Sanji has the best character arc in One Piece and I will proof to you why.
So I've kinda reached the point, where I feel like Sanji is THE most controversially discussed
character in all of One Piece - which, let's be honest, really says something. I mean basically,
every Twitter or reddit post and every YouTube comment section basically look like this.
[insert meme] Except for you. Love you guys.
Anyways, even amongst the dumpster fire that is large parts of the community, the Sanji
debate is burning as bright as his passion, which I guess is part of the issue. And as
someone who's favorite character in the story is Zoro, it would be very easy for me to add
some more fire to the flame. [stop he's already dead]. However, if I did that, I honestly
would be lying, because to me Sanji is the most well-written character in all of one
piece.
Hi my name is Manu and even though I don't smoke - cigarettes - in this video, I will
not only proof to you that Sanji will leave Wano as a changed man, but also clear his
and in extension Oda's name, of being a bad writer when it comes to the man with the curly
hair - his eyebrows.
My original relationship with Sanji is probably similar to yours: Pre-time skip Sanji was
an absolutely fantastic character. He was not only a true gentleman, but arguably the
most mature member of the crew, scolding Luffy for inappropriate behavior, protecting the
weaker members of the crew and even his chivalry had more of an old-school James-Bond-sort-of
vibe. [Mr. Prince] During that time, deciding who was my favorite between him Luffy and
Zoro was practically impossible, and also unnecessary. There was a great balance between
the three, who had very different views, yes, but nonetheless respected each other, protected
the crew and genuinely deserve the title of the monster trio.
I guess some people might already have been uncomfortable with Sanji's outdated views
on women, but it was clearly nothing compared to after the time skip. I'm not gonna sugarcoat
it, Sanji has been extremely useless and even worse than that: annoying, ever since the
straw hats left for fishman island. Through Punk Hazard, Dressrosa and Zou, while Zoro
and Luffy were getting stronger and stronger, reaching their full potential, Sanji often
failed to win an important fight and in many situations, was just cringy to watch for his
nosebleed horniness.
And at that point, I fully agreed with the people who thought that Oda had ruined Sanji's
great potential, by making him an annoying and useless joke character. With Whole Cake
Island however, I was completely shocked, but mostly relived to find out that this pitiful
version of Sanji I had seen since Fishman Island, had actually been part of one the
best character arcs, I have ever come across. And
the recent developments in Wano have now completely evaporated my remaining doubts, so I can say
with full confidence that Sanji has not been ruined. Just the opposite: I believe Oda's
portrayal of our cook, including his over-the-top perviness, has been very much on purpose and
will make his growth just the more impactful once it's complete.
One of the fundamental tools for great story telling and creating a strong main character,
is the so-called hero's journey that you can see here on the top RECHTS. And since all
the straw hats are designed as main characters of their own, this can be applied to each
and everyone of them, which actually would probably be very interesting to do. Maybe
I should make a series about that.
The first step in the heroes journey is the call to adventure. And Sanji's adventure starts
in the most heartbreaking way possible: He has to run away from his unloving family that
has physically and mentally abused him ever since his mother died, ultimately locking
him in a cage with an iron mask. Getting this piece of backstory was the first real mind-f''k
moment I had during Whole Cake Island, that gave so much more context to his character.
The second step is meeting a mentor. For Sanji, this person is of course Zeff. And again,
he has another traumatizing experience, almost starving to death on an island. However, other
than his family, Zeff actually shows love for Sanji and is prepared to die for him.
It's the first person since his mother that treats Sanji like a human being and becomes
his new family, teaching him about cooking and what it means to be a decent person. Most
importantly however, he gives Sanji his big dream, which is to subscribe to Ohara's channel
to get his weekly fix of deep one piece analysis. That and also to find the all blue.
This is where Luffy comes into play. He recruits Sanji into his crew and gives him a chance
to fulfill his dream. He has now crossed the threshold and has entered the world of pirates.
And for a while he overcomes his trials pretty easily. With Mr. Prince, Enies Lobby and his
willingness to take Luffy's pain on Thriller Bark, Sanji's popularity was at an all time
high. And then the first big failure. Sabaody. However here it is the crew as a collective
or arguably Luffy as the captain, that fails here.
And so along everyone else, Sanji grows from this experience and develops new skills over
the time skip, which is exactly where Sanji's downfall in popularity starts. How could that
happen? But will you look at that, it coincides perfectly with the lowest point of the heroes
journey: Death and rebirth.
As I summarized earlier, Sanji comes out of the time skip massively flawed: While his
ratio of coolness to pervert was maybe something like 80:20 before the time skip, to me it
had now shifted to something close to 90:10 on the Pervy end. And I gotta be honest, of
course that would overwrite all the good associations we have made with him before. And even more
frustrating, he was basically of no use to the crew anymore. This negative spiral keeps
speeding up until finally, we hit rock! bottom! with Whole Cake Island, where Sanji not only
leaves the crew, but even disrespects and hurts his captain. He is reunited with his
abusive family who used him as a pawn for a political marriage and in the end he even
has to learn that his to-be bride Pudding, the only ray of hope in all of this, actually
had actually been plotting to murder him and everyone else at the ceremony. [Sanji in the
rain]
You can see how that's Sanji's lowest point in the story so far, right? Many people took
this scene as Sanji being heart-broken about Pudding not loving him, but it's actually
the culmination of his entire character arc so far literally pouring down on Sanji. And
the scene reflects that perfectly. Dark alone, and crying. And this is where everything changes.
But to really appreciate Sanji's radical development from here, you have to understand the main
point of Sanji's second backstory with the Vinsmokes, that some people found irrelevant.
Because Sanji didn't go from awesome to the state he's in here at Whole Cake island. You
need to understand, that this is how Sanji has always seen himself. Right from the very
start, Sanji has had close to no self-worth as a person. Which really is no big surprise
given his upbringing. I mean if you got told you were worthless and treated like an animal
for the first 8 years of your life by your Nazi family, how would you feel?
Wait what's that on the lens. Oh it's a sponsor, that's convenient, cause my last video was
expensive. This video is sponsored by Skillshare, the Sanji of sponsors. Skillshare is an online
learning community that offers thousands of classes for all skill levels in tons of creative
and practical disciplines like filmmaking, cooking and art. But it can really be anything.
Recently I've been trying to get back into cooking and took this awesome class by Elena
Carp for the second time actually, on how to properly use kitchen knife. Or how about
this course on how to make sushi? The first 1000 of you foxes to click the link in the
description will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare so you can start exploring your
creativity today.
So the baseline is: Sanji is the most self-sacrificial straw hat, which is really impressive given
how often one of the straw hats pulls one of these moments. But while Luffy risks his
life for his dream and Zoro risks his for his principles, Sanji risks his life because
he feels indebted to people. This behavior is established right from the start, during
the Baratie arc, where he refuses to leave the restaurant because of his debt to Zeff,
despite literally being fired. And just a bit later he is prepared to let Pearl kill
him for the exact same reason. When he offers himself to the women he chases, he means it
quite literally. And the same of course goes for the straw hats. He would rather be alone
and die rather than see his family hurt.
Sanji was born with incredible kindness and altruism. His role on the ship is literally
taking care of the crew and making sure everyone is healthy and happy. And he always fights
for the weak. And it's also the reason why Sanji keeps going
on his solo missions. He wants to be of use to the crew and take care of things on his
own. Which is one of the reasons why he gets into fights with Zoro, who fights for everyone
in battle, but otherwise spends his time on the ship sleeping and training. So: Yes. kindness
is inarguably Sanji's most! important! trait!
However combined with his abusive and traumatic childhood, he is not able to extend that love
and care to the person that needs it the most: himself. Someone compared that to this scene
from fire force, that I found incredibly fitting.
And at the same time, I also believe that Sanji's perviness and sexism, come from the
same good place as well. The only two people who showed him love as a kid were his sister
and his mother, who were both dominated by his father and brothers. No wonder he would
put a woman on a pedestal and see them as something beautiful that needs protection
from men. The second half of his life he then grew up in a family of only dudes, all of
them tough-guy sailors. Of course he would get that extra portion of macho with that.
Sanji grew up on sea his entire life. He is the most piratey crew member. Well except
Jinbe, he literally lives in the ocean. [Spongebob intro] And don't forget that Sanji spent 2
years on Okama island, chased around 24/7. That's literally the reason why Oda made him
go overboard with all the intolerable nosebleed stuff after the time skip.
And so going back to this rainy night on Whole Cake island, Sanji's insecurity and lack of
self-worth have pulled him to rock bottom. His perviness is not charming anymore, but
annoying, his solo missions aren't successful anymore, but a burden, he has disrespected
his crew and captain only to find out it was all for nothing, and as the crowning pile
of s''t on top he is back with the ungrateful, emotionless family that caused this entire
mess.
And looking at our chart, it is here that Sanji finally has his first big revelation.
He understands that going off on his own was a mistake. That there are women who would
exploit his chivalry. That he disrespected Luffy. And that his desire to save people
on his own is a burden on those he cares for.
But maybe the most heartbreaking thing is that he finally understands that Luffy and
the others came to save HIM. That he was not dispensable. That they cared so much for him,
that they would declare war on a Yonko. Sanji cares so so much about the people he’s
close to, both the strawhats and zeff, but it doesn’t seem to occur to him that they
care about him just as much. What really broke my heart is that he’s genuinely surprised
when luffy bombs into whole cake island to rescue him even though literally anyone could
have predicted that in a heartbeat. I mean Sanji has witnessed luffy go through hell
and back for nami, robin, vivi, and ace, for ace actually multiple times I guess, and still
doesn’t expect that he's worth that same level of concern. Until that moment. Where
he sees Luffy, starving and beaten waiting at the very spot he promised he would wait.
Whole Cake Island was Sanji's arc, because he finally realizes his flaws. Just as Luffy
did with Robin, Nami and Usopp, he makes Sanji shout out his true feelings to him and liberates
him from his emotional prison.[] Luffy and the others love him for who he is,
and so Sanji saves the day in Whole Cake Island by being the kind person he is, winning over
Pudding's heart, saving his family and even baking the cake to stop big moms rage and
save all of his enemies. [Sanji's mother: the kindest person]
And this phase of growth has carried over to Wano. Spoiler Alert from here on out. One
of my favorite moments during the raid so far has been Sanji calling Robin for help
when captured by Black Maria. trusting Robin to fight Black Maria means, he now thinks
of Robin as a strong and reliable person instead of a damsel in distress that needs to be saved
and kept out of danger. he swallowed his pride and asked a woman to save him, even though
he always has been the one saving women through the series. And I realized that this scene
stands in direct contrast to his stand-off with Kalifa on enies lobby, where he refused
to trust in Nami. I mean just look how grateful Robin is for this gesture. She's beaming.
And Marco gets it too.
So, now Sanji is getting his long-awaited fight with Queen. However, the issue of self-worth
still remains. While he has overcome the trauma of his upbringing in Whole cake island, he
still detests his family and now that his own vin smoke abilities have awakened, he
feels disgusted and scared to lose his emotions. Even though LuffY told him to his face that
he needs the kind Sanji, he now is wondering whether Luffy might not prefer a heatless
machine to fight for him.
And so what Sanji now needs to realize, is that his powers are already the opposite of
Germa. Queen said Judge wanted his kids to have hearts of ice, but who stopped his plans?
Sanji's mother Sora, who sacrificed herself and gave Sanji a burning heart of kindness,
the opposite to Judge's plans.
With this panel during the wedding, many readers only see Sanji saving his family, but i see
SANJI AND his mother SAVING THEM, with Sanji's burning heart.
A really nice nod to this is actually Sanji's lighter, that looks suspiciously like his
mother giving him fire. By the way, there is actually a real world version of this lighter
that was made as a special collaboration where only about a thousand of these were made.
And I really need to get my hands on one of these.
The next really huge step people overlooked in this recent chapter, is that Sanji chose
to destroy his raid suit, that was a power people disliked to begin with. As it turns
out, Oda only meant it to be a catalyst for Sanji's true power-up. However much more important
than this, with this Sanji also starts to overcome his arguably worst trait, his perviness.
Destroying the one thing, his perverted mind always craved for.
In the end, Sanji will realize that he is actually most successful with women, when
he is his true kind and caring self. No matter if it's viola or Pudding, Sanji is staring
to understand that true chivalry is much closer to the cool and caring spy-hero side of Sanji,
that we all fell in love with to begin with. And in a more metaphoric sense, by destroying
the raid suit he literally choses not to hide anymore, but be the crew mate luffy needs
by embracing who he is at heart. Which is exactly what is gonna happen by the time Wano
is over.
But, and I think this is very important, he still has to atone for what he did on Whole
Cake Island, especially in front of Zoro. And speaking of Zoro, if you want a deeper
understanding of his character, I strongly encourage you to watch my analysis of him
here.