Zephyr

Zephyr (ゼファー, Zefā), also known as "Black Arm" Z (黒腕のゼット, Kokuwan no Zetto), is both a fictional character and deuteragonist from the J-Stars' Fairy One Piece Tail series created by Hiro Mashima and Eiichiro Oda. He was the leader and founder of the Neo Marines.

Before he founded the organization, he was also once a Marine admiral and instructor before his resignation.

"With this arm, I'll seek out all the evil in this world and CRUSH IT!!"
 * —Zephyr.

Appearance & Biography

 * Voice Actor: Jeremy Schwartz (English), Hōchū Ōtsuka (Japanese), Not Known (Arabic), Not Known (Basque), Not Known (Brazilian), Not Known (Catalan), Not Known (Chinese), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (French), Not Known (German), Not Known (Greek), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Norwegian), Not Known (Polish), Not Known (Portuguese), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Serbian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (Castilian Spanish), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Latin Spanish)


 * Voice Actor (young): Tia Ballard (English), Masami Suzuki (Japanese), Not Known (Arabic), Not Known (Basque), Not Known (Brazilian), Not Known (Catalan), Not Known (Chinese), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (French), Not Known (German), Not Known (Greek), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Norwegian), Not Known (Polish), Not Known (Portuguese), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Serbian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (Castilian Spanish), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Latin Spanish)

The Young Past Days
When he was a child, Z played the role of his hero, Z. He wore a red helmet on his head with the "Z" letter placed in front, as well as big glasses. He wore a sleeveless yellow shirt, light blue shorts, brown boots and white gloves. He also carried a wooden sword and he had a wooden prosthesis attached on his right arm.

During his time as a young man at the G-5 unit, Z was smaller and less muscular and wore a standard low ranking marine's uniform, consisting of a white short-sleeved shirt emblazoned with the Marine emblem, a simplified seagull with "MARINE" underneath it, on the back; a blue neckerchief; dark blue trousers; and a baseball cap with "MARINE" across the front. He was seen carrying a rifle and a backpack.

At age 28, Z kept his marine coat draped over his shoulders and wore a white V-neck shirt with the marine logo printed on it.

As a Marine admiral, his standard outfit consisted of a purple suit with a Marine coat draped over his shoulders like a cape, his arms not in its sleeves. Z also wore a pink shirt with a polka-dotted tie under his purple suit. Like Garp and Tsuru, his coat has uniquely colored epaulletes with his own being blue.

Current
Z is a large, muscular, tan-skinned man, standing around twice the height of a typical man such as Luffy, with short purple hair and a large mechanical right arm connected to the left hip with converted mast rigging. Underneath that mechanical arm is a regular-sized and pitch black prosthetic arm. He dressed in a Marine-like coat with his Jolly Roger impressed on it, baggy trousers tucked into his boots, and a pair of triangular sunglasses.

He suffered from breathing problems due to his age, requiring the need of an aerosol inhaler.


 * Hair Color: Purple
 * Skin Color: Tan
 * Eye Color: Blue
 * Age: 74 (Deceased)
 * Birthday: Not Known
 * Height: Almost 348 cm (11'5")
 * Weight: Not Known

Personality
Z believed deeply in justice and heroism, having joined the Marines simply to fulfill both desires, and resigning eventually when he realized the organization was not as just as he had hoped. According to Garp, Z was the strongest believer of justice.

Originally a happy person, being popular among his subordinates and having created a loving family, his life changed for the worse when his wife and son were murdered by a pirate, and later all but two of his cadets killed and his right arm severed by another, the latter who would be invited to the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Such loss and injustice led to a deep hatred towards pirates, and after he left the Marines he formed a group to take matters into his own hands and annihilate them all, even if it also meant opposing the World Government and the Marines. His hatred led to irrational acts such as plotting to destroy the New World to eradicate his enemies at the cost of countless innocent lives.

He believed that pirates must be eliminated on sight, and that merely imprisoning them was ridiculous. His loathing was so strong that he would go to the extremes to achieve his agenda, whether physical, like stealing a powerful weapon from the Marines, or moralistic, like raising a jolly roger himself. He also claimed that even if Monkey D. Luffy defeated him, no-one would recognize him because he is a pirate, so firm is his belief in the worthlessness of pirates.

Z heavily believed in the power of dreams. His ultimate ambition was to end the Great Age of Piracy, which he planned to achieve by destroying the three geographic Endpoints of the New World with the Dyna Stones and releasing enough magma to utterly destroy the fabled One Piece, a plan he called the Grand Reboot. Despite his claims, he appeared to be aware that his plan would fail, and he told Luffy that he was simply happy that his plan went that far.

Z exhibited bravery to the point of fearlessness throughout his life. Even at his old age, he faced a whole elite marine platoon led by admiral Kizaru without hesitation or concern. During his earlier battle against Kizaru at Firs Island, he admonished Kizaru as having become overconfident since he became an admiral, a rare attitude to take against such a formidable opponent.

Despite his loathing for pirates, Z had a great sense of honor, loyalty and respect to everyone, even his enemies, and was noble in character to the bitter end; his last act, after having fought evenly with Luffy to a standstill, was to give up his life to buy time for his Neo Marines and the Straw Hat Pirates to escape from Kizaru, having come to respect the latter after their final battle.

Lastly, Z also loved alcohol, as shown during his encounter with Kuzan. His favorite drink is Jerez, of which he drank a bottle prior to his last fight with Luffy.

Family

 * Unnamed Wife (Deceased)
 * Unnamed Son (Deceased)

Six Powers

 * Main article: Six Powers

Like several other high-ranking Marines, Z had mastered the Six Powers martial arts style, at the age of 28, Though tarnished by old age, Zephyr still retained a significantly high mastery of the Six Powers. With the use of Iron Body and the Battle Smasher, Z could survive the massive detonation of a Dyna Stone despite being considerably close within the range of the explosion which was powerful enough to wipe out an entire island and was simply rendered unconsciousness from the impact. With his skill in Shave, Z could keep up with Kizaru's light enhanced speed and Luffy's Gear Second enhanced speed

Haki

 * Main article: Haki

It was stated that all Marines with a rank of vice admiral and above can use Haki, so Z could also use this ability. He mastered Armament Haki at the age of 34, allowing him to coat himself with it and turn his arms black for much more devastating strikes and defenses, which earned him the nickname "Black Arm", and used it quite commandingly in a battle with Luffy. He could easily create a large crater on the ground with his fists.

He was also easily able to break Kibin's Shave with a Haki-enhanced punch.

Battle Smasher

 * Main article: Battle Smasher

Techniques
The named techniques that are used by Z that involve the Weapon are as follows:

Legacy
Z's Battle Smasher was used to make part of the cross on his grave. The fate of his Neo Marines army is currently unknown, but, thanks to his actions, Ain and Binz were able to escape from Borsalino and his Marine fleet. Though Ain and Binz mourn for their fallen leader, Kuzan comforts them that he was a great man and to never forget his sacrifice.

Etymology

 * Z shares his name with Zephyrus (Ζέφυρος), the personification of the west wind in Greek mythology.
 * Z may have been partly inspired by the real life Claude Dansey, also known as "Colonel Z" and codenamed "Z", who secretly established his own spy organization when he grew frustrated with the incompetence of MI6.

Notes & Trivia

 * Zephyr is the second known admiral to not have had a codename, the first being Sengoku.
 * He is the only known Marine admiral that has not eaten a Devil Fruit.
 * His favorite alcoholic beverage is Jerez.
 * He is currently the highest-ranked non-canon Marine.
 * He is the second movie antagonist who is a former Marine, the first being Gasparde.
 * Z also shares a similarity with Shiki and Whitebeard alike:
 * All three are from Roger's era.
 * Z also shares many similarities with the main antagonist of the movie Strong World, Shiki:
 * Both are the antagonists of movies overseen by Hiro Mashima and Eiichiro Oda during the whole process.
 * Both's histories have been developed by Mashima and Oda personally.
 * Both also have remarkable prostheses that double as weapons, with Shiki having two swords replacing his feet and Z having a huge mechanical arm.
 * Both characters have elements of ships on their own bodies, with Shiki having a steering wheel on his head and Z having two mast riggings across his chest.
 * Both had four episodes related to their respective movies with their own sets of characters.
 * Z also shares some similarities with Whitebeard:
 * They were the same age (though Newgate died two years before Z).
 * Their last actions were to sacrifice themselves to save their comrades from the Marines.
 * Both were killed by a former subordinate with whom they once shared a mutual respect.
 * Their signature weapons served as their grave markers.
 * Both were dependent on medical support outside of combat.
 * In the 6th fan poll, Z ranked 81st.
 * It's possible that the girl Zephyr defended as a child was also his wife as an adult, given their similar hair and shirt color.