One of the things I find most curious about Eiichiro Oda´s writing is the way he plays
with established themes. If you are somewhat familiar with One Piece, you will know that
there are many elements in the story that Oda borrows from outside sources and that
often follow certain patterns. Some of these themes serve as an underlying massage while
others are simply a method of consistent storytelling. Most stories make use of this principle and
that inevitably leads to a general exhaustion of many of these themes in contemporary works.
Especially in fiction, we often find the same ideas and elements recycled over and over
again. What Oda does differently here is that he integrates these widely spread ideas and
takes them a step further. Some of them he gives a twist while others he explores in
a different context. A perfect example of this method of writing is Sanji. Being one
of the major figures of the series, Sanji unites a whole bunch of ideas inside of his
character. And following it can sometimes feel like it is full of contradictions. In
this video we will explore how Oda constructed Sanji to be a true gentleman and how he subtly
twists this stereotype in certain ways to turn Sanji into a fascinating character that
finds itself conflicted with its ideals and values. In this context, we will also take
a closer look at the true purpose of the Whole Cake Island arc and discuss why our passionate
cook is such an important part of the straw hat crew.
Before we can decide though if Sanji truly is a gentleman, in every sense of the word,
we must first understand what being a gentleman actually means. The term ‘Gentleman’ nowadays
is often confused for individual, superficial acts of politeness. You sometimes hear guys
being called a gentleman for basically not behaving like an asshole. But being a gentleman
has nothing to do with holding open the door for a woman nor with being a man. It is much
rather determined by a person´s overall behavior and mindset. Becoming a gentleman is something
than takes a strong conviction as well as a lot of time and effort. There are a whole
bunch of qualities that make a true gentleman. These include chivalry, compassion and kindness,
respect, bravery, loyalty and cleverness. Being a gentleman therefore means being respectful
and tolerant in interactions with others, while putting their interests before your
own. Why would anyone want to go through all that in the first place though?
There are several reasons why it might be worth to strive for becoming a gentleman.
Obviously, it comes with a certain amount of altruism and finding pleasure in helping
others. This can mean helping and protecting those who are in need or important to you,
bringing positivity and kindness into someone´s life or simply inspiring others to follow
your example for creating a more social and positive environment. But of course, it also
holds benefits for you personally: Behaving in a gentleman-like manner towards others
will earn you the respect and trust of those around you. This again will in the end inspire
more positive behavior back towards yourself as well, creating a kind of positive feedback
loop for everyone involved. If you spin this thought even further and look at it from a
cultural perspective, encouraging such behavior may in the end result in a more considerate
and healthy society, one that actively seeks to be helpful. Helpful in a genuine, open
and kind way, and not in a patronizing or superior way. In other words, a gentleman,
and that can be anyone, is someone that unites a broad variety of positive characteristics
that benefit those around them. On the other hand, what you probably are also
aware of though, is the fact that characters who are through and through good, are usually
not the ones we love and root for the most in a story and we will later on also explore
what problems such a white knight can bring with it in the context of storytelling. Since
people in the real world are not that black or white, we tend to prefer characters that
are morally a little bit more gray. So now, let´s take a look, weather Sanji
actually fulfills the requirements to be called a true gentleman, what implications that has
for his character and why he is so essential to the story. Quick disclaimer at this point:
If you aren´t caught up with the story of One Piece yet be careful, because from now
on this video will contain spoilers for Sanji´s character arc.
Being part of the monster trio and one of the early members of the crew, Sanji is one
of the most beloved characters in the story. While his considerable fighting abilities
as well as his cool and collected manner play a big part in this, Sanji´s character has
a high level of complexity and therefore has a lot more to offer. Over the years we have
gotten to know Sanji better and better and with the events at Whole Cake Island, we now
finally have a very full picture of why Sanji became the person he is today. So now, let´s
take a look at the five defining character traits for Sanji, and how they qualify him
to be the true gentleman of the story: The first trait that we will look at is Sanji´s
cleverness. While inside the monster trio he might not be considered quite as powerful
as Luffy or Zoro by some, he often makes up for it by fighting smarter. Sanji often finds
himself wandering off alone during large encounters, only to discover secret doors and weaknesses
that he is able to exploit for the crew's benefit. His curiosity and cleverness often
put him into situations where he is able to save the rest of his crew. Sanji does so on
the way to Alabasta, posing as Mr. 3 and giving the crew a decisive edge against Crocodile
as he is unknown to the Baroque Works organization. Later on, when the rest of the crew was captured
on Alabasta, Sanji outwitted him again using a Den Den Mushi. He then repeats this feat
in Skypeia to wreak havoc on Enel's ship from the inside. When Robin was captured by the
CP9 at Water7, Sanji already figured, they would take her to the station and waited for
them there. And later, on Enies Lobby, he went off on his own in order to close the
Gates of Justice much rather than engaging with the guards on the island. In Punk Hazard,
he left the group in order to save Tashigi from Vergo. But the most significant case
would most likely be having to leave Zou to spare his crew from Big Moms wrath by going
and confronting his family. All these examples show how Sanji uses his cleverness in critical
situations to turn the tables for his crew mates. But we can also see Sanji´s cleverness
outside of battles. He is usually very perceptive of things and seems to have a good judgement
when it comes to critical situations. Being clever is essential to being a true gentleman,
because understanding situations and people and knowing how to act appropriately, is an
important trait in order to have a positive influence.
The second important characteristic is Sanji´s deep sense of compassion and kindness. Sanji
might be one of the kindest and most empathetic characters in all of One Piece. While we usually
see Sanji carrying himself in a very calm, cool, and collected manner, he is not someone
to be afraid of showing emotion and weakness from time to time. We have seen many characters
admiring Sanji´s kind heart including his mother, his sister, Luffy and even Brook,
who stated: “Sanji is just too Kind! Once he decides to protect someone, he will put
his life on the line for them!” Despite growing up under the terror of his father
and his brothers, Sanji always kept his strong sense of compassion and generosity. After
he was taken in by Zeff, these attributes were imbued deep into his personality and
define a lot of Sanji´s decisions and actions throughout the story. Next to the people closest
to him, that he would go to any length to, in order to save them and make them happy,
he also cares for strangers. This can be seen on various occasions, when Sanji goes out
of his way to save Gin at the Baratie, Kin’emon and Tashigi on Punk Hazard, the Minks on Zou
as well as Chiffon from Oven´s wrath on Whole Cake Island. He even refused to leave his
family behind that caused him so much agony and pain in his childhood and that had made
use of him to get close to Big Mom. And he also protected Pudding at the wedding ceremony,
despite being aware of her true intentions. As you can see, Sanji cares for friends and
foes alike when a situation calls for empathy and compassion. But his kindness probably
is most pronounced in his rule to never let anyone go hungry, no matter who they might
be. After having expernienced true hunger himself, he swore to himself to not let anyone
go through that, if he can help it. His desire to help and protect others is a central part
of being a gentleman and Sanji lives by this ideal without a second thought.
The third personality trait that is defining for Sanji´s character are loyalty and respect.
Similar to Zoro, Sanji also strongly believes in loyalty. Not only would Sanji do anything
for those he loves, but he also sided with Zoro about Usopp rejoining the crew when the
latter stepped on Luffy's pride. It was therefore so much worse for him, when he was the one
to betray Luffy and the crew later on Zou. Obviously, it was a hard blow to his self-esteem
when he was faced with the choice between leaving the crew or the life of his matter-of-fact
father Zeff. The internal conflict that this decision had engulfed Sanji in, resulted in
a lot of pain for everyone involved. Sanji even claimed that he had lost the right to
return to the crew, until Luffy convinced him otherwise. This already shows us one of
the problems with Sanji´s strong ideals, but we will get back to that in a bit. Hand
in hand with Sanji´s loyalty goes a strong sense for respect. This obviously includes
respect for Zeff, his captain and crew mates, but also respect for certain enemies. And
of course, Sanji requires respect from anyone, when it comes to food and women. We can see
the full extent of his respect and loyalty on Thriller Bark when he tries to scarify
himself for his captain, before Zoro steps in and knocks him out to take on that responsibility.
Loyal and respectful behavior are more than necessary features to be considered a gentleman
after all. The next critical trait for Sanji are his
bravery and combat attitude. Without a doubt we know that Sanji is strong. While there
is always a lot of debate going on over how everyone ranks in the crew strength wise,
I think no one will disagree that Sanji is one of the most important combatants of the
crew. Usually being fearless in battle, he is often seen fighting armies and powerful
opponents with barely more than a concerned look. And being part of the monster trio,
he usually ends up fighting one of the stronger opponents in an arc. Despite having significant
battle skills though different from Luffy or Zoro, he usually tries to avoid a confrontation
whenever possible. And while we see him enjoying a battle at times, Sanji usually only enters
a battle to protect or help someone else. On Thriller Bark he fights Absalom to protect
Nami. And just recently in Wano, he immediately jumped in to protect Toko from Shogun Orochi´s
attempt to kill her, standing side by side with Zoro. Having the wish AND the ability
to fight for and protect others, are important assets for a gentleman after all.
Lastly, we have to take a look at Sanji´s chivalry, which in general is an essential
part of being a gentleman but has two different sides in Sanji´s case. In some cases, Sanji
can be seen acting mature and cool around women, further supporting his image as a gentleman.
In other cases though, it can get very excessive and pervy. Some people think that his perverted
nature is taken too far and often crosses the line of being comedic and sometimes even
to downright creepy. And while I don´t disagree with that, it´s something that in a manga
you maybe have to accept as a quirk to the character. I personally don´t think that
Sanji should lose this side of him completely, but I think it would allow more people to
see him as a great character, if it were to be tuned down a little. That being said, over
the course of the story, this has somewhat improved, especially by giving Sanji some
real experiences with women, like Viola or Pudding, that helped him maturing a little
in that regard. This excessive behavior aside though, Sanji in general has a very respectful
and chivalrous attitude towards woman. This even goes so far that next to feeding anyone
who is hungry, Sanji’s second big rule in life is not to hurt or fight women. This attitude
most likely developed under the influence of his sister Reiju, who was his only positive
influence in his childhood as well as Zeff, who held strong ideals himself. As a result,
he becomes infuriated with anyone going against this ideal. This can for example be seen inside
the Germa´s castle. When he found Cosette brutally beaten to the point of unconsciousness,
Sanji became absolutely furious. He went on to find Niki and ended up braking jaw, all
that despite the threats and warnings his family issued towards him.
All these qualities, his cleverness, his compassion and kindness, his loyalty and respect, his
bravery as well as his chivalry, make Sanji into a true gentleman. Someone that the people
around him can rely on. What then is the problem with this codex that Sanji follows? And how
did it affect his character, not only story wise, but also in the eyes of many fans?
Like all of the other straw hats, Sanji also follows a dream for which he joined Luffy
on his journey: Finding the legendary all blue, a sea where fish from all over the world
are gathered together. What makes this dream so much different from all of the other straw
hats´ though, is that this is not really a dream that you can truly make any tangible
progress towards over the course of the journey. Finding a place is different from becoming
stronger or better at what you do. And we also pretty much never see Sanji making any
active efforts to find out more about his dream. So, in other words, his development
over the story is usually more for other people than for himself. Sanji doesn´t have the
motivation to become stronger just for the sake of it. His goal is completely unrelated
to his character. What Sanji strives for much rather, is to uphold his ideals and be a true
gentleman. A knight on a white horse. While this in its own way is also a very difficult
and noble task, in a story like One Piece that not only is focused around personal growth
but also is incredibly long, it can be difficult to cheer for a character, that strives for
staying the same, rather than changing. We enjoy seeing Luffy training to get new skills
and Zoro learning new techniques. What is easy to overlook though, is Sanji´s struggle
with his morality and values. Having a list of rules to live by, some might argue that
this works against the character. If he never breaks that rule, then how can there be conflict?
How can that character not seem static and boring? But that is simply not true. Sanji´s
curse is that he is always compared to Zoro and Luffy, since he has comparable fighting
power. There is the strong expectation for him to similarly strive for more strength.
But I think it is important to realize that Sanji´s personality and character arc are
just extremely different from these two. One Piece is after all not only a story about
characters being changed by the world, it is in many ways also a story about the world
being changed by the characters. Sanji again and again comes into conflict with his ideals.
His conviction to not fight women under any circumstances, often hinders him from helping
and protecting those around him. This can be seen in his fight against Kalifa from CP9
during the Enies Lobby arc. And the conflict between his loyalty towards Zeff and his loyalty
towards his crew end up in the Whole Cake Island arc, which´s purpose has been deeply
misunderstood exactly for that same reason. People thought that the arc was all about
Sanji getting stronger, catching up to Luffy and Zoro and there was a lot of disappointment
when that didn´t happen. But as we just saw, that´s not what this character is about.
Whole Cake Island was Sanji´s arc, because his ideals, that he strives to keep up finally
pushed him into a moral corner, where he had no choice but change. He had to experience
the problems and pain that sticking to his ideals could mean and he had to learn and
accept to trust his captain and his crew in order to be able to keep them alive in the
future. In other words, Sanji had to grow as a character to stay loyal to his values.
So, the next time you read the Whole Cake Island arc, I ask you to keep that in mind
and try to look at the events from that perspective. You will see that the entire arc gets an entirely
new gravity for Sanji´s character, when you stop looking at him the same way you look
at Zoro or Luffy. Sanji is such a fascinating character, because
his personality and his combat skills make his character seem inconsistent and contradictive
at times. But it is important to realize how great it is for the straw hat crew, to have
someone as kind and compassionate as Sanji on the crew, that also has the power to act
upon it. So, despite being close to Luffy and Zoro in terms of combat ability, his character
arc is very different and unique inside the crew. Being a true gentleman brings many challenges
and hardships with it, but it also makes Sanji so incredibly important for the crew and the
entire story. Plus, he can cook. What else could anyone ask for?
Hey everybody. Thank you so much for watching. I feel like there often is a lot of competition
between Sanji and Zoro fans. But I personally think that there is no issue in loving both
characters for different reasons. Yes, both can fight, but apart from that both of them
have amazingly complex and interesting personalities and ideals.
And I think both will be equally important to help Luffy and the crew reach their goals
in the future. What are your thoughts on his character? And
what other defining moments can you think of? Let me know your thoughts in the comments
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