Kurozumi Orochi was the shogun of Wano Country. He was also an important ally of Kaidou before the Emperor turned against him. He is the third antagonist in the Wano Kuni Arc behind Linlin and Kaido. He was an ally of the Kaido Pirates until the Onigashima Fire Festival, during which Kaido betrayed him and beheaded him for his New Onigashima project. Orochi, who survived, then turns on Kaidou soon after. In this article, we are going to tell you all you need to know about Kurozumi Orochi in One Piece.
Who is Kurozumi Orochi?
Orochi was born 54 years ago and lived in misery during his childhood after his family lost all power and influence due to his grandfather’s crimes. He and his family were also persecuted by the citizens, which caused Orochi to live in constant fear. Over 41 years ago, he was approached by Kurozumi Higurashi and Kurozumi Semimaru. She revealed to him how his grandfather unsuccessfully tried to become shogun by poisoning his fellow daimyos, but was eventually caught and sentenced to commit seppuku.
Orochi was surprised at the possibility of being a shogun, and agreed to follow the old woman’s instructions to obtain the title. She is told by her to hoard a large amount of gold and produce weapons to gain powerful allies. In this same way the three killed the murderers of Kurozumi Kanjuro’s family, and Orochi convinced him to subordinate to him and start posing as a vassal of Kozuki Oden. He later does become shogun and an ally of Kaido’s.
Who kills Orochi?
The night before the Fire Festival, Orochi commanded the bombardment of the connections to Udon and the bases of the Ninja-Pirate-Mink-Samurai Alliance to put an end to the plans of their enemies. After arriving to the festival, he headed to Onigashima from Hakumai with his entourage, asking to start celebrating now since he assumed that Kaidou had done it himself.
On the island, he was seen enjoying the festival in the company of several women from the Beasts Pirates. While enjoying the party with Kaidou, Orochi was pleased when Kanjuro handed over Momonosuke to him. However, he was momentarily terrified upon learning that the plan to stop Kozuki’s rebellion had failed.
Despite Fukurokuju’s assurances, Orochi did not exclaim that he would not rest easy until the utter destruction of his enemies had occurred. Being calmer, he ordered Momonosuke to be crucified, a procedure that was carried out in the main hall of the mansion, where Orochi presented a crucified Momonosuke to all the Beasts Pirates.
Orochi proceeded to explain to the Beasts Pirates how Momonosuke escaped into the future on the day of Oden’s death, before Kaidou arrived on the main stage to announce the New Onigashima Project. Kaidou continued to explain his plan, which involved reforming the Flower Capital.
When Orochi expressed his disagreement, reproaching him that the capital was his fortress and that thanks to him he obtained innumerable amounts of weapons, although he did not finish the sentence, since Kaidou beheaded him, apparently ending his life and giving an ultimatum to his subordinates to join him or fight and die on the spot.
Sometime after the start of the war in Onigashima, Orochi was seen still alive, stating that Kaidou would regret betraying him as he began burning down the castle with the help of Fukurokuju. However, soon after they encountered the Nine Red Scabbards, who by this time had sustained significant injuries after fighting Kaidou.
Fukurokuju offered to deal with them, but Orochi believed that he could deal with them in his weakened state as he taunted them about Kanjuro, surprised as well by Kyoshiro’s defection, who was actually the Red Scabbard Denjiro. Orochi transformed into his Yamata-no-Orochi form and prepared to devour the Red Scabbards, but they quickly proceeded to lop off all of his heads simultaneously, causing his body to collapse and lay motionless on the ground.
Despite this, he survived and even watched Jack’s defeat at the hands of Inuarashi in horror, though he was relieved to remember that he was no longer the Beasts Pirates’ ally. Later, Orochi took refuge inside the castle and contacted Kanjuro, whom he complimented and praised for his performance as a spy.
He ordered her to create one last drawing with her devil fruit, and send it to the basement to incinerate his family’s burial crypt; however, Orochi knew that the basement actually contained an armory filled with weapons that would destroy the island if detonated. After Kanjuro’s Kazenbo started moving around the castle and burning everyone and everything they touched along the way, Orochi wanted Fukurokuju to come back to him so he could leave.
When he heard a shamisen, he wondered who would do such a thing during an assault, he was left in complete shock to discover that next to his room Komurasaki was alive and playing the shamisen, bursting into tears seeing her again, lying next to her, wondering if I was dreaming or if it was reality. Immersed in thoughts of him and growing impatient at Fukurokuju’s delay in withdrawing from him, he asked Komurasaki to play the song he liked after she asked him if he had something on his mind.
As the floating island was shaken by the damage caused by the numerous battles, Orochi lost his patience and cursed Fukurokuju for not arriving, before directing his frustration at Komurasaki for continuing to play his shamisen and keeping his face hidden behind a mask. Suddenly, the ceiling collapsed, leaving Orochi trapped under the rubble, struggling to free himself and confused by his inability to transform into his Yamata-no-Orochi form.
Komurasaki then revealed to Orochi that he had placed a seastone nail into him while he was distracted to neutralize his Devil Fruit powers. A puzzled Orochi asked her why she would do such a thing if she loved him, to which she coldly replied that she despised him and that the song Orochi loved to listen to her was actually her father’s, Kozuki Oden’s, favorite, causing Orochi to react with shock and fear.
Orochi immediately began insisting that he was innocent, claiming that Kaidou was using him the entire time and pleading with him to remove the seastone restraint she had placed on him. Komurasaki told her that her word meant nothing to her, given her long history of betraying others, including her father, who had kept his end of the bargain with Orochi and Kaido for five years despite the humiliation and suffering, including eventually being executed, believing it would ultimately lead to freedom for the people of Wano.
Orochi began to try and negotiate with Komurasaki before she dropped her mask to the ground, her face full of tears and anger, she revealed to him that her real name was Kozuki Hiyori. When she told Orochi how shameful and horrible he was as a shogun, Orochi once again tried to beg, before Kanjuro’s Kazenbo, reduced to a very small form, arrived to announce that he had failed the task.
Orochi ordered Kazenbo to burn Hiyori, but the fire phantom instead turned on Orochi, setting him on fire and causing him to scream in pain as he burned as Hiyori watched. However, Orochi freed himself from the rubble by transforming with the power of his fruit but this time with only one head. After this he cursed Hiyori and prepared to kill her, however, Denjiro at the last second arrived and cut off her head, thus saving Hiyori and causing his apparently final death.
Is Orochi really dead this time?
Officially, Orochi’s fate is listed as unknown this time. People though he had died when he was beheaded by Kaidou, but he came back, showing that he wasn’t that easy to kill. Now, the Nine Red Scabbards did a much better job the second time and they did behead him once more, but Oda hasn’t really confirmed his death officially. We do think that thing might be it, but who knows – Orochi might come back once more!
How strong is Orochi?
As shogun, Orochi had complete control over Wano Country and its inhabitants. He had government officials working under him and enforcing his laws, and he also had the backing of Kaidou, one of the Four Emperors. Therefore, if he or any of his subordinates were threatened, Kaidou would find out quickly and deal with the threat. He believed that, with Kaidou’s support, neither the World Government nor the World Nobles could bring down his regime.
Stemming from his paranoia, Orochi had extremely keen intuition, as he correctly surmised that Oden’s son and vassals were still alive and that certain incidents around Wano Country were related to Kin’emon, deducing that they planned to overthrow both him and him. like his ally Kaidou. He was sure that they were planning to overthrow both him and his ally Kaidou, even though there was no concrete evidence to support his suspicions.
Through Kanjuro, Orochi received information about Kozuki Hiyori and the Nine Red Scabbards’ time travel, as well as the location of the alliance and the number of the enemy army. This allowed her to correctly decipher his plans and take effective measures to prevent them from moving, destroying the cave that hid the Thousand Sunny and blowing up all the bridges connecting the country’s regions in advance.
Despite having been the shogun of Wano Country, Orochi showed no unusual abilities. He was said to use a sword style known as Orochi nitoryu. According to his propaganda, he used this sword style to defeat Kozuki Oden and his vassals. He was seen using a katana to try and attack Toko.
Although he managed to slice through a thin wall with the swing of his sword, he did not show much skill, as his attack on Toko was not executed effectively. Orochi had remarkable skills as a sniper. With a pistol, he quickly shot a CP0 agent in the head without his being able to react. From a distance, he was able to shoot Shimotsuki Yasuie using a rifle, as well as being able to accurately shoot Toko’s head.
What is Orochi’s Devil Fruit?
Orochi ate the Hebi Hebi no Mi, model Yamata-no-Orochi, a mythical Zoan-type Devil Fruit that allowed him to partially or fully transform into the mythical eight-headed serpent Yamata-no-Orochi. These seemed to be able to vary in size and length, looking like during the meeting with the CP0 they were no bigger than his body and the next time he used them, they exceeded several times that size. In this form, he had the ability to attack in multiple directions with considerably strong jaws.
Why is Orochi such a hated character?
Well, after everything we’ve said, it’s not really hard to deduce why such a loathsome character is hated by everyone. Orochi is paranoid, he is evil, and he is simply disgusting by all standards and he is detested even by the characters within the story, let alone the fans. Plus, based on his design, it is pretty clear that Oda intended for him to be such a hated character from the very start.
Orochi’s One Piece voice actor
The Japanese voice actor for Orochi was Hiroshi Iwasaki, born May 29, 1953 in the Saitama Prefecture, Japan. He has participated in series such as Sailor Moon Crystal, One Piece, Sora no Otoshimono and Tiger & Bunny, among others. He has worked on anime series, OVA and ONA series, video games, as well as on dubbing foreign actors (e.g. Stanley Tucci, Robin Williams, Rowan Atkinson, etc.) for Japanese releases.
