 Warning, this video will contain spoilers up to chapter 1031. You've been warned! Hello my Nakamataichi, this is Joygirl, here to talk about the latest Sanji character moment at Wano, and how the Holcake Island arc is a big reason why the Sanji subplot at Onigashima is increasingly becoming one of the most interesting parts of the raid. And if you'd like to hear more discussions like this, then please hit that like button and subscribe to the channel for more One Piece videos. The most recent chapter of One Piece gave us what I can only describe as the best character moment of the Onigashima raid and arguably the entire Wano arc. Sanji's internal struggle about dealing with his new power arc has been one of the most surprising but welcomed elements of the raid on Onigashima. Given Sanji had essentially an entire arc dedicated to him in Holcake Island, it came as a surprise that Sanji is receiving such a focus in this arc. In fact, this expectation was even held by Sanji Seiyuu, Hidoaki Hirata, that Sanji would never again be as cool as he was on Holcake Island, which now seems to have been a joke made by Oda. And this seems to be oddly similar to another misleading comment, because back during the Holcake Island arc, a popular quote by Oda spread around when the mangaka stated that 2016 was the year of Sanji. Now whether you thought this was the case or not, there was definitely a large section of the community who thought that the straw hat cook just didn't get enough highlighted moments for it to be considered the year of Sanji. And from a strictly battle standpoint, I would agree. Since One Piece is a shounen manga, many fans expected that Sanji would get some major battle highlights in Holcake Island, which turned out not to be the case. However, it seems that Wano is now serving as a payoff for the events in Holcake Island. After years of being used for primarily comedic purposes, or to establish the relative strength of opponents in the New World Era, Sanji has been receiving much needed combat focus in Wano, particularly since the Onigashima raid. The straw hat cook is currently facing off against one of Kaido's top officers, and as excited as I am for this matchup, what is more intriguing for me is what Oda has been doing with Sanji's characterization, particularly the events of Chapter 1031 with how Sanji dealt with his dilemma surrounding the enhanced powers of his German modification. To the point that I'm considering this as perhaps the best character arc of not just Onigashima, but Wano as a whole. The difference with what we're witnessing with Sanji and other characters in focus is that the central theme of Sanji's struggle is the product of a long-running storyline of one single character that we've witnessed in its entirety. Holcake Island has always felt like an incomplete arc. Although Katakuri, who served as Luffy's primary antagonist, was an amazing character to oppose the straw hat captain, the real big villain of the arc was always Big Mom. But the straw hat's conflict with the Yonko wasn't contained to just that arc, and was instead extended when the crew ran away without defeating Big Mom and the rest of the Big Mom pirates. But another reason why Holcake Island felt incomplete is because Sanji didn't get a chance to emphatically show his family that he was the strongest of them all. In a physical manner at least. Because instead, Sanji had another great character highlight where his humanity, that Judge had always insisted on attempting to erase, ended up becoming the reason the Vinsmoke family lived another day. And this is the strength of Sanji's character. Because of Sanji's diversity as a character, Oda is able to do so many things to keep Sanji interesting even if he doesn't get the same amount of battle-focused moments like Luffy and Zoro. And Wano is both a continuation, whilst also a significant change to all of that. And this is thanks to the time invested in Holcake Island. The reveal in Chapter 1028 that the modifications conducted by Judge to his kids, which we had thought was ineffective on Sanji, was now coming into fruition, was a major moment that shook the fanbase. That same chapter ended with a very satisfying moment witnessing Sanji's newly developed exoskeleton Shatter Queen Sword which confirms Sanji's power up and cemented him as an absolute force that will bolster the strength of the Straw Hats in these final stretches of their journey. But then Oda did something no one was expecting. When we saw Sanji running away from Queen after discovering the changes in his body and fearing that his emotions would change, I talked about how running away fits with Sanji's character considering his knowledge of how the German treats their soldiers around them as dispensable human shields. And not only did Oda play with this idea, but went beyond it and did something unthinkable. By setting up a scene where it was heavily implied that Sanji ruthlessly harmed a woman, which is something that has never crossed my mind even once reading One Piece because of how Oda has carefully handled this aspect of Sanji's character. In fact, if you had asked me the question of what has a higher chance of happening first, Sanji using his hands in combat or Sanji physically hurting a woman, I would be inclined to say that without a doubt Sanji would gladly break his code and fight with his precious hands before physically harming a lady based on the evidence we've seen in the series and the fact that Sanji is physically incapable of lifting a finger against women no matter how much danger he's in. So Sanji's subsequent decision to destroy the Ratesuit and all the associated accompanying details is a beautiful continuation of Sanji's story which we've been following since Holkek Island. First of all, a key question for Sanji in his dilemma was what Luffy needed of him. And this is a critical question that serves as a beautiful callback to the development of the relationship from the previous arc. Most notably, Luffy's reminder that he couldn't become Pirate King without Sanji. Sanji's choice to give up the Ratesuit even though knowing that this would also mean a loss of his greatest strength and powers which would be of immense help in the future exploits of the Straw Hats as they continue to face stronger foes was in the end still the correct choice when doing right by his captain. In Holkek Island when Luffy and Sanji reunited following Sanji's cry that he couldn't abandon his family despite who they were Luffy understood and accepted this wholeheartedly knowing that this is the type of person that Sanji is. The Sanji that Luffy went through hell and back to retrieve in Holkek Island is the Sanji who will always choose kindness. It's Sanji the human. So Sanji making a decision with Luffy's preference in mind is a nice callback to Holkek Island where we witnessed their relationship in great detail which was one of the best aspects of the arc. And of course if we're considering character relationships which were further developed through chapter 1031 it's impossible not to discuss the exchange between Zoro and Sanji. Although Zoro didn't partake in Sanji's retrieval back in Holkek Island he is the person that Sanji chose to trust with the task of ending his life should his humanity become corrupted. Despite Luffy being the captain Zoro is the only one in the crew able to understand the full weight of Sanji's request and deal with it in the exact manner that Sanji wishes. And the fact that Zoro wasn't a participant at Holkek Island actually increases the weight of the impact of this moment. Zoro accepts Sanji's request without even knowing his history or reasons completely trusting Sanji's judgment. They completely understand each other in a way that Zoro knows that Sanji wouldn't ask such a thing if it wasn't a crucial matter which could put the crew at risk and Sanji knows that Zoro being the quickest decision maker in the crew is the perfect straw hat to ask in such a crucial situation. It's a beautiful spin on the idea of putting your life in someone's hands. On one hand Sanji acquiring the Raid suit and his subsequent use of it throughout the arc both before and during the raid had fans super hyped about its continued use and the likelihood of us getting to witness Sanji as stealth black in all his action glory. But as much as I love the Raid suit I think it served its best purpose by giving us perhaps the greatest showing of the extent of Sanji's conviction. At this point whether we see the Raid suit again or not doesn't matter to me. Sanji choosing to destroy something that grants him an instant boost in power not to mention taking away the chance of him living his dreams for the sake of not losing what his mother Sora and his father Zeph shaped him up to be is the greatest showing of Sanji's resolve as a human. It's such a meaningful symbolic moment which encapsulates Sanji's conviction in a number of ways. Which is something that I'm glad finally happened because it also addressed perhaps the biggest wrinkle in Sanji as a character. Many fans have shown disdain about the excessive showing of Sanji's obsession with women particularly in the Fishman Island arc which was considered to have taken the gag too far. Personally having binged that arc rather than following it weekly I didn't find it too off-putting and I could see the humor in it. The moment which I personally wasn't a fan of was actually in the current arc when Sanji uses his Raid suit to sneak into the women's bath house. And from a plotline standpoint I completely understand the utility of Sanji being there as it allowed him to rescue the girls from Drake and Hawkins. But it was a moment which I felt changed the dynamics of Sanji's pervy nature. So this decision here to destroy the Raid suit represents Sanji's nature at his core. Sure he'll still likely remain women obsessed but we know that when it mattered Sanji valued the side of him that was a gentleman who wouldn't harm a lady over getting the chance to see some baronaked ladies. And this isn't to say that Sanji's choice to destroy the Raid suit was only spurred by his disgust at the possibility that he might have hit a woman because it is just one of the many monstrosities that the germa embodies which Sanji finds so distasteful. To the extent that when he uses his attack hell memories it's clear that the memories which enrage him now are those which associate him to germa. So Sanji destroying the Raid suit using his rage at his family to fuel him and yet the potential that he's already augmented by the modifications but won't succumb to any further changes represents Sanji destroying ties with germa. But may also potentially hint at him accepting and creating a new Vinsmoke name. And this development is something we could even say was ceded as early as the Jaya arc where in the scene where Montblanc Cricket laments over his heritage which was the bane of his existence Oda seems to have intentionally placed Sanji at the forefront of his panels suggesting a very pensive Sanji whom we now know to have faced a very similar experience but now has the chance to bring a new light to his family name. Holkek Island was an arc which highlighted Sanji's humanity which is now being challenged at Wano but I'm certain that Sanji will be a much better character when all of this is said and done. So in retrospect, we really can say that 2016 was indeed the year of Sanji because the time we invested into Sanji's character during the Holkek Island arc is now paying off massively at Wano and we're all witnesses to it. And this, this is just fantastic. But now that you've heard my thoughts let me know yours by leaving a comment below don't forget to like and share the video and please do subscribe for more One Piece content. You can also join our Joyfleet Discord server or even become a Patreon member which will grant you special roles and powers within that server. Thank you to our patrons who help support the channel. This is Joygirl and I'll see you again soon.