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sanjiafsincedayone · 7 years

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Happy Birthday Sanji~!

Today it’s Sanji’s birthday!

Exactly one year ago I was in Tokyo and visited the Mugiwara Store and enjoying the Day of Sanji in the Year of Sanji.

Now, I’ve been extremely busy for the last six months and I haven’t been able to write even half of the posts I come up with in my head. But today is Sanji’s birthday and he’s my favorite anime character of all time. So, I am going to talk about my love for Sanji, and all (some of) the reasons to why he’s my favorite.

Under the cut you’ll find a lot of love and me being biased! Now on to my list of reasons to love Sanji.

Sanji is versatile.

I was considering putting down other words to describe Sanji, like cool, suave, kind, emotional, funny or even dorky. But the thing is that I love Sanji for being all these things and more. It’s the wonderful mix that makes Sanji so interesting to me. He’s not just the cool guy or the comic relief which could be so easy considering how a lot of shonen writers can sometimes get a little one dimensional with their characters. I love how Sanji can make me laugh in one second and then go to being badass the next. Of course I also love that Oda has put at least some spin on the whole pervert trope, and Sanji is by far the best written anime-perv I’ve come across. He has his moments that are really bad of course, but I still think Oda manages to handle it well most of the time. His kindness and self-sacrifical side is no joke either, and I love that Oda is highlighting it in the Whole-Cake Island arc.

This is where I could list all of Sanj’s qualities that I love so much, but I’m just going to mention a few that stand out. First, I love how he’s literally the kindest person ever, even Luffy says so. He has such a strong sense of empathy and he’s actually one of the crewmembers that worries the most. I also love his I hate you but not really attitude, it’s why his interactions with the other chefs at Baratie, Zeff and Zoro are so wonderful to watch. Sanji cares the most, but he often pretends that he doesn’t. At the same time though I am very thankful that he doesn’t have to act though all the time, he has his moments of weakness or his moments where he becomes very emotional, and it’s great that he’s not embarrassed about it.

Honestly this is a subject that I could go on talking about forever, but I kind of want to mix it with another point, so I’m moving on to reasons number 2!

Sanji is well-written.

In my own (slightly biased) opinion Sanji is one of the most well-written characters in shonen manga. Why? Because he’s so much more real than most other characters. He has good and bad sides and he has so many different qualities and as mentioned above he’s far from one dimensional. His reactions and emotions feels genuine. Sanji is a deep character, and the way Oda has written him with only little hints over the years make people want to try and understand and analyze him. I’ve read a great deal of Sanji meta, and it’s so fascinating, especially now when Oda has revealed so much more about his background.

And that is a second part for how Sanji is well-written, Oda has built his story slowly over time with only small revelations that easily can go unnoticed by the casual reader, but when actually looking we can go back to 15 years ago and find moments that Oda has written with Sanji’s background in mind. So much makes sense suddenly, the mystery surrounding him that always pulled me towards Sanji is slowly starting to unravel. It’s fascinating and captivating and it just makes me realize even more what a wonderful character Sanji truly is.

Sanji is different.

Now, again, this overlaps a bit with the previous points, but I want to put some emphasis on it. Now, Sanji is a male shonen character that stands out in a lot of ways. And honestly some of these points are some of the biggest reasons why other One Piece fans doesn’t like him, but that is their choice. Anyways, I’m talking about Sanji not being a stereotypical shonen trope. I think Oda generally writes his characters quite uniquely, but even so he too writes his characters to fit into certain molds. With Sanji I personally always liked how he wasn’t just the cool character or the designated pervert. Oda found a good balance, that makes Sanji fit in well with both joking around with Luffy, Usopp or Chopper, being a dork over Nami or Robin, having his rivalry with Zoro but also being suave or serious when it’s required of him. Maybe I’m really just biased but since the beginning I loved how Sanji broke a lot of the stereotypes of males in anime and manga. He’s allowed to be showed crying, or loosing and still remain cool and admirable. Of course I know many disagree and feel like Oda is screwing Sanji over since after the timeskip, but I really love being able to see Sanji like this, almost broken. And it’s not because I’m a sadist, but because that’s realistic, Sanji reacts to things more like a real human rather than as a hero of a shonen manga.

He breaks a lot of stereotypes, and that makes him so much more interesting. I’ve also talked about him breaking a lot of sexist stereotypes as well, meaning he has a lot of stereotypically considered “female characteristics”. Such as he cooks, he’s very emotional (cries a lot despite being written in a mostly mature way), he wears a lot of pink or otherwise flamboyant clothes/patterns, he’s strong but not muscular, etc. These are qualities not everyone likes, but I love that Oda writes it and still maintains Sanji as a “cool” male character because it could so easily have turned into something different. Again, Sanji has so many sides and combined they make him very interesting and unique.

Sanji’s fights.

I loved Sanji’s fighting style even before he entered the series even from just watching that small clip of him in the first opening. It’s just a really great fighting style to watch! Kicking, and also having the no hands policy is so great to me. Because even though Sanji is limiting himself I just personally find his style really cool. He’s agile and moves a lot when he fights, and there is a lot of diversity in his moves despite him basically only using his legs. I think Oda makes some really awesome panels for Sanji fighting, and the anime usually makes it even cooler. Sanji’s finishing kick against Kuroobi was probably the first time in One Piece I really loved a specific move, and that fight still holds a special place in my One Piece heart.

Seeing Sanji fight with knifes was another big highlight for me, and a surprise. That is something I love too, because who would suspect that Sanji could do those things? Or that he could lit himself on fire? I love the surprises, and that Sanji fights using both strength, speed and brains. Sanji’s fights are always different and very fun to watch. And added bonus for Sanji usually delivering some nice one-liners. I am looking forwards to what he’ll do now when the final climax of Whole Cake Island draws near.

Sanji’s design.

I know this is very shallow of me, but way before I even knew One Piece and even when I knew it but hadn’t started watching it yet (because it was so long and looked kinda weird) Sanji was already my favorite. I didn’t know him, but I loved his design even when he was just the blond guy from One Piece. Through the years this has not changed, even though I obviously don’t love all Oda’s outfits for him. But either way Sanji is just very pleasing to look at, and he also seems to be one of the straw hats that changes his clothes the most, so that’s also fun.

Sanji’s voice.

It’s no secret, but Hiroaki Hirata is amazing! He’s also one of my favorite seiyuu of all time, if not my absolute favorite. He’s just a great voice actor and even before I watched One Piece I was in love with his voice. Hiroaki Hirata is actually (as I’ve talked about before) one of the main reasons I even started to watch One Piece to begin with. The voice acting is one of the great reasons to not only read the manga but also see the anime, and Sanji’s voice is just another great part of his character. It’s also pretty awesome how active and funny Hiroaki Hirota is, and he’s the only seiyuu I bother to even follow on twitter. Anyway, I’ve already talked and gushed about Hiroaki Hirata plenty of times before, but just know that I am just as in love with Sanji’s voice as I am with his character.

Sanji’s background.

Again we come back to Oda being a good writer. I know this is just opinion, but for me One Piece really took off after Baratie and Arlong Park, that’s when I started to love it and got really invested in the story. A big part of that was Sanji’s introduction and the way the whole Baratie arc was handled, it’s when things started to get bigger and the world of One Piece started to build properly. But back to Sanji, because his background story with Zeff on the island is such a good little story. But it was also a little bit weird, because it just began in the middle, and it had Sanji fans (including me) speculating for years about how he even ended up on the Orbit in the first place. Who is Sanji really? His story about starving and his debt to Zeff was wonderful and also it’s so fundamental to Sanji’s character, but even so there was always something kind of missing. Sanji’s past truly shaped him, and he seems to be the one strawhat that is still the most affected by his past. I loved Sanji and Zeff together and how their story was told, and after getting additional snippets recently, I just love it even more.

Speaking of recently there is of course the fact that Oda has dedicated a whole arc to add onto Sanji’s background story, and revealing more about him than possibly any other member besides Luffy. This was such a welcome surprise, and it shows how much Oda truly loves Sanji. I think that Zou and Whole Cake Island has been great arcs, and the reveals about Sanji’s character has been so good. Of course I don’t love everything, but it all just makes so much sense. When looking back at Sanji now I feel like I can understand him better than ever. It’s also great to see a person like Sanji still being able to be as good of a person as he is despite his past. He’s such a strong character with a great heart, and I love Oda for letting us all know just how his story began.

Sanji’s bonds and interactions.

Now I love all the strawhats and their bonds with each other, but since Sanji is my number one I can’t help but pay extra attention to his bonds with the rest of the crew. Just in the last few months we’ve gotten so many great moments between Sanji and Luffy and Oda has showed just how strong their bond is. I love it, and since Sanji is such a versatile character he can fit into pretty much any group on the ship. He can be one of the dorks with Luffy and Usopp, he can be one of the pervs with Brook (and Franky?), he can be strategic/serious with Nami and Robin, he can be an older brother (or father) figure for Chopper and basically just go from both being part of a serious or an unserious group depending on what’s happening. He’s levelheaded but also very emotional and has a huge range of emotions, thus he can relate to and understand most of his crewmembers really well. I especially love his bonds with Luffy, Zoro, Nami and Usopp, but that’s just because in general these five are more developed together. Either way, Sanji fits into so many groups on their ship and it’s lovely to see. His undeniable bond with Zoro is amazing and truly fascinating to follow. It’s all also very fun to watch. Basically I just love Sanji interacting with people in general… His bond with Gin was also great to see, and of course the same goes for Zeff. And also now his complicated relationships with his blood family, all new territory with Sanji-bonds to explore and I’m loving it.

Sanji’s dream.

I like Sanji’s dream a lot because it’s very romantic and in a way very naïve. It’s a child’s dream almost (actually it is, since he got it when he was a child), just like Luffy wanting to find the One Piece. No one knows if it even exists and they’ll get laughed at for even talking about it, yet they dream on. I also love that it’s not about achievement, it’s more a dream than a goal. I also like that it’s connected to the sea as well as him being a chef. Sanji is the one crewmember I most closely think of as a sailor, and having a dream like his about All Blue is very fitting with the sailors’ romance for the sea.

So this has been me ranting about Sanji, what else is new? But really, I think that Sanji is a wonderful character that Oda has put a lot of effort into. Today is Sanji’s birthday and I must say that the latest chapter was yet another great gift from Oda. Keep up the good work, I’ll keep loving Sanji and probably keep falling even harder for this lovely cook as time goes on. Thanks for reading~! And sorry for this being mostly just me ranting.

Happy Birthday Sanji-kun! And also, congrats about the nice SaNami you got from Oda in the latest chapter. A proposal huh? (god I love delusional Sanji) What a nice birthday gift. ;)

#sanji #Happy Birthday #one piece #manga #one piece spoilers #eiichiro oda #nami #monkey d. luffy #roronoa zoro #meta #character analysis #whole cake island #my post #rant #love #bias

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