Roronoa Zoro/Misc.

Early One Piece
Originally, Zoro was planned by Oda to be the bodyguard of Buggy. A picture of an incarnation of him in Buggy's crew was then later released in Volume 3 along with another picture of Buggy's crew. Oda described the Buggy's crew as a family unit, Zoro was described as the elder brother.

Zoro has occasionally appeared wearing glasses in some of the colour illustrations by Oda and in the 11th opening of the anime.

Zoro's Past
Zoro's past was expanded upon in the anime. Zoro was a traveller who went around defeating dojos for their signs. However, there was one person Zoro could not beat - the sensei's daughter, Kuina. In the anime she is the reason he joins her father's dojo in the first place. Kuina's father made a deal that if he could defeat her Zoro would take the sign. If not, Zoro would have to train under him. When given the opportunity to use as many swords as he wanted, he grabbed as many as he could carry and faced off against Kuina. He lost and was told he had to start with one sword before he could use more. As per the consequences of his loss, he trained at the dojo as promised.

In the manga, Zoro enters to see her dead body, eyes covered and surrounded by the students and accuses her of running away, in the anime no such scene is shown, but a funeral takes place for her instead, though later on "Ocean Dream" arc in the anime, the original manga scene is shown in a flashback.

His story is extended also in the anime by showing the time he first met and befriended Johnny and Yosaku. They cash in when Zoro takes out a large bounty and, given they pay his tab at the bar he was at for his food, can keep the rest of the money for themselves as an apology for taking their 'head'. Later, Dick appears in the town with his horde of bandits, who proceed to loot the town. Johnny and Yosaku watch as a child tries to stop the thief to no avail. Johnny convinces Yosaku that they must stop him, to which Yosaku reluctantly agrees. The two are no match for Dick, but luckily Zoro comes to claim the bounty on Dick's head to pay for a Katana that he broke. After a complete victory by Zoro, Johnny and Yosaku look up to Zoro and start to call him "Aniki."

Straw Hat Separation
His adventure in Shikkearu Kingdom is also extended in the anime.

Not only did Perona refuse to give Zoro his swords back, but she also tried to turn Zoro into her servant by using her Devil Fruit powers. She got as far as managing to dress Zoro like her former subordinate, Kumashi, while he had passed out before he woke up and left the room in search of his swords. In the anime, Zoro's training will begin by defeating the leader of the humandrills who copied the swordsmanship of Mihawk.

Running Gags
In most fillers, his lack of direction is further ridiculed as he has gone in the wrong direction even though his guide was still pointing in the correct way, and even turning to the right on a straight path.

Another unconfirmed gag is Zoro's habit of cutting everything that blocks his way. Few examples are when Zoro wanted to get out of Ryugu Palace, he cut every wall and tower to find exit.

Merchandise
As a main character, Zoro has been the choice character in many forms of merchandise. He has been featured in the series of models Portrait of Pirates. He has featured in trading figure sets such as One-Piece Motion Figure box and the One Piece Styling Figures. When the Wii game One Piece: Unlimited Adventure was released Zoro was one of the crew produced as a figure in the One Piece Locations Trading Figures series.

He also featured in One Piece Gashapon sets, including the 5 piece One Piece VS Figure Gashapon set. Another Gashapon set he featured in was the One Piece Full Color R Gashapon, of what he was featured twice. He was sold alongside Robin in the One Piece Monkey Island Mascot Keychain series.

He was issued alongside Kuina in a One Piece Block Figures set featuring the Straw Hats and their past mentors/loved ones.

Songs

 * Eyes of Zoro
 * Spirit of Zoro
 * Holy Holiday (as back-up singer to Luffy)
 * Respect! (Luffy, Zoro and Sanji)
 * Family (with other Straw Hats)
 * Utae! Jingle Bell (with other Straw Hats)
 * You Are the One (with other Straw Hats)
 * Sekai ichi no otoko to yobareru tame ni (Zoro, Sanji and Usopp)
 * Akuma no Mi (Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp and Sanji)
 * Jungle Fever (with other Straw Hats)
 * A Thousand Dreamers (With other Straw Hats)
 * We Are! (Mugiwara Version) (Luffy, Nami, Chopper, Zoro, Sanji, Robin and Usopp)

Cameos and Crossovers

 * Zoro appeared in an Shonen Jump special, where Enel attacks Tokyo and Odaiba.
 * Zoro and other characters also appeared in Cross Epoch.
 * Zoro has appeared in the games Jump Super Stars and Jump Ultimate Stars for the DS. He also appeared in Vattroller X for the Game Boy Advance and Battle Stadium D.O.N on the GameCube and PlayStation 2.
 * Zoro makes a cameo appearance in the anime Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: during Meru's introduction, Harumi is seen reading a yaoi manga featuring Sanji and Zoro. Also, in her room, we can see action figures of Luffy, Zoro, Sanji and Sogeking.

References in popular culture

 * In an episode of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, in Harumi's room, we can see action figures of Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Sogeking.

Translation and Dub Issues

 * His surname, Roronoa, is the Japanese pronounciation of real-life French pirate François l'Ollonais.
 * Most of Zoro's attacks are puns and some also have religious connections. One of Zoro's more common attacks, Oni Giri (Demon Slash), is a pun on the Japanese word onigiri (rice ball). Another common attack, the 36/72/108 Pondo Hou, is a reference to the 36 passions of Buddhism. Zoro's newest power, Asura, also borrows from religion by taking its name from a group of Hindu demons. This is a bit ironic considering that Zoro is a stated atheist, and Nami and Chopper have both claimed that Zoro is more arrogant than the self-proclaimed "god" Enel.
 * In the 4Kids English dub of One Piece, Zoro is referred to as "Zolo," however when FUNimation picked up the series, they reverted his name back to "Zoro," only keeping "Zolo" for the broadcast Skypiea episodes for consistency. Originally, the English version of the manga by VIZ spelled his name as "Roronoa Zoro," but it was changed to "Zolo" in chapter 50. It is possible that this name change was either a result of trademark issues with Zorro - who shares a similar name - or to maintain similarities to the 4Kids dub. In the book The Anime Encyclopedia - A guide to Japanese animation since 1917(2001), Zoro's name was spelled "Zorro" in the One Piece entry. Such cases as this have been common in many translations across the world, mostly because of the similarity between the two names. To date, however, this has yet to raise concerns over copyright between the two characters. However, in the second 2011 volume of the U.S. Shonen Jump magazine, Zoro's name was changed back to "Zoro". This is the first time Viz has called the character this since chapter 50.
 * In Japanese promotions and in some art work, the character is often referred to as "Zoro" but is also spelled "Zolo" in a few cases, mostly in promotions. However, there are fans that claim that "Zoro" was the creator's intended spelling, since it is almost always spelled that way in art and it is supposed to be based off the aforementioned character "Zorro". However, the appearance of "Zolo" in Japan can be explained without relating it to 4Kids or copyright laws due to interchangeable L and R sounds. Other characters who have displayed this problem have include Franky (Flanky) and Robin (Lobin). In the end, in noted cases English speaking fans may choose to specifically refer to the dub version of Zoro as "Zolo," while referring to the original version as "Zoro,"
 * In the English dub by 4Kids, Kuina's death was removed. Instead, she was rewritten to have been seriously injured by a group from a nearby town, leaving her unable to fight; a situation which, oddly, is more violent than the original. Zoro's commitment, therefore, is to continue fighting for her sake, instead of in honor of her death. During the Drum arc in the 4Kids dub, when the ankle scars he obtained during his fight with Mr. 3 were exposed, they were rewritten to have been gained from a bear trap since the Straw Hats never visited Little Garden in that version.

Trivia

 * Zoro has his own jolly roger, like all the Straw Hat crew. It has Zoro's bandanna, two swords instead of crossbones, and a sword in its mouth (the white hilt suggests that it's Wado Ichimonji, which is always the one that Zoro holds in his mouth when using Santoryu).
 * After the timeskip, the skull gains Zoro's three earrings and the left eye is closed with a vertical scar over it to match Zoro's own eye. The swords that make up the crossbones are more detailed: the blade pointing towards the right is dark, suggest that it's Shusui while the other is Sandai Kitetsu.
 * In the anime, Zoro's wanted poster didn't include Usopp's shadow the first time that the bounty was issued, but this was later corrected in Episode 152. When the second bounty was issued Usopp's shadow was inexplicably omitted again.
 * In Jump's edition of Chapter 598, he was shown to have a scar on his right eye, but in the next chapter, it is moved to his left eye. Oda wrote in 599 that the right eye scar was an error, and that the one with the scar on the left eye is the correct one. Chapter 598's error was also fixed in volume 61.
 * In Japanese Fan Polls, Zoro is consistently the second most popular character. Also in the attack popularity polls his Santouryuu Ougi: Sanzen Sekai came in 2nd.
 * Zoro has had the most English dub voice actors out of all the Straw Hats (2 as an adult, 4 as a child).
 * In addition, in Chapter 599, Zoro's Shusui was shown with a different sheath strongly resembling that of Trafalgar Law's nodachi. Altough Oda didn't write anything about it, it could be taken as a mistake as Zoro is then seen holding Shuusui with it's traditional sheath with no comments about the change. This error is fixed in the anime chapter that adapts this scene from the manga.
 * Zoro's reintroduction to the series after the timeskip is reminiscent of how Mihawk was introduced. Both sliced a galleon in two and both seemingly did so due to an interrupted nap.
 * Roronoa Zoro is the first known person since Ryuma to kill a dragon, an act which made the latter a legend, both of them also killed the dragon the same way, by decapitation in the air.
 * Zoro is the only Straw Hat Pirate to be named after a real life pirate.

SBS-Based Trivia

 * Oda once stated Zoro was best represented by a shark, and the cover of chapter 3 (in which he was introduced) shows a picture of Luffy riding on the back of a shark.
 * However, he was turned into a tiger in the video game Chopper's Big Adventure and had a dragon-based attire in the video game Unlimited Cruise.
 * Oda has hinted that one of the reasons why Zoro uses food-based puns is because he has never tried sushi and has some form of fascination with it. However, this can be considered one of Oda's SBS jokes.
 * Zoro's favorite foods are white rice, sea king meat and anything that goes with ale.
 * Zoro is described as being somewhat like the eldest son of the family that is the Straw Hat crew.
 * If he lived in the real world, he would be Japanese.
 * In an SBS, when asked which flower Zoro resembles the most, Robin's Voice Actress replied he most resembles a thistle.