‘One Piece’ Impressively Foreshadows Zoro’s Most Important Title

One Piece is closing in on a major manga milestone as its 1,000th chapter creeps closer and closer. These days, creator Eiichiro Oda is guiding the story through its long-awaited Wano arc, and it turns out the artist has been laying foundation for the plot for quite some time.

After all, some sneaky titling has been weaved through One Piece for years now, and it seems fans just put the whole thing together.

Over on Twitter, a fan-translator known as Sandman AP pointed out the tidbit to fans. The reveal came not long after chapter 939 referred to an old man named Hyogoro as the Mighty Blade, but he is not the only swordsman to bear such a title.

“In OP chapter 939, it’s revealed that Hyou was known as the Mighty Blade (豪剣). Actually this Mighty Blade term was already used in chapter 23, 195 and 467. Zoro and Ryuma are classified as Mighty Blade type,” Sandman AP said, providing each instance where the title was used.

“Sadly, there is a translation inconsistency in official Viz version.”

As you can see above, the same kanji is used each time for the three men, and fans are curious about their shared title. The Mighty Blade status seems to refer to only the most skilled swordsmen, and Zoro is included on that list. So far, two of three fighters said to be Mighty Blade types are from Wano, and that has fans even more curious about Zoro’s origins. After all, much of the fighter’s past is shrouded in mystery, so fans are ready to find out whether the Straw Hat has a connection to the island nation or not.

So, are you impressed with Oda over this groundwork? 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. The series still ranked number one in manga sales in 2018, which surprised fans of major new entries.

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