One of the best aspects of One Piece is its supporting characters, who created such an impression on the audience despite their brief appearance. Ryunosuke, the brave pink Eastern dragon who aided the Straw Hat Pirates during the Zou arc, is one of them. It's been a long time coming, but will Ryunosuke return in One Piece?
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Who Is Ryunosuke in One Piece?
Similar to Bon Chan, a lot of One Piece fans consider Ryunosuke an honorary member of the Straw Hat Pirates, despite his short appearance in both the anime and the manga.
It helped the Straw Hat Pirates climb the leg of a 20,000-meter-tall elephant (Zunesha) during the Zou arc, even though it can’t fly and has short legs.
Ryunosuke was born from Kanjuro Kurozumi’s Brush-Brush Fruit, which allows him to generate ink from his body and turn it into life-like objects or creatures.
It is believed that Kanjuro intentionally gave Ryunosuke a body that was hard to crawl into to stall the progress of the Straw Hat Pirates. After all, Kanjuro was revealed to be a supporting antagonist later on in the anime.
When Ryunosuke first came out, Robin thought that it was a cute dragon, while others felt sorry about the poor creature’s appearance.
Despite his flaws, Ryunosuke persevered and kept moving forward to accomplish his goal.
True enough, Ryunosuke carried the Straw Hat Pirates successfully, completing his purpose.
Ryunosuke then returned to its original state of an ink drawing on the ground, while Robin, Usopp, Franky, and Luffy shed tears for the dragon's heroism.
Too bad, Zoro and Law only see Ryunosuke as a bad drawing that accomplished its purpose.
After Ryunosuke’s disappearance, various memes about the Eastern pink dragon emerge, hopefully motivating other people to work hard and to keep moving forward.
Some even compared Ryunosuke to Momonosuke, as the latter should learn more from the former. They also see the resemblance between Ryunosuke and Momonosuke’s adult dragon form, which adds to the comparison.
Why Is Ryunosuke Important?
If it weren’t for Ryunosuke, the Straw Hat Pirates would never be able to climb atop Zunesha’s leg.
In addition, Ryunosuke was important to Robin’s characterization, as we find out about her fascination with cute (weird) things.
In fact, some fans even started shipping Robin with Ryunosuke, saying how much Robin loves cute things. This is one of the few times we see Robin react like that, especially when she cried after Ryunosuke died.
Meanwhile, others believe that Ryunosuke’s appearance also foreshadows Kaidou’s character and his devil fruit, leading them to believe that Ryunosuke might return during the Wano Saga.
Unfortunately, Ryunosuke has yet to return in One Piece to this day.
Theories About the Return of Ryunosuke in One Piece
Before there were theories about the return of Ryunosuke in the impending great war, there were also theories that the Eastern pink dragon would reappear during the Wano Saga to help Luffy and the others defeat Kaido.
We now know that it didn’t happen, so fans are still anticipating the dragon's return in One Piece.
Technically, the only way for Ryunosuke to come back for now is for someone to eat the Brush-Brush fruit again.
After Kurozumi Kanjuro’s death, the devil fruit returned to circulation, waiting for another user to acquire and use it again. It can only happen if the new user can copy Kanjuro’s ink drawing of Ryunosuke.
But as the current events unfold in One Piece, it will be quite unlikely that the Egghead Island arc will make use of the powers of the brush-brush devil fruit again, at least for the time being.
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