Powers & Abilities Mythbuster: Zenkai boosts

[Garps tekkai]

Those words from Zoro are often times the basis for that common misconception, that the Strawhats or rather the M3, in specific, constantly grew physically stronger over the course of their pre timeskip journey.
In essence it gets treated as a similiar concept to the Zenkai-boosts we all know from Dragonball Z.

Right off the bat I'm going to debunk that myth with, what is by far, the most concrete and consistent physical strength scale we had during all throughout the pre time-skip journey: Zoro's pound cannons.

One sword, 36 pound cannon:

Spoiler: first one against Brahm

Two swords, 72 pounds:

Spoiler: against Kaku

Three swords, 108 pound cannon:

Spoiler: against Ohm

From Skypia up until Thriller Bark, his physical strength really never changed. In Thriller bark each sword swing of that technique is still as strong as it was in Skypia, whereas one arm/sword equals 36 pounds.
And keep in mind that pre-timeskip that technique was still entirely based on Zoro's physical strength and swordskill alone. You can't really get a cleaner scale than that.
What instead made him overall much more powerful over the course of the pre-timeskip journey were concrete, single power ups.
Concrete power ups other SHs also recieved:

Nami's Perfect Climat Tact and Ussopun's Kabuto:

Spoiler

Besides the most iconic main power ups the M3 recieved during Enies Lobby:

Spoiler

The only time his pound cannons got a „formula change“, as in becoming more powerful/bigger, was, when he recieved a more powerful sword in Shusui.

Spoiler

But that was, again, also caused by an actual, concrete power up.

And next to those single power ups, they simply gained battle- and life experience. If you get in touch with life-or-death situations, it toughens you up mentally and therefore let's your „spirit“ and/or willpower grow.
For that matter Blackbeard commented on Luffy's haki growth:

Spoiler

Haki/ambition/willpower gains actually make a lot of sense under those circumstances, but those Zenkai-like phyiscal strength boosts are a completely different thing.


The thing is, the M3 in specific were already phyiscal monsters since east blue and so were most of their former East Blue opponents. There are plenty of really incredible physical strength feats that I will list below.
I only included EB feats, cause this way I will likely get my point across much better, cause it's still considered „non zenkai boosted“ terrain.

Zoro:

Spoiler: Buchi

Spoiler: Hypnotized Buchi's drop kick

And Zoro defending himself against him

Spoiler

Spoiler: Hatchan

Spoiler

Spoiler: 300kg swords

Obviously Zoro dealt with him just fine.

Sanji:

Spoiler

Fodderizing gigantic creatures like it's his job

Spoiler: Momoo

Might remind you of his famous later feat

Spoiler: Banana crocodile

Don Krieg:

Spoiler

Spoiler: Treating Gin like a child

Spoiler: Playing with the Baratie boat

Spoiler: 1 Ton heavy spear

Arlong:

Spoiler

Spoiler: Lifting a house

Spoiler: Biting a cannonball

Luffy:
He has tons of those feats.

Spoiler

Spoiler: Ripping off the mast

Spoiler: GGn Pin-Wheel

Spoiler: Stopping Kiribachi

Spoiler: GGn Battle Axe

Next to the M3's feats, I'm personally very impressed by hypnotized Buchi's drop kick, Don Krieg and Arlong. I could even see them in the mid to higher thousands and/or perhaps even in the two thousands if we are talking about douriki. Comparatively to the Cp9 guys they would obviously lack those Rokushiki techs though, which makes them much weaker overall.

But yeah, that's it, I rest my case.

 

[RYNO]

First thing zoro between every arc was shown weight training so it not zenkai boost when it has been shown the character trians between arcs.
Buggy commented that luffy has gotten stronger since he saw him last.

 

[Garps tekkai]

First thing zoro between every was shown weight training so it not zenkai boost when it has been shown the character trians between arcs.
Buggy commented that luffy has gotten stronger since he saw him last.

If he trains for it, it's okay for him to become physically stronger, but also not as excessive as people make it out to be-> Pound cannons stay the same.
This thread tackles the notion, in which people think that just because time runs by, they will suddenly mid diff their former main fight opponents, just based on much higher stats.

And when Buggy or anyone else calls someone stronger, it does not mean that they mean physical strengh in specific. I'm not saying that they did not get overall much stronger, it's just that they don't leave every island with a sudden 500douriki boost.