There are so many debates in One Piece, like what's the best arc or who's the best girl and why is it Robin? But I do think we both know what the actual greatest and most important debate really is. Who do you like more, Zoro or Sanji? This is where it's almost become a right of passage when you first talk about the series with someone new. Like, you need to figure out who they actually like more because it just tells you so much about them. In case you've not been keeping track, it's been over 20 years now since Sanji was officially introduced in the series way back in chapter 42. And since then, we've all been wondering who's actually better. So today, I want to unravel why that is and also try and settle that debate once and for all. Now, I don't think we need to address whether this beef is even big or not because let's be real, it very much is because even Oda himself makes it a point in the series. Heck, I'll be honest. I think this question actually breaks out of the One Piece community altogether and is one of the few things that nonpiece fans actually do know about One Piece. I mean, look, I even asked my comment section of the subscribers through the community polls on the channel and the answers differ completely. And so, I want to first get into why we even have this debate altogether before then answering the important questions like who's the more popular? Which of the two is actually the better fighter? Who is the better written character? And in the end, we will finally know who the better character between these two actually is. And I think it all starts, as everything in One Piece does, with Oda himself. Because let's be honest, he was the one who originally pitted them against each other in the series. And so, it's only very natural that a person sees figures like this and also puts them against each other in real life. I mean, they also embody contradictory concepts and themes, which definitely makes it a lot easier to argue about as well. And when you really look at it, I mean, this divide between them kind of makes it very easy to like one or the other because they're just such different styles of character. I mean, Zoro is a strong, cool, and stoic character. I mean, sure, he gets lost a lot, like a lot a lot. And he's a little bit rough on the outside, but he is insanely loyal to all his friends. He is the man willing to become the literal devil to accomplish his goals, uses really cool swords, and like any true hero, drinks a lot of alcohol. Now, on the flip side, Sanji is very equally rad in his own way. He's smart, he's elegant, and in touch with his emotions. He's kind of all about speed, never hits women, and remains a human being despite being genetically modified by his family. Yes, he's a big perf and gets really annoying sometimes with the women, but he'll also always appear just in time to save the day with a flaming kick of love. Plus, like all of the cool kids from when I was in high school, he rips cigarettes and lollipops like it's no one's business, I guess. Honestly, I make it a joke, but the drinking and smoking bid really goes a long way to show you exactly how much Oda wants these to be exactly opposing forces. I mean, he went as deep as covering their vices to really frame both of them against each other. And I can kind of respect that hustle, honestly. What is more interesting to me, though, is how Oda actively frames Zoro to be the superior character in the eyes of the world. Because if we look at things consistently, Zoro has always had the higher bounty with the exception of the very short in universe window between Hulkick Island and Wano where Sanji got a slightly higher bounty on purpose to annoy Zoro. Then Zoro always fights the second strongest enemy in an arc. He's one of the worst generation and he's always regarded as the more infamous character altogether. And I'd say that this echoes into the real world as well where objectively speaking when the One Piece popularity polls come out, Zoro is always always ranked higher than Sanji. In fact, Zoro was always placed second in the polls, including the very first global poll with the exception of one single time because in the fifth character poll, which took place in 2014 during the Dress Rosa saga, Trafalga Law ended up taking second place and Zoro got third. Other than that, Zoro always takes second place in the series. And again, he has always beaten Sanji in terms of popularity. So to me, this makes it most clear why this argument actually exists to begin with. I mean, Zoro fans are the top dogs. Their dude is the favorite character like just by general majority in universe and in the real world. You got to say, they do have the stats backing them as well. But Sanji is the underdog character and it's fair to root for this guy as well. I mean, especially when we see characters now like Scoper Gabban and Silva's post against each other in an equally respected way, at least now that we finally met him on Albath. In other words, it's a battle between the man at the top and his slighted rival. However, as a result of this, there's this objective argument to make that Zoro is the overall better character when it comes to straightup popularity. But hold on. Of course, much more goes into determining who the correct choice really is. And we've got a few more categories that we need to go through here, including the one that I just know you're here for. I mean, come on. We both know that you want me to tell you who is actually the stronger fighter. And to do that, we need to cover their stats a little bit. Now, when it comes to fighting overall, you can generally break it down into four categories with One Piece characters. Those are strength, speed, durability, and hockey. So, let's just go through all four of these and pick a winner here. And after that, we will finally know who is stronger and then see which of the two is also the better written character. Now, when it comes to straightup strength, they each have some very impressive and also very unique feats. Just looking at a few here, Zoro cuts Pika in half, takes down the seemingly indestructible Lunarian king, and is always shown to be on the cutting edge of raw power. He learns to slice through steel and hockey infused armor, and then decapitates a literal dragon at some point. But I do think all of this really culminates in the fact that he was powerful enough to deal a heavy blow to the most durable Yonko in the form of Kaido here. To say the least, Zoro's three sword style is an incredibly powerful fighting style and it enables him to deal some of the highest damage in the series overall. That being said though, Sanji is of course no joke either. with Ephre Jay. He's capable of messing up the likes of Queen and Sark and straight up rocks page one during the beginning of the Wano arc. He even landed a very powerful blow on Vena's Jurro during Ech Island. Something that Zoro did not manage to pull off. But as you'll see in just a moment, I do think that that doesn't really have that much to do with raw power. Yes, they are both very strong and they do deserve their titles as part of the monster tree of the Straw Hats, but I don't think strength is really that big of a question here. Zoro is just objectively the correct answer here. And part of that is just in the fact that he is supposed to be the stronger of the two by default. Let's be honest here. This guy's always shown lifting ridiculously heavy weights, picking up crazy heavy things like this boulder, and is in general the man responsible for cutting down the big obstacles in the cruise way. I think the perfect examples are actually the beginning of Echit Island, where Zoro quite literally decides to cut through this giant storm here, a massive natural disaster. And then like a chapter or two later, he's ready to slice down Lilith and the giant sea king weapons super casually as well to the point that Shaka essentially says, "By the way, that's Zoro." and he's so confident he could probably kill you right this moment. Now, you can make the argument, could Sanji also have beaten Lilith here pretty easily? And I'd say probably, but he never would because one, that's not his style. And two, if he doesn't hit women, true king right there. Now, my point is that not even the diehard Sanji fans, I think, can make a fair argument that Zoro is actually genuinely weaker because the core of his character and his entire goal completely revolves around strength and nothing else almost. This is the man who wants to become the greatest and strongest swordsman in the world. So strength is quite literally what Oda has built his entire character around. Very much unlike speed, which absolutely in turn goes to Sanji because with Diablo and the free Jamba, the flaming leg fighting style that Sanji adopts, he transcends the concept of speed itself. I mean, he's fast enough to counterattack Kizaru's light speed travel. He pretty much becomes invisible against Queen since he's moving that fast. and he was able to land a very clean hit against Venus Jurro who was so fast he could disable half of the Pacifyista across Echad in just a matter of moments. He also casually speed blitz Charlotte Oven and return to where he started without anyone noticing and has been able to dodge Posi Fista lasers for a very long time now. Long story short, he is speed kachchow. And that's no slander to Zoro at all because he was somewhat comparable to Sanji's speed, at least up until Sanji's big germ awakening on Wano. And this is actually something that Oda presented to us when they both started their battles with King and Queen. They both leapt into action and landed a super fast combo attack to kick things off here. Zoro actually also lands a crazy fast single attack with his sword strikes and can keep up with awakened Rawluchi here. But just like Zoro is the pinnacle of the Straw Hats strength category, Sanji is the man built to represent the concept of speed in Luffy's crew. He's the savior who runs into harm's way to defend his comrades and is fast enough to save any woman who cries out in fear and for help. And just to really hammer this one in because I do know that some of the Zoro fans will use that king and queen speed comparison to say that Zoro is just as fast as Sanji. I'm sorry, that's just not true based on the facts here and I think you know it as well. Sure, they were comparable at that moment, but minutes later, Sanji unlocks Ephree Jamba, a massive speed boost, whereas Zoro unlocks Enma's full power, a massive power and strength boost. To me, at least solidifying the argument that Zoro is much stronger, and Sanji is much faster. But what about overall durability? And this is, in my opinion, 100% the closest matchup for these two characters since both of them are shown to handle some incredible attacks and tank them like it's absolutely no one's business. Zoro survives a direct strike from Mihawk, eventually training with the strongest swordsman in the world and presumably only walking away with two scars, one on his chest and one on the eye. And then of course he also takes on all of Luffy's pains for Lebar, a feat that Zoro was confident only he could handle since hence why he ended up knocking out Sanji who wanted to do the same thing. And then we have maybe the single most glaring example. He hangs on through what seems to be quite literal death in the form of this grim reaper on Wano after having battle against Kaido and King in a row. I think we can all agree that this dude does just not die no matter what type of attack gets flung his way. I mean, one might even say he takes them and it looks like nothing happened. But on the other hand, Sanji, man, like the dudes built like a quite literal tank because he is one. I mean, his German I mean German jeans completely save his argument. Sure. I mean, early in the series, he has a similar nothing happened moment against Enl. And yeah, I mean, that one goes pretty hard as well. Some people tend to forget this moment. And then he singlehandedly endures the battle through the sea train. A moment unlike anything that Zoro had endured up to this point. But I will say that post time skip it was absolutely clear that Zoro was undeniably I would argue more durable and defensive until the germagines really hits because these genetic modifications that give Sanji a super powerful exoskeleton and seem to also like totally change how his entire bones work and everything like that's completely nuts by the way. Seriously though, he can just break bones and reshape and heal them like it's nothing now. And at I got to say without drinking any milk, something that even Luffy can't do. Now he casually tanks blows from Sark and seems just absolutely indestructible post Wano. So needless to say that there is a reason why Oda had to separate both of these guys from the battle with the Holy Knights at first because if they were there, the tides would probably shift like very quickly. However, going back to the entire durability argument, I personally don't feel quite confident enough to lean either way here. So, and yes, I know this sounds very much like a copout for the sake of the video. So, I will tell you the side my stomach kind of leans toward and then you can argue it out in the comments below. I guess in my mind, because Sanji is very confident in asking Zoro to cut him down if he were to lose his mind on Wano, it kind of shows that he himself thinks that he'd end up losing a raw battle of stats against Zoro, right? I kind of feel no heat. And this kind of implies that he thinks that Zoro is durable enough to tank his attacks should he go berserk. And he knows that he's strong enough to defeat him. So, if I had to pick a current choice, it would still be Zoro. But I'll put this one as a tie for now on the board because I'm not going to say that with a lot of confidence. Which now just leaves us with hockey, which is actually the easiest category to run through thanks to Oda being just a complete homie here because he just straight up confirmed who has the better hockey through the feats in the universe. You see, after the time skip, he clearly indicated to us that Zoro learned the more advanced forms of armament hockey and Sanji instead learned the more advanced forms of observation hockey. Yes, they both have each, but when it comes to the advanced applications, this split is pretty cut and dry. Zoro learns to infuse his weapons with armamentake. And in his battle with Pika, he shows us just how advanced he really is via the three sword style secret skill, grade 30,000 worlds. Meanwhile, it at least seems to me like Sanji is using future sight here to predict where Katakuri is flinging an execution jelly bean. And technically, his Vaver card did say that he can do it, but those have been wrong before. So, take it with a bit of a grain of salt. In case you don't know, sometimes they release these real life cards that provide additional information about characters. Sort of, you know, supplementary material released by the production companies on the anime and the manga. And usually these are pretty decently vetted, but Oda doesn't directly make them himself, meaning that the information is just well-informed research and save guesses. So, while they are a good source of information, we always need to be careful with them. Regardless though, Sanji's color of observation hockey is very high level and it's very clear that he mostly worked on this and Skywalk during the time skip alongside Ivanchov. Nonetheless though, Zoro still definitely wins this category because he does in fact have Conquer Haki. His will and desire to be the strongest swordsman push him above Sanji who develops all of these powerful traits for primarily defenseoriented purposes. And ultimately, if Sanji could choose to not fight, he probably wouldn't. He's a lover, not a fighter, but he fights for what he loves. Meanwhile, Zoro is a fighter, not a lover, and he loves to fight. It's it's just in his nature. And as a result, fortune favors him when it comes to very powerful hockey, which yes, if you've kept track, means that when it comes to being the more powerful fighter, Zoro probably reigns supreme king. Now, I don't think that comes as that big of a surprise. Once again, he is the straw hat number two and is always responsible for fighting against the second strongest character in each arc. And hey, sometimes even fights the primary villain before Luffy does. So, I guess Zoro is the better fighter and the more popular character. So, that's it. Then, debate settle. Zoro clearly wins. Uh, no, no, no, no. Not yet, at least. You see, Sanji does have one more chance to win the debate, and that's thanks to how each of these two characters are written by Oda. Because don't forget that at its core, One Piece is surprise a story. Which means when you want to argue who the better character is, we should probably also factor in their narratives. And let me tell you, Zoro has a pretty steep uphill battle in this category. Now, I'm sure I will read a lot of comments why I'm wrong here, but I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that Sanji is just by far the better written character. He has way more flaws, more nuance, and way better story arcs. And overall, his story is just developed in a way that Zoro never was. By the way, just like the Ohara patrons who become more in-depth and better characters in the story that we call life because they're patrons and they have access to early episodes of my Drink Saki podcast, exclusive content I release only there. I'm sorry, it's just the truth. But you can become better by joining us over there and, you know, supporting the channel. With the bills paid, though, let's look at their backstories here, right? Let's let's start with that. Zoro's best friend falls down the stairs. falls down the stairs and as a result he wants to take her sword and become the world's strongest swordsman. Oh, were you were you expecting more there? Uh, well, there isn't any more here. That that's it. That's pretty much all that we've got for him. Simple, sweet, and pretty pretty much to the point. I mean, Zoro does all of this because he's got like two friends, Kina and Luffy. That's pretty much it. Okay. I mean, it's not entirely fair. He gets the entire crew eventually, but literally Luffy is like his second close friend ever. And so he fights for them and their dreams more than he does for his own. Zoro would gladly sacrifice his own dream and life if it meant pushing Luffy to become pirate king. And Luffy would probably do the same for him if we're being honest. Meanwhile, Sanji's entire backstory could be its own shownen series. I mean, come on. He loses his mother, the only person who truly ever loved him, and is raised by a nightmare of a family tortured by his father and emotionless siblings. Then he finally managed to escape, becomes a pirate, but then ends up stranded on an island with Zeff, a great mentor, who quite literally sacrifices his own leg and food to keep Sanji alive for longer. That way, he's then raised to become a strong fighter and an excellent cook with a good set of morals and a dream to find the all blue. And even now in the current story, Sanji rises and falls with some big narrative moments, while Zoro pretty much remains a somewhat reliable and static character that is just a great icon of, you know, striving to become better and more powerful. Sanji, on the other hand, has powerful moving arcs like Whole Kick Island where he has to find himself and relearn what it means to be a human being. Over time, he kind of grows from a weird pervy guy to a man worthy of true love, as we see with Pudding. when finally, for the first time ever, by you know, not being too creepy and being a cool dude that we all like, gets a kiss, even though he doesn't remember it, which is kind of harsh. Not to mention, by the way, that he squares off with his father to try and write the wrongs of his own past only to then immediately struggle in Wano with what it means to quite literally be a person. And so despite just having had his big arc in Whole Cake Island, a bigger character arc than any other Strawhead except Luffy had post time skip, he then immediately gets another big character arc in Wano because the germagines and ownership over his own body are another new massive struggle that has super fulfilling narrative payoffs. And then of course, we also have all this stuff going on with not fighting women and how this is his big Achila heel. He struggles because he never knew love and is thus always chasing it. He fawns over women to a real fault and it gets him in really sticky situations all the time. And he also has a white knight complex which leads him to try and defend women to a fault too. But then throughout Hullcake Island and the Wano arc, he slowly learns that he can also be saved by women that they can be strong as well and through his flaws ends up making Robin's arc even better in that arc. And that's actually major development for both of them thanks to Sanji's choices and actions. I mean, even in Wano, the arc that we all thought was going to be Zoro focused, Sanji ended up getting this additional piece of character development. Meanwhile, Zoro just well got stronger once again. He always has a new foe that he needs to become a greater warrior to defeat. And he does the morally right thing. And really, the only time he does any major narrative impact is during Water 7 when he tells Luffy that Usopp shouldn't be on the crew at that point due to his insubordination. And again, this does not mean he doesn't have epic cool moments in a story. Just the opposite. Nothing happened or I'll become the king of hell. Endless endless examples of Zoro having insanely cool moments. But really what I want to get you to see here is that from a narrative perspective, from a character art perspective, there is not that much going on. Now, you could give those moments to a character like Brooke, Frankie, or Usopp, and they would be equally badass. Well, maybe not, you know, equally. Zoro is the coolest Straw Hat, but you see what I'm getting at here. Zoro is the second in command and is all about being powerful, an ideal, kind of like Luffy. So, the only things that really serve his character arc and his growth are physical tests of strength or endurance. I mean, heck, he could have had a massive crazy character arc in Wano, his families from there, the swordsman Ryuma, his other ancestor. And I mean, in the end, Oda didn't do anything with it and instead opted to release a little bit of site material that explains Zoro's heritage and excluded it from the main story, despite Wano being literally 4 years long. Meanwhile, Sanji has and probably always will have a ton of character development and growth throughout the manga, and it makes following his story incredibly interesting from a personal and human perspective. Plus, he kind of gets the entire whole cake island arc to really develop a massive story of its own, which I got to say is a real shame because I'm going to have to call out the anime here, which undercuts it a ton, contributing very heavily to the entire debate here. Now, in case you haven't been watching the anime of Echod Island, Tolli almost seems to have it out for Sanji's character on purpose. They grossly amplify his pervy gag to stupid levels of sing. They literally cut him out of scenes he had in the manga and shot sometimes. and even go as far as introducing new material to undercut his achievements with new Zoro feats instead. Meanwhile, Zoro gets like the most incredibly flashy and epic battles. Sometimes they do make sense, like his battle with King, which was just a masterpiece. Other times, they make silly little fights like his quick face off with killer look like the endgame, the final battle of the entire show with like the entire ground exploding. I mean, even in the movies, Sanji will have a decently cool battle and then Zoro will look like he is the main character of the story, basically the way that he gets animated. And I guess this probably has to do with the character's popularity. But man, I got to say, it's kind of frustrating sometimes to watch and see Sanji's eraser, especially when his story is sometimes so much more enticing. But I don't want this to be interpreted as Zoro slander either. Zoro is giga awesome. He was my favorite character for a long time in the story. And I go back and forth between who my favorite is between these two as well because of all these complicated reasons. By the way, I should probably say my favorite character isn't Sanji, it's really. But again, like those two very definitely my top five easy. And I've really weeded it down now to a couple of major core points to really sell who the better quote unquote character actually is and prepare myself to get burned at the stake in the comments for this. So, we're supposed to like these two characters for very different reasons, right? I hope you agree. And take away different parts of their characters as inspiration. People who like Zoro do so because, well, he just oozes confidence and coolness. He's a certified iconic shownen badass. He makes me want to become stronger, have more discipline, go to the gym, always work hard for my goals, and not only for myself, but for the people around me since that's kind of the entire point of his character. That's insanely relatable, especially as a guy, but also as a girl, I guess. And I know tons and tons of Zoro fans who feel the same way. I mean, he took the iconic anime swordsman trope and became one of, if not probably the most iconic of all time. I mean, nowadays, so many anime swordsmen are kind of modeled after Zoro. And there is a reason that he is the second most popular character in the entire show. Meanwhile, on the other hand, Sanji pushes the audience to accept their own flaws and become more emotionally mature. He shows that being gentle, reliable, and affectionate is a really good thing. Struggling with mental health and personal problems is okay because he can push through them and grow and, you know, have people around him to support him and so can you. Being a human being is something you should embrace and be happy about because all of it, sadness and the happiness, they're all kind of important parts to developing and you can't have the one without the other. So yeah, let's accept it and face it. When it comes to strength and popularity, Zoro is the better character. He's cool, he's strong, and I want him to be my daddy, my gym bro. But at the same time, Sanji is better written by a lot, I think. And despite getting held back by his very pervy gag, which Oda kind of tried to resolve a little bit and bake into his character, but still, he is one of the most complicated and deep characters in the entire story. And honestly, in anime and manga altogether, I would go as far to say that he's better written because he should be. But that might potentially change for Zoro when Mihawk finally hits the scene because his battle with the world's strongest swordsmen might just be one of the best plot lines in the entire show. And it's way more complicated than you think. Like there's a ton of symbolism in series foreshadowing and realworld information. Yeah, I know gets crazy. that will inform just how epic and how crazy impactful this fight's going to be. And let me tell you, you can't fully understand Zoro's character if you don't know about his entire arc and this one fight that's faded to happen between him and Mihawk. And you can watch everything about that right here. Thanks so much for watching. I just realized the video is down here. Thanks so much to our patreons and I will see you in the next