Who was the strongest swordsman of each era?

a piece The subsequent developments have been great, and fans are waiting for more (as they are also waiting for the new season to be released in April 2026). However a piece While promising a bright future, there is much to talk about in the past, like the best swordsmen of all time in the series.

There are many characters who wield swords in the franchise, and not all of them are technically swordsmen, although fans often don't mind who deserves the title. But only one person can hold the official title of 'World's Strongest Swordsman'. While we only know the identity of the current holder, there are some good guesses about who was the strongest of them in past eras. But before that, let's explore more on the era a piece And what does the chronology look like in the series.

related to

8 One Piece Characters Who Wasted All Their Potential

Any one piece character lost more potential than these.

World Age in One Piece

the world of a piece Our world is similar, with a broad timeline that begins before the rise of civilization. Also, as in the real world, there is more than one calendar: there are two, the Age of the Sea Circle (ASC) and the Age of Heaven (AH), but it is not known which of them is more prevalent. What we do know is that Mont Blanc Noland dates events using the Age of Sea circle in his book, and Nico Robin refers to the Age of Heaven. The age of the oceanic circle is similar to the Gregorian calendar.

The timeline can be divided into:

• Zero centuries ago (-3500s ASC to 500s ASC);

• zero century (600s ASC to 700s ASC);

• Zero century after/present century before (800s ASC to 1400s ASC);

• The last century before the Bhagwan Ghati event (1440s ASC to 1500s ASC);

• Bhagwan Ghati incident (1500 ASC);

• Great Pirate Era (1500s ASC to 1538 ASC);

• Luffy's Journey (from 1539 ASC; the story is currently in 1541 ASC).

Notice how the time period gets shorter as we get to the present era, since the most relevant events in the story didn't happen that long ago. Much of what happened centuries ago is only part of a larger lore a piece Feel like a real universe, with its own timeline and evolution. However, it is important to note that when a piece Referring to events that took place centuries before the main story (such as the age of dinosaurs millions of years ago, or the creation of Alabasta thousands of years ago), offers fans glimpses into the past, not to say that the story attempts to create a 100% faithful reproduction. This is giving fans a sense that there is some degree of continuous history yet to unfold.

Moreover, in the real world, knowledge from centuries ago is difficult to find due to the lack of surviving documents, so it provides information about ancient times. a piece will be rare. If we collect some of the main events of the recent timeline, these are often important to the story:

Why is the Bhagwan Valley event so important?

The Lord Valley incident marks a fundamental moment in the story of a piece. A few years before the event, Figureland Garling, now one of the Five Elders, stopped by God Valley, an island with abundant natural resources and the hideout of the Davy Family, enemies of the World Government. He then offered the islands membership status within the world government, but was rejected. He also met a local woman who would eventually become the mother of Shamrock and Shanks.

Still, Garling didn't give up on the island. He proposed within the World Government that the God Valley should host another Native Hunting Tournament, as the island's name was taken as a blasphemy by the World Greats. Native Hunting Tournaments are tournaments in which world nobles compete to see who kills the most native/resident population of a place. Basically, it's a carnage contest organized with the help of the Marines.

Who is that character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Easy (7.5 seconds)Medium (5.0 seconds)Hard (2.5 seconds)Permadeath (2.5s)

get started

Restart
behind

results

0

High score: 0

–

Who is that character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Easy (7.5 seconds) Medium (5.0 seconds) Hard (2.5 seconds) Permadeath (2.5 seconds)get started

Restartbehind

results

0

High Score: 0 –

Anyway, God Valley was chosen as the host of the next tournament, and, at first, it was just like any other native hunting tournament (which is already bad), serving as a punishment for the Davy family as well. However, Rox and Roger arrive on the island to save the people and the others follow, forcing Emu, the government's secret ruler, to intervene- killing many people, including Rox. The God Valley incident was heavily censored, and the island was officially removed from the map as if it did not exist. Luffy's grandfather and father (respectively) Monkey D. Garp and Monkey D. Dragon were also present. Although censored from official records, the event was a turning point for many characters who were there.

What is the relevance of a swordsman in a piece?

Image via Toei Animation.

Image via Toei Animation

In the history of the world a piece The ages stretch back, but the history of swords is short. There is no information on when swordsmen appeared, but they have existed for centuries – taking real world logic into account, they probably appeared thousands of years ago, when humanity learned how to manufacture swords. Therefore, we only have information about a handful of them, and most of the swordsmen we know are from either the present era or the Roger era.

What we do know is that there have been swordsmen for centuries in Wano country, where they are called 'Samurai'. But swordsmanship isn't just about wielding a sword: there are qualifications to complete and techniques to master. However, people may refer to themselves as swordsmen, even if not technically. There are places (Dojo) around the world where people can learn the art of swordplay. Well, the whole concept is based on real life fencing, its ethical and technical conduct and so on. And then, the best swordsman can finally hold the title of World's Strongest Swordsman – which can be achieved by defeating the current holder.

Since we only have information about recent epochs, we will consider them only. It's possible that Oda will still explore swordsmen from other eras in spin-offs or other media. First, let's determine the best of each era, and then we'll delve further into each swordsman on the list:

The legendary samurai Shimotsuki Ryuuma

Ryuma wasn't one at first a piece character, but Oda rejoined Monsters To turn Ryuma into a canon a piece suffrage Centuries before Luffy's journey began, he lived in Wano and was regarded as a sword god. The World's Strongest Swordsman title probably didn't exist yet, so this is probably the closest title to it.

Roger and Raleigh in the Pirate Age

Both Roger and Rayleigh are considered very skilled with swords. Since there is no official information on who held the title of Strong Swordsman before Mihak, fans often believe that one, or both of them held the title at a different time. Roger is a legendary pirate known as the Pirate King, and Ray was his right-hand man.

Although Roger is dead (after execution), Ray is still alive, living in Sabaody, and is regarded as a legendary pirate. He became close friends with Luffy and taught him how to master Haki during the two-year time skip between the Marineford Arc and the New World Saga.

Mihawk is forced to forfeit the title

Dracul Mihawk is the current holder of the Strongest Swordsman title, but fans consider Shanks to be stronger than him, especially because of Haki. Mihawk is also a pirate, known as the Sea Hunter, and has a long rivalry with Shanks. Regardless, Roronoa Zoro sees Mihawk as his ultimate rival, and it is likely that Zoro will eventually claim the title of world's strongest swordsman.

a piece

Release date

October 20, 1999

network

Fuji TV

directors

Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Ito, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Noimauji, Tokahiro, Enoji Maudo Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou

The authors

Jin Tanaka, Akiko Inoue, Junki Takegami, Shinzo Fujita, Shouji Yonemura, Yoshiyuki Suga, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hirohiko Usaka, Michiru Shimada, Isao Murayama, Takuya Masumoto, Yoichi Takahashi, Momoka Toyoda

• 

  Mayumi Tanaka

  Monkey d. Luffy (voice)

• 

  Kazuya Nakai

  Roronoa Zoro (voice)