One Piece is an anime that certainly has its fair share of strong and powerful characters. Most of them are protagonists or their allies, but One Piece has also introduced us to a lot of powerful antagonists. Nevertheless, the focus of this article are going to be two Straw Hat Pirates crew members, Roronoa Zoro, one of the best swordsmen in the series, and Vinsmoke Sanji, one of the best cooks in the series. In this article, we are going to analyze the two, as we are going to pit Zoro against Sanji to determine who the stronger of the two is.
Regardless of Sanji’s extraordinary powers and abilities, he would lose in a fight against Zoro. Zoro is one of the most powerful characters in the whole series – and all of that without any specific superhuman abilities – and Sanji simply cannot match that. Zoro wouldn’t have an easy job to do, but ultimately, he would be able to defeat Sanji were the two to ever fight.
The rest of this article will further elaborate on the above-given answer, as we are going to compare Zoro and Sanji in more detail. Through several categories, you are going to see who the stronger of the two is and why our answer is like it is, i.e., why Zoro would ultimately be able to defeat Sanji in a fight.
Physical powers
Zoro is one of the physically strongest characters in the series. He demonstrates his strength of him when he was fighting Daz Bones, he easily lifted a building despite the injuries he had. He is seen training on the Thousand Sunny with ton weight dumbbells. His strength is surely equal to or greater than that of a giant as he was able to parry a direct hit from Oars with his swords.
After the time skip, Zoro greatly increased his strength. Proof of this is that he was able to defeat a Pacifista with a single attack when before the timeskip he and all his companions joined forces to defeat one, he was able to cut a pirate ship with a single cut, he was also capable of defeating and seriously injuring Hody Jones, a Fish-Man with physical strength above the average of his race when he was underwater and with several Energy Steroids consumed.
One of his greatest feats was defeating Pica in his gigantic form without a single scratch, though he had to turn to Orlumbus to gain mobility and momentum. Zoro has also shown to be very agile and fast. An example of this is that in the Whiskey Peak arc he took on a large number of Baroque Works agents, slipping through their ranks so quickly that they didn’t notice him until he spoke.
The main source of Sanji’s strength and power is his kicks. Sanji possesses highly superhuman leg strength, as his legs and feet are extremely powerful, capable of breaking rocks and effortlessly defeating creatures much larger than himself (such as Bananawani or Mohmoo). His legs also grant him superior agility and superhuman speed, as he was easily able to keep up with Kalifa’s super fast despite ultimately being beaten by her (although he stated that he would refuse to fight a woman).
Although Sanji mainly fights with his legs, his arms are so strong that they allow him to stand on them, making him more versatile in various situations, he is also able to do a handstand with one hand. His body has superhuman resistance, having received powerful attacks on the head and chest repeatedly leaving them slightly injured.
He was even able to fully receive an El Thor from Enel while maintaining consciousness for a while during which he also taunted his attacker. Another of Sanji’s main strengths is his speed, comparable to Luffy’s in gear second and Brook’s, being able to move at speeds such as to escape the human eye, and being able to attack people without anyone being able to even detect his presence. easily. After two years, his body has become much stronger and faster.
Sanji is quite powerful and has solid resistance, but he’s simply not on Zoro’s level. Zoro is a beast when it comes to physical powers and he would be able to withstand Sanji’s kicks, which is why he wins this point.
Points: Zoro 1, Sanji 0
Devil Fruit
Roronoa Zoro is a very powerful character. He is known as one of the most powerful characters in the series and one of the series’ best swordsmen; he is, by all means, probably going to surpass even Mihawk in the future. Now, Zoro’s powers and feats definitely merit a conclusion that he has consumed a Devil Fruit, but is that really true? It’s not – namely, Roronoa Zoro has never eaten a Devil Fruit.
This makes Zoro one of a very small number of characters (the most notable other one being Shanks and Mihawk) who are extremely powerful, but have not actually consumed a Devil Fruit; most of the other powerful characters have to thank their Devil Fruits for their individual reputations.
Like Zoro, Sanji has not consumed any Devil Fruit in his life and owes his powers and abilities to his natural skills and his father’s experiments. Sanji is a formidable fighter and the fact that he has achieved most of that by honing his skills over the years, with some outside help, makes it even more impressive. There is a reason why Sanji is such a formidable fighter and such an important asset for Luffy’s crew.
This is going to be a strange one – namely, we are not going to award a point to anyone. The result is going to be the same, but the difference from our usual approach is that we’re not going to share the points, but rather not award them at all. Since neither of the two has any Devil Fruit powers, they actually don’t deserve a point here.
Points: Zoro 1, Sanji 0
Haki
Zoro is one of the few people to possess all 3 forms of Haki. Zoro possesses the Royal Haki, the rarest Haki, whose users are said to possess the qualities of a King. He is first mentioned to hold this power by Kaido after Zoro’s nine-sword attack. During his fight against King, he uses the Royal Haki to coat his sabers, a very advanced form, and at the same time members of the Hundred Beasts Crew are seen fainting around.
He didn’t use the Haki offensively against Monet but still managed to beat her as she thought he was going to use the Haki and therefore she was going to die. The fear that Monet felt at that moment completely destabilized her. He has learned to imbue his sabers with Haki to make them more effective against Haki or Devil Fruit users.
He also used the Armament Haki on Pica to slice him which means his Haki is more advanced than Pica’s. Using the Haki also allows him to counter Devil Fruit powers, as he did to temporarily stop the Birdcage.
He first uses the Observation in his fight against Nuru, a Fishman capable of blinding his opponents thanks to the lantern on his forehead, even telling him that he only used his eyes to see and that was why he was weak; he made use of it again to find Caribou in the palace. He also uses it during the Arc Dressrosa, to find where the one who stole his saber is but also to find Pica during his fight against him.
Sanji has been shown to be able to use both Kenbunshoku and Busoshoku Haki, however, his specialty is the former, with which he has shown great mastery.
Sanji is able to use Kenbunshoku Haki in an advanced way and even specializes in this type of Haki. He was able to sense the presence, strength, emotions, and intentions of other people with this type of Haki. He was also able to dodge a projectile that Charlotte Katakuri, though a greater user of Kenbunshoku Haki, had fired, which surprised even him.
Sanji is able to use Busoshoku Haki in its most powerful form, which is projection. He did not, however, show any use of this Haki prior to his fight against Judge, to block his spear, even though the hit hurt him. Sanji was also able to hurt Luffy during their altercation on Whole Cake Island. Later in the same arc, shortly after Luffy and Sanji returned to the Sunny, Sanji used Busoshoku Haki to shield Carrot from an attack by Charlotte Daifuku’s genius.
Well, since we know for sure that Zoro can use all three types of Haki, whereas Sanji can only use two – as far as we know at the moment – we had to award this point to Zoro as well.
Points: Zoro 2, Sanji 0
Weapons
In the beginning of his journey as a pirate, Zoro only mastered the Santoryu, his conventional fighting style; but over time he began to master techniques from other schools, such as Nitoryu, Ittoryu, or even Mutouryu. Currently, Zoro and the rest of the crew have improved their abilities to face the New World.
Zoro is known to be able to cut through a Pacifista the caliber of those found in the Sabaody Archipelago, so it follows that Zoro can relatively easily cut through materials even harder than steel without using any Shishi Sonson-like moves, very probably because he has learned to use Busoshoku Haki.
Although Sanji’s principle as a cook is to preserve his hands for the sole purpose of cooking, throughout the play he has battled different weapons. According to his father, Sanji had sword training. However, due to Sanji’s policy of only using his hands in cooking, and not risking injury to his hands in battle, the extent of his skill is unknown.
He does, however, show exceptional handling ability and is very precise when he has to use knives, not hesitating to juggle several knives with dexterity. He also seems perfectly ambidextrous, wielding two knives at once against Wanze with no difference between his right and left hand. He is able to cut Wanze’s ramen and direct the cut pieces precisely enough that they all land in a dish. Sanji differentiates between kitchen knives and Sabers, explaining that kitchen knives aren’t made for cutting people.
Despite all of Sanji’s skills with a variety of weapons he has used over the years, he doesn’t really stand a chance against Zoro in this category, especially with Zoro being one of the best swordsmen in the world of One Piece.
Points: Zoro 3, Sanji 0
Roranoa Zoro vs. Vinsmoke Sanji: Who wins?
And now for the most important and interesting section of our article – the analysis. Here, we are going to use what we have found out about these two characters and analyze how all these facts would (or would not) help them in a fight against each other. Let us continue.
This situation was clear from the start, as it had been obvious that Zoro would win this one. We don’t want to imply that Sanji is weak – far from it, he is an exceptionally powerful character and he was able to fight Queen on equal terms – but he is simply not on the same level as Zoro, which makes sense since Sanji was never a fighter; he despised his father and his methods, which is why he opted to become a cook instead.
On the other hand, Zoro being the stronger one here makes perfect sense. Zoro is a fighter and he has been training his whole life to become the best swordsman in the world of One Piece he is quite close to becoming the strongest as of the time of writing this article. He has honed his skills almost to perfection and comparatively, Sanji doesn’t really stand much chance. This is why we had Zoro win this one and why the numbers actually confirm everything we have said in this article.
