One Piece: Why Sanji Is Closer To Zoro Than You Think (2024)

With the One Piece manga going on a month-long hiatus, the fans can finally take some time to look back at the events that took place in the Wano Country arc. It is one of the longest arcs in One Piece to date, and it had many notable occurrences. There are multiple fights in the arc and because of this reason, it was difficult to remember how every fight went down. Luckily for the fans, the biggest fights were saved until the very end.

Luffy, Law, and Kid were fighting the two Yonko, so the alliance needed someone else to take care of the All-Stars. Jack was taken out by Inuarashi, which left King and Queen to be taken care of. After Marco had stalled both of them for a long time, he accepted that it was time for the new generation to step up. So, he allowed Sanji and Zoro to take the center place. Zoro was fighting against King while Sanji was going up against Queen.

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The Fights Prior

Before Sanji and Zoro locked horns against the two All-Stars, they faced other opponents. In Zoro's case, he went up to the roof, where he fought alongside Luffy, Law, Kid, and Killer. The members of the Worst Generation faced the ginormous task of bringing down two of the Yonko. In the fight, Zoro was more or less struggling. He managed to unleash one sword slash that was dodged by the Yonko and afterward with Emma's help, Zoro managed to damage Kaido a bit, but the latter was almost unfazed. On the other hand, Zoro was unable to move after tanking Big Mom and Kaido's combined attack. As the fight progressed, Kaido took him out and the swordsman suffered several wounds.

Sanji did not go to the rooftop as he got separated from Luffy and went to save a woman, and he ended up being caught in a trap set by Black Maria. Sanji could have easily beaten Black Maria and her underlings, but due to his principles of never hurting women, Sanji ended up being wounded. Eventually, Sanji called Nico Robin for help, and she freed him, which allowed Sanji to escape and help out elsewhere. Sanji headed towards Momonosuke's location, where he bumped into Law and Zoro. Law asked Sanji to cover Zoro with bandages, and then he left. Sanji had to carry Zoro around and keep him safe. During this time, Sanji also saved Chopper from Queen. Miyagi gave Zoro the super recovery medicine, which allowed the latter to recover and fight against King.

Vs The All-Stars

Zoro's final opponent was King, who was a Lunarian, an extinct species that lived on the Red Line. With his power, King was able to throw Zoro outside the Skull Dome. King attempted to cast Zoro off the island, but the Straw Hat managed to deflect the strikes. The fight between the two was intense and the All-Star was dominating it for the most part. As the two continued to fight, Zoro became increasingly frustrated as none of his attacks seemed to have an effect on King, however, after observing King's attacks for a while, Zoro understood how his opponent was able to fight despite taking so many blows. Once again, Zoro had to rely on Enma's power to draw out his Haki, and this allowed him to use an extremely strong attack that knocked out King.

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Sanji's fight against Queen was also very interesting. Not only did Sanji have to fight one of the top fighters in the Beasts Pirates, but he also had to conquer the trauma from his past. Queen had previously worked with Judge together at MADS, so he knew all about Judge's inventions. Queen's intelligence allowed him to modify his body, and replicate of the abilities of Sanji's brothers and sister. Queen used all the tricks up his sleeve to try to damage Sanji, but due to the latter's genetic modifications finally kicking in, the All-Star was unable to do any serious damage. Eventually, Sanji defeated Queen without any great trouble and after his victory, Sanji was still able to move around to help the others. In comparison, Zoro was at death's door after his duel with King, and had to be saved by Franky.

Conclusion

The Wano Country arc was the first big test for Sanji and Zoro. With Luffy being so close to being the Pirate King, the other two had to improve as well. While both of them won their respective fights, Sanji was overall more impressive in his fight against Queen. It is also worth remembering that Sanji held off both King and Queen before Zoro recovered. While Zoro is still stronger than Sanji, the gap between their strengths is not as large as many fans believe.

In fact, Oda has highlighted the small gap between the two numerous times. Another indicator of the small gap between Sanji and Zoro is the bounties of their opponents. King, who was defeated by Zoro has a bounty of 1,390,000,000 beris while Queen's bounty is 1,320,000,000 beris. Sanji numerous feats in Wano prove that Zoro and him are extremely close in terms of strength.

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