Roronoa Zoro, the first crew member of the Straw Hats who joined Luffy, has had his own bronze statue unveiled in Japan! It’s in a town called Ozu in Kikuchi District in the Kumamoto Prefecture, which was heavily damaged in the Kumamoto Earthquake back in 2016. They live-streamed the unveiling, with the people present taking up swords to act out the unveiling. You can watch it on YouTube (the unveiling begins at around the 1 hour mark):
You can see the statue:
There is a special illustration drawn by Eiichiro Oda as well:
It’s even featured on a Pokestop for the Pokemon GO mobile game:
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The author of One Piece, Eiichiro Oda, is actually a Kumamoto native. When the devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit, he donated around 800 million yen ($7.1 Million) for the earthquake relief. They commemorated it by placing statues of the Straw Hats in the affected areas, and the Roronoa Zoro bronze statue is the 9th one. Previously Robin got hers, and Jinbe will be next, with the unveiling planned for July.
You can catch up to the One Piece manga for free on either VIZ website or MANGA Plus, depending on your region. The anime is streaming on either Funimation or Crunchyroll, with new episodes every Sunday.
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Source: One Piece Twitter, One Piece YouTube
©Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha, Fuji Television Network, Toei Animation