One Piece: Are Kuina and Tashigi the Same Person? Theories Explained!

One Piece is a series that, naturally, has a lot of mysteries, which makes sense, seeing how it is a series that has been ongoing for more than two decades. Now, some of these mysteries have been resolved, while others are still active, giving rise to many fan theories that can be seen online. In this article, we will address one such theory, namely the one stating that Kuina and Tashigi are the same person. In this article, you will find out whether it is true or not.

No, as far as the canon is concerned, Tashigi and Kuina are not the same characters, even though they have some physical similarities. Both of them are tied to Zoro, and both are actually skilled with swords, but Kuina and Tashigi have completely different histories, and with Oda providing us with a drawing of Kuina as a child, we definitely got confirmation that the two of them aren’t one and the same and that Kuina indeed died when she did, while Tashigi simply had a story of her own. The physical likeness between the two of them is likely just a coincidence.

The rest of this article will address the fan theories surrounding Kuina’s death and her physical likeness to Tashigi. Kuina’s death and Tashigi’s character have been the subject of numerous theories over the years, as many fans think they are actually one and the same person. In this article, we will explain why the theories are wrong and how Oda confirmed that the two aren’t the same character in the series. Some spoilers might be present in the article, so be careful how you approach it.

Kuina and Tashigi have been compared to each other due to their physical likeness, but they are not one character

Kuina was born in Shimoshiki twenty-one years before the beginning of the narrative and trained from a very young age in the art of swordsmanship in her father’s dojo. One day, the latter told her that girls could not become the strongest in the world. She defeated Zoro in two thousand fights, even if, in the last one, the young Zoro resorted to using two shinai. The two of them were friends, and they promised each other to train hard to become the best in the world.

Kuina’s death crushed the young Zoro, who cared for his cousin, and that is why he vowed to himself that he would keep true to their promise and that he would, to honor her legacy, indeed become the best swordsman in the world.

But later, a character named Tashigi appeared, also connected to Zoro. She was a Marine, and she was also skilled with swords. And she had it in for Zoro because he had a legendary sword with him, the same one that belonged to Kuina when she was a child – the Wado Ichimonji. Tashigi wanted to get it back, but she did not; she would later grow to respect Zoro more.

Now, a physical likeness between Tashigi and what Kuina could’ve looked like at her age cannot be denied, but this fact gave rise to a popular fan theory that can be summed up like this (credit to Reddit user viktorayy for the theory):

Yes folks, the proof is in the pudding. So let’s begin!

Everyone knows that Kuina died because she got rekt by some Top 5 Judge level stairs, BUT as a matter of fact she DIDN’T DIE. I know, surprising! But stay with me. In fact, she was actually saved by Monkey D. Dragon himself. He used his weather/wind powers to fight Top 4 Stairs-san, but ended up bringing down lightning on Kuina by mistake. Oh Dragon, you klutz! Now here is where it gets kinda crazy… Secret revolutionary Koshiro, yes secret, overcome with grief, asks his good friend Ivankov to inject hormones into her to save her even if it means turning her into a dude-bro-guy-man but alas to no avail, she was pronounced dead. The next morning Koshiro tells everyone she’s dead including our favorite one-eyed lost boy, Zolo. Saddened, but ever-so motivated Zorbo sets out to become the three-sword style pirate hunter and the rest is history, right? WRONG.

KUINA WASN’T DEAD.

See, Kuina woke up that day right before her burial ceremony. WHOA SURPRISING! It turns out Ivankov accidentally injected her with sleeper hormones along with the hormones that saved her life, so she ended up waking up later than they expected. Oh Ivankov, you klutz! BUT a sudden dramatic turn of events would play out as Kuina couldn’t cope with the shock of losing to now Top 2 Stairs-King and she ended up locking her memories away. YES, she Sabo-amnesia-cliche’d herself. Thinking it would be for the best, Koshiro insisted that Kuina board Dragon’s ship and start life anew.

A half decade later, on the ship, Dragon begins to notice that Kuina is still somehow infatuated with swords and is too attached to her missions as a revolutionary. Every pour soul they leave in a ruined country weighs heavy on her heart and she OF COURSE Sabo-amnesia-cliche’s herself again. Oh Kuina, you suck I mean you klutz!! Realizing that the complexity of the Revolutionary Army was not for his friend’s daughter, Dragon calls in one of his also secret high ranking executives. Charlotte Bonney, now known by the alias of Jewelry Bonney, secret 0th daughter of Big Mom, who defected from the Big Mom pirates after eating Big Mom’s birthday cake one year, shows up to offer her help. As per Dragon’s request, Bonney DF-hax Kuina back to an age coincidentally similar to that of Zoro’s and they drop her off with Aokiji, Dragon’s ex-bestie before he defected from the Marines. But they still kinda besties.<3 Aokiji was then like “Naw, what the… Ya serious my boy?” and then dropped her off with Smoker. “Yo this is Drago-Dra-Ta- Ta-shiiiiit-GEH…TA-SHI-GI, yeah that seems plausible…she’s yo problem now!” and the rest is history!

BUT with Wano coming up, there’s one plot thread yet to be solved!

Zero CAN’T open his left eye!

With Zord’s left eye closed, so is HALF of Sorrow’s power and MORE IMPORTANTLY, half his personality! Haven’t you guys ever noticed that Zoop seems like such a stick-in-the-mud post-time skip? I mean sure, Zelda’s a bonafide badass, but Zosho was so much more relatable pre-timeskip! WELL, that’s all because his left eye won’t open! Zigzag forgot how to open it! Also, completely coincidentally, it just so happens Kuina used to open his left eye all the time when they were kids. Damn it Oda! Taking plot shortcuts again. I’m looking at you Brulee & Sugar.

But how will she help Zoinks if she can’t even remember her ownself!?

Well, what will end up happening is ex-monster trio member Sanji will help Zonday. YES, Zola will be saved by the shitty cook, BUT indirectly. Pudding will end up going yandere and follow Sanji to Wano, where through very convenient, plot-situational events have to restore Tashigi’s memories of everything to finally free Zubat of his half-personality disorder. Thus ONCE AND FOR ALL, proving Tashigi is Kuina.

Yes folks, the proof is in the Pudding.

*Edit: Cool Z names I didn’t think about: Zuko, Zeus, Zexion, Zoobitybap, Zoseph

(Source)

This is just one of such theories, and we cannot really state that it is complete nonsense. Many things connect Kuina and Tashigi – they are great with swords, they know the Wado Ichimonji, their stories are connected to Zoro’s story, and they are incredibly alike.

Of course, Tashigi and Kuina had very different stories, which is the major issue with this theory. And while Kuina’s death could’ve been a trick by Oda that would set up a future revelation, we don’t really think that it is directly connected to Tashigi, and this is why:

This is a drawing of Tashigi as a child, and as you can see, she doesn’t really look like Kuina; Kuina also never wore glasses, as far as we know. This drawing was made by Oda and was published in SBS Volume 68, and we don’t really think that Oda would make a second drawing that is so different than Kuina’s original look, only to confuse us.

This is why we think that this drawing is the ultimate proof that Kuina and Tashigi are not the same characters.

Why do Kuina and Tasihgi look alike?

Now that we have cleared everything else up, we can give you a straightforward answer to the question that is bugging you. Now, we cannot deny that Kuina and Tashigi do, really, look alike in the series, but they’re not identical, and they look different when they were children, implying that an adult Kuina wouldn’t look so much like Tashigi. This means that the likeness is, by all means, simply a coincidence, as there is nothing in the story to suggest otherwise.