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As a part of the monster trio and one of the Wings of the Future Pirate Kings, Sanji is one of the strongest and most beloved characters in One Piece. He has a wide global fanbase, and even the controversies about his gag don’t stop him from being a fan favorite. He has been a crucial part of the show since the very beginning, and fans have followed his journey through all those years. Sanji is also often considered one of the best-written characters in the show, for obvious reasons. However, despite his popularity and role in the story, fans aren’t happy with the way Toei has been treating him over the years.
The animation studio has been called out for not portraying him as well as the manga by stretching his gag or making him look slower when he’s actually the fastest Straw Hat. The worst controversy happened during the “Here Comes the Star” scene when it was a moment about Zoro and Sanji, but Toei primarily focused on the former. Even in the Egghead Incident Arc, the discourse continues to get worse. This time, all the major theorists, YouTubers, and even the animators are debating the “Toei mistreating Sanji” claims. As such, one of the most beloved animators of the series, Vincent Chansard, shares his views regarding the matter.
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Vincent Denied Toei Having an Agenda Against Sanji
In a podcast channel of Brago D. Ace on YouTube, Vincent Chansard was asked to share his thoughts on the matter. The animator said, “When it comes to top people in One Piece or people who are in the deciding position who attribute the things that ‘You are going to this thing. You are going to do the storyboarding. Obviously, there is no agenda.”
He continued, “In Wano, I didn’t feel like this at all as a fan. Like the Sanji vs. Queen episode, you could say the biggest names were on the episode. So I never really felt like this was a genuine concern.”
However, Vincent also acknowledged that there is a difference between the animators behind Zoro and Sanji scenes, “What I will say is that, as a One Piece fan, when you look at all the Zoro scenes and all the Sanji scenes, and look at the names of the animators, you can’t help but notice an unbalance. But I’m not sure where it comes from because I know the people who are on the deciding team do not care about the agenda.”
He tried to explain his opinion on the matter, saying it’s just his theory, but it’s possible that the animators tend to put more emphasis on Zoro’s scenes because they tend to be longer and center around narrative feats. Zoro is primarily a fighter of the crew, while Sanji has the role of the chef on top of being one of the most capable allies of Luffy. Even in Egghead, Zoro was the one who fought Lucci single-handedly, while Sanji had a different but extremely important role to play.
Toei has been animating One Piece for over 25 years now, and there are times when the anime isn’t a one-on-one manga adaptation since it needs fillers to have enough content for the story. As such, it’s common for discourses to happen, but none of the animators have ever claimed to have an agenda against one of the show’s most beloved characters.
H/T: Brago D. Ace on YouTube
