as is with tenuous pasts. Wado Ichimonji and Shusui have long stayed in Zoro’s hands, so the swordsmen may be able to add a third to his armory if Luffy chooses to pass up on the item.

Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has been collected into 87 volumes, with a few chapters yet to be included. It’s 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 430 million copies sold.

Do you think Zoro needs to add Nidai Kitetsu to his collection? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!