Top 10 Best Swordsmen in One Piece
The rich and vibrant universe of One Piece is filled with a myriad of extraordinary abilities, ranging from the mysterious powers of Haki to the enigmatic Devil Fruits. Yet there are individuals who dominate the oceans and send chills down the enemy’s spine with their extraordinary swordsmanship.
These elite swordsmen not only command the treacherous oceans but also instill fear and awe in their enemies through their exceptional skill with a blade. What sets them apart is their ability to cut through anything and split the heavens without the use of any devil fruit powers.
Here are the 10 best swordsmen in One Piece:
10- VISTA
“Flower Sword” Vista is the 5th division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates. He is one of the most prominent members of his crew.
Vista has extraordinary mastery in dual wielding swordsmanship and even Mihawk acknowledges his skills. He even managed to deflect Mihawk’s flying slash attack which is powerful enough to cut through battleships. In the anime, he was also able to block bullets with his swords to protect his allies from being shot while escaping.
Another indication of his strength is that during the Battle of Marineford, despite having fought against individual Shichibukai and Admirals as well as numerous Marine officers, he sustained no significant injuries.
9- SILVERS RAYLEIGH
Silvers Rayleigh, also known as the “Dark King”, is an extremely powerful and famous retired pirate who formerly served as the first mate of the legendary Roger Pirates, known as the “Right Hand of the Pirate King”. Rayleigh is one of the major figures, along with Whitebeard, Shiki, Monkey D. Garp, Sengoku, and Kong from the times when the “Pirate King” was alive.
Rayleigh is shown to possess great mastery of all three types of Haki. He is a tremendously skilled and powerful swordsman, though he claims to have degraded in skill somewhat from his younger and healthier days.
8- FUJITORA
In terms of combat strength, Fujitora is considered to be one of the strongest fighters within the entire World Government structure.
Fujitora wields a shikomizue (a sword blade in a cane-like mounting) in tandem with his Devil Fruit ability, channeling his gravity powers through the sword. Usually, Fujitora wields his weapon in a reverse-grip style, the blade pointing in the direction opposite to his thumb. Despite his blindness, the admiral has shown to be rather potent and skillful in his bladework, able to deflect or block incoming attacks, even extremely strong ones or surprise attacks, with little issue using simple parrying maneuvers, demonstrating lightning-fast dexterity all the while. Fujitora’s swordsmanship, combined with his Devil Fruit powers makes him one of the best swordsmen in the whole series.
7- SHIKI
Shiki the Golden Lion, also known as the “Flying Pirate”, is the admiral of the Golden Lion Pirates and the first known prisoner ever to escape from Impel Down.
During Roger’s era, he was one of the most powerful figures of the time, being on par with Sengoku, Garp, Whitebeard, and Roger. Before that era, Shiki was a member of the Rocks Pirates, a powerful crew whose members included three future Yonko.
Shiki possesses great skills in swordsmanship as he dual-wielded Oto and Kogarashi to single-handedly massacre an entire army of Marines before getting subdued by Garp and Sengoku.
After the two swords became his prosthetic legs, not only he has little difficulty in standing or walking while using them, he is also capable of attacking from a distance with them by sending slashes from his sword legs in a Rankyaku like fashion. These air-blades have a light-yellow/gold color-scheme, matching his epithet.
He also combines his sword skills with his Fuwa Fuwa no Mi, a Paramecia type Devil Fruit which allows him to make surrounding non-living matter levitate once he has come in contact with it.
6- ZORO
Zoro has devoted his life to becoming a powerful swordsman and fighter, and in his time as a bounty hunter and later the combatant of the Straw Hat Pirates, he has become extremely well-renowned for his exemplary abilities and accomplishments in battle.
Although Zoro usually wields three swords as part of his style known as “Three Sword Style”, he has shown himself to be an exceptional duelist and combatant while wielding two swords or even just one.
Besides Advanced Armament Haki and Observation Haki, Zoro can use Conqueror’s Haki, a very rare form of Haki whose users are stated to have the qualities of a king. He was first noted to have it by Kaidou after the Emperor was struck by Zoro’s Nine Sword Style attack.
During Zoro’s battle against King, in deciding to go all out using Haki, he ended up using its advanced application, infusing it into his three swords, with all three emitted streams of black lightning signifying its infusion. As their battle continued on, Zoro managed to gain conscious control over the advanced technique, infusing it into all three swords, or infusing it into Sandai Kitetsu to deal significant damage to King.
