Sanji One Piece Guide: A Comprehensive Guide on Vinsmoke "Black Leg" Sanji

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Asad is a curious Capricorn, who with his undying love for knowledge accumulation, can always be found reading, researching, or writing about something new. Of course, that is when he’s not busy watching anime, playing league of legends, farming Ancient Fruits in Stardew Valley, and reading manga, novels, and novellas. His history with Anime and Manga runs goes way back to the early 2000s. He grew up watching Anime like Dragon Ball Z, Beyblade G-Revolution, Pokémon, Naruto, and sort.

Vinsmoke “Black Leg” Sanji

Vinsmoke Sanji is a native of the North Blue. He is the son of Vinsmoke Judge, king of the Germa, and Vinsmoke Sora.

He lived under a ruthless, grueling father who only saw him as a soldier and had mean siblings. Being tired of living in hell, Sanji escapes to Baratie, where he learns to cook under Red Foot, Zeff. He practiced his fighting style by the use of legs in combat. Later, he joined the Straw Hat Pirates as the fifth member and acted as a cook for the crew.

Appearance

Vinsmoke Sanji is a thin, athletic, muscular, long-legged man. He has blond hair, always brushed over one side of his face. He has swirly, thin eyebrows. Sanji is also a chain-smoker and is seldom seen without a cigarette. Regarding his ethnic appearance, Eiichiro Oda once revealed that he imagines Sanji as of French descent, albeit in a real-world context. His appearance slightly changes after the time skip of two years in the series, well-defined below.

Before Time Skip

Out of all the other crew members, Sanji’s outfit changes frequently. He wears a black double-breasted suit with golden buttons for most of the series. He also pairs it with a tie together with a long-sleeved buttoned dress shirt of varying colors like blue, orange, turquoise, and black with or without pinstripes.

Sanji covers his left eye with his blond hair before the time skips.

After Time Skip

He wears a black double-breasted suit with golden buttons, a yellow, sometimes gray, dress shirt, and a brown tie. He wears many other designs of outfits throughout, depending on the arc. Sanji covers the right eye with his slightly longer grown blond hair that appears less straight and scruffier after the time skip. He also has dark anchor-style facial hair and stubble on his upper lip.

He has grown taller and is now the same height as Zoro. His neck has gotten thicker, and he looks more manly now.

Personality/Character

“I heard the sound of a woman’s tears falling.”

Sanji’s most easily readable characteristics are the kind-hearted, peaceful, relaxed, and composed manner he carries himself into. He earned the nickname “Ero-Cook” because he is highly romantic, constantly flirting with any attractive woman who catches his glimpse. He loses his calm, excellent, and profound way in front of beautiful women.

“Messing with a cook of the sea is a good way to get yourself killed…Remember that well.”

Even in dire, alarming, and ominous situations, his speaking style is very composed, and he rarely acts without thinking. He separates himself from everyone else and helps the crew and other allies survive, even by putting his own life in danger.

Despite his hardened stance on life, he often makes comedic peculiarities. He does not oppose acting foolishly on certain occasions, like dancing with immature crew members like Luffy, Brook, Chopper, and Usopp. He even acts childishly excited in certain situations, like when they first visited Sky Island: Skypiea.

“You don’t know how valuable food is, or how much work goes into cooking, you Stupid Prince!”

One of the greatest chefs in the anime world, Vinsmoke Sanji, mastered cooking various delicious and nutritious dishes. His love for cooking is on another level that he won’t even sully his own hands with any other workout. It started when his cooking made his mother, Vinsmoke Soma, delighted before she died. After that, he continued cooking and chasing his passion even when everyone else in his family abused him.

Abilities

Sanji has a vast arsenal of abilities at his disposal. Let’s take a look at them:

Strength

Sanji has command over some exceptional strength. He can easily ward off cannonballs from navy ships and lift up an insane amount of weight. His tremendous strength and power can also be seen when he gives a considerable amount of damage to some of the strongest enemies.

Durability and Endurance

Sanji is highly durable. He survived and withstood Enel’s lightning blast attack, El Thor, which is so powerful that it disintegrated an ordinary man at point-blank range. Sanji’s endurance is also incredibly high since he was a kid. He regularly survived the brutal beatings by his three superhumanly strong brothers.

Speed and Agility

Sanji has excellent pace and agility. He develops two techniques, which are Blue Walk and Sky Walk. Sanji can momentarily run underwater with the use of Blue Walk. He can jump to great heights and travel at terrific speed through Sky Walk by making sonic booms in the air behind him.

Genetic Modifications

Sanji awakens his genetic modifications much later in the series after several uses of his Germa Raid Suit. These genetic enhancements gave him superhuman powers, strength, speed, durability, and insane healing ability.

Black Leg Style

Sanji was raised by the former captain of the Cook Pirates, well-known as Red-Leg. Under his shadow, he learns to fight from his legs and develops a unique, powerful fighting style known as Black Leg.

Diable Jambe

Sanji utilizes flames in his fighting style strikes that he named Diable Jumbe. Diable means Devil, and Jambe means Leg. The temperature of the bright red blaze of his attack is so high that it could set a person burning.

Haki

Sanji is a Haki user, and his specialty is Kenbunshoku Haki, which is the Observation Haki. He can feel the presence, power, strength, feeling, emotions, and goals of others. The other one is Busoshoku Haki, which is the Armament Haki. Sanji created a new technique known as Ifrit Jambe, combining the sturdy exoskeleton and Busoshoku Haki, which enhanced his legs to endure much hotter flames.

The Tale Of Vinsmoke Sanji: The Chef Of The Future Pirate King

The Miserable Childhood And The Shared Dream Of Two Fools

Sanji was born into the royal Vinsmoke family, a scientific family known for having superhuman attributes due to their genetic modifications. During Vinsmoke Soma’s pregnancy, she took some tablets so that Sanji’s humanity could be saved. Sanji’s father and siblings never accepted him as one of them because he was an average human and continued to bully him and have an abusive relationship with him.

After being tired of living in hell, Sanji decided to escape home. He succeeded in doing so and worked as a cook on a ship for two years but later starved for days alone with Zeff when Red-Leg Zeff attacked the ship Sanji was on, and both of their Ships were caught in a storm and sank.

Zeff thought of Sanji as his own son and felt like it was his duty to teach and enlighten him about every knowledge he had as a chef and teach him his fighting style and improve it. Zeff and Sanji share the same dream to find the All-Blue.

The Faithful Meeting

Sanji spent nine years with Zeff in his restaurant, Baratie as a sous chef. One day things were going crazy in Baratie. Meanwhile, a prisoner named Gin escaped from a Marine ship of Fullbody and was starving and pleading for food. Everyone refused to offer him food but Sanji. He fed the starving, and after seeing this act of Sanji, Luffy decided to make him a part of his pirate crew, to which Sanji refused first due to his debt to Zeff.

Two days later, Sanji and Luffy fought alongside to defeat the private group that Gin was part of and saved the restaurant. Sanji shared his dream with Luffy.

Later, to chase after his dream, he joined the crew after saying goodbye to the other fellow chefs of Baratie and Zeff, who were all very encouraging. Zeff asked Sanji to take care of him, making Sanji very emotional. He fell to his knees, crying, thanking Zeff for everything he had done for him.

The Monster Trio

Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro, the three of them together, are titled the monster trio. Sanji has always been the one who prioritizes his Namaka security over his own. The series has shown multiple times that he fights much stronger enemies than him to save his friends and will never reject anyone who is asking for help. In the Arlong arc, he fought alongside the rest of the crew to defeat Arlong.

During Arabasta Arc, Sanji played a vital role in deceiving the Shichibukai Crocodile, saving his team, and fighting enemies. He has high durability and endurance, which is well-seen in Sky Island when he survived Enel’s attack while saving Nami and Usopp.

To rescue Nico Robin, he and the rest of the crew even go against the world government during the Enies Lobby Arc. He fights a fierce battle with Jabra, the third most potent member of CP9 agents.

Farewell To Going Merry And The Scattering of the Straw Hat Pirates

After escaping the Enel Lobby safely, everyone said farewell tearfully to Going Merry, which broke apart. Although Sanji and Zoro managed to maintain a straight face. After Enies Lobby Arc, Sanji gets a bounty of 77,000,000 beri and receives the nickname Black Leg.

Sanji saves Nami from Absalom during the Thriller Bark Arc, who intended to marry Nami by defeating him. Later on, Sanji teamed up with the other crewmates, and they all fought together to defeat Oars.

Sanji is always quick in making decisions, even in hard times, as seen in the Sabaody Archipelago Arc. When Sanji was informed that Camie got kidnapped in Sabaody Park, he called Duval’s favor and the Flying Fish Riders to help find her.

At the end of the Sabaody Archipelago Arc, Straw Hat Pirates got scattered for two years when the real Bartholomew Kuma vanished all of them individually.

Two Years Of Hell

Kuma sent Sanji to the Kamabakka Kingdom, where he tried to escape the nightmare he calls ‘Hell’ because of the transvestites who forced him to act like one of them.

Later, Sanji found out about Luffy and Ace from the newspaper he got from Ivankov and became very sad but found something quite engaging about Luffy in the article. After realizing Attack Cuisine of Kamabakka Kingdom has some enhancing properties, he decided to learn it. To learn to cook all 99 recipes, he fought 99 masters of the Newkama Kenpo in the hope of getting stronger and reuniting with his crew.

The Much Awaited Reunion And Adventures In The New World

After conquering Ivankov’s challenge, Sanji said his farewell to the Kamabakka Kingdom and went to the Sabaody Archipelago after 2 years to meet the rest of his crew. Sanji was the third to come as Zoro and Nami arrived there earlier, which made him furious because of Zoro. Looking at the real woman after two years, Sanji was overjoyed, resulting in the deadly nose-bleed. Later the rest of the crew arrived at the decided location, and all had a great time.

After the reunion, their first journey together was to Fish-Man Island, located under the ocean. On their way to Fish-Man Island, the Straw Hat Pirates fought some minor battles, which allowed us to see The Monster Trio in action. Later they arrived at Fish-Man Island, where Camie took them to Mermaid Cove.

After meeting the mermaids there, Sanji met the objects of his dream and was beaming. He said that he had found the All-Blue and that this was when he would die and could not know such a level of happiness otherwise. Later in the same Arc, Sanji defeated the Ammo Knights and the New Fish-Man Pirates with the rest of the crew.

After entering the New World, Straw Hat Pirates’ first stop was Punk Hazard. Sanji rescued the captured children by defeating and capturing Caesar with the rest of the crew in the Punk Hazard Arc. They meet Kin’emon and Momonosuke and encounter Law and the G-5 Marines, Smoker, and Tashigi. Law put Sanji in Nami’s body using his ability, which made Sanji extremely happy. Later after capturing CaesarClown, the next stop of the Straw Hat Pirates was Dressrosa.

In this arc, Sanji met Violet, who at first lured him into a trap and beat him badly but later was moved by Sanji’s kind words and helped him a lot. Sanji saved the Thousand Sunny from the Doflamingo attack. After the short stay in the Dressrosa, Sanji’s group was given permission by Luffy to continue on to Zou.

After reaching Zou, Sanji’s group saved the Mink’s tribe and forced Caesar to neutralize the poison gas released by the Beasts Pirates. During all these events, Sanji’s bounty was raised to 177,000,000, and his wanted poster status was uniquely revised to “Only Alive.”

The Ultimate Sacrifice

After spending several days in Zou, Sanji was given an invitation to Big Mom’s Tea Party, where he was arranged to be married to Pudding, the 35th daughter of the Charlotte Family. He made a big sacrifice for his crew and left by leaving a letter behind. Sanji met Pudding for the first time at the Whole Cake Island and informed her that he would not accede to the wedding as it would force his removal from his crew.

Sanji reunited with his family in the same arc after 13 years. Just so they do not harm Straw Hat Pirates and Zeff, Sanji decided to go on with his family’s demand. Meanwhile, Luffy was on his way to save Sanji from all the mess and bring him back to Sunny. At first, Sanji acted harsh and cold toward Luffy and even fought with him as Judge’s threads were going on in his mind but later cried tears of regret.

Sanji fell in love with Pudding, but his heart got broken when he later found her sinister side and knew that she and Big Mom were about to kill the Vinsmoke family. After experiencing Luffy’s passion and determination, Sanji opened up to Luffy.

He and Luffy decided to ruin the wedding to save his family, which resulted in angry Big Mom. Later, Pudding fell in love with Sanji and helped him immensely in the Whole Cake Island Arc. She even kissed him but removed his memory later. Sanji saved his family from dying by fighting and going through many hurdles with the help of his friends.

In the end, Sanji realized that he had received the raid suit from Niji at Cacao Island, which he was about to throw out but kept after Luffy’s and Chopper’s request. His bounty increased to 330,000,000 beri after the Whole Cake Island incident.

The Great Soba Man

In the Wano Country Arc, Sanji often used his Raid Suit, and he became the great Soba Man there and fought many fights. Later in the manga, it is shown that after using his Raid Suit multiple times, Sanji awakens his genetic modifications.

These genetic enhancements gave him superhuman powers, strength, speed, durability, and insane healing abilities, which were seen during his battle with Queen.

Relations that Impacted Sanji’s Character

To understand a character better, one has to look at the characters he shares an unbreakable bond with and who impact his life and actions. Vinsmoke Sanji formed many relations when he escaped from his home and met Zeff and later when he joined Straw Hat Pirates. These relations greatly influenced his personality. Here are the different characters Sanji had a relationship with:

“Red Leg” Zeff

“Have you bastards ever once experienced what it is like to starve to death? How horrible it is to suffer by losing both food and water in the vast ocean?”

Zeff is a former captain of the Cook Pirates, well-known as Red-Leg. He is the head chef and owner of Baratie, who acts as “Sanji’s parent” and thinks of him as his adopted son. He instilled knowledge in him, including assisting him to develop and expand his cooking skills and teaching him the value and the importance of a cook’s hands.

He seems to be the reason behind Sanji’s strict code of never using any form of violence or roughness against women. He used to threaten to beat Sanji or castrate him if he forgot this, resulting in him not fighting any women even if it destroyed him.

Besides cooking, Zeff provoked Sanji to leave the Baratie most of the time to encourage him to go and fulfill the dream that they both shared when Sanji was a kid. Later, when Sanji set out to chase their shared goal, Zeff found himself crying and was genuinely delighted to hear about Sanji’s bounty.

Sanji thinks of Zeff as his father figure that Vinsmoke Judge failed to provide him, and he genuinely cares about Zeff. That is why Sanji could not resist the Vinsmoke Family during the Whole Cake Island arc when they threatened him that they would harm or kill Zeff if he refused to cooperate with the wedding with Charlotte Pudding.

Monkey D. Luffy

“Sanji… I will be here waiting! I won’t eat anything other than what you cook!”

The infamous Straw Hat Pirates captain, Monkey D. Luffy, also known as “Straw Hat,” is the main protagonist of One Piece’s manga and anime series. Since he was a kid, he dreamed of becoming the Pirate King by finding the legendary treasure, One Piece, left behind by the late Pirate King, Gol D. Roger. For that purpose, he set out to sea. On his way to making his dream a reality, he forms a Pirate crew. He meets some incredible personalities, Sanji being one of them.

They both share dreams that are deemed foolish, and Sanji was often told that All Blue didn’t exist. At their first meet-up in Baratie, Luffy thought highly of Sanji for his skills as a master chef. He admired Sanji’s kindness when he generously fed starving Gin. Sanji was later recruited by Luffy as their chief, and that is where their journey full of adventures starts.

They share an incredible bond that can be well-seen in the Thriller Bark. Sanji volunteered to offer his life in exchange for Luffy’s but was stopped by Zoro. Their bond grew more strongly in the Whole Cake Island arc when Luffy refused to turn his back on Sanji and rescued him from marrying Pudding despite all the hard times.

Vinsmoke Judge: The Supreme Commander Of The Germa 66

“My father would have been saddened. He would be appalled at the kind of man that would hold on to a petty grudge and ridicule the death of their own blood relatives. I won’t live a life where I am not able to face that person. 13 years ago, the Vinsmoke Sanji that ran away from Germa died on the seas, just like you wanted. Therefore recognize this! You are not my father, Vinsmoke Judge!”

The King of the Germa Kingdom, Vinsmoke Judge, also known as Garuda, is the secondary antagonist of the series One Piece during the first half of the Whole Cake Island Arc. He was a research fellow to the leading World Government scientist Vegapunk as a skilled scientist and former member of MADS.

He is the biological father of Sanji, who never acknowledged him and only saw him as a soldier from the very beginning. During Vinsmoke Sora’s pregnancy, she intakes of the counter-drug that nullified the surgery effects on Sanji alone. Sanji’s strength remained that of an average human throughout his childhood, unlike his other siblings, whose genetic modifications successfully provided them with superhuman strength.

At the start, Judge did try to encourage Sanji that he must train a thousand times harder than his siblings if he desires to become firm by sternly scolding him. But despite all Sanji’s hard work, he still showed no improvement.

After Sora’s death, Judge saw Sanji as a constant reminder of his late wife’s personality and blamed Sanji for her death. Due to this, Judge allowed his other sons to bully, mock and hit Sanji. He even stated that he was not bound to help the pleading Sanji, who asked for help and thought of him as a disgrace.

Fascinating Facts And Trivia

Given below are some fascinating facts and trivia about the well-known Vinsmoke Sanji that you would love to know about:

What Was Sanji Going To Be Named Initially?

In One Piece Green: Secret Pieces, Eiichiro Oda revealed that he initially planned Sanji to be named Naruto. The word Naruto means the little spiral cakes found in ramen bowls. Due to his spiral-looking eyebrows, the name Naruto suited him well.

In the meantime, he learned that his friendly rival, Masashi Kishimoto, who competed for Shonen Jump’s top spot, would be publishing a series called Naruto. So to avoid confusion, he ended up tossing the idea.

Who Is The Inspiration Behind Sanji’s Character?

Once a fan anticipated that Sanji’s character was inspired by Leonardo DiCaprio in Romeo & Juliet. But in reality, it was not valid. Eiichiro Oda Said:

“People used to guess DiCaprio a lot, in the past. But the truth is that Sanji has a much more unusual model. I might not go as far as to say “model,” but I hoped to have a bit of this person’s vibes come through. It’s Steve Buscemi, as he appeared in the movie “Reservoir Dogs.” Cool, huh? Someone at Bandai was the only one to guess correctly, a while back.”

What Was The Initial Design Of Vinsmoke Sanji?

You will be surprised to know that the initial Sanji design was of a gunslinger, which he precisely was in the early drafts of the series. He is the opposite of what we have seen in the series, having a different vibe with his dark black hair and old west outfit.

When Is Vinsmoke Sanji’s Birthday?

Vinsmoke Sanji’s birthday is on March 2nd. Simply looking at Sanji, it is likely the hardest to guess his age out of all the Straw Hat Pirates. Due to his more mature look, style, and attitude, he appears pretty older than he is in reality. After the time skip, Sanji was 21 years old.

FAQs

Question: Why does Vinsmoke Sanji use different honorifics for Nami and Robin?

Answer: You may have already noticed that Sanji uses different honorifics for Nami and Robin. He calls Nami Nami-san, while he mentions Robin as Robin-chan. This choice is unexpected and surprising since -chan is an honorific used for someone younger, while -san often applies to someone older. Meanwhile, knowing that Robin is about ten years older than Nami.

When Oda was asked about it, he said:

“Well, I actually didn’t think anything of it. Before there was a staff member in our workplace who asked us something interesting. The wish to treat a woman older than you as if she was younger, and a woman younger than you as if she was more of an adult…Is Sanji acquainted with this feeling? I replied, ‘Oh, of course. That is right.'”

Question: What is Sanji’s current bounty?

Answer: The third most potent member of the Straw Hats Pirates, Vinsmoke Sanji, currently has a 330,000,000 beri bounty after the events on the Whole Cake Island. His wanted status condition is also changed from ‘Only Alive’ to ‘Dead or Alive.’ His first bounty was 77,000,000 beri because of the events at Enies Lobby after defeating Jabra of the CP9. His bounty was then increased to 177,000,000 beri after the Dressrosa incident for simply being a member of Straws Hat Pirates. His current bounty is even more than Zoro’s current bounty, which is 320,000,000 beri.

Question: What are Sanji’s food preferences?

Answer: “It does not matter if you spend 10 thousand berries or one million berries. You should never waste food.” Usually, it is not interesting to know about or worth mentioning the character’s favorite food, but that is not the case with Vinsmoke Sanji’s food preference. Food has always been a massive part of his identity as a professional chef. For this reason, his likes and dislikes are pretty essential for fans to know.

“Cooking is a gift from the gods.”
His favorite thing to cook is seafood. He desired to find exotic fish in the mythical All Blue, so he joined Luffy’s crew, to begin with. He detests wasting food as he knows how valuable and priceless food is and would scold and beat anyone who wastes food. If he is cooking food for a lady, he will put in some extra care and love.

He is a true fan of spicy seafood pasta, and anything that goes into black tea, he will truly love and enjoy it. However, he is not fond of konjac because it lacks nutritional value, almost zero nutrition. Possibly for the same reason, he is not much into ice cream either.

Question: Why is Sanji the only blond kid in the Vinsmoke family?

Answer: Vinsmoke Sanji is one of five children of Vinsmoke Judge and Vinsmoke Sora. Out of all of his siblings: Reiju, Ichiji, Niji, and Yonji, Sanji is the only one who has blonde hair like his parents. This is not a coincidence. The explanation behind it is that Germa’s genetic modification is the cause behind his siblings’ unique, different hair colors. Sanji is the only sibling who was not genetically modified even after trying. Ironically, though Sanji is the only one whose appearance most likely resembles his father’s, king of the Germa, he has the most destructive relationship with him. Sanji and Judge’s relationship is so dreadful that they have mutually disowned each other.

Question: Why is it that Sanji does not fight women?

Answer: Sanji often expresses gentlemanly viewpoints that can be considered condescending. It is not that he will not fight a woman, but he just can not.

“I was raised to never kick a woman.”
He refuses to fight any woman, regardless of her strength, even if it destroys him, as we had already seen in the series when he was against Kalifa. Here’s what Oda said on the matter.

“When I drew Sanji vs. Kalifa (Chapter 403), some people lauded Sanji’s stance, and others felt sorry for him. The truth is, I didn’t really want to write those lines. Sanji doesn’t have a “policy” of not kicking women; the truth is that he actually CAN NOT kick them. He is a very proud man, and I think he was really frustrated at that. Think Nami recognized that and chose to praise him for once. It’s a scene that I hope will resonate with male readers, but everyone’s free to take it as they wish.”

Sanji One Piece Guide: Final Thoughts

One Piece is a story about realizing your dreams and working hard to make them a reality, regardless of how lofty, unachievable, or impossible they may appear to others. Personally, One Piece’s themes of friendship, taking a stand, and raising a voice against brutality and cruelty are well-taught messages.

Not only does Luffy teach us these fantastic lessons, but One Piece is full of such unique, incredible personalities that have our hearts. My heart is stolen by Vinsmoke Sanji. I adore his character because he genuinely cares about his crewmates. He gives his all to take good care of them by making delicious food and saving them from dangers. Also, he is empathic as he shows his sympathy for anyone who has attempted to hide their past. He is genuinely generous as he constantly feeds the hungry and starving.

I hope you had a great time reading this guide. Till next time, have fun rewatching Sanji’s Epic moments.

Sanji One Piece Guide: A Comprehensive Guide on Vinsmoke “Black Leg” Sanji