1997.

Zoro is tied up and can't show if his skills match up with notoriety, Luffy doesn't get to see Sanji go up against crazy pirates until later.

With Zoro it's after hearing Rika say that both Zoro and Luffy are good men that Luffy says he has to go speak to Zoro and makes the offer to untie him if he joins his crew.

With Sanji it's after seeing Sanji feed Gin despite everyone else saying no that he says he has found his cook and wants him on the crew.

Despite the fact that both these men end up becoming the crew's strongest fighters and whose skills Luffy relies on more than anybody, it's both of their hearts that he honestly falls in love with first and it's those hearts that he saw that make them the fighters they are for him.

When We Meet Zoro He Is Starving Which Obviously Parallels Sanji's Backstory

Wow there's actually so much to chew on with this. I think it's poignant that when we meet Zoro he is at having gone without food for nine days and is quite literally starving, which is a mirror to what Sanji went through with Zeff on his backstory.

The life structuring moment of Sanji's life is something that Zoro can actually relate to some degree. When they are fighting side by side throughout the story the two of them will have experienced something so similar even if it was to a lesser extent. It's not something that we ever see them talk about on page, but that is an undercurrent to who they are as people inherently going forward.

Let's not even get into the fact that Luffy says here he wouldn't last a week and we see him as a husk of a person in Whole Cake after literally one day without food.

Don't get me started on how Zoro's favorite food is Onigiri and that's the first thing he eats since starving, and it's what Sanji makes in Whole Cake to represent him.

Zoro Compliments The Food Not Just Eating It, Just Like Sanji

Gah. This is one of my all-time favorite Zoro moments, and it's only when watching the scene in the anime recently did, I finally see how this is such a Sanji thing to do (which really explains why I love this moment since Sanji is my favorite character).

Zoro has been starving, so him not wasting the food is given an outside reason to happen. But there is no reason for him to send his compliments to the little girl except that it is a kind thing to do, and it just truly shows his heart and his character.

I think this is the part that people miss about Zoro and Sanji - yes they fight but they wouldn't allow the other one to do what they do sometimes if they didn't share this same mentality and heart. They know the other one cares about people and the crew especially.

Another example I can think of is them both complimenting Usopp in different ways.

They do want to make others feel good - one is just more open about it than the other, but they both know that and that's why they have that unsaid trust between them.

Zoro Lives By His Own Moral Code and So Does Sanji

Guys, I get giddy about this. It just continues to show why these two characters work in their dynamic so well. While there are so many things different about them, so many of their core tenants remain the same. They have codes that they live by, and they do not change them based off of the situation or other people's opinions about them.

Zoro's actions may not always make sense to others, but they follow his own code. People don't understand why the pirate hunter joined a pirate crew, but that doesn't matter.

Sanji's moral code about not hitting women doesn't make sense to many people, but he doesn't let that stop him from sticking to it. Even when we see third party characters mock him for it in Wano.

They are both self-assured characters who know what they believe in, they know what lines they will not cross, and while they may not agree with the other's lines/code, they both still have one. And that is what's most important.

Which is why these are like some of the most important scenes in the series to me. Your honor, they really do trust the other. I rest my case.

If the other didn't have a code then they wouldn't be able to work together like they do.

Overall Thoughts:

Honestly good for ZoSan shippers that you all get this kinda meaty stuff in just one of their character introductions. As someone who just loves their cannon dynamic/friendship (and is a SaNami shipper) I already get so much out of it, so please feel free to let this feed your shipper heart.

I think that people that pit these two characters against each other are missing out on the best parts of both their characters. They are two sides of the same coin and so much of what makes them who they are at their core is mirrored in the other person. It's those things that make Luffy trust them so inherently and make them indispensable to the crew.

These are two men who fight on behalf of their people every single day essentially and carry that weight with them. It's the very things that we see in Zoro's introduction that highlight how they are able to do that both individually and as a team.