Don’t know about y’all but I for one was a bit disappointed with Sanji’s Ifrit fire power up. Personally I thought the design was quite lackluster and it just felt to me like Diable Jambe with a new name slapped on it. Also I felt like Sanji's black leg style overshadowed the flame power up a bit and that there was not enough focus on how destructive the flame itself is. What is even more disappointing is that Oda has been hella generous with AP power ups for the other members of the M3 this arc (i.e. advanced CoA, CoC coating, Enma etc.), yet Sanji’s Ifrit feels a bit lacking in comparison.
That said however, there’s just no way that Oda shafted Sanji someone he refers to as one of the wings of the PK in the PU department, so there has to be more to Ifrit than meets the eye, so I’m gonna try to speculate on it a bit and also discuss some of the implications this could have for Sanji going forward.
What do we know about Ifrit?
First of all, two tings are certain about Ifrit:
1.) Ifrit is more powerful, tenacious and hotter than Diable
2.) The Kanji for Ifrit is “魔神”[Majin](Lit. Demon God)
On 1.), with the exception of the brief description I gave above on this point, not all that much is known about Ifrit as of yet. However, even though I can’t say this with 100% certainty, I think the likelihood of this new form “Ifrit” being hotter than fire is very high and we can look to Chapter 1023 for the reason for this.
In Chapter 1023, when Queen asked why Sanji can combust into flames, Sanji replied saying that the flames of his passion will surpass the temperature of flames.
For people like me who love theorizing in general, even more so with Sanji related stuff, at the time, this seemed like a very clear foreshadowing for Sanji's next fire power up and alas! fast forward to the current chapter, Chapter 1034, we see that Sanji is now capable of generating stronger and hotter flames as a result of strengthening his newly awakened exoskeleton body with armament.
So although it isn't confirmed yet, I think this "fire hotter than flames" concept is what Ifrit is based off and what it's going to prove to be.
Also, personally I still can't get over the design of Ifrit and feel that Oda could've surely done a lot better to make it look more distinctive from Sanji's diable Jambe, so I have an inkling that Sanji's current Ifrit is only a teaser of the real ting hence why the current design feels a bit lacklustre. In other words it isn't yet at it's max output (i.e. hotter than flames just yet). Though this perception can very easily change when we get the colored version of it. That said, another reason why I think it isn't at it's max output is coz I feel Sanji isn't angry enough yet. In chapter 1023, Sanji's comment was made in the context of "passion", so this doesn't feel like Sanji's max output to me even though the ceiling for how hot Sanji's flames can get has increased. So I feel something is gonna stimulate Sanji to bring out the max output of his flames. Will discuss what I think this scenario will be towards the end of this theory ^^
Panel from chapter 1023
Note: Viz's translation here is the closest to what was stated in the raws but it isn't 100% accurate imo.
Here Sanji is talking about the future not the present.
Next up, 2.), now this is where it gets really interesting ^^
Like I stated above, the Kanji for Ifrit is 魔神 (Lit. Demon God), so basically Sanji's fire technique has evolved from 悪魔 (Akuma) [Lit. Demon/Devil ] to 魔神(Majin) [Lit. Demon God].
After briefly looking up these two words, the main difference btw these two beings seems to be that Akuma is a sort of "Demonic Spirit" that brings about calamity whereas Majin is a "Demonic god" that brings about calamity.
Now what is very interesting about this word, "Majin" that Oda uses for Sanji here is the presence of the word "god" in it, particularly when you consider that a so called race of "gods" called the Lunarians have recently been introduced into the story and that Sanji is eerily similar to them as he can combust into flames. So is this naming simply just a coincidence? or could there be more to it?. Another interesting point on this word Majin is that it can be written in two different ways. 魔神 (Demon + God) or 魔人 (Demon + Person). How these two words are used (i.e. whether they can mean the same ting or completely different tings) is entirely dependent on the fictional work and funny ting is in OP, we already have an existing "Majin" in the story in Daifuku's Genie so there is a naming overlap here. Main difference between the two however, is that the "Majin" for Ifrit uses the Kanji for "god" whereas the "Majin" for Daifuku's Genie uses the Kanji for "Person".
Which is very interesting in two ways. Firstly Sanji is a "human" and not a "god" so why did Oda go with the Kanji for god instead of human. Secondly, I feel like this "Majin" overlap here could've been easily been avoided, but Oda still chose to use it for Ifrit regardless.
Personally I don't think this naming is just a coincidence.
The Potential of Ifrit. Is it just a more destructive flame?
From the looks of it, Ifrit looks like a more powerful diable Jambe and just that but in the case that Oda is establishing a connection here with the Lunarians, it could have some very very interesting implications ^^
Before we get into this though, I wanna briefly talk about Flames in One Piece ^^.
- In One Piece, there are two types of flames, 1.) the destructive flame which is the most common variant which people like Sanji, Ace, Sabo etc. have and 2.) the healing flame, which Marco has.
- Albeit a very rare occurrence, we know that flames can hurt other flames or rather at the very least we know that Marco is capable of hurting Prometheus with his flames for some reason even though they are not destructive by nature.According to Marco, his flames are special hence why he was able to hurt Prometheus.
From the above, we can gather that 1.) there are flames with different characteristics in OP (i.e. destructive or healing) and 2.) there are special flames in OP.
So chances are that Marco's flames is not the only special flame in the verse ^^
Now with that established, let's pedal back to Ifrit and it's potential :p to do this we are gonna talk about King a bit as the potential of Ifrit lies in it's connection to the Lunarians ^^.
Imo it is almost certain that whatever is up with King's durability is most likely a result of his flames. The fact that King has a flame burning behind his back 24/7 is hella sus, as there is literally no need for it except it serves some kinda of purpose and I think said purpose could potentially be "healing". Reason being in chapter 1033 when Zoro cut King with his Shi-shishisonson (Death Lion Song), in the very next panel, King's flame appeared to cover said cut as though healing it.
Moreover, in the same chapter, King basically self destructed and was fine to which Zoro commented saying "why is he alive!? (blowing urself up) isn't that something a suicidal person would do!?". So King is pretty confident in his ability to not die to the point where he is playing with bombs that would kill an ordinary person. One explanation for King surviving of course could be that his durability is so high that he can blow himself up but the other could be that the he is confident in his ability to heal.
Which if true could have some very interesting implications, as it'd mean that King's flames and the Lunarian's by default posses both destructive and healing capabilities as we already know his flames burn. It could also be that King is able to freely change the characteristic of his flame btw destructive & healing.
Initially I wasn't really keen on this "King being able heal" idea bcoz of the overlap with Marco's df but since we have already established that certain flames in OP are special. It makes sense for a race of gods with the characteristic feature of being able to combust into flames to possess "special" flames or be capable of using flames with both destructive and healing capabilities.
Anywho! with the above established if King is indeed capable of the above with his flames, the likelihood that Sanji can also utilize his flames in this way is very high ^^
Also, as a side note Sanji/Lunarian plot, the mere fact that Oda is switching btw Sanji and Zoro's battles is a bit odd as it's different from how he typically writes their fights. Not to mention the fact that we are even getting lore about King's race in the Sanji v Queen fight so it could very well be that some of the revelations about King in Zoro's fight will tie back to Sanji somehow. Also, in chapter 1033, when Sanji asked Queen why King's race was destroyed, Queen replied saying that he should ask "history" himself, so this I think could potentially be a set-up for Sanji finding out the hidden history about the Lunarians in the near future.
How Ifrit could potentially be utilized in Sanji v Queen
Now about the point I discussed above, with regards to how I think Sanji will be stimulated to bring out the max output of his Ifrit, personally I don't think Queen is down for the count just yet and I feel he's still gonna come back with one last hurrah before he's ultimately put down by Sanji, and this time, I think he'd be using his plagues. I already mentioned this in the "Is Queen defeated?" thread but I think we are gonna see a plague with the characteristics in the panel below from Queen the next time we get focus on Sanji v Queen.
That said however, right now even if Queen has something as lethal as the above, there is no way in hell he hits Sanji with it under normal circumstances. Sanji is just way too damn fast. So I think Queen is gonna have to play dirty to hit Sanji with it and the easiest way for him to do it now will be to take Osome hostage. The Beast Pirates have already researched the SHs and aware of Sanji's weakness, so Queen could potentially utilize this like Maria did in order to hit Sanji with his plague. For instance Queen could shoot his plague at Osome but Sanji protects her and then gets hit as a result. This I think might be enough to push Sanji to his boiling point thus bringing out the max potential of Ifrit ^^. Another ting is the question of how Sanji's get healed if he gets hit by the aforementioned plague and potential turns blind. Oda potentially have Chopper do this or! we could potentially see Sanji also change the characteristic of his flame to a healing type to heal himself ^^ (hypothetically speaking)
This theory is already long enough as is so I'm finna end it here ^^
Hope you enjoyed the read~!
That said however, there’s just no way that Oda shafted Sanji someone he refers to as one of the wings of the PK in the PU department, so there has to be more to Ifrit than meets the eye, so I’m gonna try to speculate on it a bit and also discuss some of the implications this could have for Sanji going forward.
What do we know about Ifrit?
First of all, two tings are certain about Ifrit:
1.) Ifrit is more powerful, tenacious and hotter than Diable
2.) The Kanji for Ifrit is “魔神”[Majin](Lit. Demon God)
On 1.), with the exception of the brief description I gave above on this point, not all that much is known about Ifrit as of yet. However, even though I can’t say this with 100% certainty, I think the likelihood of this new form “Ifrit” being hotter than fire is very high and we can look to Chapter 1023 for the reason for this.
In Chapter 1023, when Queen asked why Sanji can combust into flames, Sanji replied saying that the flames of his passion will surpass the temperature of flames.
For people like me who love theorizing in general, even more so with Sanji related stuff, at the time, this seemed like a very clear foreshadowing for Sanji's next fire power up and alas! fast forward to the current chapter, Chapter 1034, we see that Sanji is now capable of generating stronger and hotter flames as a result of strengthening his newly awakened exoskeleton body with armament.
So although it isn't confirmed yet, I think this "fire hotter than flames" concept is what Ifrit is based off and what it's going to prove to be.
Also, personally I still can't get over the design of Ifrit and feel that Oda could've surely done a lot better to make it look more distinctive from Sanji's diable Jambe, so I have an inkling that Sanji's current Ifrit is only a teaser of the real ting hence why the current design feels a bit lacklustre. In other words it isn't yet at it's max output (i.e. hotter than flames just yet). Though this perception can very easily change when we get the colored version of it. That said, another reason why I think it isn't at it's max output is coz I feel Sanji isn't angry enough yet. In chapter 1023, Sanji's comment was made in the context of "passion", so this doesn't feel like Sanji's max output to me even though the ceiling for how hot Sanji's flames can get has increased. So I feel something is gonna stimulate Sanji to bring out the max output of his flames. Will discuss what I think this scenario will be towards the end of this theory ^^
Panel from chapter 1023
Note: Viz's translation here is the closest to what was stated in the raws but it isn't 100% accurate imo.
Here Sanji is talking about the future not the present.
Next up, 2.), now this is where it gets really interesting ^^
Like I stated above, the Kanji for Ifrit is 魔神 (Lit. Demon God), so basically Sanji's fire technique has evolved from 悪魔 (Akuma) [Lit. Demon/Devil ] to 魔神(Majin) [Lit. Demon God].
After briefly looking up these two words, the main difference btw these two beings seems to be that Akuma is a sort of "Demonic Spirit" that brings about calamity whereas Majin is a "Demonic god" that brings about calamity.
Now what is very interesting about this word, "Majin" that Oda uses for Sanji here is the presence of the word "god" in it, particularly when you consider that a so called race of "gods" called the Lunarians have recently been introduced into the story and that Sanji is eerily similar to them as he can combust into flames. So is this naming simply just a coincidence? or could there be more to it?. Another interesting point on this word Majin is that it can be written in two different ways. 魔神 (Demon + God) or 魔人 (Demon + Person). How these two words are used (i.e. whether they can mean the same ting or completely different tings) is entirely dependent on the fictional work and funny ting is in OP, we already have an existing "Majin" in the story in Daifuku's Genie so there is a naming overlap here. Main difference between the two however, is that the "Majin" for Ifrit uses the Kanji for "god" whereas the "Majin" for Daifuku's Genie uses the Kanji for "Person".
Which is very interesting in two ways. Firstly Sanji is a "human" and not a "god" so why did Oda go with the Kanji for god instead of human. Secondly, I feel like this "Majin" overlap here could've been easily been avoided, but Oda still chose to use it for Ifrit regardless.
Personally I don't think this naming is just a coincidence.
The Potential of Ifrit. Is it just a more destructive flame?
From the looks of it, Ifrit looks like a more powerful diable Jambe and just that but in the case that Oda is establishing a connection here with the Lunarians, it could have some very very interesting implications ^^
Before we get into this though, I wanna briefly talk about Flames in One Piece ^^.
- In One Piece, there are two types of flames, 1.) the destructive flame which is the most common variant which people like Sanji, Ace, Sabo etc. have and 2.) the healing flame, which Marco has.
- Albeit a very rare occurrence, we know that flames can hurt other flames or rather at the very least we know that Marco is capable of hurting Prometheus with his flames for some reason even though they are not destructive by nature.According to Marco, his flames are special hence why he was able to hurt Prometheus.
From the above, we can gather that 1.) there are flames with different characteristics in OP (i.e. destructive or healing) and 2.) there are special flames in OP.
So chances are that Marco's flames is not the only special flame in the verse ^^
Now with that established, let's pedal back to Ifrit and it's potential :p to do this we are gonna talk about King a bit as the potential of Ifrit lies in it's connection to the Lunarians ^^.
Imo it is almost certain that whatever is up with King's durability is most likely a result of his flames. The fact that King has a flame burning behind his back 24/7 is hella sus, as there is literally no need for it except it serves some kinda of purpose and I think said purpose could potentially be "healing". Reason being in chapter 1033 when Zoro cut King with his Shi-shishisonson (Death Lion Song), in the very next panel, King's flame appeared to cover said cut as though healing it.
Moreover, in the same chapter, King basically self destructed and was fine to which Zoro commented saying "why is he alive!? (blowing urself up) isn't that something a suicidal person would do!?". So King is pretty confident in his ability to not die to the point where he is playing with bombs that would kill an ordinary person. One explanation for King surviving of course could be that his durability is so high that he can blow himself up but the other could be that the he is confident in his ability to heal.
Which if true could have some very interesting implications, as it'd mean that King's flames and the Lunarian's by default posses both destructive and healing capabilities as we already know his flames burn. It could also be that King is able to freely change the characteristic of his flame btw destructive & healing.
Initially I wasn't really keen on this "King being able heal" idea bcoz of the overlap with Marco's df but since we have already established that certain flames in OP are special. It makes sense for a race of gods with the characteristic feature of being able to combust into flames to possess "special" flames or be capable of using flames with both destructive and healing capabilities.
Anywho! with the above established if King is indeed capable of the above with his flames, the likelihood that Sanji can also utilize his flames in this way is very high ^^
Also, as a side note Sanji/Lunarian plot, the mere fact that Oda is switching btw Sanji and Zoro's battles is a bit odd as it's different from how he typically writes their fights. Not to mention the fact that we are even getting lore about King's race in the Sanji v Queen fight so it could very well be that some of the revelations about King in Zoro's fight will tie back to Sanji somehow. Also, in chapter 1033, when Sanji asked Queen why King's race was destroyed, Queen replied saying that he should ask "history" himself, so this I think could potentially be a set-up for Sanji finding out the hidden history about the Lunarians in the near future.
How Ifrit could potentially be utilized in Sanji v Queen
Now about the point I discussed above, with regards to how I think Sanji will be stimulated to bring out the max output of his Ifrit, personally I don't think Queen is down for the count just yet and I feel he's still gonna come back with one last hurrah before he's ultimately put down by Sanji, and this time, I think he'd be using his plagues. I already mentioned this in the "Is Queen defeated?" thread but I think we are gonna see a plague with the characteristics in the panel below from Queen the next time we get focus on Sanji v Queen.
That said however, right now even if Queen has something as lethal as the above, there is no way in hell he hits Sanji with it under normal circumstances. Sanji is just way too damn fast. So I think Queen is gonna have to play dirty to hit Sanji with it and the easiest way for him to do it now will be to take Osome hostage. The Beast Pirates have already researched the SHs and aware of Sanji's weakness, so Queen could potentially utilize this like Maria did in order to hit Sanji with his plague. For instance Queen could shoot his plague at Osome but Sanji protects her and then gets hit as a result. This I think might be enough to push Sanji to his boiling point thus bringing out the max potential of Ifrit ^^. Another ting is the question of how Sanji's get healed if he gets hit by the aforementioned plague and potential turns blind. Oda potentially have Chopper do this or! we could potentially see Sanji also change the characteristic of his flame to a healing type to heal himself ^^ (hypothetically speaking)
This theory is already long enough as is so I'm finna end it here ^^
Hope you enjoyed the read~!