 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything One Piece, and today it's time to talk about a certain blonde-haired chef with strangely curled eyebrows, who, according to everything I've read on the internet, Etchera Oda absolutely hates, and that is of course Sanji, that's his name, a man who, no matter what he accomplishes, perpetually manages to disappoint a very loud and disgruntled portion of the One Piece fanbase. And I want to talk about why this is and how the crazy conspiracy theory that Oda hates Sanji has spawned from it, and of course, why it's blatantly wrong. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that Oda quite likes Sanji, he likes him a lot. But before we praise our blonde-cook monster too much, it is time to play Overcooked or Undercooked, a very simple minigame, the rules of which are as follows. We are going to be having duck for dinner, so we're going to place this duck in the pot, and it is then your job to select whether this duck will emerge from the pot as Overcooked or Undercooked. And if you guess incorrectly, then your punishment will be subscribing to the Grand Line Review, which will result in regular One Piece content being uploaded straight into your YouTube feed, but also no dinner. And if you guess correctly, then you will receive all of the duck dinners. So make your selection now. Will this duck be Overcooked or Undercooked? Let's find out in three, two, one, and it is Undercooked because this is Karu, and we're not going to cook Karu, you sick fiends. But if you selected Overcooked, then welcome to the Grand Fleet, and please do say hi in the comments below. But to begin this discussion, I'd like to very broadly dwell on Sanji's role in the series. There is a strong notion amongst many fans that he is a very combat-focused character. Given that he is a member of the illustrious Monster Trio and all, a term that was very conveniently invented by the fanbase and is never actually mentioned in One Piece itself. But Sanji is also ever so much more than a simple kick machine. He's more like the Swiss army knife of the Straw Hats because he is capable of essentially anything. Yes, he can fight, but he can also concoct and carry out any number of plans that in the past have been just as if not more effective than bringing down any single opponent in battle. He also possesses incredible non-combative skills, particularly in the realm of cookery, which might seem like an obvious and not at all necessary thing to highlight. But I do think people often forget that Sanji's ultimate ambitions in life have nothing to do with fighting whatsoever and everything to do with cooking. And in terms of something more meta, Sanji also falls very comfortably into the category of a comic relief character. Certainly not all the time, but he is a natural go-to guy because he is loud, proud, and absurd. With one crowning character quirk, of course, being anything to do with women. But with all of the above, it should be noted that Sanji is a universal Straw Hat. And what I mean by that is that he can quite comfortably operate in any crew combination. No matter which Straw Hats put together, Sanji will fit and that can't quite be said for everyone. There are certain crew members that have very oddly fitting combinations and some that don't quite complement each other, but Sanji will always complement someone else. Perhaps quite literally when put together with Nami or Robin. But then again, if you place him with Brooke or Frankie, then he will complement their strange pervertedness. Then again, place him with Luffy or Zoro and he complements their grand action hero vibe. It doesn't really matter who it is, Sanji just fits. That is something that's very important to realize before we get into the hate. Sanji is a complimentary character. He doesn't generally do his best work in the spotlight standing on his own. Some of it he does, sure, but that's not who Sanji is or has ever been. So with that in mind, there are two Countham 2 major complaints regarding Sanji that seem mostly to be referring to the New World Era of One Piece. One is that he has still not been given a quote unquote proper fight in roughly over a decade now. And the other is that he makes a constant clown out of himself and the two of these together have led to the thought that Etra Oda is denying Sanji justice on purpose. Very specifically keeping him away from primary action and making sure that Sanji is almost always the punchline of a joke. And why would that be? Well, obviously it's because Oda hates Sanji. There is simply no other explanation. Now to be as fair as possible, we'll start with combat and Sanji certainly has not had, do you know, the greatest of runs in the New World? This does actually kind of shock me, but in retrospect, Sanji's fighting CV is pretty lackluster and mostly consists of team efforts, pretty crummy opponents, or just outright losses. And to start with, we have Return to Sabotee and here Sanji had the distinction of bringing down a Pasifista, which was pretty cool, although it had to be done alongside Zoro. And it was accomplished in a single strike, so there's nothing to really latch onto there. Next up during Fishman Island, Sanji's main combative focus saw him teaming up with Jinbei to take on Watatsumi, not really the most memorable of events, but it does get worse from here. Because after Fishman Island, Sanji embarked on a long-standing losing streak because his next three most prominent battles would firstly be against Virgo and Pankazet, a conflict in which Sanji decidedly could not have come out on top. Then on Dressrosa, he briefly took on Don Kyo to Doflamingo and was rather unceremoniously destroyed by the Warlord of the Sea. And then after that, his next major fight would not be until Holcake Island where he faced off against his father, Vinsmoke Judge, which also resulted in Sanji's defeat. Albeit by rather shady circumstances, but it doesn't really matter because this losing feeling lasted almost 200 chapters. I mean, yes, Sanji still had some minor victories here and there, like that time he beat Yonji off-screen, but I will admit that he did go through quite a rough period. A rough period of losing that would have lasted just over four years of real-time publishing. And really, that could have lasted much longer actually because the next time Sanji would win a mildly important battle would be against page one on Warner. But even then, people were not satisfied because in the manga, the conclusion of the fight took place off-screen. Once again, seemingly denying Sanji the ever-tasty glory of victory. Meanwhile, in contrast, you have a character like Zoro. Now, the New World has been a bit rough for most of the Straw Hats, but Zoro has managed to achieve a handful of dedicated fights such as Hyozo and Fishman Island, Pika on Dressrosa, or even against Killer on Warner, each of which are seen in their entirety and thus making Zoro a very cool dude indeed. Here's the thing about Zoro though. As my favorite character in the series, I have no issue stating that he is made for pure combat and not much of anything else. If you don't give Zoro fights and he has very, very little purpose in the series, but the same cannot be said about Sanji. Yeah, if we look at Sanji through the lens of a combat-based CV, then he is pretty disappointing. So I guess it's a good thing that we, you know, don't have to do that because doing so would deny everything else that Sanji is. Especially when an arc like Holcake Island exists, a very polarizing arc mind you because there were some pretty grand expectations going into it. And for some context, a lot of this spawns from a comment that Etchura Oda made at Jump Festa 2016, which was as follows. And regarding the original work, I've recently been asked by readers when will Sanji appear? Sanji's voice actor, Hiratsun, asked me this question. When am I going to appear? Don't worry, next year is the year of Sanji. It's finally time to cut into the secret of his birth. This will be the year that the members who were given a break at Dressrosa will play a major role. However, what most fans took from this message were four simple words. The year of Sanji. And that obviously means lots and lots of action and big spectacular fight things. A return to pre-timeskip glory, nay, an elevation to even greater glory. This is, despite the fact that Oda went on to tell us exactly what to expect from the year of Sanji, which was all to do with character history and character mystery, which Holcake Island absolutely delivered on, fleshing out Sanji's story in a way that I never would have expected and somehow making him the centerpiece of a mega arc while still maintaining Luffy's role as the protagonist. It was really brilliantly done. Sanji got to go on this whole journey of betrayal, discovery, romance, and ultimately finding his way back home. Oh, and he also got to put his ultimate skills to the forefront by baking a wedding cake capable of satisfying the hunger of an emperor of the sea, which was amazing. He fought against Big Mom in a way that only an accomplished chef could. And really the only thing that Sanji didn't do was have a classical one-on-one arc climax fight, which once again obviously means that Oda hates him. Despite the fact that Sanji has had more focus and more variance than any of the straw hats aside from Luffy in the post-timescape era. It really does boggle my mind when people say that they're disappointed in Sanji because no other straw hat has been given the opportunities that he has in the new world. It should be the other way around. We should be disappointed in something like, I don't know, Zoro not having been expanded upon in close to what, a thousand chapters now. Not the guy who's had two flashbacks and two whole arcs mostly centered around him. Well, you know what? Give me any other straw hat. Usopp, Chopper, Robin, Nami, Frankie, who of them has had more dedication than given to them post-timescape. The one character I might entertain is Brooke because Holke Kailand made him out to be quite the MVP of the crew, but that was based on action and plot achievements, which I suppose is how we judge things. I mean, sure, Sanji can go on a complex and captivating emotional journey, but it does not matter because you know what? He didn't kick any of the bad guys, bad chef, bad. But that's why I actually think Oda might like Sanji a lot more than most of the straw hats. To take the time to invest into him during the Four Emperor Saga is a pretty big commitment to character. One that I don't think any of the other straw hats are going to see going forward in the series. However, I should also discuss the other major reason for the Oda hate Sanji idea because it's not all about combat, although let's be honest, most of it is, but the rest of it has to do with his abundance of, how shall we say, comic relief. And I'd say it specifically about his interactions with women. And in this case, I will grant that Sanji got off to a very, very rough start in the new world. Return to Saabidi and Fishman Island were way too much. Sanji's insane nosebleeds did very much diminish his presence to me personally. And I don't think that the loosely connected bloodloss plot point really made up for that at all. However, after Fishman Island, Sanji saw something of a return to normalcy. Yeah, people got annoyed when he was clowned around by Viola and Pudding, but that's nothing new. And in fact, whenever I hear complaints like that, I always think back to any slobby to Sanji versus Caliphah and how thoroughly thrashed he was in a great, comical way. Then I imagine what the reaction would be if something like that happened today. Like imagine we're on Wano. We've just begun the Onigashima raid and Sanji encounters, say, Black Maria who defeats him instantly, leaving his broken and bloodied body on the hard, hard Onigashima floor. The fan base would lose their minds. Oh, I hate Sanji. Sanji is a joke. Sanji never gets a decent fight. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But really as a character, Sanji is just as consistent as he was day one on Baratie. If you don't like how Sanji is being treated now then I really don't understand why you did like him back then. Apart from the fact that he used to kick people, maybe I don't know, once and arc. Really the only thing that's changed is that his purpose is much less combat focused in the new world. And I get that that can be pretty annoying because Sanji fights are some of the best in the series and it is always a pleasure to see him at work. But that was such a small, small part of what made Sanji appealing. To say that Oda hates him based on the negligence of one of many factors that can trust Sanji is a pretty narrow view of things. And I guess that goes on to make clear what your priorities with One Piece are which in this case would be action. And that's fine, but maybe try not to project your tunneled expectations onto an author that is trying to do something a bit more and something a bit different. And that's not to say that Sanji has been perfectly handled, but then again, who has? One very real elephant in the room is that all of the straw hats have seen a drop in prominence following the time skip. It's certainly not the kind of intimate story we knew in the classical days and for better or worse, that means that the use of these characters is going to need to change as well. And with that in mind, Sanji happens to be quite probably the luckiest straw hat to have had the incredible time and focus dedicated to him amongst all of this new world madness. Because aside from Luffy, nobody else has even come close. So does Oda hate Sanji? Absolutely not. If anything, it is quite the opposite. But what do you guys think? Please do leave your thoughts in the comments below or even join my Discord server. And if you're keen to see more videos like this then please do go and check out some of my other content or even subscribe to the channel for more glorious One Piece business uploaded straight into your YouTube feeds. But for now, this has been the Grand Line Review and I'll see you next time.