Zombie

In Thriller Bark, there are a variety of strange creatures that inhabit the island. Several of these creatures consist of various beasts and monsters commonly found in mythology and horror stories. They are zombies that are stitched up together in a manner that they resemble the Frankenstein monster. These zombies are all the creations of Dr. Hogback who also calls them mario (没人形 (マリオ)). They are created with Hogback's surgery and the power of Gekko Moriah's Kage Kage no Mi.

They are commanded by the Mysterious Four which consists of Moriah, Dr. Hogback, Absalom, and Perona. While Hogback, Absalom, and Perona have command of the creatures in varying degrees, Moriah alone has absolute control over all of the zombies. He alone is the one that gives the other three the right to command his zombie army.

The zombies remained active for a span of at least ten years. Since the establishment of Thriller Bark until their master, Gekko Moriah, sucked out all of the shadows animating them and implanted them within himself when he was forced to make one last ditch effort to defeat the Straw Hats and their allies. Without any shadows animating them, they all returned to being lifeless corpses once again.

Overview


The various creatures on the island are created through a process that involves Moriah's Kage Kage no Mi and Hogback's surgical skills. First, a victim is captured and then brought before Moriah. Using his Devil Fruit powers, Moriah grabs a hold of the victim's shadow and cuts it from the owner using a pair of scissors. The shadow is then implanted into one of the hundreds of corpses that are kept in storage, while the victim falls into a two day coma. Strong warriors who had their shadows stolen are placed on their ships and set adrift to ensure that they do not come back and retake their shadows.

A zombie created through this process retains the personality and abilities of the person whose shadow it belongs to. The zombie's strength, however, depends on the body it uses. When a strong shadow and a strong corpse are combined, an even stronger zombie is created. For this reason, Hogback has collected and stitched together hundreds of corpses to make strong creatures. This is best shown by the Zombie Generals, whose bodies have been created from the various remains of famous warriors. However, zombies made with shadows of people of high levels of strength can be difficult to control at first.

Though there were a lot of zombies on Thriller Bark, they can cease activity and need replacements. This can happen when the original owners of the shadows animating them die, when the zombies are purified with salt, or when Moriah removes the shadow. To replace these losses, newer zombies are created from the entire corpses or individual body parts of the older zombies that were lost.

Although the zombies are mostly directly commanded by one of the Mysterious Four, they are all subordinate to Moriah first and are expected to follow his orders.

Zombie Gallery
Many of the creatures on the island have number written on them, the importance of this number is to tell which rank or groups they belong to. The numbers are usually written on the creature itself - either on the head, stomach, back or side of the creature. A few of the zombies had it written on a band around their arm.

While the numbers represent of which rank a zombie would be placed, newer zombies can have a lower number despite the order they were created in relation to other zombies. This is because these newer zombies are created to fill in the holes left by zombies that are either purified or destroyed.

The numbers ranges of the Zombie ranks are as follows:


 * Numbers 0 - 199 = Wild Zombies.
 * Numbers 200 - 399 = Surprise Zombies.
 * Numbers 400 - 799 = Zombie Soldiers.
 * Numbers 800 - 899 = General Zombies.
 * Number 900 = Special-Ranked Zombie

Overall Strength
While a zombie inherits the skills and memories of the shadow animating them, they do not inherit any Devil Fruit powers if the shadow belonged to a Devil Fruit user. Moriah, can make up for their inability to perform any Devil Fruit based attacks to an extent by implanting his own shadow into the zombie's shadow. From there, he can manipulate the zombie's shape via a reverse form of shadow puppetry called Kage Kakumei.

Zombies are completely impervious to conventional methods such as beheading. Though some of them sometimes act like they are in pain when hit or feel tired as if they lost stamina, all zombies are actually immune to such things. When a zombie expresses such things it is not because they are in pain or tired, it is because the shadow animating them still remembers such feelings when they were originally attached to their original owners. Eventually, these memories of feeling pain and such will be completely forgotten thus rendering any zombie capable of functioning without expressing such things at all. Zombies are thus tireless creations who seemingly cannot be stopped no matter how hard or how long one fights against them.

While zombies seem to be unbeatable creatures, they do have weaknesses. When salt is thrown into a zombie's mouth, the shadow moving the corpse is detached and the zombie is purified. Because salt is a property of sea water and since the shadow was attached due to a Devil Fruit power, the shadow is naturally released. Though depending on the size of the zombie(ex. Oars) a bag of salt isn't enough to purify the zombie. A zombie's body may also be burned in order to release the shadow, as seen when Zoro set the samurai Ryuma alight, returning Brook's shadow to him once the body had finished burning. Zombies also remain "alive" as long the person whose shadow they use remains alive. If the person dies, so will his shadow. According to Brook, this is because the shadow and the person, though separated, are still of one soul. For this, Moriah and his associates ensure that their victims will not die.

While a zombie's greatest strength is being not able to feel pain, it is also their greatest weak point. Because a zombie is unable to feel pain, they are unable gauge how badly damaged their body can or has become in a battle. This action inadvertently leads to their downfall as they would continue fighting non-stop without taking any time to heal or fix their wounds. With this, their wounds can build up and become massive, and can eventually cause a zombie to become unable to move their body at all. They can still function even when their bodies are completely broken. However, they can no longer fight despite still having the will to do so.

Wild Zombies


Wild Zombies (動物 (ワイルド) ゾンビ) are zombies that consist of mainly stitched-up animals that are far less dead-like compared to the other zombies of Thriller Bark. They are capable of talking and are commanded by Perona. Most of them are zombies created by Hogback based on Perona's stuffed toys per her request. A number of these were first seen by Nami, Usopp, and Chopper lurking in the woods.

Later, a large number of them waylaid Usopp, Nami, and Chopper in Perona's garden after they escaped from their transport coffin. The animals, upon seeing them free, attempted to capture them. They were however stopped by the new penguin zombie. After being beaten several times by the dog penguin, they were commanded by Absalom, who had arrived there, to not harm Nami. They replied to him saying that they only obey Perona per Moriah's order. They however decide to back down as Absalom reminds them to fear him also as he takes out the dog penguin. Despite being animals, they fight with normal weapons such as swords, axes, and maces.

Surprise Zombies


Surprise Zombies (びっくりゾンビ) are disguised as various objects scattered around Thriller Bark. The majority of them seem to be stitched up pieces of skin and cloth sewn together and attached to picture frames. These zombies hide within their picture frames in order to disguise themselves as portraits and when they attack enemies, they come out of their picture frames fully with only a part of them still attached to the picture frames. These zombies appear to be based on the commonly used concept in horror stories of portraits that look as if their eyes are capable of looking around and moving.

Other Surprise Zombies include various zombies disguised as things other than paintings. These include pieces of taxidermy, such as the mounted head of a pig to even an entire wall with a human's face stretched across it.

Several of these Surprise Zombies were seen in the dining hall and hallways of Dr. Hogback's mansion disguised as paintings. The numbers 204, 217, and 280 were seen printed on three of these zombies. The painting zombies in dining hall as well the bear skin rug were later defeated by Luffy and the Straw Hats.

Soldier Zombies


The zombies serving as the basic grunt soldiers of Moriah's army are the Soldier Zombies (兵士 (ソルジャー) ゾンビ). They are generally commanded by Absalom but can ordered around by other members of the Mysterious Four as well, such as Perona. They have great respect for their leader, Absalom, however, they are not afraid to tell him that he is a pervert, much to his dismay. They are found throughout Thriller Bark but a large number of them reside in the graveyard in front of the Mast Mansion.

Though most of the Soldier Zombies are generally grunts with no distinguishing traits other than design, there are some that stand out more than others. Cindry appears to belong to this group of zombies, even though she seems somewhat different from them both in design and mannerisms. Moriah's little errand zombies, Gyoro, Nin, and Bao, naturally fall under this category; however, they're more like helpers rather than grunt soldiers.

A group of Soldier Zombies that reside in the graveyard attacked the carriage Nami, Usopp, and Chopper were in after Hildon and his companions left them. A great number of these have been seen with numbers either printed on their bodies or on arm bands. The numbers from 408, to 767 have been seen on these creatures.

These zombies apparently have distinct personalities of sorts. They are apparently helpful to one another as seen when Chopper knocked one zombie's head off and another handed it back to him. The zombies are afraid of fire and in reply called Usopp a pyromaniac for attacking them with a fire star. Despite normally limping and moaning around like typical zombies, they are capable of running at great speeds. Unfortunately, they tire out easily.

Later, the rest of the Straw Hats encountered these creatures, though their reactions to them were completely different from Nami, Usopp,and Chopper's previous encounters. After being completely defeated by the Straw Hats, the zombies inadvertently revealed to them about their attack on the latter's friends. For this, the zombies were shoved head first back into their graves.

Later, after the zombies pulled themselves out of the ground, they received orders from Absalom to prepare to attack the Straw Hats. Absalom reassured the zombies they actually need not fear being burnt, fatigued, or pained, as it is all in their minds as they are dead. The zombies, with the advent of the attack about to begin, were joined by the majority of the other Soldier Zombies in the island and gathered in the area in front of the Mast Mansion. There they started dancing the disco complete with a disco ball.

As the attack commenced, it was later revealed that a massive number of these zombies were purified by Brook. Their lifeless corpses were littered across the island and were reported to Moriah. This number of purified creatures, along with other Surprise and Wild Zombies, was later further increased by the Straw Hats' assault to take back their shadows.

The remaining Soldier Zombies stayed far away from the Mast Mansion and watched the gigantic battle between the Straw Hats and Oars. Upon seeing Oars being beaten up by Luffy and hearing that their master, Moriah, had entered the battle, they were shocked in disbelief of what was happening. After Oars was pulverized, they were ecstatic to see that their master survived. However, their joy, as well as their existence, was put to an end as they watched in horror as Moriah took away the shadows animating them to power himself up. The Soldier Zombies, as well as the other zombies, then returned to being lifeless corpses.

General Zombies


The General Zombies (将軍 (ジェネラル) ゾンビ) are a specialized group of zombies commanded by Absalom. They first appeared rising up from their resting places when Absalom beckoned them to commence the attack on the Straw Hats. They are a completely different level of zombies compared to the generic ones. According to Buhichuck, they are built from the corpses of renowned and strong warriors such as legendary samurai and knight leaders.

Among their ranks, they include a drunk zombie named John, a four-armed zombie, a large centaur like zombie with elephant feet, a samurai zombie with a toothbrush mustache called Jigoro, and several other zombies wearing suits of armor. They have been seen with numbers ranging throughout the 800's place.

Special Ranked Zombies
A type of zombie that is vastly stronger than a regular one. However, only one of these was made, Oars. The original plan by Moriah was to create more of these in the future by stealing shadows from more powerful people, and placing them in more powerful corpses.

Marine Zombies


Marine zombies are very different from their Thriller Bark counterparts and seem to be a huge oversight: they are Marines that died during the war and were revived by Moriah's Kage Kage no Mi powers, and are out and about in broad daylight. Not to mention they have stitches, contradicting the stitches on the Thriller Bark zombies, since Hogback is not around to stitch up zombies. Furthermore, Moriah takes the shadows for these zombies from nearby Marines standing in the sun, ignoring the rule about death without a shadow. Some of the dead Marines also have bizarre appendages or take the form of animals, bringing up more problems with their existence. Most of them wear Marine uniforms, but some do not.

Kumashi


Kumashi is a strange looking stuffed bear that was first seen in Perona's room when her ghosts came back to her body. Perona tells it that it should talk less if it wants to continue working for her since she finds its voice uncute. He is based on the stuffed toy bear that Perona brought with her when she met Hogback ten years prior to the current storyline.

Risky Brothers


They are a duo of zombie squirrels that serve Perona. Their names, personalities, and shadows come from the Risky Brothers of the Rolling Pirates.

Penguin Trio


These are a trio of penguin zombies that were first seen by Usopp, Nami, and Chopper. They originally consisted of a duo. The original members are a one eyed penguin with hair and a top hat wearing penguin with what appear to be human lips stitched on to where his beak should be. The newcomer, Inuppe, is a penguin with a dog's face stitched to its body. He has the same personality and attributes as Sanji. While their numbers have yet to be clearly seen, they do however introduce themselves as one, two, and three.

Cerberus


Cerberus (ケルベロス Keruberosu) is a three headed dog of sorts that Nami, Usopp, and Chopper encountered after falling to the bottom of a moat filled with a bunch of skulls. He was the first Thriller Bark creature the Straw Hats encountered on Thriller Bark. It resembles the legendary Cerberus of Greek mythology. Its collared heads consists of two blue dog heads and a yellow fox head situated on the right. It possesses three yellow tails and a yellow tuft of fur that runs from its heads towards its back. The majority of its body consists of blue dog body parts stitched up together. Almost less than one third of its entire body consists of yellow fox body parts. On the right side where its fox body parts are situated, it has the number 82 printed on it.

The fox head is apparently a bit sensitive about being a fox as it tried to mask its bark after Chopper noticed that it made a different noise from the others. The beast chased the three Straw Hats until it lost track of them when they hid in a tree.

The beast was later seen approaching the rest of the Straw Hats who had finally arrived on the island. Unfortunately for it, they weren't as scared by its presence as the other three. Robin thought it was cute and Luffy planned on eating it. Their reactions to it turned the beast pale with fright.

After a brief bout with Luffy, wherein Cerberus was slammed into a wall by Luffy, the beast was apparently tamed by the Straw Hat's captain. The beast was later made into a steed for which the Straw Hats take turns riding on. The beast could only comply lest risk further injury.

Cerberus was then left outside the mansion when the Straw Hats reached the Mast Mansion. The creature was then later seen running away from Oars' rampage with the other zombies. It watched, along with the other zombies, the titanic battle between the Straw Hats and Brook against Moriah and Oars. As the creature saw the Straw Hats pummel Moriah and immobilize Oars with their combined efforts, it was relieved to see that its master, Moriah had survived the onslaught. However, its relief was short lived as, to its horror, its master suddenly sucked out the shadows animating him and his fellow zombies. Without anything animating it, the creature returned to being an empty corpse made out of various canine animal parts.

Unigaro


Unigaro is a stitched up horse that looks like a dead unicorn. He has the number 42 printed on its right side. It was first seen frolicking with a number of other creatures in the forest. It was later seen drinking with a tree named MocDonald with the number 115 by Luffy and the rest of the Straw Hats that were travelling with him. It was then caught by Franky.

Human-faced Trees
These various zombie trees have human faces and limbs apparently stitched directly to their trunks and roots. Three of these have so far been seen frolicking with a number of other creatures in the forest. Two of these have numbers 115 and 36 printed on their trunks.

The tree with the number 115 named MocDonald was later seen drinking with a unicorn named Unigaro by Luffy and the rest of the Straw Hats who weren't at Dr. Hogback's mansion at the time.

After Luffy and Franky caught the "Geezer Tree" and the unicorn respectively, Luffy attempted to ask the tree to join their crew. This attempt however was stopped by Zoro and Sanji.

Carriage Drivers


The carriage drivers were group of creatures that were first seen pulling the carriage that carried Nami, Usopp and Chopper. They consist of a skull-faced, centaur-like creature, a hunchback of sorts, and a sort of stitched up dog. The three Straw Hats they escorted could not get a good look at them and thus they thought the three creatures were some sort of horses. Though the Straw Hats could not get a good look at them, they however sensed something odd about the creatures.

The creatures pulled the carriage through the forest and into the cemetery. After they pulled the carriage to the cemetery, they ran away to somewhere else on Thriller Bark.

The shadows animating them were later sucked out of them by their master, Gekko Moriah. Without any shadows animating them, they returned to being corpses.

Spider Mice


Spider Mice (スパイダーマウス) are a group of zombies under the direct supervision of Tararan. They are stitched-together mice or rats with spider legs grafted to them. They specialize in sneak attacks, and are the ones who had been kidnapping the Straw Hats one by one. According to Talleran, there are over five hundred of them on the island. Like Talleran, they also can produce webbing. Their zombie numbers are prefixed by an "S" for "spider".

A large number of them attacked Franky and Robin, only to be scared off by their master's defeat.

Three spider mice appeared in Moriah's dance hall to report Talleran's defeat to the Mysterious Four. Absalom then ordered them to take Luffy's body back to the Thousand Sunny.

Gallant Hippo


The Gallant Hippo (カバ紳士) is a large zombie that is basically a hippo's head attached to a human's body. It has a mustache and the number 78 (28 in the anime) printed on it. It carries around a sword and a shield. It is based on a toy hippo that Perona got along the way. This very same toy hippo happens to be a product of Wapol's toy factory made through his Baku Baku no Mi powers.

The zombie was first seen in the group of Wild Zombies that appeared in Perona's wonder garden. During the attack in the garden, it was the one that specifically tried to attack Nami. It was however kicked away by Inuppe and into a wall. Later, during Usopp's battle with Perona, it tried to attack Usopp only to be blown away by an Impact Dial, and then purified by Usopp.

Bear Skin Rug


A bear skin rug (敷き熊) was first seen in the dining hall of Hogback's mansion. It was later revealed to be some sort of flat zombie creature during the skirmish with the painting zombies and three of the Straw Hats. Later, when the rest of the Straw Hats entered the mansion and fought with the painting zombies in the dining hall, it was defeated by Luffy with Gomu Gomu no Bazooka. Luffy, upon defeating it also commented that if they weren't enemies he would've asked it to join his crew.

Jack in the Box


The Jack in the Box (びっくり箱) is a demented looking stitched up clown creature that resides in a box located in Hogback's room. In the manga, it has several nails embedded in its head while in the anime, it has none. It was discovered by Nami, Usopp, and Chopper when they opened the box in hopes of finding treasure. It has the number 256 printed on its collar. While the box it was in had nothing else in it, it however commented that a treasure of some sort is hidden somewhere else on the island. This comment interested Nami very much.

Wall Zombie


The Wall Zombie (壁ゾンビ) is a zombie that is basically a block of stone with arms stitched on. Its most distinguishing feature is a human face stretched out and stitched to its surface. It first appeared by the order of Buhichuck to block a doorway in order to prevent Luffy and the two Straw Hats with him from escaping from the Zombie Generals. It may be based on the nurikabe from Japanese folkore.

Buhichuck


Buhichuck is the leader of the zombies in the dining room of Dr. Hogback's mansion. He is a pig's head and body mounted on the wall like a hunting trophy. He has the number 298 printed on his forehead.

Hildon


Hildon is a vampire-like creature that met up with Nami, Usopp, and Chopper. He has the number 21 printed over his right eye. Despite his number, he is one of Absalom's minions.

Victoria Cindry


Victoria Cindry is a servant to Dr. Hogback, she was a former actress whose tragic death forced the doctor to work with Moriah to turn her into his personal zombie assistant. The shadow placed inside her made her have an immense hatred for plates.

Gyoro, Nin, and Bao


Gyoro, Nin, and Bao are trio of oddly shaped zombie creatures that were first seen reporting to Gekko Moriah about the Straw Hats' arrival.

Oars


The 900th zombie created by Hogback.

Giant Earthworm


This is a giant earthworm with what looks like a human head stitched on to one end. It has the number 159 on its body. It was first seen frolicking with a number of other creatures in the forest.

Lion-cow


A zombie that appears to be a small lion of sorts with what looks like the lower half of a cow. It has the number 37 printed on its belly. It was first seen frolicking with a number of other creatures in the forest.

Cheshire Cat


This zombie is a stitched up cat wearing what appears to be a pilot's cap. Its disturbingly wide grin apparently makes it look like the Cheshire Cat from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It has the number 193 on its hind quarters. It was first seen frolicking with a number of other creatures in the forest. It was later seen roaming a hallway in Hogback's mansion as Usopp and Chopper were guarding Nami while she was taking a bath.

Manticore


This zombie is a lion with a man's face stitched to its body that Nami saw. It resembles a manticore, a type of lion with a man's head. It has the number 69 printed on its hind quarters. Upon seeing this beast, Nami tried to convince Usopp and Chopper of what she saw with an apparently bad drawing (which somewhat looked like Mohji). Its mouth was removed and placed on Absalom's face. This beast is different from the Manticores of Impel Down, though they do look somewhat similar.

Comparisons between this manticore's lion faced stitches and Absalom's were often noted. Oda later confirmed that the Manticore's face was indeed used on Absalom's face by Hogback. However, the Manticore's human face was never Absalom's. Absalom's human face may be on another zombie elsewhere. While answering this question, Oda also noted that Absalom has very few Japanese fans and was reluctant to say more on the matter.

Zebra Kangaroo


The zebra kangaroo is a wild zombie that resembles a kangaroo with zebra skin stripes on its body instead of its regular kangaroo fur. It has a pouch with a zipper on its underside and the number 36 printed on it. It wears a bow tie and is equipped with a pair of orange boxing gloves. It basically resembles the typical boxing kangaroo image commonly seen in various multimedia and used to personify Australia.

It first appeared in the group of Wild Zombies that appeared in Perona's Wonder Garden and has been commonly seen amongst them since. In the anime, the kangaroo is given more screen time as he engages Usopp in a boxing match and then later chases both Usopp and Nami across some stairs along with several small Wild Zombies.

Trivia

 * When the zombies are ordered to commence the attack on the Straw Hats, they perform a little disco ball aided dance reminiscent of Michael Jackson's "Thriller". While the manga's depiction of the dance was just a single panel and the song the zombies sang was just a few lines, the dance was expanded in anime. In the anime, it is a full blown dance number called "Zombie Night" wherein the zombies danced and sang to a tune reminiscent of 70's disco music.
 * Some zombies not only shared another zombie's number, but they often changed their numbers over the course of their appearance. Furthermore, some zombies did not even have their manga counterpart's number.
 * A fan asked Oda whether T-Bone was a zombie like the ones in Thriller Bark or a boney man like Brook. Oda jokingly explained that T-Bone would be a General Zombie through the process of deductive reasoning. His explanation was that since T-Bone is neither a Wild Zombie nor a Surprise Zombie, and that Soldier Zombies are those that are without weapons, then T-Bone would be a General Zombie.

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