Characters / One Piece: Sanji

All spoilers regarding the Super Rookies era are unmarked. New World spoilers are unmarked in character descriptions, and examples relating to the New World era can be spoiler-tagged if deemed necessary.

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Main Character Index > Straw Hat Pirates > Monkey D. Luffy | Roronoa Zoro | Nami | Usopp | Sanji | Tony Tony Chopper | Nico Robin | Straw Hat Grand Fleet

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"Black Leg" Sanji (born Vinsmoke Sanji)

Voiced by: Hiroaki Hirata, Ikue Otani [young] (Japanese); Joseph Murray [Odex dub, eps. 20-67], Paul Pistore [Odex dub, eps. 68-104], David Moo [4Kids dub], Veronica Taylor [young, 4Kids dub], Eric Vale [Funimation dub], Christine Auten [young, Funimation dub], Megan Shipman [young, Funimation dub of Episode of East Blue] (English)^note Other languages: Noe Velásquez, Alejandra Vegar [young, 4Kids dub], Oliver Díaz [young, Netflix dub] (Latin American Spanish); Alfredo Martínez, Diana Torres [young] (European Spanish); Hubertus von Lerchenfeld (German)

Age: 19 (Pre-Timeskip), 21 (Post-Timeskip)

Debut: Chapter 43 (Manga), Episode 20 (Anime)

^{Click here to see his Pre-Time Skip appearance}

"The Marines may not be concerned with me right now, but soon I, Black Leg Sanji, will be the most infamous of all!"

Sanji is the chain-smoking, nineteen/twenty-one-year-old chef of the Straw Hat Pirates. There is not a dish he cannot cook, a pretty girl he will not try to woo, or something he will not argue with Zoro over. As a chef, he believes that he cannot afford to let his hands come to harm as they are his most precious tools of the trade. Thus, he uses a fighting style which only involves the use of his legs and feet called the "Black Leg Style" (Kuroashi no Waza). He and Roronoa Zoro have a complex relationship — they argue and fight with each other regularly, yet they're also willing to cooperate and fight enemies together when it counts. Alongside Monkey D. Luffy and Zoro, Sanji is considered by the fandom as one of the Monster Trio (怪物三人組, Kaibutsu San-ningumi) of the Straw Hats. Sanji and Zoro are also considered to be "the Wings of the Pirate King" by Nico Robin.

His dream is to find a legendary patch of sea called the All Blue, where one can find species of fish from all over the world. His mentor, former-pirate-turned-restaurant-owner Zeff, is one he shares his dreams with. As the founding sous-chef of Baratie, Sanji worked under him for ten years as a way to pay Zeff back for saving his life when the two were stuck on a rock with barely any food when Sanji was a child. Once Luffy saves Baratie from destruction, Sanji leaves the restaurant to join the Straw Hat Pirates and fulfill his dream.

Besides his skill in combat, Sanji has great skill in remaining undetected by the antagonists that his crew faces. He's also the butt of an ever-increasing list of jokes. These include a ugly, poorly drawn bounty poster that no one has any trouble identifying him with, a man who resembles said bounty poster coming for revenge, and Kuma blasting him to an island filled with drag queens (which he considers Hell). While there during the Time Skip, he learns of a special recipe to make the consumer stronger and trains with the 99 Newkama Kenpo masters.

In the New World, Sanji's past comes back to haunt him when the Emperor Charlotte Linlin orders his kidnapping. It turns out that Sanji is the fourth child (and third son) of the Vinsmoke royal bloodline, an infamous family of Underworld mercenaries who once conquered the North Blue. Sanji had a highly abusive upbringing during the early years of the Great Pirate Era and was disowned as a failure by his father Judge, an amoral scientist who experimented on his own children in an effort to make them perfect soldiers (at the cost of their human emotions). Sanji eventually went on the run, frustrated with the awful ostracism he received for being the only child among his brothers and sister born without genetic enhancements and a reminder of how his late mother Sora died partly because she took a drug to counteract Judge's genetic modifications so that her children might retain their humanity. Sanji's kidnapping is the result of Judge retrieving his long-lost son in order to marry him off to one of Big Mom's daughters. Sanji's friendship with his crewmates is put to the test when they invade his wedding party to get him back, angering the combined forces of the Vinsmokes and their clone soldier army known as Germa 66 as well as Linlin and her powerful pirate crew.

He has a bounty of 1,032,000,000 berries.^note It is initially 77,000,000 for his involvement at Enies Lobby. However, his wanted poster is a poorly-drawn composite sketch instead of his real face. His second bounty is 177,000,000 berries, which he receives for simply being a member of the Straw Hats after the Dressrosa incident. He also finally gains an actual picture of his face for his poster (albeit a goofy take of him with his typical "heart" eyes). Due to his father's meddling, his wanted poster states for him to be brought "only alive" unlike every other known criminal (who are all "dead or alive"). His bounty further increases to 330,000,000 berries for his connection to the Vinsmokes and involvement in the raid against Big Mom; and, after resolving his family matters, he is once again wanted dead or alive. However, to his extreme frustration, the government officially recognizes him as "Vinsmoke" Sanji. After his defeat of Queen during the Raid of Onigashima, Sanji's bounty raises to 1.032 billion berries and no longer includes his family name.

For tropes pertaining to his live-action counterpart, go here.

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• '90s Hair: His iconic "curtains" hairstyle is distinctly 90s, no doubt due to being officially inspired by Steve Buscemi's hair in Reservoir Dogs according to Oda. This is Downplayed with art evolution and the Timeskip, however, with Sanji's hair becoming distinctly shaggier over time.
• AB Negative: It turns out Sanji has a rare blood type. This becomes extremely problematic when his constant nosebleeds caused him to go through all of Chopper's stock of that specific type. As a result, when a mermaid hides him by stuffing him into Marshmallow Heaven, he has such an epic gusher that it becomes life-threatening. Further complicating the situation was the issue that due to some latent racism between humans and merfolks, those who had the blood type refused to donate.
• Achievements in Ignorance: Sanji has repeatedly shown that he's actually really good at charming women when he's not intentionally trying to, Viola and Pudding being notable examples.
• Adaptational Badass: Downplayed. The sixth OP, Brand New World, shows Sanji matching Kalifa blow-for-blow at Enies Lobby, but in the manga, he loses the fight horribly, partly due to Kalifa's Soap-Soap Fruit, but mostly due to his Wouldn't Hit a Girl attitude.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: The Viz translation of the manga takes his regular attack names (one-word French cooking terms, for the most part), and adds a second word, usually alliterative with the first, to them, resulting in names like "Trompine Treader" and "Mouton Mallet".
• All According to Plan: Sanji is the tactical mastermind of the crew and all of his plans work out the way he wants them to.
  • The most notable incident still is his Mr. Prince shtick in the Alabasta arc, where he tricks Crocodile into leaving the building so that he can save his own crew.
  • During the Buster Call at the Water 7-Enies Lobby arc, Sanji disappears from the fight, only to reveal later that not only did he rig the aiming of the cannons of several warships to miss the Going Merry, but he had also closed the Doors of Justice to create whirlpools that would make the larger ships stand still, while allowing their tinier ship to escape.
  • During the raid at Onigashima, Sanji leaves Nami and Carrot, apparently to spend some time with the prostitutes while he's actually planning to change into his raid suit to become invisible, and uses it to reach Kaido and saves Momonosuke.
• All-Loving Hero: By his own admission, Sanji loves all women even if they are villains and want to kill him.
• Almighty Janitor: After the Alabasta Arc, Sanji doesn't receive a bounty like Zoro or Luffy, despite being as strong as them, and having even played a big role into defeating Crocodile when he saves his entire crew from a deadly trap. It still applies with later bounties, as he never becomes the third highest until the events of Whole Cake Island. Outside of bounties, despite being one of the best fighters of the crew, Sanji's official position is the cook.
• Always Second Best: It's a bit of a subtle running gag that he's always just one step behind Zoro in every area (excluding such obvious things as cooking, leg strength, or directional sense of course). He's got the second deepest voice in the crew behind Zoro, he's one centimeter shorter than Zoro, he's always a little behind him strength-wise and he always fights somebody who's a little weaker than Zoro's opponent. It pops up in other ways too, such as how he woke up just after Zoro did after Kuma attacked on Thriller Bark. Zoro himself, of course, mocks Sanji every time he bests him.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Sanji is considered a nuisance to his two older brothers Ichiji and Niji. Not because there's anything actually wrong with Sanji, but because both of them are massive Jerkasses with an utter Lack of Empathy (no thanks to Judge) who think that his noble, heroic qualities are irritating.
• The Apprentice: He served as Zeff's apprentice shortly after the latter saved his life as a child.
• Armor-Piercing Question: In Chapter 864, after failing to kill Sanji the first time thanks to some unexpected compliments, Pudding tries again, insisting that her murderous, sadistic self is her "true" personality unlike the sweet girl Sanji had seen, and rants that she has deceived many people before Sanji in the past. Sanji responds by asking Pudding if she happened to be one of those people, which, although it doesn't make her back down right away, noticeably shocks Pudding into hesitating even more. This is what triggers Pudding's Heel–Face Turn that ultimately helps the Straw Hats escape Totto Land.
• Arranged Marriage: To the thirty-fifth daughter of the Charlotte family, Pudding. Their wedding is supposed to be the centerpiece of one of Big Mom's tea parties, and the whole situation is courtesy of his father and Big Mom forming a political alliance. He's not too happy about it, though he still ends up love-struck by his beautiful bride to be when he actually sees her (as you might expect). Things go even more sour, though, when it turns out that Pudding is actually a Broken Bird with a sadistic streak and the engagement is a sham- the real purpose is to murder him along with his entire family. Once Sanji gives her her first compliment, however, Pudding decides to help the Straw Hats and makes up an alibi of them already being married to escape suspicion... though as shown by her breakdown over Sanji leaving Totto Land at the end of the Totto Land arc, she wishes it were true.
• Art Evolution: A very subtle version; Sanji's face wasn't quite as round when he first came back◊ from the Timeskip compared to later on.
• Assassin Outclassin':
  • In the Totto Land arc, he outclasses three would-be assassins in the span of a few seconds. First, he causes his fake fiancee to have a Villainous Breakdown on the altar right before she tries to shoot him by calling her supposedly horrifying Third Eye beautiful. Then, after she fails, he dodges the priest's point-blank gunshot attempt — or at least he would have had the cold-sniping Seer Charlotte Katakuri not foreseen this and intervened. Instead, Katakuri tries to kill him by flicking a jellybean through his head before this can happen... but Sanji dodges that as well and Katakuri ends up killing the priest instead.
  • In the Wano arc, after joining Franky in beating up a few members of the Kyoshiro family for trying to intimidate them into paying a protection fee, Sanji gets Page One and X Drake sent after him so he'll be used as an example for defying the yakuza. Not only does Sanji stops Page One with a powerful kick upon arrival, he also prepares to use his raid suit that he previously wanted nothing to do with.
• Atrocious Alias: Franky and Usopp point out that the name Sanji came up with, "O-Soba Mask", when he put on his "Stealth Black" raid suit, is rather lame and want him to change it.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Despite the above Almighty Janitor and below Badass instances, Sanji will likely lose his train of thought if a pretty woman comes into his focus. One instance on the Punk Hazard arc is him chasing to help Nami and Robin but stops when he sees Monet. Not only does he stop, but the Marines who are following him stop as well to comment on how beautiful she is.
• The Atoner: During the Baratié arc, Sanji reveals that he blames himself for Zeff's loss of his leg and forcing him to give up his dream (of finding the All Blue), which is why he wants to continue working at the sea restaurant to protect Zeff's new dream. It's only when Sanji overhears that Zeff wants Sanji to pursue his own dream that he's able to leave the Baratié without regret.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Not only is Sanji a brilliant tactician in combat, but his sense of smell along with his cooking skills allows him to produce an exact copy of the recipe for a cake someone else made (complete with seven secret ingredients), just off the smell of the cake, despite being a smoker ^Explanation Who in real life are known and proven to have a severely diminished sense of smell and taste due to the poison they're addicted to.
• Badass Family: Despite him having cut his ties with them and thus no longer considering them to be his family (and vice-versa, at least in the case of his father and brothers), he is a biological member of the infamous Vinsmoke family, a royal family of underworld "killers", all of whom who have been shown to be badass in their own right, something that "Black Leg" Sanji, member of the Straw Hat Pirates, in-crew member of the Straw Hat's "Monster Trio", and tactical genius, can also lay claim to.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Quite spiffy looking with that blue/orange pinstripe shirt and classic black suit.
• Badass Normal: Not normal by our standards, but he's the only Straw Hat to not use either a Devil Fruit or a weapon, so he's literally just going with the rest of the crew and fighting with just his own two feet. Despite this, he's one of the three strongest members of the crew. Also taken quite literally in the fact that he's the only sibling in the Vinsmoke family to not be genetically modified, so unlike his siblings, his strength came entirely through training.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Well, it's technically Bare Footed Monk. He never uses his hands in battle because he needs them undamaged to cook.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: He is always annoyed with his lack of recognition, especially since his Wanted poster looked like Duval, and desires to be the most infamous pirate in the world. It's later revealed that he is the missing third son of the criminal Vinsmoke family, a royal family of assassins, thus making him a prince by birthright and just a few steps in political power below the World Nobles. The Vinsmoke family also consisted of people who constantly abused and bullied him for being weak as a child, which later caused him to run away and become a pirate. Looks like your wish finally came true, Sanji. When he finally gets a higher bounty then Zoro, Sanji can't enjoy it since it's clear that the World Government only raised his bounty due to being a Vinsmoke, leaving Sanji depressed.
• Being Good Sucks: No matter how much he hates his family, who are evil warmongers, mock him as a failure and keep his Parental Substitute hostage, Sanji can't leave them to their fate to get killed by Big Mom. Sanji doesn't view them as family, but he will try to save them nonetheless, because he is too compassionate to just run away. Thanks to the help of the Straw Hat-Firetank Pirate Alliance, he eventually succeeds in saving his family, who decide to protect the Straw Hats and aid their escape even after fulfilling their life debt to him.
• Beyond the Impossible: Let's face it, no remotely important characters in One Piece are remotely realistic, as far as their abilities are concerned.
  • But who else goes as far as to perform plastic surgery in the middle of battle by rapidly kicking their opponent in the face?
  • But who else ignites their feet for a special attack without getting burned, while underwater?
  • Not to mention running faster than the speed of water pressure.
  • While not unheard of, flying in One Piece is a very exceptional skill to have.
  • His nosebleeds can actually run Chopper out of his spare blood stock for Sanji's type. Chopper, by the way, also takes care of Zoro after fights.
  • He destroyed one of Kizaru's light beams with nothing but a kick and, as he says, The Power of Love. Even Kizaru is shocked and questions the laws of physics after seeing this.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • Sanji is surprisingly protective and supportive of Usopp, even going out of his way to give him encouragement. This makes a lot more sense when you realize Sanji can relate to Usopp due to being the weakest member of a group (the Straw Hats in Usopp's case, his family in Sanji's case).
  • Inverts it with Little Brother Instinct towards Reiju, his older sister. He despises his quadruplet brothers and his father, but he genuinely does care about his sister, the only one of his still-living relatives who was kind to him when he was a child. He does decide to save his whole family at Big Mom's wedding, but it's clear that Reiju is the one he wants to save the most; when the rest of the Vinsmokes are about to be murdered by the Charlotte family, Sanji rushes towards the table to help while shouting for her to run away.
• Big Damn Heroes: Sanji saves his crewmates and allies (especially if are women) multiple times.
  • Saves Nami, Chopper and Brook from Doflamingo in Dressrosa, by stopping the Walrord's attack.
  • Saves Nami, Chopper and Brook from being trapped in Capone's body, while they are on Zou.
  • Saves Nami and Robin from getting attacked by S-Shark while in Egghead.
  • Saves Edison and especially Bonney multiple times in Egghead.
• Big Little Brother: Both he and his fraternal quadruplet brothers are taller than their older sister, Reiju, who is the firstborn of their family.
• Blue Is Heroic: Sanji's main color scheme is blue. He's also a member of the Straw Hat Pirates and a White Sheep in the royal Vinsmoke family, which was thanks to his mother, Sora, sacrificing herself to preserve his empathy after his father, Judge, psychologically altered him in-utero.
• Bond One-Liner: Has a habit of giving these after winning major fights.
• Break His Heart to Save Him: A platonic example; in Chapter 843, he turns down Luffy's attempts to bring him back from Totto Land because his abusive family blackmailed him into marrying Pudding, and if he defied his purpose, his loved ones (especially Zeff) will be killed. Luffy understandably doesn't listen and punches Sanji in the face to get him to come back to the crew.
• Brick Joke:
  • In Alabasta, Sanji gives the name "Mr. Prince" to Crocodile as his alias. Two in-series years, and over a decade of real-life time, later, is revealed that he actually is a blood-born prince of the Vinsmoke family, the rulers of Germa Kingdom and an infamous group of Underworld assassins.
  • Similarly there was the mystery of Sanji's left eye, which was covered by his fringe. Fans had been asking Oda about it for years, wondering if there was anything unusual about it (like him missing an eye, or having some kind of facial scarring or interesting prosthetic), and Oda always dodged the question. Eventually, the timeskip happens, and the mystery is solved: his left eye is fine and the same as his right, except his eyebrow swirl is on the inside corner rather than the outside, like with his right eyebrow.
• Broken Tears: He bursts into tears twice during the Totto Land arc. First, after he beats Luffy up and tries to force the Straw Hats to leave Whole Cake Island, which makes Nami Bitch Slap him. And later, when he overheard Pudding laughing at how easily she tricked him, how stupid she finds him and how she is looking forward to see his reaction right before she kills him.
• Brooklyn Rage: In the 4Kids dub, Sanji was given a thick Brooklyn accent to match his temperamental personality.
• Butt-Monkey: Aside from Luffy, he's the Straw Hat most likely to be the butt of some joke or run into misfortune; he consistently is beaten up by Nami, rejected by most women, ends up in strange situations, and his quirks and mannerisms are sometimes jokingly mocked by the other Straw Hats when he's not present (aside from Zoro, who, of course, will do it to his face). It steers into borderline Trauma Conga Line territory in the Totto Land arc when, chapter after chapter, he is subjected to his royal family's abuse, discovers that his beautiful chef fiancee is actually a broken, sadistic psychopath who planned to kill him, and even has explosive bracelets planted on his arms so he'll be obedient to his family's demands until his wedding day.
• Burning with Anger: As a Running Gag he bursts into flames when he's sufficiently enraged. Chopper even says "Awesome! He exploded!" at one point during one such instance. After the Time Skip, he's weaponized it since it reminds him of his Training from Hell at the hands of Ivankov.
• Cain and Abel: Sanji clearly has no love for his three quadruplet brothers. It's later revealed that as a child, Sanji was frequently and viciously bullied by his brothers for being weak and showing compassion towards starving animals.
  • His older sister, Reiju, who laughed at this in public but showed compassion for him in private, is the only living family member he shows affection for.
  • It's heavily implied that he fought (and defeated) the youngest, Yonji, as soon as they met up again, with Yonji sporting a disfigured face afterwards.
  • Though he hates all of them, he has a particular dislike for Niji, as he specifically notes that only Niji out of all of them is actually vindictive and petty enough to brutally beat an innocent cook to spite Sanji for defending her. This act practically lowers Niji to a level that's "lower than scum" in Sanji's eyes.
  • This is later justified in Chapter 852; before Sanji and his brothers were born, Judge tried to weaponize them by experimenting on them in utero and completely removing their ability to feel compassion and empathy. Their mother, Sora, intervened by taking a drug that reversed gene-altering surgeries, but died, saving only Sanji. His brothers can't understand why he still has his humanity and continues to act kind towards others, because they were programmed that way.
• The Call Put Me on Hold: Thanks to his mother taking a drug against Judge's modifications, Sanji is the only one of his siblings to not have any superhuman ability but also keeps his emotions. At Onigashia, however, Sanji manifests those powers and Queen comments that his genetic alterations might have manifested later; Sanji is not happy of these changes because he fears to lose his emotions just like his brothers.
• Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: Sanji is noticeably less lecherous around Pudding (the closest he ever has to a full-blown romantic relationship) than any other woman save his sister (this becomes clear after the wedding is crashed). Funnily enough, it's Pudding herself that goes full Sanji mode when near Sanji himself, so this trope might be employed to balance it out.
• Casanova Wannabe: The chances of him actually sleeping with anyone he's wooed are practically nonexistent. Then when the chance comes up after he is paired up with Charlotte Pudding, one of Big Mom's daughters, he turns it down, to the shock of his crewmates.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • "Crap" as a prefix (e.g. his nickname for Zeff, "Kuso Jijii", means "Shitty Old Man"). It's almost a tic, since he uses it when describing non-crappy things, like 'dates' with Nami. This pisses her off enormously.
  • ~MELLORINE!!!~ ^note (Mellorine is a cheaper version of ice cream that's made from animal/vegetable fat instead of butter. It could be an extension of how he says "Crap" to describe non-crappy things.)
  • For a while after the time skip (in which he spent two years stuck on an island with transvestites): "IIIII NEEEEED LADYYYYY!"
• Character Development:
  • He was supposed to be completely emotionless like his brothers, but thanks to his mother sacrificing herself for him, he was born a normal boy. Unfortunately, his father and brothers saw it fit to constantly bully and abuse him for being weaker than them, which culminated in Sanji being thrown into the dungeons to rot. Reiju secretly rescued him, and helped him escape by directing him to a cruise ship in the East Blue, which took him in as an apprentice chef.
  • His innocence takes a toll when Sanji found himself stranded on an island with "Red Leg" Zeff after a catastrophic storm, nearly starving to death for the second time. He was dismayed at how he had wasted food earlier, and was horrified to discover Zeff had given him all the remaining food and had been eating his own leg to stay alive. This was the beginning of Sanji's desire to feed anyone regardless of their background and loyalties, and to never ever waste food.
  • By the start of the story, Sanji went from the Lethal Chef he was as a child, to a bad-tempered Supreme Chef. Although Zeff was a well-meaning father, he was borderline-abusive in making sure Sanji grew up to become a fine man. While Sanji goes gaga at every pretty woman he sees (something he had since he was a child), he's more civil about it. Furthermore, thanks to Baratie's teachings, he loathes anyone who wastes food, and will kick anyone who does.
  • After undergoing two years' worth of Training from Hell with Ivankov and the Okamas, Sanji went from a smooth-talking Chivalrous Pervert to a Casanova Wannabe who would overreact to the presence of a pretty woman like a man who's been starved and dehydrated for weeks.
  • In the Dressrosa arc, Sanji proved himself to be a very good leader when Luffy and half of the Straw Hats were off dealing with Doflamingo and his crew, as he was able to give the Big Mom Pirates a bit of trouble with his assault (with Luffy's blessing).
  • In the Zou and Totto Land arcs, Sanji rediscovers his blood ties with the Vinsmokes, who he had not seen in years, and is forced to put up with them because his father made him the lynchpin that will seal the Vinsmokes' alliance with the Big Mom Pirates. To make things worse, Judge blackmailed his weakling son into submission, to the point where Sanji had to bend himself over backwards constantly to please both his family and Big Mom so his friends or the Baratie chefs wouldn't be assassinated. Despite having every reason to hate his asshole father and brothers, he ultimately decides to save them from being executed by Big Mom's family after Reiju tells him the truth behind his mother's death and his brothers' behaviors. Vinsmoke Sora ends up getting the last laugh as Sanji's unearthed compassion saves the Straw Hats, the Vinsmokes, and the Firetank Pirates from total annihilation, and even finds a new ally in his supposed "fiancee", Charlotte Pudding, who falls in love with him after he heals her broken heart and helps the Straw Hats flee Big Mom's wrath. Even better, all the Vinsmokes are indebted to the one they dismissed as a failure.
  • In the Reverie arc, Sanji discovers that Niji secretly gave him his own raid suit, which he assumes to be Condescending Compassion on his brother's part. He understandably refuses to use his raid suit and denounces the use of science to make people stronger, despite knowing that Nami uses the Clima-Tact to fight her enemies. However, in the Wano arc, he gets over it and prepares to use it against the rampaging Page One, knowing that he'll end up revealing himself as a Vinsmoke.
  • Sanji learns to rely more on his crewmates after the events at Whole Cake Island, realizing that he cannot shoulder burdens alone. Sanji even asks Robin, who he would have never asked for help before due to his chivalrous nature, to save him from Black Maria.
  • When Sanji thinks he had harmed a geisha while using his Raid Suit during the fight against Queen, he questions which version of himself would best serve Luffy — a human who won't hit a woman or a heartless soldier of science. Sanji chooses to destroy the Raid Suit, resolving to not further awaken his dormant genetic modification and retain his humanity.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • It's strange to think that he once (in the manga at least) almost shot Nico Robin, albeit an instinctive reaction to Vivi being threatened. What ever happened to that pistol, anyway?
  • Sanji used to be more reserved and often always irritable, now he's not only high-strung, but he goes into goofy states of mind when involved with women. Justified, however; you try living on an island full of transvestites who think you're attractive and chase you everywhere you go while having absolutely no contact with real women for two straight years and see how you behave after that.
  • His kindness and altruism become highlighted and focused on as defining traits of his in the Whole Cake Island Arc, to the point where his sister considers them to be the most prominent and important aspects of his personality. However, if you look at past One Piece, he isn't always altruistic and forgiving. Though all of this is certainly not too inconsistent with his character, notably he is introduced as the type of person who would willingly choose to feed a violent pirate purely because he's starving, regardless of his past actions. However, there is one egregious matter of how he was ready to abandon the innocent kids suffering under Caesar in the Punk Hazard Arc if it weren't for Nami (Though to be fair, neither he nor Nami knew about the situation the kids were in at the time). Regardless, his family's physical and emotional abuse for being "weak", combined with living the rest of his childhood with the hard-handed yet well-meaning Zeff, has never caused Sanji's compassion to go away.
• Character Tics: When under extreme stress, Sanji has been shown to express anxiety by ruffling his hair and/or curling into himself as to bring his head down towards his legs. He was shown to have done the latter as a child while he was trapped on the rock with Zeff, and he did the former once while the Straw Hats were being hunted down by Kuma, but most prominently, he has done either one of or a combination of both of these tics several times throughout the Totto Land Arc, the cause of which being the extreme stress he's being put under because of his abusive family, along with their forcing of him into an arranged marriage with one of Big Mom's daughters and all of the consequences that have come of that.
• Charles Atlas Superpower:
  • Considering his legs are strong enough to casually kick away large sea monsters, he definitely qualifies. To the extent that he's become stronger than his genetically-enhanced siblings, despite lacking those enhancements himself for most of the story.
  • His shadow and his soul enable weaker bodies to perform superhuman feats, as seen with Dog Penguin and Nami. Dog Penguin's body wasn't modified for combat as it's originally meant to be given a lesser shadow, but Sanji's shadow makes the zombie so powerful that is considered equal to a Zombie General in terms of strength. And during the time his soul is placed into Nami's body, her body is capable of kicking big sharks and performing weaker versions of Sanji's techniques like Blue Walk. While neither Dog Penguin or "Nami" ends up being as strong as Sanji himself, the fact that his shadow/soul is able to empower them that much says a lot about him. On the flip side, Nami in Sanji's body isn't very capable in combat, but his trained body is durable enough that she's able to endure and survive fatal attacks that would have normally killed her.
• Chef of Iron: Of the 'Ordinary' variety, although he names his attacks after food and cooking methods. He is capable of using cooking utensils as weapons with some proficiency, but prefers not to as they are meant for helping people, not hurting them. He never uses food itself as a weapon, and others doing so frustrates him, since he considers it wasteful; the only time he uses knives was against Wanze in the Water 7 arc, since cutting up Wanze's ramen armor was no different than preparing food.
• Chekhov's Gag: Sanji made a pervy face while he goofed off with those mermaids during the Fish-Man Island arc. Several years later, in the Zou arc, his new Wanted Poster features that exact moment (down to the fish that were in the background), and it ends up becoming a driving factor in the reemergence of his family.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • His new bounty poster, the one with a legitimate picture of him reads "Alive Only" instead of the typical "Dead or Alive" hinting someone powerful doesn't want him dead.
  • His "No. 3" raid suit, which Niji gave to him as a token of goodwill in the beginning of the Reverie arc after the Straw Hats manage to escape Totto Land. At first, Sanji wanted nothing to do with Germa's technology or science, despite Nami and Usopp's protests, but he proceeds to pull it out and use it to fight Page One.
• The Chessmaster: Sanji isn't just a great martial artist, he's also a genius-level manipulator, able to outsmart brilliant people such as Crocodile. He also shows a habit of playing people like fiddles through the series, usually opting to sabotage or confuse enemies covertly while the rest of the crew handles more direct approaches (such as prior to the start of the Enies Lobby Arc). This is later justified after the Time Skip, where the Totto Land Arc revealed that Sanji and his siblings were all trained in military strategy since childhood so they can become brilliant Germa 66 commanders. It's a good thing he ran away and is now on the side of good, because Sanji's presence would spell "instant failure" for the villains' plans.
• Chick Magnet: Funnily and ironically enough, even though he's a Casanova Wannabe most of the time, Sanji does tend to attract women whenever he manages to act relatively normal (i.e., not outright perverted) for more than five minutes. He's also usually popular at parties.
• Chivalrous Pervert: And how; as much as he goes gaga over pretty women and tries to flirt with them, he refuses to harm a woman even if it would cost him his life. Do not mistreat women in his vicinity unless you want him to literally explode with rage. Zeff is the reason behind this, literally beating it into his head that he must never harm a lady or he will be a failure as a man. Despite Pudding absolutely loathing the fact that she would be marrying a pervert, Sanji's attraction to her Third Eye saves his life when Pudding, taken aback by his compliments, reveals herself to be a Broken Bird by collapsing into tears.
• Cigarette Burns: On several occasions, he's burned his opponents in the middle of a fight with his cigarette butt. However, he's rarely resorted to this tactic ever since he actually learned how to generate fire.
• Clark Kent Outfit: Sanji with his suit on looks leaner than Usopp, with his suit off◊ he's about muscly as Zoro.
• Close to Home: Due to Sanji's childhood starvation, wasting or disrespecting food is the one thing that has made him angry enough to use his fists against someone, especially Luffy. Do not do it anywhere near him.
• Clothes Make the Superman: Downplayed. Niji slips a Raid suit into his pocket as a goodbye gift. When he puts aside his distaste towards everything Germa, and dons it, it enhances his already considerable Charles Atlas Superpower and Made of Iron stats, and grants him his childhood dream of invisibility.
• Color Character: Sanji is given the name "Black Leg", since he fights like his mentor, "Red Leg" Zeff, and wears a black suit with black shoes. This is notably in contrast to his siblings, whose epithets are in English written in katakana, while Sanji's name is in Japanese written with kanji. And he actually would have gotten the color of black in Germa, too, as in the comic strip Germa's No. 3 was "Stealth Black".
• Color Failure: When he heard Zoro saying he and Duval, whose ugly face matches the drawing from his wanted poster, are 'like two peas in a pod', he looks offended◊, to put it mildly.
• Color Motif:
  • Sanji usually wears blue, which symbolizes masculinity, wisdom, and sorrow, and Oda would often give him blue as his designated color within the Straw Hat Crew. A very far cry from the Cheerful Child he once was, thanks to suffering a Dark and Troubled Past with the Vinsmokes. It also connects him to Vinsmoke Niji, his older quadruplet brother who also has blue as his color theme. In this case, blue connects them in how they were both affected by Judge growing up (being horrifically abused for having compassion vs. being literally and completely unable to empathize with others) and how Sanji is everything Niji could have become if his empathy wasn't removed by Judge in-utero. In the anime, Nami's orange eyes change to blue when Sanji is in her body.
  • When he was younger, his designated color was yellow, as it would have marked him as a genetically-modified Vinsmoke like his sister and brothers. Ironically, it showed his childlike innocence and kindness, things that Sanji managed to keep thanks to Sora's attempts to preserve her sons' humanity.
  • After the two-year timeskip, Sanji took to wearing orange, which represents warmth and passion (possibly invoking his fire powers through "Hell Memories").
• Combat Pragmatist: Though he practices an elegant martial art and has a strict code of honor, he's not above burning his opponents with his cigarette to catch them off guard. He'll also occasionally play mind games with his opponent to get them to drop their guard so he can surprise them with a kick, a tactic he's used against Mr.2 and Jabra.
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: In an SBS in vol. 68, Oda confirmed that Sanji was modeled after Steve Buscemi as Mr. Pink from the movie Reservoir Dogs.
• Cooking Duel: Gets into a few in anime Filler. He always wins, of course.
• Cultured Badass: He's the number one Chivalrous Pervert and Supreme Chef, who loves to wear nice-looking suits.

D - G

• Dance Battler: Most of the Black Leg Style's kicking techniques resemble real life Capoeira moves.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Sanji was born the third son of the Vinsmoke family, a family of royal assassins who once ruled the North Blue (they're trying to fix that). Before he and his (older and younger) fraternal quadruplet brothers were even born, Judge altered their DNA in utero and surgically removed their ability to feel empathy, so he can turn them into the perfect killing machines. Sanji's mother, Sora, who completely disagreed with her husband's plan, secretly ate a drug that reversed gene modifications so she can protect their sons, but unfortunately she was only successful in saving Sanji while Ichiji, Yonji, and Niji have but a shred of humanity left, and died as a result of the drug's effects while Sanji was still young. When Judge discovered Sanji still remained compassionate and physically remained as strong as a normal kid, he forever deemed him a "failure" in his eyes, and let Sanji's brothers viciously bully him for most of his childhood, even telling Sanji to his face that he isn't worth raising as a Vinsmoke. His only ray of hope, after Sora died, was his older sister, Reiju, who could only help him in private due to her fear of being abused as well. Judge eventually attempted to "start over" by forcing an iron mask onto Sanji and leaving him to rot in the family dungeons, while declaring him as "dead" in public; Reiju came to his rescue by freeing him, and guided him to a passing cruise ship, the Orbit, while their family was preoccupied with their conquests, telling to find people who love him and never come back home again. Judge found out, but let him go on the condition that he keep his true birthright a secret. While working as a ship's cook on the Orbit, the ship was attacked by the pirate "Red Leg" Zeff and his crew. A freak storm occurred during the attack, of which Zeff and Sanji were the only survivors, and both were marooned on an island where they experienced extreme starvation due to little resources. Because Sanji shared Zeff's dream of becoming a chef, Zeff helped him during their time on the island, even giving him all the food they had left. Eventually they were rescued, but Sanji's horrific experiences shaped him into the man he is today.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Sanji's stylish suits are usually black with a blue (and orange, post-Time Skip) shirt. This would later apply to his Raid Suit, as it's mainly black.
• Deadly Dodging: He dodges Katakuri's jellybean shot and it instantly kills the priest behind him instead.
• Death Glare: Gives Charlotte Katakuri one after seeing a jellybean kill the wedding priest instead of him. He knows what's going on.
• Defeat by Modesty: During his (filler) duel against the substitute "Queen" of Kamabakka, he's soon forced to resort only to weak, low kicks because his opponents keeps peeping at his bloomers when he tries to kick him. (Sanji having been forced to wear a dress to get Caroline to fight him.)
• Defector from Decadence: Despite a pirate lifestyle being decadent as well, on paper, Sanji comes from an even worse evil group, the Nazi-esque Germa 66. Sanji fled to the East Blue to live a life away from the Vinsmoke family and distance himself from his old life, not wanting anything to do with his father and older brothers' lifestyles as assassins.
• Delinquent Hair: In the gag comic "Mugiwara Theatre — Red-Hair of Class 3-Sea Time", Sanji sports a curly pompadour that covers his left eye just like his hair did pre-Time Skip. In said gag comic, he's depicted as a chain-smoking school delinquent.
• Despair Event Horizon:
  • In Chapter 845, Sanji crosses this when he believes he is truly out of options in getting out of his Arranged Marriage and going back to his friends, since one misstep meant his loved ones will die. Pudding decides to call off their wedding for his sake, but Sanji persuades her not to and hugs her while calling his bride-to-be his "savior".
  • He gets hit with it even harder when Pudding turns out to be a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, as he loses the one ray of hope he had left in this situation. Though when he calls her much-hated Third Eye "beautiful", he sends her into a tearful Villainous Breakdown and leaves her unable to kill him.
• Dirty Kid: Flashbacks to his childhood years while in Baratie (in Ch. 839) shows that he's been a perv ever since he's still a kid. Zeff repeatedly scolded him for it. The gag comic "Mugiwara Theatre — Family Time" even depicted him as a middle-schooler who "likes chicks" and goes to the girls' locker room while the girls are undressing to deliver Nami her things she forgot, all while sporting a lewd expression on his face.
• Distracted by the Sexy: He always loses his focus when he sees a pretty woman and he's particularly susceptible to Honey Traps. One egregious example is when he knows his "fiancee" Charlotte Pudding is really planning to kill him on the altar, but he's so attracted to her that he lets himself get sucked into her flirtations again anyway. However, despite these tendencies, he does have a degree of self-restraint when it counts, and it leads him to again slip up in regards to Pudding, with unexpected consequences.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": He prefers to go by "(Black Leg) Sanji" rather than "Vinsmoke" Sanji, and the Baratie crew plus the Straw Hat Pirates are his only family. Even if he cares for his elder sister Reiju and doesn't despise his father and brothers enough to wish death on them, he will become severely offended if anyone tries to tie him to the Germa 66 and its royal family.
• Dodge the Bullet: Like Luffy and Zoro, Sanji is fast enough to dodge bullets point-blank. Even more impressively though, he can dodge Katakuri's jellybeans just as easily despite the fact that said person can see into the future and see his opponents' moves. This implies that Sanji moves too fast for Katakuri to glance into the future in time to counteract him.
• Does Not Like Spam: According to Oda, he hates the konjac root as it is not nutritious to him.
• Double Jump: After the Time Skip, he can replicate CP9's Geppou, except he calls it "Sky Walk", and fly; that's what you get for running away from Creepy Crossdressers for two straight years.
• Dramatic Sit-Down: He does this after the true nature behind the existence of the Germa 66 Soldiers is revealed to him. Directly beforehand, he claimed to be feeling nauseous, and directly afterwards, he has a Cigarette of Anxiety to help himself calm down, which leaves the overall impression that the weight of the information that was revealed to him left him on the verge of a panic attack.
• Dramatic Unmask: In Chapter 845, he privately reveals to Pudding how horrible his family is by removing Reiju's facial mask, revealing a horrifically swollen and bruised face. Pudding is so shocked that she simultaneously starts crying and apologizing for inconveniencing him... at least on the surface.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: A common Running Gag early on was his obsession with getting a bounty poster of his own, a wish that ended up backfiring badly as his posters tend to always feature something that inconveniences him big time. This aspect of his personality is highlighted even more once Jimbei joins, as it's hard to not get overlooked with a former Warlord around.
• The Dulcinea Effect: In classic chivalrous fashion. If a woman is in danger, Sanji will drop everything and save her immediately. Examples include running in the opposite direction of his goal to save the Marine woman Tashigi and deserting a rather important mission on Dressrosa to assist the Femme Fatale Viola. He later develops a "damsel-in-distress" sixth sense. He quickly runs into conflict with his brother Niji over this, as he steps in to protect a helpless chef that Niji was about to abuse. And when he does brutally beat her behind Sanji's back, Sanji immediately sets out to avenge her.
• Elemental Punch: His Diable Jambe is basically fire, powered by his Hot-Blooded temper, put into a kick.
• Empowered Badass Normal: In the first part of the story, Sanji is simply a Supreme Chef who happens to be really good at kicking. His kicks would even break metallic objects. During the timeskip, Sanji has learned Haki and how to "fly" with a "Moonwalk"-style. After the events of Whole Cake Island, Sanji receives a raid suit from his brothers, which he reluctantly uses for the first time in Wano, that gives him invisibility. While fighting Queen Sanji manifests the same ultra-durable body his brothers have and the ability to instantly heal his bones. He's not at all happy about the last two, since it makes him more like his evil brothers.
• Enemy Mine: Despite their less than amicable relationship, he's not above saving and then teaming up with his father and brothers when surrounded by the Charlotte Family and with both parties in need of some more manpower. He does, however, silently demand that they help his friends with a glare on his face after he frees them, earning an annoyed look from Judge while his siblings comply.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Quite a few guys are attracted to him.
  • Duval's slip of the tongue reveals he's got a crush on Sanji.
  • And, he had the drag queens on Okama Island hitting on him and dressing him up for two years. Poor guy.
  • Also, the two men on Fish-Man Island who gave him blood transfusions.
• Everyone Has Standards: Though he's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold and a Supreme Chef, Sanji has a few lines he will not cross.
  • Knowing what it was like to nearly starve to death twice, Sanji will give anyone who is hungry food, be it friend or foe.
  • While Sanji may hate most of his biological family, especially Judge, he's not willing to just let them die at the hands of Big Mom.
  • Normally he's a complete doormat when it comes to women (especially Nami), but he will speak out against them if he feels strongly enough about the subject at hand, such as Usopp re-joining the crew after his fight with Luffy.
  • According to Oda the reason Sanji doesn't Wingding Eyes around his sister is because she's his sister and even he wouldn't commit incest.
• Everything Sounds Sexier in French: His attack names are in French.
• Extremity Extremist: His legs, of course. The explanation is that, though in earlier battles he was using his hands for handstands, he needs his hands for cooking (which, coincidentally, is similar to a principle of Capoeira — "hands are a tool of creation, feet are a tool of destruction" — and he also has some capoeira-esque attacks).
• Fakeout Makeout: With Violet/Viola. It's vague enough that it could be just a hug though.
• Family of Choice: Explicitly states during the Whole Cake Island Arc that Zeff is his father, not Judge.
• The Farmer and the Viper: During his introductory arc, Don Krieg was left starving after Dracule Mihawk destroyed his fleet, and Sanji took pity on him by feeding him over everyone's protests. Unfortunately for Sanji, Krieg "thanked" him by attacking him the moment he felt satiated and declared his intent to claim the floating restaurant as his new flagship. Sanji likely knew that this would be the outcome, but having nearly starved to death himself twice, he wouldn't wish such a fate on anyone.
• Fastball Special: His Armée de L'air combo moves, in which he uses his powerful legs to launch his friends in the direction of the enemy.
• The Fettered: It's strongly implied that Sanji is more than capable of defeating his entire family, as demonstrated by his offscreen beatdown of Yonji and his battle with Judge (which Judge only won through foul play), but their threats against Zeff and his adopted family keep him from following through.
• First-Name Basis: Makes absolutely zero mention of his surname willingly. It isn't until the Zou Arc that it gets spoken aloud for the first time — and not by him. That's because he has sworn himself to never speak the name "Vinsmoke" again by his own father's instructions and he bears an undying hatred for the family itself.
• Flanderization: In Sanji's very first appearance, he was able to have actual conversations with women he was attracted to and attempted to woo. Now? Not so much. He also went from generally suave and occasionally going gaga over women to going gaga by default and violent nosebleeds at worst after the Time Skip, though this was a result of spending two years on an island full of transvestites. He's displayed some signs of Forgot Flanders Could Do That a few arcs later however; though he still freaks out when talking to women far more than he originally ever did, he actually manages to talk like a human being long enough to leave a good impression on the mermaids, Viola, Carrot, and Pudding.
• Flower Motifs: According to Yuriko Yamaguchi (Robin's voice actress), Sanji's flower is the delphinium, which represents passionate attachment and a huge heart. He is an utter romantic who goes heart-eyed at the sight of beautiful women, and an utterly Nice Guy underneath his abrasiveness. Ironically, because of the delphinium's toxicity, it means death — he's a Spanner in the Works who "kills" villainous plans, and an utter failure when it comes to successfully seducing and forming long-term relationships with women. It could also reference Sanji's birth family of royal assassins; how his father, Judge, tried "killing" the notion of compassion and empathy by psychologically/physically altering his children; how Sanji's mother, Sora, died trying to save him and his quadruplet brothers from being turned into utterly emotionless weapons; and/or how Sanji nearly starved to death twice, the first time being left to die in the dungeons by Judge just because he was born a "dud" unlike his enhanced siblings.
• Foil:
  • To Pudding: Both are talented chefs as well as royalty, yet were subjected to heavy abuse and bullying. Sanji had the support of loving family members who didn't agree with the abuse his father and brothers were giving him, and eventually helped him run away from home. Pudding had no one to turn to, and while Big Mom doted on her, even she thought her daughter's Third Eye was freaky. While both of them became messed up as adults, Sanji was far emotionally adjusted than Pudding, who became a sadistic Broken Bird who closed her heart to all acts of kindness.
  • To Wanze: Both are chefs, except when Sanji touches food, they turn into perfect, tasty-looking dishes, while Wanze creates ramen bowls in a disgusting manner (eats flour, chews on it, then spits out noodles through his nose). Wanze also uses food and knives as weapons, and leaves his own kitchen in an absolutely abysmal state, all of which are grave affronts to any professional cook. Naturally, Sanji shows him how it's done and beats him rather quickly afterwards.
• Food Porn: Any scene where he's cooking and/or serving food inevitably turns into this, as demonstrated during the filler G8 Arc. Unsurprisingly, it attracts people like Luffy.
• Foreshadowing: As early as chapter 227, Sanji makes an off-hand comment about having been born in North Blue. It flies over the characters' heads and isn't mentioned again for a while, but attentive readers may realize that it doesn't add-up since the crew met Sanji in East Blue and crossing from one of the five seas to another is only possible by sailing through Calm Belt (which is basically impossible without a Marine warship or an absurd amount of individual power), accomplishing the full Grand Line trip around the world (which nobody did since the King of the Pirates) or being a very wealthy/influential individual with the World Government's authorization to cross Red Line. More than 600 chapters later and over a decade in real-world time, it is finally revealed that Sanji was a prince from a kingdom in North Blue and he fled his family as they were crossing the East Blue side of the Red Line.
• Four Is Death: Played with. While he's the third-born of male fraternal quadruplets, he's biologically the fourth child of the Vinsmokes, with his sister Reiju, and his elder quadruplet brothers Ichiji and Niji preceding him, in that order. Judge experimented on him and his siblings in-utero to turn them into emotionless super-soldiers... but their mother tried to save her sons from this fate, dying in the process. Of him and his brothers, Sanji was the only one born with his empathy still intact.
• Freakiness Shame: How Pudding expected Sanji to react to her Third Eye on their wedding day, so she could kill him and the Vinsmokes according to Big Mom's plan. However, she and her family didn't expect Sanji to be kind enough as to actually compliment it.
• Freaky Is Cool: Sanji genuinely finds his "fiancee" Charlotte Pudding's Third Eye beautiful and tells her so on the altar even though he knows she's trying to kill him. Pudding — having been called an ugly freak by others her whole life and never hearing such a thing before — has a Villainous Breakdown at this display of immense kindness and can't go through with killing him. Furthermore, she actually falls madly in love with him not too long afterwards, perhaps being the first woman to love Sanji back in a romantic sense.
• Fur and Loathing: The "Mugiwara Theatre — Detective Loomes" gag comic has Sanjeen (Sanji), a sharply-dressed Professional Killer who wears a fur scarf and is suspected by the titular Detective Loomes (Luffy) to have killed the rich man Bronegie (Brook) for his money. He's actually innocent.
• Genius Bruiser: Is very smart as well as strong and extremely fast.
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: Possibly. In one SBS Question Corner, the crew is asked what kind of season on what kind of island they like best. Sanji's reply is "I like Robin on a Nami island!"
• The Glomp: A Running Gag through the series is Sanji attempting to hug the beautiful women he meets and always failing for one reason or another.
• Going Native: He does this in the island of drag queens, though not of his own will. The natives put him in a dress that he didn't want to wear.
• Good Is Not Nice: Downplayed. Possibly as the result of being raised by an entire crew of rowdy jerk chefs with hearts of gold at Baratie and being abused for most of his childhood by his asshole royal family, he tends to be one of the meaner or ruder crew members towards the locals the Straw Hats meet (the men only of course) or to prioritize the safety of the crew over all else. He does have his heart of gold, but he isn't the type to mince words either.
• Gratuitous French: Most of his attacks are cooking terms in French.
  • Which wasn't kept in the 4Kids dub, instead giving every attack food puns.
  • The French attack names were reinstated for the Funimation dub.
• Green-Eyed Monster:
  • Played for Laughs when he learns about exactly where Luffy got sent by Kuma. Good thing he's still unaware that Hancock loves Luffy and wanted to marry him.
  • Also played for laughs is his reactions to Zoro being Always Someone Better every time he pulls off something cool or claims he's the best... only for Zoro to call bullshit.
  • His reaction when pretty women give more attention to every man that's not him.
• Guile Hero: Pretty good at making strategies, this trait was notably seen in the Alabasta as "Mr. Prince". With the amount of taunting and misdirection that went Crocodile's way, it's pretty safe to say he was the closest thing to a rival Chessmaster (after Nico Robin) in that arc.

H - M

• Had to Be Sharp: His siblings are Super Soldiers. Sanji was intended to be like them, his brothers in particular, but because his dead mother, Sora, secretly took a gene modification-reversing drug in an attempt to preserve her sons' humanity, only Sanji showed that he was not much more than a normal kid. However, his experiences on the Grand Line as a pirate have toughened him to the point that he can easily defeat Yonji, and the later Wano arc makes it clear that he's grown up to be the strongest of all his siblings.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Sanji is the only Straw Hat with blonde hair and while he may be a pervert and a bit of jerk to his male crew members, he deeply cares for every single member and will lay down his life for each of them. His kindness is the trait that his sister Reiju admires most about him, as it is a constant reminder that their mother's Heroic Sacrifice to save Sanji and his brothers from becoming Judge's Tykebombs was not in vain.
• Handsome Lech: At first, his perverted tendencies were accompanied by women actually finding him charming, but later on, his advances are always met with rejection and/or physical abuse. This eventually goes back the other way, however. The New Kamas, Mermaids, Viola, Minks, and Pudding all take a liking to him (Pudding actually falls in love with him, in fact).
• Happily Adopted: Not that he'd admit it. Nonetheless, Sanji grew up to be a well-adjusted young man under Zeff's parentage. Given that his real father is Judge, he really lucked out with Zeff. This is cemented during the Whole Cake Island Arc when Sanji finally calls Zeff the other f-word.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • An In-Universe example. Nearly starving to death on an island at 10 years old is bad enough by itself, but the real tragedy is that this happened after Sanji had already fled from the same fate once; that is, having been left to waste away in a dungeon by his own father at only 8 years old. It's lucky, though, that Zeff's kindness gave him a chance to survive.
  • His chain-smoking habit seems to be a coping mechanism to deal with all the shit he went through as a little kid including being subjected to horrific abuse by his birth family and nearly starving to death in the family dungeons for the first time.
• Hated Hometown: He despises the Germa Kingdom, which resides in the North Blue. It's not hard to see why, given it's the place where his father and brothers abused him during his childhood for not being an emotionless Tyke-Bomb like Judge intended him to be. It actually factors into Reiju's decision to secretly help Sanji escape to the East Blue in hopes of finding a better life there.
• Hates Their Parent: He's resentful towards his biological father Judge because of the latter's abuse towards him as a child.
• Heritage Disconnect: Sanji purposefully abandons his family's heritage when he was eight after years of being abused by his father and older brothers. When he meets them again 13 years later, Sanji tells them he doesn't consider himself a Vinsmoke anymore.
• Heroic BSoD: He shuts down emotionally about halfway through the Totto Land arc upon realizing that there's essentially no way out of the situation, first deciding to forget about his aspirations with the crew to marry Pudding and then, after finding out she's no good, deciding to just let himself be killed. Fortunately for Sanji, he recovers after Luffy pummels him in the face with his fist.
• Heroic RRoD: Relatively minor example, but there have been a few instances in which the force behind his kicks has been detrimental to himself, mainly after already taking a beating.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Subverted. After Zoro offers his life for Luffy's to Kuma, Sanji tries to take his place, but Zoro knocks him out before he can go through it.
  • While at Zou, Capone Bege assaults the Mink base to retrieve Sanji, threatening to kill Nami, Chopper and Brook, but Sanji follows him to save his crewmates.
• Hilariously Abusive Childhood: During his childhood at the Baratie, Zeff uses lots of physical punishment to turn Sanji into a Supreme Chef and to teach him to never hit a woman. Sanji's childhood with the Vinsmokes, however, is revealed to be a horrible, horrible aversion — the difference is that Zeff genuinely cared for Sanji behind his insults and hard hands, while Sanji's birth father Judge and his fraternal quadruplet brothers mistreated him because they only saw him as a weak waste of space.
• Honor Before Reason:
  • Having nearly starved to death twice as a kid, death by starvation is a fate he literally wouldn't wish on his worst enemy; if someone is starving, he'll feed them without exception, including Big Mom, to the point that he refuses to go along with Bege's plan to poison the cake meant for her.
  • He won't hit a girl, even to save his own life or anyone else's. Nami lampshades how stupid this is on a practical sense, despite being an admirable trait, given Sanji lives in a World of Badass where Action Girls can be found on every island. There are several reasons why he follows this belief, some based on simple perversion, but the main reason: it's to honor Zeff, who believes that a man should never, ever hit a woman. And who literally beat that belief into Sanji, including threatening to castrate him if he ever heard Sanji had hit a girl.
• Hopeless Suitor: He seemed like this back when Nami was the only girl around he could try to woo most of the time. This changed once other ladies joined the crew and it became more and more apparent he'd hit on anything with shapely hips and a nice rack (though given this series, those two criteria apply to about 95% of the post-pubescent girls the Straw Hats encounter). Nami is still the primary source of his attention, but by no means the only one. He does manage to woo Charlotte Pudding, a sadistic psychopath who was actually a Broken Bird, but due to Big Mom's intense animosity with the Straw Hats, he was forced to leave after helping bake the wedding cake Big Mom hungered for, leaving Pudding heartbroken.
• Hope Spot: He proclaims that Pudding is his only "ray of hope" left after he's dragged into the mess that is the Arranged Marriage between him and her and the implications thereof. But then he overhears her conversation with Reiju, where it's revealed that Pudding has concealed her true nature the whole time — one of a cunning, sadistic (and completely broken Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who plans to have him killed during the wedding. However, things get better later on: Pudding actually falls in love with him, and furthermore, becomes and invaluable asset in helping the Straw Hats escape from Whole Cake island.
• Hot-Blooded: Usually when the ladies are in danger, he gets so Hot-Blooded that he actually bursts into flames for comedic effect. It's also the author's explanation for him being able to pull off Diable Jambe, breaking the laws of physics in the process. It Runs on Nonsensoleum indeed. However, it's deconstructed in the Totto Land arc when readers meet Sanji's equally hot-tempered yet utterly cruel brother, Niji — because Judge modified him in the womb, Niji is literally unable to feel or understand compassion, turning his anger into absolute spite. It's also implied that anger is the only thing Niji could properly feel. Had Sanji turned out like his brothers, he would have become just as bad as him
• Iconic Outfit: His very first black suit with the blue shirt and tie as well as his first Time Skip suit with the orange shirt are the most notorious outfits. Like Luffy, his outfit contributed to his In-Universe nickname, "Black Leg".
• I'm a Humanitarian: Although he's likely bluffing to upset his foe, Sanji threatens Absalom by saying he'd cook him, saying that given how many animals are part of him, he'd make "decent mince-meat".
• Immune to Bullets: As a result of the raid suit activating his dormant genetic modifications during the Onigashima raid, Sanji becomes completely immune to common gunfire. Upon being shot in the head 3 times, the bullets simply bounce off him and only cause mild discomfort.
• In a Single Bound: He can jump very high, best seen when he defeats Satori in the Skypeia Arc (here). He can also do a Wall Jump and, after the Timeskip, the Double Jump.
• Incendiary Exponent: Weaponized, via his Diable Jambe technique. A Post-Time Skip cover seems to imply that he went to Playing with Fire as well. Which, of course, is later confirmed for all intents and purposes.
• Inconsistent Spelling: The Odex dub initially misspelled his name as "Sangi".
• Informed Attribute: His father, Judge, mentions during their fight that he taught Sanji how to sword fight as a child, wondering why he's only fighting with kicks. This is of course justified, as Sanji then tells him that he'll only use his hands for cooking, which he has mentioned before. He's made exactly one exception, for his fight with Wanze and his ramen armor.
  • He also masterfully wields Wado Ichimonji to prepare sashimi in the Shokugeki no Sanji spinoff.
  • A later Shokugeki no Sanji entry shows him combining his sword experience with his observation of Zeff's cooking expertise to cut into an extra-tough ram carcass for mutton that none of the other chefs thought was possible to manage.
• In Love with Love: Practically oozes this trope as part of his Chivalrous Pervert personality.
• Instant Expert: Shown to be able to use his Raid Suit’s abilities, both standard and unique, without any issues when first using it against Page One.
• Insult to Rocks: After his brother Niji beats up a family cook to spite him for standing up for her in front of his family, Sanji is infuriated to the point where he can only bring himself to call Niji "the shit beneath [scum]."
• Invisibility: He wants the Devil Fruit with this power and isn't happy that the Fruit's been claimed. The reveal that his raid suit comes with stealth capability for his supposed epithet of "Stealth Black", he might have actually been designed with inherent power of invisibility if his mother didn't manage to undo the modifications.
• Ironic Hell: A Chivalrous Pervert, blasted to an island of drag queens at the end of Sabaody and forced to join in. Kuma must have a twisted sense of humor...
• Irony:
  • Sanji saw his dream of being an invisible man crushed after seeing Absalom had already eaten the Clear-Clear Fruit and yet his raid suit gives him the power of invisibility. Sanji lampshades the irony that Germa 66, the organization he hates from the bottom of his heart, fulfilled his crushed dreams of having the power to turn invisible.
  • Growing up, Sanji was the weakest member of the Vinsmoke family due to not inheriting any of the gene modifications Judge gave his children in-utero. As an adult, not only is Sanji unambiguously the strongest member of the family, it turns out he did inherit the modifications; they had simply lain dormant within him until his continued use of his raid suit wakes them up. Then he becomes the perfect soldier Judge had always wanted, stronger than all his brothers combined without his raid suit (as proven when he defeats Queen), on top of still being capable of empathy. And yet, because of Judge's own arrogance and short-sightedness, he's lost any chance of Sanji serving at his side.
  • The only time Sanji manages to score a girl (Pudding) is when he drops his usual perverted tendencies. The rest of the time, he's unable to score any girl no matter how hard he tries.
• I Want Them Alive!: The wanted posters normally has "Dead or Alive" written under the bounties but, when the Straw Hats receive new bounties following the events of Dressrosa, Luffy notices Sanji's bounty says "Only Alive" rather than "Dead or Alive" like the other Straw Hats. This is because Sanji is part of the Vinsmoke family, a world-renowned family that rules the North Blue.
• Jaw Drop: When his brother Yonji shows him Germa 66's secret cloning labs, Sanji responds with complete shock.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Though Sanji's introduced as a jerk who's interested in women and cooking, he feeds a dying Gin (a noted pirate with no money) because he can't bear to watch people starve or suffer. And this theming is consistent with him throughout the series, as Sanji is one of the first members to openly to sympathize with Usopp after he leaves the crew, the first to want to help Kinemon (despite everyone else wanting to leave him behind) and the thought of his abusive, awful family being killed brings him to tears despite the fact that they were demonstrably awful to him. Even in his day to day interactions with the Straw Hats, he's harsh and dismissive to the male members of the crew (The females, however...), but he still loves and respects them as friends (he notably feeds them, no matter how annoying their requests are).
• Jizzed in My Pants: He does the nosebleeds version of this trope. After spending 2 years on an island full of Transvestites, it's become rather easy to set him off.
• Karmic Jackpot:
  • Invoked by him in regards to his older sister, Reiju.
    • For much of his childhood, Reiju would always dress up Sanji's wounds whenever he got injured, either from Germa 66's extreme Training from Hell or his quadruplet brothers' No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. Years later, after finding Reiju battered and psychologically tormented by Pudding, Sanji returns the favor by promptly calling for a doctor, who gives Reiju the medical attention she needed.
    • While Reiju recovered from injuries inflicted by Pudding, she reveals to Sanji that she wants to die with the rest of her family out of guilt for condoning their atrocities, and wants him to leave with the Straw Hats unburdened by Germa 66's legacy. Sanji, who was lovingly cared for by Reiju in private as children and was able to run away from home thanks to his sister, refuses to abandon her to her fate and saves both her and the other Vinsmokes from being massacred by the Charlotte Family, despite his personal feelings towards his abusive father and brothers.
  • Sanji's act of saving his family from the Charlotte Family causes the Vinsmokes to be indebted to him. This leads to Sanji and a badly-injured Luffy being rescued by his older/younger siblings after they're overwhelmed by a brutal Zerg Rush led by Charlotte Oven, with Niji launching Sanji towards the other Straw Hats with a powerful kick. Niji also gives Sanji his own raid suit, which would prove useful in Sanji's fight with Page One in the Wano Arc.
• Ki Manipulation: Post time-skip, he has awakened Haki. He seems to specialize in the Color of Observation. He also showcases Armament Haki later on, during his fight against his father, Judge.
• King Incognito: Sanji is revealed to be the third son of the Vinsmokes, a royal Underworld family of assassins that once ruled the North Blue with an iron fist. In the world of royal politics, Sanji would be considered a really, really big deal — the Vinsmokes' exploits and brutality made them feared worldwide, and they have enough political pull to attend the Reverie every year and manipulate HQ Marines to do their bidding, enough to make an Emperor interested in their service. All of that makes them a couple of steps below the World Nobles themselves in power. However, while it seems like Sanji made a mistake in becoming a pirate rather than staying a prince, he actually has good reason — his father, Judge, tried weaponizing him and his brothers while they were still in their mother's womb, causing Sanji's mother, Sora, to desperately consume a very dangerous drug so her sons would keep their humanity. Only Sanji was saved, and for that, he was abused by his brothers (who literally can't understand their own cruelty) and laughed at by his sister, Reiju, who only pretended to side with her family in public because she feared for her own life. What finally made him go on the run was when Judge threw him in the dungeons and left him there to rot, only for Reiju to free him and direct him to a ship that was headed for the East Blue, intent on helping Sanji find people who love him for who he was. Judge knew about his escape, but made him promise never to bring up his family name. That and absolute loathing of his family made him follow on that promise since.
• Kissing Discretion Shot: Though it happens just off-screen from the audiences' point of view, Charlotte Pudding tearfully kisses Sanji goodbye right before he prepares to leave Whole Cake Island. Unfortunately, she uses her powers to erase his memory of the kiss immediately after it happens.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Despite all the horrible things his brothers and father have done to him, he still ultimately can't bring himself to just let them die and was prepared to risk his life to save them from Big Mom even though it almost certainly meant death. Thankfully, Luffy assures him that he and the crew will back him up no matter what. Also, he takes this view on deceitful women as well; no matter how evil they are or how badly they hurt him, he sticks to his values regardless and refuses to harm them — even if it means death.
• Lack of Empathy: Invoked, and averted. Before Sanji and his fraternal quadruplet brothers were born, their father, Judge, attempted to weaponize them by altering their DNA and completely removing their empathy in utero so they can become the perfect Super Soldiers upon birth. Sanji's mother, Sora, tried to protect them by secretly ingesting a drug that reversed gene modification surgeries, but only succeeded in protecting Sanji, while Ichiji, Yonji, and Niji only have a tiny shred of humanity left. Unfortunately, the very fact that Sanji retained his compassion in a family that believed in Might Makes Right made him the sole target of horrific abuse and mistreatment at the hands of his brothers and father. When, during the Onigashima arc Sanji starts manifesting the same physical traits as his brothers while he's fighting Queen, he fears to lose his empathy and become like his brothers.
• Ladykiller in Love: While he did turn down Charlotte Pudding at first, he seems to genuinely like her as a person and, if not for the terrible circumstances he's in, would probably marry her in a heartbeat. The end of Chapter 845 is all about it.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Pudding uses her memory manipulation powers to erase his memory of their kiss immediately after the fact, leaving him completely unaware of what just happened and confused about her suddenly running off.
• The Last Dance: Subverted. During his battle with Queen, Sanji believes his awakened genetic enhancements are causing him to lose his humanity after he apparently hit Some, a woman, despite not remembering it. This prompts Sanji to call Zoro and ask him to kill him if he does become an emotionless killing machine before destroying the Raid Suit and resolving to use whatever time he has left as himself to finish Queen off without relying on Germa's tech. However, upon learning that Queen was the one who hit Some, Sanji loses any desire to die and defeats Queen. Afterwards, Zoro, having absolutely no context as to why Sanji asked to be killed in the first place, attempts make good on his promise, only for Sanji to fight back while angrily stating that it's no longer necessary. Given their relationship, this exchange is naturally Played for Laughs.
• Leitmotif: Sanji Eyecatcher.
• A Lesson Learned Too Well: At a young age, Zeff constantly told and berated him that no matter what, to always be courteous to women. Unfortunately, Zeff's conditioning worked too well as Sanji is unwilling to fight back against Kalifa. Female villains remain Sanji's weakness but, after the events of Whole Cake Island, Sanji learns how to deal with it: when facing Black Maria, he tries to escape, knowing too well he can't win, and calls for help when he's captured.
• Lethal Chef: He used to be a bad cook as a child, with his clumsy attempts (among other things) resulting in extremely bad-tasting food. His sick mother Sora's caretaker Époni was disgusted upon sampling Sanji's dishes and wanted to throw them away, but Sora not only ate them, she praised Sanji's cooking and requested that only he cook for her from now on. Years of practice and help from Zeff at the Baratie would later turn Sanji into the present-day Supreme Chef.
• Let's Meet the Meat: When his family meets up with Big Mom for lunch, Sanji discovers that the food in his prepared "meals" are sentient and constantly singing about how wonderful they taste, and beg him to eat them. As a Supreme Chef, this understandably freaks him out.
• Lightning Bruiser: Sanji is the second fastest member of the Straw Hats while his physical power is roughly the same as that of Zoro and Luffy, and similar to them, he's able to take a lot of serious injuries, albeit less extreme. During the Wano arc, his newly acquired exoskeleton and regeneration ability drastically increase his ability to tank attacks to a point that he's almost invulnerable.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: He's the complete opposite of his Jerkass father in every way, despite having his own flaws.
• Loophole Abuse: While Sanji will never willingly lay a hand on a woman, he has no issues with having one of his female crew mates stepping in and fighting them in his place. Sanji also shows no qualms about Luffy attacking Big Mom, likely given how big of a threat she is to everybody.
• Lost Food Grievance: As Sanji has starved to near death, twice he respects food greatly, and wasting it in front of him is a sure fire way of getting kicked senseless.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: Emphasize on Sex Maniac. Sanji is constantly hitting on pretty women and having exaggerated nosebleeds, he dreamed of finding the Clear-Clear Devil Fruit so he could use it to peep on women, and his refusal to fight women is partially motivated by his perversion, but he would sooner eat his hands than touch a woman against her will, and he will give his life to protect them.
• Love Can Make You Gonk: He can make some pretty strange facial expressions when he's gushing over pretty women. The Yellow databook reveals that Attach, the photographer hired by the Marines to take photos of the Straw Hats for their wanted posters, was always trying to catch Sanji striking a cool pose, but every time Sanji would instead swoon over women and look ridiculous. When the guy finally got the perfect picture, he forgot to take the lens off. Eventually he got tired of it and settled with a picture of Sanji looking goofy.
• Made of Iron: Sanji can withstand the sea pressure 5000 meters underwater, has survived massive explosions without protection, and basically ate a kamehameha-esque attack point-blank without dying, among other things. Even in his introductory arc, he fights on just fine even after getting his ribs broken. When his genetic modifications start to manifest during his fight with Queen, his body becomes literally made of iron. While in Nami's body, he's able to endure diving in ice water despite her body being not nearly as resilient as he is.
• Mafia Princess: Sanji is revealed to be a literal Mafia Prince due to the Vinsmoke family being an infamous group of royal Underworld assassins and military commanders with enough political clout to have Big Mom, one of the Four Emperors, to be interested in an alliance with them. He also plays it straight for extremely justified reasons.
• Man, I Feel Like a Woman: In the Punk Hazard arc, when Law puts his heart in Nami's body, Sanji can't resist the urge to peep at or feel him/herself up.
• Man in the Iron Mask: A very tragic example. When Sanji was just 8 years old, his father, Judge, extremely displeased with how Sanji was born a "dud" despite receiving the same physical/psychological alterations as his quadruplet brothers in utero, had his son thrown in the dungeons with an iron mask on his face and publicly declared dead so the Vinsmokes could start over with a "clean slate". Fortunately, his older sister, Reiju, freed him and helped him flee to the East Blue.
• Marshmallow Hell: Has received this twice in the Fish-Man Island arc, both times from beautiful mermaids, much to his delight.
• Maternal Death? Blame the Child!: Played with. Judge wasn't a loving husband by any means, but he blames Sanji for his mother's death because his being born normal unlike his emotionless, powerful brothers supposedly killed her (in reality, Judge's depraved experiments were what drove Sora to save her sons even if she died). When Sanji learns the truth from Reiju years later, his first words were, "I killed her?" Ouch.
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: When his dormant genetic enhancements activate, he becomes worried that he'll become heartless like his brothers not helped when it looks like he callously beat up a woman. It becomes subverted when it's shown that he ultimately still maintains his empathy and emotions in spite of having abilities like his siblings.
• Muggle Born of Mages: Is this to a degree. He and his siblings were all genetically enhanced, but he was the only one not to develop any sort Charles Atlas Superpower as the result of his father's training and genetic enhancements, because his mother, Sora, in a desperate gambit to save her then-unborn quadruplet sons from becoming emotionless weapons, took a drug that made Sanji a normal kid, but not his brothers as she intended. He was treated horribly as a result and eventually ran away. But then by going through Training from Hell (multiple times) he's managed to surpass the strength of his genetically enhanced siblings.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: His torso became fairly well-built after the time-skip, developing more defined abs than he previously had; but his overall physique remains very slim, with his limbs actually being just about as skinny as Nami's limbs. But, regardless, he can still send men twice his size and muscular-build flying with a single kick and launch giant monsters into the air like nothing. Interestingly, while other characters frequently notice Luffy's oddly powerful muscles, nobody seems to call Sanji out on this one.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Sanji is horrified when it seems like as a result of his Germa-enhancements activating, he injured an innocent female bystander. Subverted in that it turns out it was Queen who did it while chasing Sanji, to the chef's rage at causing him to doubt his own integrity.

N - S

• Name Order Confusion: The German localization changed the Eastern name order of the Vinsmoke family to the Western name order despite normally keeping the original name order for other characters.
• Neck Lift: In his first appearance, after Fullbody shows disrespect and wastes food, Sanji gives him a beatdown and raises his beaten body by the neck. This establishes Sanji as being a highly-principled and undeniably badass but very hot-tempered person who holds the highest degree of respect for food, and whose biggest pet peeve is the wasting of such. This also serves to establish that Sanji's outer persona belies the true nature of his more intricate, complex character.
• Never Hurt an Innocent: He reveals he's big on this in his fight with Absalom; about 80% of the beating he takes in that fight is a result of trying to keep the unconscious Nami out of the way of stray attacks.
• Nerves of Steel: Despite being pulled through the ringer and suffering two Despair Event Horizons during the Totto Land Arc, Sanji pulls through, if only for the sake of his friends and the wellbeing (and well-stomach) of Luffy.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
  • He would constantly get these from his older and younger fraternal quadruplet brothers as a child, due to Yonji, Ichiji, and Niji being complete assholes who see him as a weak waste of space. The only reason why he kept coming back from those beatings is his older sister Reiju's medical care.
  • He would later deliver one himself to Luffy of all people as a part of his Break His Heart to Save Him plan, since he knows that the only way to keep the Straw Hats (and Zeff) safe from Big Mom and Germa 66 is to make sure they turn on him. And knowing how stubborn Luffy is, he attacks him at full power and beats him into a bloody mess. For his efforts though, Luffy, being Luffy, gets back up after being briefly knocked out and declares his resolve to get him back anyway.
• No Last Name Given: For a very long time, starting in his mid-childhood, he only went by the name Sanji. He disowned any and all connection to the surname Vinsmoke because of all the horrible memories attached to it and because his own father told him to never make mention of them again if he was indeed serious about cutting his ties for good.
• Nosebleed: It happens so much during a period of shock after being separated from women for two straight years, that he actually needed a blood transfusion.
• No-Sell: Shortly before the Timeskip, the gap between the Straw Hats and the New World at the time was nicely demonstrated by Sanji's "duel" with Emporio Ivankov; Ivankov laughs off his Diable Jambe enhanced kicks and swats him away effortlessly before proceeding to destroy him without breaking a sweat.
• The Nose Knows: Sanji has such a keen sense of smell that he is able to figure out all the ingredients of Streusen's wedding cake, and can successfully replicate it with the help of Pudding and Chiffon.
• Not Hyperbole: In the "Thriller Bark" arc, Sanji claims that one day, he'd be the most infamous member of the Straw Hat crew. For a while, it seems like just a delusion made up by his ego, but then, in the Zou arc, it turns out that he's actually a member of the infamous Vinsmoke family.
• Not Quite Flight: Sometime during the two-year timeskip he taught himself CP-9's Geppo, renaming it "Sky Walk".
• Number Two: He and Zoro tend to be the voices of reason and initiative in the face of a crisis. When half of the Straw Hats are on Dressrosa to settle things with Doflamingo, Sanji takes leadership of the other half and heads to Zou, even fighting off Big Mom's pirate crew in the process.
• Numerical Theme Naming: Sanji's name follow a numerical theme with his older and younger siblings Reiju, Ichiji, Niji, and Yonji. He's "Sanji", "San" being the Japanese word for three and a reference to the order he was born in among the five of them. His name is also a pun on "three o'clock". The number three also represents social alienation — he was his family's least-favored child and was constantly abused for being weak as a kid.
• Odd Name Out: Sanji's White Sheep status is reflected in his alias compared to those of his siblings. The Vinsmokes' Germa titles are written in katakana, and all designate their choice of weapon followed by their personal color (Poison Pink, Sparking Red, Electric Blue, and Winch Green); Sanji's pirate name "Black Leg" is the reverse of the Germa naming scheme, written in kanji like the rest of the Straw Hat monikers, and also a nod to his adoptive father and mentor — "Red Leg" Zeff. If Sanji had been successfully modified by Judge, he would have been given the epiphet "Stealth Black".
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Usually calm and composed, he had an epic one when he realize who the inhabitants of Momoiro Island exactly are.
  • Seeing his eldest fraternal quadruplet brothers Ichiji and Niji for the first in years since running away caused him to tremble. Seeing how Ichiji and Niji were able to frequently overpower him during Sanji's childhood bullying, it's justified.
  • His face when he reads a marriage announcement letter that reveals his family connections says it all.
  • Judge notes that Sanji turned paler than usual after threatening to kill Zeff in order to force his compliance with his marriage to Pudding.
  • He also shows this expression when he sees Luffy coming towards him while he's being carried by Germa 66 towards Big Mom's castle. He's definitely conflicted over what to do.
• One Head Taller: He's a head taller than Pudding, as shown when they hugged.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • When Luffy points out the very harsh, but necessary truth that it's naïve to hope that all people involved in a war will survive, Nami gets angry at Luffy for being so blunt and not considering Vivi's feelings. It's extremely telling that Sanji is the one to tell Nami to shut up and not cut off Luffy. Usually, he would never show agreement with his male crewmates if he can please his female crewmates instead, but in this situation he apparently agreed with Luffy so much that he forgot his principles.
  • In the Post-Enies Lobby arc, when Zoro is completely adamant that Usopp not be allowed back into the crew until he apologizes for disrespecting their captain. When Nami protests that Zoro is being too harsh, Sanji actually speaks up for the first time to say that, to his own chagrin, Zoro is absolutely right. The fact that Sanji openly sides with Zoro over Nami says a lot about just how strongly he must have felt about the issue.
  • Some anime fillers make a point of showing that cooking is one priority of his that supersedes his adoration of women. While he initially fawns over attractive female chefs like Carmen or Jessica, once he actually faces them in a cooking competition his lovestruck attitude vanishes and he treats the match with complete seriousness, only going back to his Casanova Wannabe self once the cooking has been settled. In another episode, Sanji becomes so engrossed in trying to figure out another chef's Secret Ingredient that he outright ignores Nami when she calls out to him, something so out of character that it even surprised Robin.
  • Luffy, Nami, Chopper, and Brook are noticeably shocked when they learned he turned down marrying Pudding, an attractive young woman, for their sakes.
  • During the Whole Cake Island arc, he turns down Luffy's attempts to rescue him from his Arranged Marriage and attacks him when he insists. Considering his Undying Loyalty to his Straw Hat friends, this is really out of character for Sanji, though it's justified due to his being blackmailed.
  • In the pre-timeskip movie Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island, Sanji denies Zoro food just because the latter wasn't watching him fight the rival chef, when it's shown that he would never deny anyone food no matter the circumstances. It's a sign that Baron's plan to split up the Straw Hats so he can feed them to Lily was working.
• Oppose What You Suffered: After starving for weeks as a child, Sanji vowed to feed anyone who asks for food, even if said person wouldn't be grateful or is a villain. For this reason he makes food for Gin when he first comes to the Baratie and prepares the cake for a rampaging Linlin in the Whole Cake Arc, despite knowing that she won't show any gratitude.
• Out of Focus: Sanji, Chopper, Nami, and Brook have to escape from Big Mom and her crew and so they're absent during the second half of the Dressrosa Arc.
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Both he and Pudding would be thrilled to be married to each other if it wasn't for the fact that Sanji would have to give up being on Luffy's crew, and possibly the dream of finding "All Blue." This turns out to be subverted though when it's revealed that her entire character was a lie. After quite the Dark and Troubled Past, Pudding became an accomplice in Big Mom's plans against the Vinsmokes, willing to murder him in the wedding and follow it with his family and friends' murders. Ironically, she does fall in love with him after their "engagement" falls apart.
• Personality Powers: Sanji fights by kicking people, which is less barbaric than punching people, which also results in him becoming a Dance Battler, going along with his refined and cultured personality. Giving him fire powers is also appropriate since he is Hot-Blooded (when he isn't being The Chessmaster and a Spanner in the Works) and a Supreme Chef who wants to cook even better once he finds the All Blue. His "Sky Walk" ability represents him running away from the okamas in Momoiro Island for most of the two years he's spent there.
• Playing with Fire: His "Diable Jambe" technique involves lighting his own leg on fire via producing friction by spinning and then attacking with it by burning his opponents with extended contact like a branding iron. He isn't hurt by the heat because his "heart burns hotter", according to Oda. After the two years of training, Sanji has upgraded this technique and can quickly ignite himself without spinning, severely burn his opponents without pressing his foot on them and produce massive pillars of fire that go far beyond just his legs. After his exoskeleton is activated, his newfound enhanced durability combined with his trained strength and speed and Color of Armament Haki allows him to increase the intensity of his flames beyond their previous limits, a technique he dubs "Ifrit Jambe".
• Porn Stash: Sanji keeps tons of dirty magazines in his locker (along with a few books on seafood).
• Power at a Price: During the Onigashima War, Sanji realizes that the raid suit given to him has slowly awakened his enhanced genetics. Not only did his body become incredibly durable, but his empathy and capacity to care about others are being eaten away. He realizes this because when running from Queen, he injures an innocent geisha girl. He only realizes what he had done after her head was bloodied and she looks upon him in terror. Later on, he realizes that he might not have lost his empathy at all: upon discovering that Queen can turn invisible, he deduces that the Lead Performer was the one who actually hit the girl.
• Power Perversion Potential: With his dream of being able to become invisible restored thanks to his new raid suit, Sanji is now capable of going peeping tom and the first thing he does with after getting his raid suit is to peek at Nami in an hot springs.
• Pretty Boy: Sanji is a refined and handsome man, emphasized by his habit of wearing an elegant suit.
  • Zoro calls him "Idiot Lovely".
  • Firetank Pirates member Gotti angrily calls Sanji "pretty boy".
  • When meeting Sanji's older sister, Brook goes heart-eyed twice and says "So pretty." Shortly after, Luffy sees her face and asks, "Sanji?!"
• Princely Young Man: Not to much by virtue of him thinking he's a prince, but Sanji treats every woman, especially Nami and Robin, like a princess and sort of thinks of himself as a knight ready to satisfy every request. Later played straight (literally) when his status as a Prince of the Germa Kingdom is revealed.
• Prodigal Hero: In his backstory, Sanji is the third son of the Vinsmoke family. However, his sister Reiju helped him escape from his family's abuse and he fled to the East Blue, where he became a sous-chef. He's forced to face his past when Judge tries bringing him back for a political alliance between the Vinsmokes and the Charlottes.
• Punny Name:
  • His name is a pun on the way the Japanese say "3 o'clock". However, the word Sanji can also refer to something that is a terrible, horrible accident that makes one want to avert their eyes and break out the Brain Bleach. Veeeerry appropriate. Chapter 812 reveals that he's the third son of the Vinsmoke family, adding to the puns, as Sanji can mean "third son."
  • "Vin" is French for "wine", which means Sanji's family name is a play-on-words that describes a certain wine flavor (smoky wine). Considering he's a Supreme Chef...
• Raised by Dudes: He was raised primarily by Zeff and his all-male chefs who taught him to cook and fight, which makes his foul mouth obsession with women a bit more... understandable. The obsession with women is later revealed to be a Shared Family Quirk with the Vinsmoke family, though the foul mouth still seems to be from the chefs at Baratie.
• Real Men Cook: He was raised on the Baratie, a floating restaurant of male cooks, and as such Sanji is quite rough around the edges while also a fantastic cook.
• Rebel Prince: Sanji is a Vinsmoke, a family which rules the North Blue. He went on the run after enduring years of abuse from his family. When he's reunited with the Vinsmokes 13 years later, he makes it clear that he wants nothing to do with them.
• Red Baron: His epithet, "Black Leg", comes from the kick-heavy fighting style Zeff taught him as well as the fact that he wears a black suit while kicking his foes to a pulp. His epithet, besides his compassion, is another thing that sets him up as the White Sheep of his family — the Vinsmokes' Germa titles are written in katakana, and all designate their choice of weapon followed by their personal color (Poison Pink, Sparking Red, Electric Blue, and Winch Green); Sanji's pirate name "Black Leg" is the reverse of the Germa naming scheme, written in kanji like the rest of the Straw Hat monikers, and also a nod to his adoptive father and mentor — "Red Leg" Zeff. In Wano, his supposed epithet in the Germa army is revealed to be "Stealth Black".
• Red Oni, Blue Oni:
  • Zigzagged with Zoro. When compared to Zoro, Sanji's the Red Oni in that he is very romantic and prone to fits of poetic and flowery speech when describing the things he loves (i.e. Nami and Robin) and his ultimate fighting style relies on getting so emotional he bursts into flame. However, some of his most successful moments have been when he's kept a cool head and done something strategic instead of flying off the handle and getting into a fight (see Alabasta and Skypiea, where his machinations did more to stop the Big Bad's plans than a fight would have). Zoro, on the other hand, is a stoic swordsman who usually maintains an icy calm even when fighting, but when suitably provoked he can become a Blood Knight.
  • He's also the Red Oni to his eldest brother Ichiji's Blue, though inverted with the colors (Ichiji wears red, Sanji wears blue) and downplayed as Sanji can act calm when it's required. Compared to his other brother Niji's explosive temper, though, Sanji may be the Blue Oni to Niji's Red.
• Redeeming Replacement: Played with.
  • Judge planned for Sanji to become "Stealth Black", a member of the evil Germa 66, and gives him the raid suit at the end of the Whole Cake Island Arc. However, Sanji renames this identity as "Soba Mask" and uses the raid suit for heroic purposes.
  • Sanji inherits his fighting style from his mentor Zeff, who was infamously known as "Red Leg" for how many people he'd killed with his kicks staining his legs with blood, and gets a similar title: "Black Leg". However, Sanji doesn't have a formal bodycount like Zeff.
• Really Royalty Reveal: He's the third son of the Vinsmoke family, who are not only North Blue royalty, but a family of underworld assassins, making him a Mafia Prince of sorts.
• Royal Blood: Sanji hails from a bloodline which once ruled all of the North Blue, though he renounced his involvement with his family early in life due to his family's abuse because he wasn't born special like his siblings.
• The Runaway: Despite being automatically a prince and royalty by birthright due to being a Vinsmoke, Sanji ran away to the East Blue when he was only eight due to his family's (save for his sister Reiju and deceased mother Sora) utterly horrendous treatment of him.
• Same-Sex Triplets: Subverted. He's born the third of male fraternal quadruplets; while they resemble each other to varying degrees, they also have a lot of traits that set them apart, like Sanji's lack of colorful Anime Hair and Yonji being much taller and muscular than his older brothers.
• Save the Villain: As much as he hates his father and brothers, Sanji simply can't bring himself to leave them to die at the hands of Big Mom. Luffy's perfectly fine with helping him save them though. Due to his chivalrous nature, he also saves Pudding despite her treatment of him, and tries to talk her out of villainy. It works, as Pudding falls madly in love with him and decides to help him and his friends out in return for showing her compassion for the first time.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He ditches his family after enduring almost an entire childhood of their abusive behavior, with the help of his older sister, Reiju, who was secretly his ally while he lived at home.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Manly Man to Usopp's Sensitive Guy whenever they get scenes together. However, it might come as a surprise to know he had this dynamic in childhood with his brothers as the Sensitive Guy — and they bullied him mercilessly for it. Even in present day, he comes off as this when contrasted to their complete Lack of Empathy and callousness.
• Shared Family Quirks:
  • All of his older and younger siblings share his perverted tendencies (his quadruplet brothers ogle Nami whenever they see her, while it's gender-inverted with Sanji's sister Reiju who enjoyed giving a Kiss of Life to Luffy a little too much).
  • Also most his family members share his preference for using powerful kicks, particularly Reiju, Judge, and Niji (though the later also used punches).
  • His older quadruplet brothers Ichiji and Niji also share his cool head and temper, respectively. The difference is his brothers share a Lack of Empathy and are Royal Brats, which makes their traits less sympathetic compared to Sanji.
  • Both he and Reiju inherited their compassion from their deceased mother Sora, but this made Sanji a target for abuse from his brothers and father, while Reiju hid it with smiles.
  • Sanji's youngest quadruplet brother Yonji referred to him as a "bastard" in his debut chapter. "Bastard" is also one of Sanji's go-to insults.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: A black suit is his standard form of attire, usually only wearing more casual clothes during transitions between arcs.
• Shoo the Dog: He views leaving Luffy and the Straw Hats behind while on Totto Land as a necessary bad thing to do, given that his abusive family blackmailed him into marrying Pudding. However, Luffy disagrees and, when he meets up with Sanji, the two have a fight over it.
• Shoot the Hostage: He threatens to shoot Caesar Clown if Bege goes after his friends, knowing full well Bege cannot shoot him because someone wants him alive and mostly unhurt.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Yonji is a pervert like Sanji, but he lacks his chivalry. Ichiji has Sanji's cool head, but he has a Lack of Empathy, with a tendency to Kick the Dog with scathing remarks. But Niji, out of all his siblings, contrasts Sanji the most — aside from having an explosive temper, Niji is spoiled, ungrateful, unappreciative towards food, and has none of Sanji's compassion towards commoners and women. Justified; Ichiji, Niji, and Yonji were made literally unable to feel compassion by Judge, which twisted the traits they shared with Sanji in a non-endearing direction.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Despite being in the same crew, Sanji and Zoro never miss an opportunity to belittle, one-up, or humiliate the other(similar to Buggy and Shanks' relationship when they were on Roger's ship).
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: To be expected, as he was raised by sailors, and inherited their colorful vocabulary. The English anime translates this by having him swear among the most out of anyone in the crew, "bastard" being a particularly favorite word of his.
• Slowly Slipping Into Evil: After using the Raid Suit in the Wano arc, Sanji gets the same ultra-durable body as his siblings, his Unusual Eyebrows spin in the same directions as theirs, and most shockingly of all he apparently hit a woman on instinct whilst in an emotional breakdown over his changes. This makes him fear that he's losing his humanity and becoming an emotionless soldier like his siblings. After some pondering, Sanji concludes that for the King of Pirates he would be more useful as a flawed human rather than a cold warrior and destroys the suit rather than potentially lose more of himself to it. Even when it's later revealed that it was actually Queen using the Stealth Black technology who struck her, the sentiment remains.
• Smoking Is Cool: Due to FCC regulations strictly banning smoking in shows intended for children, both English dubs had to cover this up when they aired on TV. They did it by either editing his cigarette out altogether (Funimation), or by turning it into a lollipop (4Kids).
• Spanner in the Works: Sanji is a master saboteur and spy, and thus the only member of the crew that specializes in black ops skills besides Robin and, to a lesser extent, Nami. He's so good at it that for a long time, this skill set was unknown to everyone but the crew and a select few others, allowing him to essentially screw over many a villain's plan because they didn't know how dangerous he really was.
  • His unknown at the time identity allowed him to rescue the crew from Crocodile's death trap in Alabasta.
  • He trashed Eneru's airship long enough for Luffy to get back into the fight (and stop him from putting all his focus into destroying Skypiea).
  • He found Robin and the CP9 before they all boarded the train to Enies Lobby, sneaked into the train and freed the kidnapped Franky and Ussop, two other major Spanner in the Works in the following Enies Lobby incident.
  • His closing the Gates of Justice not only allowed them to escape Enies Lobby without being pursued, but significantly slowed down the pursuing marines during the chase itself.
  • In the Whole Cake Island arc, although he loathes almost all of his Vinsmoke relatives with a passion (the feeling is mutual), Sanji's compassion drives him to save his family from Big Mom. This ends up throwing a big wrench in Big Mom's death-involving wedding plans — Pudding, who was supposed to kill her groom-to-be once they reached the altar, has a Villainous Breakdown because Sanji complimented her third eye (something no one had ever done before), leaving her crying and unable to kill him as planned. Katakuri's attempt to kill Sanji with a jellybean ends up narrowly missing its target and killing the priest when Sanji bends down to try comfort Pudding, with the commotion at the altar alerting the Vinsmoke family's suspicions of Big Mom.
  • During the infiltration at Onigashima, Sanji gets separated from the rest of the crew and then uses the raid suit to turn invisible and reach where Momonosuke is about to be publicly executed, saving the heir of the Kozuki dynasty and stopping Orochi and Kaido's plan while everyone else could only watch from afar.
• Spider-Sense: Sanji has Observation Haki, which works like spider sense. Oda claims that he specializes in this type of Haki.
• Stealth Expert: Barring Nami, Robin, and Brook (who have abilities directly related to hiding themselves), Sanji is the sneakiest member of the Straw Hat crew. He escapes surveillance so often that it becomes a major plot point several times throughout the series.
  • In Alabasta, bounty-less Sanji was the only Straw Hat to avoid detection by Baroque Works. This proves to be instrumental in freeing Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp and Smoker from Crocodile's Bond Villain Stupidity.
  • Sanji's counterpart in Thriller Bark was the Invisible Human of the Suke-Suke Fruit.
  • Sanji's mug shot isn't obtained by the World Government until the Straw Hats enter the New World, despite personally infiltrating a Cipher Pol train and fighting in Enies Lobby. Also, when he disappears during the Buster Call, it ends up being what allows the Straw Hats to escape.
  • In Totto Land, Sanji escapes the near constant surveillance of the Big Mom Pirates to secretly formulate an assassination plot on their own territory.
  • Might also be his planned position in the Germa army, as his code would have been "Stealth Black", and it's later revealed his specific Germma power is actually, of all things, his long-desired Invisibility.
• Stepford Smiler: As of Chapter 848, he's of the Depressed type. Despite being completely distraught and depressed over the situation at hand himself, Sanji, in a bid to not upset Pudding any further than his situation already has, and as a coping mechanism, forces himself to assume his "usual" persona of "a cook in love". To this end, he puts up a front of being his usual girl-crazy, heart-eyed self, after having talked himself into it and having practised it alone in his room. Later in the chapter, Sanji is picking flowers while having a big smile on his face, only for his smile to get even bigger in the next panel, suggesting that he has just berated himself for not appearing as cheerful as he thinks he needs to be, and has immediately taken steps to rectify it.
• The Strategist: Sanji is able to figure out a quick strategy to solve every terrible situation his allies are by analyzing everything around him . This was the result of being trained by his biological father Judge to become a Germa 66 military commander from a very early age.
• Strong Family Resemblance: All of his Vinsmoke siblings resemble him to some degree, bearing his trademark swirling eyebrows and bangs. Reiju and Yonji in particular resemble Sanji the most, with Reiju looking like the end result if Sanji was turned into a woman, while Yonji is Sanji's spitting image (save for the hair) and has his perverted tendencies. In the case of Sanji and his brothers, it's later justified with the reveal that they're fraternal quadruplets, born on the same day, which is why they resemble each other so closely.
• Stronger Sibling: A rare heroic example. Despite (initially) not inheriting the gene modifications his father made to him and his brothers in utero, Sanji becomes the strongest member of the Vinsmoke family in adulthood due to his experiences traveling the Grand Line. Later, in the Wano arc, after the gene modifications finally activate and cause him to develop an exoskeleton of his own, he's able to go toe-to-toe with Queen, who has incorporated all the abilities of the Germa Quadruplets into his body, in a one-on-one fight, and defeat him decisively.
• Stupid Good:
  • A variation — he's not completely stupid (in fact, he's far from it) but thanks to nearly starving to death as a kid, Sanji has no problem feeding a starving man. Even if that starving man and his crew of equally-starving pirates are obviously planning to attack him afterwards.
  • Also, he absolutely refuses to harm women physically as a part of his chivalrous code, even if there's a serious risk they could kill him. Even Nami seems to think it's admirable, but she also points out how stupid it is in practice. In fact, his IQ drops exponentially whenever women are involved in general.
• Super Mode: An extremely subtle one, but with effective results. Whenever he's using his Germa power, his eyebrows flip to the other direction, which is the only visual indicator on his body. When using his Germa power, his body is protected by an exoskeleton which makes him nigh-invulnerable, and broken bones heal themselves instantly on their own. It also allows him to use a hotter and stronger version of Diable Jambe, Ifrit Jambe, and he can even destroy laser beams with his leg. During the Egghead arc, it is established that Sanji is capable of using his Germa power at will.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: Sanji is a very good swimmer, which is very useful when half of the crew ate a Devil Fruit and can't swim at all. Is said that his underwater version of Sky Walk, called "Blue Walk", is as fast as a fishman and, when diving for Kinemon's torso, Sanji straight up mentions that he is the fastest swimmer in the crew by a lot, even without Blue Walk. Considering that Zoro remains silent when he normally calls bullshit on anything Sanji does that isn't remotely true, one can take that small piece of information as true fact.
• Super-Reflexes: Like many characters, Sanji has incredibly fast reflexes and developed them through sheer training.
• Super-Soldier: It's revealed in Chapter 852 that both he and his older/younger siblings were genetically enhanced in childhood by their father to become these and lead the Germa 66's armies. This included having a "metal" exoskeleton and having their natural empathy for others irreversibly altered and outright destroyed. However, because of his mother's extremely desperate attempt to preserve her quadruplet sons' humanity, to the point where she doomed herself to a slow death after only saving one, Sanji showed no signs of improvement despite his genes supposedly being successfully modified on paper, leading to him being bullied and beaten by his father and brothers. However, the genetic enhancements seem to have started activating during the war in Onigashima, allowing him to quickly heal broken bones, cause swords to break on his bare neck, and no-sell being shot in the head. In relation to that, he's terrified of the thought of the Emotion Suppression also kicking in, leaving him like his brothers.
• Supreme Chef:
  • Makes some of the best damn food you'll find on the Grand Line. And he joined the crew to fulfill his dream of finding some mysterious and awesome ingredients that can only be found in the All Blue, so he can cook even better. A lot of the Food Porn in the show can be contributed to him, especially in the G8 filler arc. In the Totto Land arc, he perfectly replicated Streusen's wedding cake, including all the secret ingredients, through smell alone. And it's so delicious that a taste of it nearly kills the chefs who taste-test it (and makes others believe he secretly poisoned it before discovering the truth).
  • During the G8 filler arc, he creates a veritable feast from the scraps Jessica and her chefs left behind. In another filler arc he turns a smattering of ingredients into a giant savory cake that somehow fit under a tablecloth.
• Sweet and Sour Grapes: He wasn't happy that he could never get the Invisibility Devil Fruit as the Fruit's been claimed. Come Chapter 931, and it's revealed his raid suit comes with stealth capabilities for "Stealth Black".

T - Y

• Take Me Instead: During the Thriller Bark arc, to save Luffy from Kuma, and prevent Zoro from sacrificing his life. It doesn't work, as the latter knocked him out for the exact same reason.
• Taken for Granite: Played for Laughs. After his two years in "Hell", he is so susceptible to women's looks that just looking at Hancock does this to him. Shirahoshi as well, though she actually cured his uncontrollable and life-threatening nosebleeds.
• Talking the Monster to Death: Tries doing it on Pudding during the tea party, casually dodging her bullets as he makes her question herself. It actually works too; Pudding falls in love with Sanji and pulls a Heel–Face Turn shortly thereafter.
• Team Chef: It's a good idea to not insult his cooking skills. He'll beat you up for it. And probably suspend your eating privileges.
• That Man Is Dead: He abandoned the Vinsmoke family name after leaving his siblings and Judge behind. He makes it clear that Vinsmoke Sanji, the weak little boy they so often abused, "died at sea". Unfortunately for him, the Marines reveal Sanji's relation to Germa and now list his name as Vinsmoke Sanji.
• Theme Twin Naming: Well, theme quadruplet naming, anyway. "Ichi", "Ni", "San" and "Yon" are the Japanese words for 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively, as reference to the order Ichiji, Niji, he, and Yonji were born in. Combined with the "ji" at the end of their names, they're also puns on "one o'clock", "two o'clock", "three o'clock", and "four o'clock". Reiju also shares this number theme naming despite not being one of the quadruplets, with Rei meaning zero.
• Throw the Dog a Bone:
  • After two painful years on an island of transvestites, Sanji finally meets mermaids, and they like him. He's even able to resist nosebleeds for a while to play with them.
  • Oda occasionally decides to spare him and let him at least touch a woman, and on two separate occasions he has had his face stuffed in into a girl's breasts. Nosebleeds ensue.
  • You can probably consider it a near miracle that his wife to be, Pudding, is actually attractive. In this case though, it becomes Yank the Dog's Chain when it turns out she's a massively broken Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who faked being in love with him. This eventually goes back the other way and Sanji is once again thrown a bone; showing Pudding genuine kindness and love despite everything she did causes her to fall madly in love with him — perhaps the first time his feelings for any woman have ever been fully reciprocated. She even kisses him in the end to seal it, much to his delight (though she does erase his memory of it immediately afterward).
  • After learning that the Clear-Clear Fruit, the one Devil Fruit he really considered eating, had been eaten by Absalom, his dream of being becoming invisible apparently died. In Chapter 931, he discovers the raid suit he received from his brother actually had invisibility capabilities, reviving his childhood dream. However, after finding out the suit is causing his body to change to be more like his brothers, Sanji destroys it for good, vowing not to be any more like his brothers than he already is.
• Training from Hell:
  • He underwent an extremely harsh training as a child alongside his siblings, to shape them into the super soldiers their father wanted them to be. However, Sanji failed to do any progress, despite having been genetically enhanced like his siblings.
  • He underwent another training to be a chef in the Baratie under Zeff, which was equal parts learning how to cook as it was seeing if he could survive the kicks of the "Red Leg". Ironically, it was under this training that developed his incredible strength, and not the Super-Soldier training with the Germa 66.
  • During his two years of training in Ironic Hell over the Time Skip Sanji has become so fast that he can now move at an absurdly fast speed ''underwater'' while maintaining his superior kicking power. He got the skill from running away from transvestites on that scary island for two full years. He also gained the skill to run on air. So, yeah, he can fly.
• Trauma Button: Mentioning the Vinsmokes or Germa 66 around him often makes him fly into a truly extraordinary rage, since he understandably doesn't want anything more to do with them.
• Trauma Conga Line:
  • To sum up, he was defeated by Kuma, sent on a island full of Drag Queens, is accidentally mistaken for a crossdresser by the inhabitants, chased along the whole island, forced to fight the "Queen" in dress and make up, humiliated and tricked into becoming a crossdresser himself. Thankfully, he got better.
  • The Whole Cake Island Arc has been one long trauma line for him, starting with getting forced into an arranged marriage, beat up by his brothers, put under the threat of having his friends and parental figure Zeff murdered if he doesn't comply, and ends up slapped and disowned by his beloved Nami. Even worse is that his fiancee — who appeared to actually like him and provided a Hope Spot — is really a shattered Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who plans on murdering him, and that her family intend to kill both his biological and adoptive family and friends anyways.
• Truth in Television: His dislike of wasting food due to living through starvation is a fairly common trait among people who have had this trauma.
• Tyke-Bomb: Subverted and later deconstructed. He and his siblings were genetically enhanced and psychologically altered after birth, and raised to be physically superior to the average human in order to lead the Germa 66's armies to their greatest victories. However, in Sanji's case, the modifications failed thanks to the drug his mother took in a desperate attempt to save him and his brothers, but the drug only worked on him for some reason. As a result, he didn't grow any stronger than your average human child. This is what caused his father and brothers to abuse him, because his being human was a grave affront to their standards of "strength", to the point where he ran away from home. However, as it was later revealed, Judge's experiments led to his children becoming utterly messed up as adults, with Ichiji, Yonji, and Niji being literally unable to feel or understand compassion, and Reiju being extremely suicidal. Sanji would've become like them had Sora not made her sacrifice.
• Underestimating Badassery: He himself usually does not underestimate others but is quite regularly on the receiving end of this attitude due to him being an Almighty Janitor:
  • Bon Clay had no idea where Sanji suddenly came from or why this blonde pervert could keep up with him in their battle.
  • Absalom didn't take Sanji serious at first and later thought it was insane that a pirate this strong had no notable bounty on his head.
  • The Vinsmoke family was surprised and irritated by the prowess Sanji learned in the time away from them.
  • Charlotte Katakuri foresaw that Sanji would dodge the sneak attack of the wedding priest but didn't anticipate that Sanji would be able to dodge Katakuri's immediate attack too.
• Undying Loyalty: No matter how much he argues with them (especially the men), Sanji deeply treasures the Straw Hat crew and will do anything for them when push comes to shove. Not even the chance of being married to the beautiful Charlotte Pudding (who's also a Supreme Chef) and being able to live like a prince as a member of the royal Vinsmoke family is able to deter him.
• The Unfavorite: His father and brothers see Sanji as this, due to being a compassionate weakling as a child who refused to abide by the code of Might Makes Right, to the point of inflicting constant physical abuse on him. It got to the point where his father wrote him off as dead and left him in the dungeons to rot while passing off his absence as a training-related accident, and his brothers were completely fine with it... except for his sister, who freed him and helped him run away to the East Blue.
• Unusual Eyebrows: His eyebrows twirl into two big ol' spirals on the ends; and, predictably, they are often the source of ridicule. Oddly enough though, both of his eyebrow spirals curl to the right, meaning his eyebrows are asymmetrical on his face. Which may explain why he chooses to hide one of eyes at all times with his hair. (pre-Time Skip he covered his left eye, post-Time-skip it's his right). The swirly brows are a trait shred with his brothers; however, theirs twirl in the opposing direction to visually communicate that Sanji is different from them. In Chapter 1031, during the Onigashima war after Sanji starts manifesting the same durable traits his brothers do, and apparently attacks an innocent woman off-screen whilst having an emotional crisis over his transformation, his eyebrows now swirl the same direction as theirs, showing how he's Slowly Slipping Into Evil. After Sanji solves his inner conflict, his twirly eyebrows face back to their original direction. During the Egghead arc, his eyebrows flip to the other direction again whenever he is using his Germa power, as seen in chapter 1077 and 1107.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: While Sanji is still compassionate and willing to help others, he showed it more often when he was younger. His abusive family and nearly starving to death twice hardened him, unfortunately.
• Verbal Tic: Since a young age, Sanji has a habit of saying "shit" or "shitty" when describing something. While the Japanese word for feces, "kuso", is not specifically an expletive, Sanji's manner of speech makes the term sound brash. For example, he might call a person he especially does not like a "shitty bastard" or something along those lines (such as his personal nickname for Zeff, "shitty geezer"), but he also described something pleasant to him, like being alone with Nami, as "shitty fantastic" and "the shitty best". In the FUNimation dub, this habit is downplayed to swearing that is less offensive.
• Vitriolic Best Buds:
  • Before Sanji joined the crew, there was his relationship with Zeff. The two slung so many insults at each other and got in so many fights that the other cooks at Baratie were surprised to find out how much they actually cared about each other.
  • He's not shy about insulting or arguing with the male Straw Hats, but he's also willing to go quite far in defending them despite claiming to only care for the women. He'll even spare this attitude to even Zoro, but it's clear the two aren't friends.
• Volleying Insults: Quite often with Zoro, as well as his surrogate father Zeff.
• Walking Spoiler: His Dark and Troubled Past when it comes to his biological royal family makes him this.
• Weaksauce Weakness: He refuses to harm women in any way, though he is capable of blocking their attacks. This causes near-fatal problems during the fights with Bon Clay and Kalifa. Nami even criticizes him on this trait.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Upon learning about Jimbei indirectly causing Arlong to rule the East Blue and terrorize Nami, giving her severe emotional trauma and turning her into a Broken Bird, Sanji understandably gives him an earful for it.
• What You Are in the Dark:
  • In the Thriller Bark arc, despite their rivalry, Sanji steps up and offers to sacrifice his life for Zoro when Kuma threatens to kill him.
  • Push comes to shove when his royal birth family returns to take him back, and they try wooing him with promises of "personal maidens", money, and marriage to the beautiful Charlotte Pudding. Sanji, against even his crew's expectations, refuses it all and stays absolutely set on leaving with Luffy and all of his friends.
  • Part of why Sanji was bullied by his brothers as a child was because he was willing to cook and serve food to others behind the family's backs.
  • Despite finding out that his marriage to Pudding is a trap to get the Vinsmoke's killed, and being able to escape at any time since the explosive bands on his arms were never activated, with even Reiju encouraging Sanji to abandon them, Sanji ultimately is too compassionate to let his family die even if he does consider most of them to be scum.
  • In Wano, Sanji begins to worry that the Raid Suit is making him lose his empathy and humanity like his siblings and wonders if he would be more useful to Luffy as himself, with all his flaws, or as a warrior without humanity nor weakness; in the end, he opts for the former and destroys the Raid Suit. However, just in case he loses control of himself, he asks someone to put him down if that ends up happening. Who does he ask? Zoro of all people, the person whom he gets along with the absolute least.
• White Sheep: Despite being a pirate, Sanji displays much more integrity and nobility than his royal family of assassins, as seen when he calls a portrait of his father conquering four North Blue kingdoms tasteless. This even stems from his childhood. Sanji was an outcast in his family because he was weak^note Despite having the same genetic enhancements as his other siblings, he somehow always fell behind when he trained, which irritates them and compassionate towards others^note Judge dismissed Sanji's compassion as "trying to hold the legacy of someone already dead" (that is, his mother)..
• Why Can't I Hate You?:
  • When he encountered Judge in the middle of his escape as a child, even after all the abuse he had suffered, he was still devastated to hear his father's complete apathy toward him leaving the family. However, he eventually got over it by adulthood, as he admits to himself that he feels nothing but hatred for Judge in the present day.
  • Despite overhearing Big Mom and Pudding's plans for the Vinsmokes as well as Pudding's true evil nature, Sanji is still attracted to Pudding because... well, he's Sanji. And that's later quite the plot point.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Sanji appears to have some fear or aversion to insects and spiders. During the crew's search for the South Bird, he continually backed away from the various insects in the forest to the point he was afraid to touch them.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Solely when it comes to women and nothing else; Sanji's views on the ladies are quite rose-tinted and naive, and he's prone to trusting any woman who acts nice to his face or returns his advances. He even proclaims that he would never doubt a woman's tears and is willing to forgive the lies and actions of any woman who wrongs him. Tropes Are Tools, however, so this is usually Deconstructed by being shown in a neutral light and presenting both the positive and negative outcomes of this trait of his. However, it's shown in a decidedly negative light in the Tottoland arc, where his patience is pushed to its limit as his trusting nature leads to his heart being broken in an exceedingly cruel manner by a very sadistic, manipulative woman — the likes of which he had never had to deal with before on such a personal level. However, in a true testament to his willpower, he sticks to his morals even after this; instead of showing any anger towards her, he compliments Pudding's Third Eye and still calls her beautiful, which causes her to genuinely fall in love with him — reconstructing the trope and proving that Sanji's chivalry can work against all odds.
• Wife-Basher Basher: For Sanji, women are sacred and no man can raise a finger upon them. If he sees someone hurting or just harassing a woman, Sanji immediately runs to her rescue and punishes the basher.
• Willfully Weak: At first, Sanji makes free use of his raid suit. However, when he develops an exoskeleton, he immediately suspects something is wrong. Later, he thinks he blacked out and somehow attacked a woman just for getting in the way (really a dirty trick by Queen, who he was fighting - Sanji did no such thing). Sanji assesses that his raid suit is somehow altering his mind to make him a heartless soldier and decides that it must be destroyed and he will remain a human fighter that will just have to deal with women as his weakness. He even asks Zoro to kill him if his mind turns cold-blooded after the events in Wano.
• Wingding Eyes: Prone to developing "heart" eyes whenever he's swooning over a lady.
• With Friends Like These...: Sanji and Zoro would make quite an impressive team if they weren't fighting, arguing, or hurling insults at each other most of the time. Sanji and Zoro don't just argue a lot; they seem to truly dislike each other, never once voluntarily hanging out or having any friendly conversations for the better part Sanji's introduction.^note Most notably, when Usopp becomes estranged from the crew in Water 7, their first instinct is to blame each other for not putting the Franky Family down long-term. The best they muster is being more or less indifferent to each other. Still, deep down, they respect each other as fighters and would go to any length to protect the other from harm, even if neither would admit it.
• The Worf Effect: The only worse offender of this than Zoro is Sanji.
  • It happens to him once an arc, including freaking filler arcs. Notable examples include Eneru (couldn't even hit him once despite wearing shoes with rubber soles), Smoker (in the manga), Arlong, Blueno (after revealing Robin's intentions, Sanji had no use for holding back and still got beat), and Absalom (possibly a deconstruction, since it was really just a penguin fighting as Sanji, though the other zombies note he's quite powerful).
  • Before the timeskip, Sanji is easily defeated by Ivankov to put his power in perspective.
  • Really the only reason he and Vergo fought was to build up the latter's threat level.
  • In the Dressrosa arc he suffers this from Big Bad Donquixote Doflamingo. While Doflamingo acknowledged his as being strong, Sanji seemingly did no damage with all his attacks and was immediately bested by his Parasite technique.
  • Sanji got beaten by his father during the fight with him. Downplayed in that Judge used his own soldiers as human shields to distract Sanji and impale him through one of them.
  • St. Jaygarcia Saturn is capable of killing Mooks by simply looking at them. When Saturn uses the same technique on Sanji, Sanji almost passes out from it and becomes exhausted, and soon after he's rendered immobile. This establishes that both, the Five Elder Star's Devil Fruit ability is very dangerous to anyone without the need to inflict physical damage on them, but also that you need to be above a certain threshold in order to survive his glare, since the Marines' announcement specifically orders anyone below Rear-Admiral rank to leave for their own safety.
• Worf Had the Flu:
  • He might have won against Gin, but the wounds he sustained while Pearl beat him up while he's unable to retaliate due to Zeff being held hostage immobilizs him at a crucial moment.
  • He also presumably would have put up a better fight against Arlong (if not outright won) if he hadn't been badly injured in his previous battle.
  • His fights against Eneru and Smoker were lost causes due to their Logia powers and his inability to use Haki before the timeskip.
  • When fighting Absalom he was handicapped by having to protect Nami.
  • In his fight with Vergo, which ends in more of a draw than a defeat, he doesn't use Haki or Diable Jambe aside from his initial attack. His body was also beaten early when Nami was still inside of it.
  • He's quickly taken down by Niji in their first fight, but it should be noted that Ichiji distracted him for a second and Niji managed to sneak up on him while he was looking away, and both Niji and Ichiji threatened Red Leg's life if he dared to fight back.
  • Sanji got beaten by his father during the fight with him... But the only reason Judge even got that hit in was by acting like a coward and calling in human shields to stop Sanji from attacking, then striking from one of said shields when Sanji stopped his attack. This is especially notable when you factor in that Judge's Raidsuit is fire resistant, so the fact he still felt the need to call in human shields against a flaming kick says alot. And top it off Sanji was barely injured at the end .
• Worst Aid: Justified because he's not a doctor. When he finds a defeated Zoro at Onigashima, Sanji asks Chopper for help, who tells him to give him some bandages in the meanwhile. Sanji then turns Zoro into a cross-shaped mummy unable to move, and even uses his bandaged body as a blunt weapon.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Sanji always absolutely refuses to hit a lady no matter the circumstances, even if the lady in question is evil and/or trying to kill him. His strong feelings on this stem from his mentor Zeff, who literally kicked him into learning this mindset. Therefore, in addition to his love for women, Sanji also sticks to never hurt them so strictly because he doesn't want to disappoint Zeff and become a man that he wouldn't be proud of. During the Onigashima War, while he's captured by Black Maria, Sanji refuses to use the Color of Armement to protect himself from her beating because he doesn't want her to hurt her fist punching him. While in the Water 7 & Enies Lobby Arc, this inability to hit women leads to Sanji's defeat at the hands of Califa, after the events of Whole Cake Island, Sanji learns to deal with his weakness by either running away from female enemies or calling for help when he can't run anymore. When he apparently beat up a innocent girl during the Onigashima war, Sanji is horrified and fears it's a side-effect of his Raid Suit starting to affect his personality but it's shortly revealed that it was actually Queen, who'd copied the abilities of the Germa Siblings, who hit the girl whilst using Sanji's Stealth Black abilities, which both relives Sanji and thoroughly pisses him off for letting them both believe he'd actually struck her. This trait even carries onto video game adaptations, with the Pirate Warriors games in particular programming his attacks to always avoid hitting and/or affecting female enemies;^note Crew Strikes let him call in someone else to defeat them for him, but it's still such a problem that the game flat-out warns you if he tries to start a mission containing female enemies. however, he can be made to hit a female enemy in some games, but he will apologize with each attack.
• Wrestler of Beasts: While freeing his crew from Crocodile's prison, Sanji defeats giant crocodile creatures called Banana Gators.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Sanji gives Usopp a speech to motivate him at Enies Lobby, after saving him from Jabra, telling him that everyone has something that they can't do and that he should focus on his strengths, noting that as long as they have him they can still save Robin. This leads Usopp to realise that, by utilizing his sniper skills, he can hold of the Marines long enough for Robin to be free from her Sea Prism Stone handcuffs.
• You Owe Me: While he does save the Vinsmokes from certain death at the hands of the Charlotte family alongside his sister, Reiju, he immediately lets them know that they're indebted to him and damn sure better pay him back, silently demanding that they rescue his friends. Judge glares at him in annoyance, but Ichiji, Niji, and Yonji quickly comply without complaint and actually listen to Sanji for once.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Sanji frowns when Vito merrily talks about how much he admires Sanji, since Sanji is a Vinsmoke, and thus supposedly part of the evil Germa 66. He also dislikes his family (outside of Reiju) praising him. They do so when he beats up Luffy and again when he learns that Niji gave Luffy Sanji's own raid suit as a parting gift, as a sign that they have acknowledged him. However, when it seems to mess with his mind and body, he feels betrayed again and destroys the suit for good. However, since Sanji doesn't want to be associated with Germa, he visibly gets angry about it to the point where he's not even that happy anymore that his bounty is now higher than Zoro's, because he assumes it's because of his family's infamy.
• You're Not My Father: Sanji is understandably unwilling to acknowledge Vinsmoke Judge as his father due to his tragic past; he specifically says that to him, his true father is named Zeff.

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