ZORO AND SANJI STRENGTH ARE EQUAL?!

Don’t get me wrong, Zoro is undeniably the stronger of the 2. But the difference just isn’t as significant as some people think it is. Plus when you factor in their different fighting styles the whole thing becomes even more debatable. But I’m not here to debate who’d win. However since the introduction of Sanji the pair have been portrayed as rivals and if Oda was to ever widen this gap it would honestly kinda ruin their dynamic. To explain my point let’s look at what Oda has given us.

Firstly, Sanji and Zoro instantly take a disliking with each other with a kinda love hate rivalry with one constantly trying to one up the other. This back in forth would be alot less comedic and meaningful if Zoro was on a higher tier than Sanji. It even translates to their enemies who all share similar relationships to their SH counterparts. Mr 1 and 2, Kaku and Jabra, etc…

Secondly, there’s the fact of their abilities. Zoro has greater physical strength, durability, and Armament Haki. But Sanji has superior speed, Observation Haki and is smarter. They each are Masters in their own respective styles of combat, hinting that if they fought a victory between the 2 would be highly circumstantial. If Zoro hits Sanji it would devastating, but if Sanji can avoid Zoro there’s really nothing he could do to end the fight.

Thirdly, we’ll go into some blatant examples in the story. The earliest I believe was the Little Garden arc with the dinosaur measuring contest. In said contest both caught dinosaurs that were close in size with Zoro having a caught one that that was heavier, but Sanji’s was longer. Which in itself references that Sanji’s a lighter more agile fighter and Zoro being more powerful. But at the end of the day the difference was miniscule.

Lot of fans claim that Zoro is now stronger and the gap has increased since the New World but consider this……have they been fighting opponents on the same level?

To analyze this we need to take a look on what level is the opponent they both fighting in the New World. In Punk Hazard Arc, Zoro and Sanji are fighting with a different level of opponent. Im not saying that Monet is weak, but Zoro can defeat monet with just a glare while sanji is fighting with Vergo, one of the strongest armament Haki user. Sanji armament is not that strong consider his fighting style wouldnt rely much on armament, while Zoro need to get his armament strong so that he can cut through everything, thats what swordsman do. 

We didnt get to see much of Sanji in Dressrosa because of the plan that they have been making to get to Zou. We did get to see Sanji fight with Doflamingo and clearly Sanji is not on a shichibukai level yet. Doflamingo is quite a strong opponent. On the other hand, Zoro been fighting with Pica, one of Doflamingo executive and he cut through a full body Haki with his sword. 

You see, both of them have different fighting styles and I strongly believe that the gap between their strength are not that far.  So I feel like people are quick to jump on the whole Zoro is waaay stronger wagon when there is no info to support that as a fact.

Sanji already suprises us with some of his strength in Wholecake Island and I hope to see more from him. Its been long since I saw him full power against any opponent in New World.