One Piece: Is Zoro a Demon?

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. People have speculated about Zoro’s powers for years, especially since he never ate a Devil Fruit, and there is a running theory that he might be so good with his swords because he is a demon and related to the legendary Asura, which is a motive seen in some of his techniques. In this article, we are going to tell you whether that is true or not.

No, Roronoa Zoro is not a demon in One Piece. He is a regular human with some exciting and powerful skills and abilities, but none are supernatural. Zoro has been falsely labeled as a Ryūma at one point, and the fact that his Nine Sword Style is associated with the Asura has also been falsely attributed to the fact that Zoro himself is a demon. He does sport a demonic aura from time to time, but that is purely symbolic.

The rest of this article will focus on the character of Zoro and his relation to the Asura and the undead warrior Ryūma Shimotsuki of Wano Country in One Piece. We will tell you whether Zoro is related to either of them, i.e., whether he can be considered a supernatural or demonic being in the series. This article might contain a smaller number of spoilers, so do be careful while you’re reading.

Zoro is not related to the Asura, it’s just his fighting style

In Hinduism, the Asura are a group of power-hungry and warring deities, sometimes considered demonic or sinful. The negative personality of the Asura in Hinduism seems to have evolved over time. In general, the oldest texts indicate that the Asura presided over moral and social phenomena (for example, Varuna was the guardian of the Rita, the religious rites, and Bhaga was the patron of marriages).

The Deva presided over natural phenomena (for example, Indra was a god of storms, and Ushas was the dawn). As you can see, they are really not characters from One Piece but rather from Hindu mythology, and they are used as a motif in One Piece. This means that Zoro cannot really be a descendant of the Asura, nor could he be a demon god like the Asura. The connection stems from Zoro’s Nine Sword Style being connected to the Asura, so we will explain it here.

The Nine Sword Style, also known as Kyūtōryū, is a variation of Zoro’s primary Three Sword Style in which “nine swords” are employed. The Nine Sword Style gives the illusion that Zoro has nine swords—nine heads, nine arms, and nine replicas of his swords—while actually being an extension of his spirit. Zoro appears like an Asura as a result of this. After the time skip, Zoro unintentionally introduced Haoshoku Haki utilizing the Nine Sword Style. Known techniques include:

• Kiki Kyūtōryū: Ashura is a transformation of Zoro’s, allowing him to perform the Kyūtōryū and greatly increasing his fighting power. He first uses this against Kaku and defeats him with Ichibugin. Against PX-4, he can destroy parts of its armor by letting Makyūsen follow this transformation. He can also take down Indigo with Ugui and reduce a huge connecting bridge to rubble.
• Ashura: Ichibugin is a move created by Roronoa Zoro, which he first introduced in Enies Lobby. Zoro takes on the Ashura fighting form and positions everyone with his hand-held swords in front of him. Zoro uses the attack as a final attack in his fight against Kaku, stopping his Rankyaku Amanedachi and defeating the CP9 agent.
• Ashura: Makyūsen is an attack introduced by Roronoa Zoro on the Sabaody Archipelago for the first time. Here, Zoro assumes the same Ashura form as in the fight against Kaku, when he used his Ashura: Ichibugin, to destroy Kaku’s Rankyaku Amanedachi and defeat him. The difference is in the swirling arrangement of swords that Zoro uses to attack his opponent. Zoro deploys the attack on the Sabaody Archipelago as part of a whole series of attacks on the Pacifista PX-4 by the Mugiwara pirate gang.
• Ashura: Ugui is a technique Zoro uses, which he performs with the help of Kiki Kyūtōryū: Ashura using “nine swords.” He hits his opponent, rotating like a tornado, which is then thrown high into the air. Zoro uses this attack against Indigo for the first time and can defeat him after a short fight. This technique is not canon.
• Ashura Bakkei: Mōja no Tawamure is a post-time skip technique developed by Zoro as part of his Nine Sword Style. It is performed using Enma, which Zoro holds in his right hand, while holding the other swords in his mouth and left hand, as usual, after which he enters his demonic Asura-like state.

The probability of Zoro being connected to Ryūma is not that high

As for Ryūma, he was born in the Ringo region of Wano Country into the Shimotsuki family. In life, Ryūma was a samurai from Wano Country in the New World who lived around four hundred years ago; famous for slaying a dragon in the Flower Capital and stopping the constant foreign invasions of the island. His exploits against the beast were recounted in Oda’s previous work, Monsters, with him being the main protagonist. The events of this story happened a long time ago, in an unspecific place, in an unspecified part of history.

Concerning our topic, most of the theories based on Zoro being a descendant of Ryūma Shimotsuki are, actually, Zoro fanboys and fangirls who want to give Zoro a deeper storyline and a sense of meaning beyond that he is a skilled powerhouse character with a clear goal. Oda himself hasn’t really hinted anything similar and while this can happen, now that the Wano Country Arc is over, it doesn’t seem likely that Oda is going to revisit the whole story just to make a dead character Zoro’s descendant.

People notice that they looked very much alike when they were of the same age, which is somewhat true, that they have similar skills, and that Zoro was raised in Shimotsuki Village, which is a fact that some fans consider a hint from Oda. Aside from that, there is nothing to corroborate a relation between Zoro and Ryūma Shimotsuki, including the fact that Zoro is not from Wano Country and that there is nothing to hint that he might stem from there. Plus, he had a very close relationship with Kuina, a descendant of the Shimotsuki Family, so changing that relationship would be a bit too much if you ask us.

Officially, thus, Zoro and Ryūma Shimotsuki are not related. Some theories might prove to be more or less true, so we cannot rule anything out completely, but officially, there is no relation between them, and from what we know of the story as of this moment, it is unlikely that Oda is going to change that fact anytime soon.