Why do I love Sanji?

Vinsmoke Sanji is my favourite character in One Piece. And I'm so glad this year is the year of Sanji. It's just so joyous for me. I really can't wait to see how his current story arc is resolved.

Sanji refusing to kick a woman

Sanji's personality is great. I love his chivalry. He's a gentleman and he certainly taught me how to act like one growing up. Never to hit a woman and to treat them all equally. It's a brilliant value to have. I also like how he's almost the complete opposite with men. He treats them poorly and does not care for his language with them. The contrast between these two gender-specific personas makes him that much more fleshed out.

Cutting up pasta!

Aside from that, Sanji likes to cook. Fair enough, all the Straw Hats love what they do with a passion. But I really like how Sanji's fighting style directly reflects this. He fights with his legs because his hands are to be exclusively used for cooking. It's simple but very effective in adding another layer to not just his character but even his combat. Sanji uses his hands to support his kicking sure but it adds another dynamic to his battles. Sanji has however used his hands to fight before but his reasoning made comical sense: the person he was fighting used food as a weapon so by using cooking knives to retaliate, it made sense.

That's another thing with Sanji, one of his most notable fighting technique has a comedic reasoning to it. One Piece isn't shy to use comedy as facts such as how Nami can hurt Luffy because she hits his 'soul'. Sanji can catch on fire but his body doesn't burn up because his heart burns brighter. For a person who's never read One Piece, this may seen stupid but for a veteran, it just made a lot of sense. With Sanji's Skywalk, the reasoning was along the lines of that he ran and ran until he flew. Brilliancy!

Sanji is also very intelligent although not explicitly shown. In the earlier parts of the series (before the New World), Sanji had a tendency to go off on his own only to emerge later having sabotaged the enemy or their strategies. His disappearance also has allowed him to avoid capture so that he may return later to save his crew. From the destruction of Enel's ship to the rescue of the crew from Crocodile or even the closing of the gates at Enies Lobby, his forethought and strategies are definitely a huge contribution to the crew's survivability.

Now, talking about this topic, I don't dislike the other crew members. I love them. But you know, I just love Sanji the most. Zoro may be the most badass and the fan favourite but Sanji is definitely the cooler and classier version.

Well, sort of