One Piece: Zoro’s Four and Five Sword Styles Explained
Roronoa Zoro is undoubtedly one of the best-known One Piece characters. Like Luffy, Zoro wants to be the best in his own category, i.e., he wants to become the best swordsman in the world, surpassing his idol and rival, Dracule Mihawk, who is said to be the best swordsman in the world. Zoro uses three swords at the moment, but has used several others during his career. In this article, we have decided to tell you not just about Zoro’s words, but also about his sword styles, i.e., the Four and Five Sword Styles that Oda mentioned in SBS 91.
The Four Sword Style is a known sword technique that was developed and used by Kaku and Kaku only. Kaku developed it through simultaneous use of four swords and he used the style during his fight against Zoro. The Five Sword Style would actually be a style that would utilize five swords simultaneously, but since Oda has not introduced a character that knows that style, we cannot really say anything about it at the moment.
The rest of this article is going to be focused on the character of Zoro and his swordsmanship styles in One Piece. We are going to tell you about these styles, as well as how they are used, but also how they influence Zoro’s fighting style in general. This article might contain a smaller number of spoilers, so do be careful while you’re reading.
What is the Four Sword Style in One Piece?
Kaku, a member of CP9, initially employed the Four Swords Style while participating in the incident in Enies Lobby. Nevertheless, Luffy first mentioned this approach in a vain attempt to demean Zoro. The Four Sword Style makes use of four razor-sharp swords, as the name of the technique suggests. Kaku accomplishes this by fusing both of his katanas with his rokushiki rankyaku technique, which includes creating wind gusts with his legs and cutting them, giving the impression that he is equipped with four blades in all.
Kaku has several variations on this move, which makes rankyaku and the Four Sword Style a very potent and adaptable move. He utilizes both swords to stay stuck to the ceiling and use his rankyaku to cast cutting winds in Rankyaku: Ran, which is the most notable example of this. Using his increased stature and power from becoming a human-giraffe hybrid with the Ushi Ushi no Mi: Giraffe Pattern, Kaku has enhanced the adaptability of his Four Sword Style. His lengthy neck also functions as a whip, like a long blade.
What is the Five Sword Style in One Piece?
At this moment, it is now known what the Five Sword Style looks like and how it is utilized. Namely, we know that the sword styles go as far as number nine, so it is safe to assume that the Five Sword Style exists. But, it has not been mentioned so far and it has not been shown in either the manga or the anime. The only known mention of the style was in SBS 91, in which Oda answered a fan’s demand to see an older version of Zoro.
In that section, Oda drew a 40-year old Zoro who, likewise, knew the Four Sword Style, as was explained in the description, and a 60-year old Zoro, who, according to Oda, used the Five Sword Style. But, unlike the Four Sword Style, which had already been introduced to the series by then, but was not used by Zoro at the time, the Five Sword Style remains a big mystery and even now, we have absolutely no idea what it looks like and how it is used, save from the obvious fact that it consists in using five swords simultaneously.
What are Zoro’s other swordsmanship styles?
Now that we’ve answered the main question of our article, we can expand it by revealing some basic information about Zoro’s swordsmanship styles and skills. Namely, Roronoa Zoro uses neither the Four Sword Style nor the mysterious Five Sword Style at the moment so we thought that this article would be quite empty without some additional information that would reveal, finally, how Zoro fights and what his styles are. So far, Zoro has shown that he can use five different styles and we’re going to introduce them to you.
Zoro initially only mastered the Three Sword Style, which was his traditional fighting method, but as he progressed, he also learned skills from other schools, including the Two Sword Style, the One Sword Style, and even the No Sword Style. Zoro and the rest of the crew are now better equipped to deal with the New World. It follows that Zoro can relatively easily cut things even harder than steel without utilizing any moves similar to the Shishi Sonson since he learned how to use Busoshoku Haki. Zoro is known to be able to slice a Pacifista of the caliber seen in the Sabaody Archipelago without much effort.
Three Sword Style
Zoro’s primary sword technique is the Three Sword Style. Zoro can wield three swords simultaneously – one in both of his hands (each) and the final one in his mouth – which seems quite impossible for a regular human. The majority of Zoro’s Three Sword Style techniques slash targets numerous times or simultaneously slash multiple targets. Zoro can produce whirlwind-like assaults that have demonstrated the power to damage numerous enemies at once by conducting flying slashes in the Three Sword Style.
He can parry blows and even block strikes from many opponents at once with the help of his three swords. Zoro has demonstrated that he does not have much difficulty sparring with opponents that have more swords than himself, especially the six wielded by Hatchan and the eight wielded by Hyouzou, who Zoro considers to be unworthy of his time.
Two Sword Style
Zoro first learned the Two Sword Style when he was a child before switching to the Three Sword Style. Similar to the latter, Zoro is a master of this school of swordplay. He uses just two of his three swords expertly in battle, including drawing and re-scabbarding maneuvers and flying slashes.
Before he received Shusui, which functioned as a substitute for Yubashiri that was destroyed in Thriller Bark, Zoro was able to use both the Wado Ichimonji and the Sandai Kitetsu with great skill. Ryuma was a very strong zombie samurai who used Brook’s Kage Kage no Mi style for most of their combat before switching to using a sword style to defeat the remaining foes.
He can combat Monet, a Donquixote Pirate officer and a Logia-type Devil Fruit user, and Gyukimaru, a very strong warrior monk, without exerting all of his strength by using the Two Sword Style. Namely, although Zoro only had two swords in his possession at the time, he was able to fight against the Orochi Oniwabanshu, Wano Country’s toughest ninja, on equal terms.
One Sword Style
Zoro started honing the One Sword Style and eventually became a master of it. Zoro is a master of the One Sword Style and, like the other styles, has utilized it frequently to execute battle-ending moves against a variety of opponents. Similar to the Two Sword Style, this one primarily employs flying slashes and different draw and re-scabbard techniques to destroy or seriously wound formidable enemies with just one single blow.
It has been demonstrated that this method is capable of repelling the Black Cat Pirates’ Nyaban brothers, taking down a number of Arlong’s crew members who are of lower level, and taking down even Mr. 1, the most powerful agent of Baroque Works, with just one sword. He can take down Ryuma, a formidable samurai and zombie, and even Hody Jones, a powerful Fish Man, using this specific sword style, and even decapitate a dragon’s skull.
Nine Sword Style
The most severe use of Zoro’s spirit projection talents is the Nine Sword Style. When he is furious enough, a shadowy aura forms about him, and two full-body apparitions of him emerge from it, giving him the power of nine swords. Zoro’s attack power is tripled, enabling him to neutralize Kaku’s Amane Dachi, his greatest Rankyaku, and slash it numerous times in a single motion despite the seeming solely spiritual nature of it. It was three times in total—against Kaku in Enies Lobby, a Pacifist on Sabaody, and Kaidou in the attack on Onigashima—that this form has been canonically utilized.
Foxfire Style
When Zoro witnessed Kin’emon, the leader of the Nine Red Scabbards, use the fire fox method against Smiley in Punk Hazard, he became intrigued by the distinctive sword technique. Later, Oda revealed that Zoro had simply “borrowed” this fighting style from him during the encounter against both Big Mom and Kaido on Onigashima. As a result, he can even slash through fire, as evidenced by the fact that he injured Prometheus by splitting him in half. Zoro has mastered the technique despite the fact that he had used it the first time then, being able to slash through Kaido’s Bolo Breath and then incorporated it into his standard sword techniques. King’s most powerful move, omori karyudon, was also destroyed by Zoro, along with the lunaria itself.