One of the biggest points of contention with the One Piece anime is the idea that the staff are biased against Sanji; not only are Sanji’s comedic points often grossly exaggerated, but the anime will often downplay his speed or make up new scenes of Sanji being beaten up, as opposed to Zoro almost exclusively benefiting from original content.
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The One Piece anime’s handling of Sanji has only gotten worse with the Egghead arc, with things like Sanji being lovestruck with Bonney and losing to S-Shark only furthering the idea of a bias against him. Sure enough, One Piece episode #1149 has another egregious example of Sanji being poorly handled, and unfortunately, it’s probably the worst one to date.
One Piece’s Latest Sanji Downplay Is Outright Unforgivable
One Piece episode #1149 continued Sanji and Bonney’s group’s fight against St. Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro, and while it was a short scene in the manga, the anime fleshed it out with some original content. Unfortunately, that included Nusjuro swatting Sanji aside without needing to unsheath his sword, despite Nusjuro then unsheathing it to attack Bonney, making Sanji look unnecessarily weak.
Even worse was the scene where Nusjuro attacked Bonney; in the manga, Franky saved Bonney from Nusjuro, and when trying to give it proper context, the anime decided to have Sanji stare at the scene dumbfounded to allow Franky to make the move. Doing that downplayed both Sanji’s speed and his general competence, and it’s simply impossible to defend.
The anime’s most recent handling of Sanji is bad, and what’s even worse is that Zoro will soon have a brief fight with Nusjuro, as well. The anime almost always makes Zoro’s fights look incredible, so his fight with Nusjuro will likely be no different, which will only make Sanji’s treatment look even worse by comparison.
Why Does The One Piece Anime Seemingly Hate Sanji?
Sanji is a character whose perverted nature and obsession with women often make him lean more toward comedy than action, with even the manga exaggerating those traits in recent years, so it makes sense that the anime staff would ignore him in favor of someone more serious, like Zoro, or even just someone with a less annoying gimmick, like Luffy.
All of that, of course, unfairly downplays Sanji as a character; not only is Sanji capable of providing just as stellar action as any other character, but Sanji’s arc with his family has arguably given him more depth than anyone else in the main cast, most of whom have been largely static for years now.
It’s not that Sanji has never had a good scene in recent years, but the way he’s constantly downplayed in the One Piece anime greatly overshadows the few good scenes he’s been afforded. Episode #1149 is the latest example of that, and unfortunately, there’s no reason to think it will be the last.
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