Key Takeaways
- Zunesha, the massive elephant in One Piece, was retconned from 50 km to 10 km tall for better story consistency.
- The retcons to Zunesha’s character create a disconnect between his first appearance and modern appearances.
- Oda’s decision to scale down Zunesha’s size was likely necessary, despite losing some majesty in character portrayal.
Since its release in 1997, One Piece has been an extremely meticulous series. It seems that every twist, turn, and relationship throughout the entire adventure of the Straw Hat Pirates has been expertly planned by Oda himself. Despite this, not everything can be accounted for in Oda’s masterplan, meaning some things need to be created on the fly, and made to look congruent with the original plan of One Piece.
However, there are times when even Oda’s meticulous planning doesn’t go exactly as planned, leading to a retcon. Although retconning is fairly common in the world of One Piece, like with Galdino’s trip on the very floaty piece of wood during Alabasta, some retcons seem to stick out more than others. This includes one retcon that completely changes the perception of a certain island-sized animal, changing Zunesha’s size to be much smaller than before.
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Who is Zunesha in One Piece?
A Really Big Elephant
Zunesha, for those that don’t remember, is the walking elephant that carries the island of Zou, the Phantom Island that houses the Minx tribe, and the setting for One Piece’s Zou Arc. Zunesha, being such a massive elephant, wanders through the New World ocean as some sort of punishment for a crime committed far in the past. Additionally, 800 years in the past, Zunesha was actually an ally of Joy Boy himself and currently possesses the Voice of All Things.
This elephant has been alive for around 1,000 years?
Outside of being an ancient being from One Piece’s mysterious past, Zunesha is also absolutely massive, able to easily wade through the ocean as if it’s shallow water. Originally, Zunesha was absolutely gargantuan, sitting at 35 km tall. After his first revision, however, Oda felt that 35 km wasn’t enough for the massive elephant, stating his new height to be around 50 km.
Zunesha Was Too Big For One Piece
50 km Tall is Too Much
While it makes sense for the elephant carrying Zou, the first island of One Piece’s Whole Cake Island Saga, to be massive, 50 km is a bit excessive. At 50 km, when looking at Zunesha, the buildings on its back, which are scaled to be reasonably visible, would be almost impossible to see. Additionally, at 50 km, Zunesha would be five times larger than the depth of locations like Fishman Island. At this size, Zunesha should have been depicted as far larger, or the sea of the New World would have to be a considerable amount deeper than under the Red Line.
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However, the easier solution to Zunesha’s size dilemma was for One Piece’s author, Oda, to retcon Zunesha’s size to be much smaller than 50 km. Zunesha’s new height was recorded as being only 5 km tall, a height that’s a bit more reasonable, if not a bit too small, before finally settling on 10 km tall. At 10 km tall, while still being massive, Zunesha should be easier to fit into the story logically, without having to make huge adjustments to the scale of Zou and the surrounding ocean.
Zunesha Will Never Seem As Big
He’ll Always Smaller Than Before
Sadly for Zunesha, the former ally of One Piece’s Joy Boy, the amount of retcons the character has gone through has ruined some of the majesty that the character once had. Before, Zunesha was jaw-droppingly huge, feeling more like an ancient entity than an elephant. With its bizarrely long legs and sunken eyes, Zunesha was one of the most intimidating creatures shown off in One Piece thus far. However, after multiple retcons, it’s hard to see the elephant in the same light. Now, when it comes to Zunesha’s size, the new 10 km height will just invite comparison to the staggering 50 km height the elephant used to be.
Zou is the name of the land that rests on the back of a giant elephant.
While it’s most likely a better decision for the One Piece story as a whole, the retcons to Zunesha’s character create a disconnect between his first appearance and the modern appearances of the character. Despite feeling like a big issue, in the end, changing the attributes of characters has happened multiple times in the world of One Piece. Hopefully, during Zunesha’s next appearance, Oda will finally share the elephant at its perfectly scaled 10 km height.
