, born as and also known as , is a fictional character in the One Piece franchise created by Eiichiro Oda. The character made his first appearance in the 43rd chapter of the series, which was first published in Japan in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on June 8, 1998. He is the fifth member of the Straw Hat Pirates and the fourth to join, serving as their cook.
A native to the North Blue, Sanji grew up as part of the Vinsmoke family under his father Vinsmoke Judge, king of the fallen Germa Kingdom, and mother Vinsmoke Sora.One Piece Manga and Anime — Vol. 84 Chapter 840 and Episode 803. After leaving his abusive family and surviving a shipwreck, he was taken under the wing of "Red Foot" Zeff,One Piece manga, Vol. 7, Chapter 56 a former pirate and owner of the floating restaurant Baratie who taught him cooking and his fighting style, which is characterized by the use of legs in combat, leaving his hands for cooking. Following a battle against Don Krieg, Sanji joins the Straw Hats in order to fulfill his dream of finding the All Blue, a mythical sea said to have fish from around the world. Despite his calm and rational nature, he is known for his constantly enamored behavior around beautiful women (especially Nami), to the point he refuses to attack women to the crew's and his own detriment.
Creation and conception Early designs show that, originally, Sanji was going to be a gun-wielding black-haired character named Naruto but that idea was scrapped.
Oda was inspired by Mr. Pink, Steve Buscemi's character in Reservoir Dogs (1992), when creating Sanji.
Design Sanji is a tall, light-skinned, slender man who has a small waist. He commonly wears a black shirt and smokes a cigarette. Before the timeskip, Sanji is seen with his blonde hair covering his left eye. After the timeskip, his hair covers his right eye. Before leaving his family, Sanji styled his hair in the opposite direction and wore a yellow shirt with a black number three on it. He also wore white pants, brown boots, and a yellow bandana. After leaving his family and still a child, he started wearing a white cook's uniform. Sanji grows a goatee during the timeskip, and concept art shows this was his original design.
Sanji's most distinctive feature is his eyebrows, which are characterized as swirls with the tail end pointing at his left side, opposite in direction in comparison to his siblings Ichiji, Niji, Yonji, and Reiju.
Oda revealed Sanji's real-world nationality would be a Frenchman, in contrast to the Nazi Germany themes of Germa 66.
Personality Sanji is mostly seen as a composed, nonchalant, and calm individual who always keeps his cool when in dire situations. This is contrasted by the many comedic gags he partakes in, such as when in the presence of a lady or when insulted by a crew member. Most notably, Sanji and Zoro have a great rivalry, often resorting to fighting (both verbally and physically).
Sanji is also known to have an enamored personality, constantly flirting with any attractive woman he sees, earning him the nickname "ero-cook". Even as a child, while working in the Baratie, Sanji would become love-struck with attractive female customers and end up making mistakes in the process of cooking. He also shows jealousy towards those that he perceives to be luckier than him with women, such as when he sees Zoro with Hiyori and Luffy arriving at Amazon Lily out of pure luck.One Piece Manga — Vol. 94 Chapter 945. Despite this nature, Sanji exhibits some self-restraint due to his loyalty to his crew, as is shown by the fact that in spite of being attracted to Pudding, he sternly refused to marry her and decided to let her down gently.One Piece Manga and Anime — Vol. 83 Chapter 828 (p.8-9) and Episode 787, Sanji refuses to marry Pudding. Moreover, due to this attitude and the multiple lectures from Zeff, Sanji follows his own strict set of personal morals in the form of chivalry. He has sworn to never attack women or let them be insulted, even at the cost of his own life and has gone so far as to only block against Kalifa, one of the main antagonists of the Enies Lobby Arc, until Nami could help him.One Piece Manga — Vol. 42 Chapter 403. Sanji overcomes his childhood trauma and accepts his nature after Luffy saves him from an arranged marriage during the Whole Cake Island Arc.
Sanji is kind and often saves others in danger, even at the cost of his own safety. Oftentimes he frames this kindhearted nature as mere chivalry towards women, but in his actions he consistently helps men as well. Having suffered from starvation among the litany of abuse put upon him by his father, he never denies a person a meal regardless of their intentions, as shown when Don Krieg attempted to take over the Baratie during his introductory arc. Frequently during the series he separates himself from everyone else to play a clandestine role which subsequently helps the crew and other allies survive. For example, in Rainbase, in the kingdom of Alabasta, he calls himself Mr Prince and lures Crocodile away from his crew. Additionally, in Water 7, Sanji separates from the crew and finds Nico Robin boarding the Puffing Tom on its way to Enies Lobby for her execution.One Piece Manga — Vol. 38 Chapter 359. In Thriller Bark, he offers to give up his life in exchange for Luffy's. In Zou, Sanji decided to leave the crew in order to confront his family and protect the Straw Hats from the Fire Tank Pirates.One Piece Manga — Vol. 81 Chapter 813. In Wano, Sanji asks for help from another for the first time when he asks Robin to save him.
Portrayals
In the original Japanese version of the One Piece anime series, Sanji is voiced by Hiroaki Hirata as an adult and Ikue Ōtani as a child.
In Odex's dubs of the first 104 episodes of One Piece in Singapore, Sanji was voiced by Joseph Murray and Paul Pistore. In the 4kids Entertainment's dub of the first 104 episodes of One Piece, Sanji was voiced by David Moo as an adult and by Veronica Taylor as a child. In Funimation Entertainment's dubs of the entire One Piece franchise, adult Sanji is voiced by Eric Vale with Christen Auten playing the role of child Sanji. In the Korean dub, he was formerly voiced by Park Hyun-wook from 2002 to 2011. In 2012, Sanji was now voiced by Lee Jung-hoon, Nami Sanji-kun's husband in the Korean dub.
Sanji is portrayed by British-Spanish actor Taz Skylar in the live action adaptation of One Piece, while Christian Convery portrays young Sanji. Skylar would spend four hours training in the morning and cooked dishes for the same amount of time before going to stretch his legs in the sauna, also performing his own stunts during the show despite sustaining injuries from his training. The physical strain would weigh on him: "I finished the first season with so many injuries, my knees felt like they were made of legos and held together by cello tape." The live-action version of Sanji does not have the character's trademark curly eyebrow. Showrunner Steven Maeda recalled passionate debates over including it, but eventually it was "decided to not use the curlicue eyebrow as a way just to ground the show and make it feel more real. And that was certainly what was done across the various departments." Skylar credited the role with giving him more career opportunities.
Abilities When fighting, Sanji only ever relies on kicks, never punching opponents because of his belief that a cook's hands are important instruments for their craft, and thus must be protected from harm. Over the course of the series, Sanji utilizes attacks that are variations of kicks (deemed "Black Leg Style"), with the name of the attack usually having something to do with food, such as "Diable Jambe", wherein he raises the temperatures of his legs so high that they glow bright red.One Piece Manga — Vol. 43 Chapter 415. During his time on Momoiro Island, Sanji learns a move named "Sky Walk", an ability which allows him to step on air as if it were solid, which allows him to jump to great heights and float in midair.One Piece Manga and Anime — Vol. 64 Chapter 635 and Episode 555, Sanji uses Sky Walk to evade the Sea Urchin Spine Squadron. Sanji is one of the few high-bounty individuals that has not consumed a Devil Fruit, fruits that give the consumer superhuman powers at the expense of becoming weakened to the point of total incapacitation in water. After Whole Cake Island, Sanji receives a Raid Suit gifted from Germa 66, the underground organization powering Germa Kingdom, which increases his physical capabilities and allows him to blend in with his environment.One Piece Manga and Anime — Vol. 90 Chapter 903 (p.2) and Episode 878. Though continued use of this suit awakened his inert genetic modifications, he ultimately accepted these modifications, giving him increased strength and speed, but chose to destroy the Raid Suit to cut his ties to his family permanently.One Piece Manga and Anime - Vol. 102 (p.15-19) and Episode 1057 He would later use his new abilities with Armament Haki to create "Ifrit Jambe", a more powerful version of Diable Jambe that uses blue-white flames.One Piece Manga and Anime — Vol. 102 Chapter 903 (p.13-15) and Episode 1061.
Other than fighting skills, Sanji is also a well-renowned cook, and has regularly proved he is one of the best in the world after winning numerous cooking competitions. He learned to cook under Zeff on the Baratie and has become quick and dexterous in his ability to use knives. He also has a strong sense of taste and smell, which is seen by being able to deduce the ingredients and being able to recreate the wedding cake on Whole Cake Island.One Piece Manga and Anime — Vol. 88 Chapter 880 (p.5-7) and Episode 852.
Haki During the timeskip, he develops Observation Haki, which allows him to sense the intent and presence of others, such as when he was able to dodge a jelly bean bullet from Katakuri.One Piece Manga — Vol. 86 Chapter 862. He is also able to utilize Armament Haki, which allows him to harden parts of his body and be able to attack Logia users.One Piece Manga and Anime — Vol. 68 Chapter 668 and Episode 594, Luffy confirms him as capable of using Haki to fight Caesar.
Appearances One Piece manga was born as a prince of Germa Kingdom, a floating kingdom composed of several ships on the shells of large snails. Vinsmoke Judge sought to regain the family's long lost glory by creating the strongest army, using his expertise as a scientist to create hundreds of clones of his best soldiers. Blinded by the pursuit of power, he even experimented on his five children. Sora, who didn't like that they would practically become inhuman, tried to undo said experiments by taking a powerful drug. However, amongst them, only Sanji was affected by this, being the only one without any powers and with the ability to feel emotions; as such, Judge heavily resented Sanji, deeming him a "failure" and imprisoning him; Sanji was also perpetually tortured and bullied by his brothers. With help from his sister Reiju, he escapes and flees Germa 66. On his way out, Sanji encounters his father, who demands him to keep his heritage a secret in shame. Sanji eventually flees on a cruise ship known as the Orbit.