Ok so I wrote a long post to this elsewhere but I have a hacker who remotely closed the page before I finished.
Dear Oda,
I have been a avid reader of One Piece since I found out about it back when I was like 13 or so. I am now nearing 30. That's a lot of years. So now I am telling you, you're a great writer. It takes special talent to do this and keep churning out ideas, flesh out a story and so on. Especially when you're not getting ideas like having someone's day to day activity and then parodying it. Anyway, this is a bit of a watered down version of what I previously wrote. YOU NEED TO UPGRADE THE HECK OUT OF HOW YOU ARE WRITING OUT SANJI'S CHARACTER. Of course I can't read your mind about how you plan on writing out the character. Now yeah he is my favorite character in the show. But that isn't the sole reasoning. If Usopp was my favorite character and you weren't writing him like a top character, I could understand that because Usopp hasn't been portrayed as such. You know I actually derived a positive sense of wellbeing from this show. So again I don't dislike your writing. Its part of my well-being routine, not as much as my significant other (Stacy) is vital to my wellbeing. But it does have a positive affect on my wellbeing. Even a non Sanji fan would know that how you're portraying him feels wrong. I can feel how wrong it is. I know exactly how it feels to be treated less than you are worth, so I can see it with how you're writing Sanji. Even if you can't. They've already taken the orojacksonforums from me that I would go on to stay out of drama and just talk about One Piece stuff away from people I know in real life. Anyway, maybe we need to go back to the root. The strawhats are the main characters yes. But through the whole story, who have been the three main characters? Luffy, Zoro and Sanji. How was Zoro introduced? He was a captive but he was also deemed a notorious bounty hunter. He took out Captain Morgan (although unguarded Morgan). How was Sanji introduced? He was shown manhandling Fullbody. Then defeating Pearl and kind of Gin before his injuries took over. Not trying to compare Zoro and Sanji's intro as to whose was better. But they have been shown to be powerhouse as compared to the other crewmembers from the beginning. Now I'll go into the dynamics of something with the number 3. And how you've designed One Piece. Some of this may contradict depending how you look at it but will not if you look at it the way I'm trying to depict it. We are going to speed to the Whitebeard war real quick. They were deemed the strongest pirate crew behind Roger. Oda, you were well aware of this. When you showed us Whitebeard you wanted to give us a guide for what the Strawhats should be like. So nevermind Ace for a moment. You gave us Whitebeard, Marco and Jozu. Taking on the 3 Admirals. You gave us 3 Admirals. Not four or two but 3. But now Whitebeard is supposed to represent Luffy. Marco (though his ability is more like SanjI) was supposed to be Zoro's role. Jozu is supposed to have Sanji's role. You showed us this combination here to give us that idea of what its supposed to be like. Then following that we had Marco, Jozu and Ace. Whitebeard's 3 men. And they were taking on the Admiral's. That's the 3's dynamic again. In this case you have Luffy standing alone in the Whitebeard role. Then his 3 below him. Those 3 being Zoro, Sanji and Jinbe. Now Jinbe already has his established name. Now onto more 3's. You show us Luffy, Sabo and Ace as a pair of 3's who all sought to be Pirate King. Technically we are seeing that they apparently represent Roger, Whitebeard and Oden (could it be a hint that Sabo may join?). So now when Luffy gets his own journey, the three become in both this trio pairs becomes Luffy, Zoro, Sanji. You have Rocks and 3 of them became Yonko. You have Luffy, Kidd and Law established as a Supernova trio. But the point here is that it is always a pair of three. But you always seem to leave Sanji on the outside looking in of something what he deserves to be. You have Sanji talk all this about being a threat to the government. Technically Sanji is in part the manifestation of an experiment that the One Piece World Government deemed too dangerous and outlawed. So he is their fear realized. Now on top of that, I'm pretty sure you made him not like them and shown to be flawed compared to the rest of the Germa to later show him to surpass them. So the deemed failed experiment turns out to be an even better version of the experiment. Even his development can be have said to manifested later while he kept his humanity in tact. But now we'll go backwards a bit. We have Arlong park and he fights and underwater battle against a superhuman strength non human with an advantage underwater. Interestingly Kurorobi was the first to realize Sanji wasn't a normal human. So you've been hinting that Sanji is the normal character. But on top of that it seems you may be hinting through bits and pieces that the experiment on Sanji was a success and that it'll turn out that he'll receive the product of his father's enhancements as well as his mother's not removing his humanity. To which will make him stronger because his emotions will make him stronger like how it does with Luffy or Zoro. But anyway, he was shown to be stronger enough to take out this enemy that only Luffy, Zoro or Sanji could. Then he was in Alabasta and took out the Number 3 of Baroque works (though I'm not counting Robin) . Now from there, you should've gave Sanji a bounty. Even if it was 15 million or 25 million. Then you could've boosted up his bounty by that same 77 million and had him at 102 million and make him bounty classified as a supernova. It feels so crap that Sanji be portrayed through out the whole series as a major protagonist in the story, even amongst the main characters and him constantly getting shafted. You demonstrated Sanji in Thriller Bark along with Zoro both willing to sacrifice themselves for Luffy. You showed in Enies Lobby that Kaku and Jabra were both in the same range of strength. Now of course Kaku is a bit stronger when you add his devil fruit. Now you can also show that Sanji was wounded from Kalifa. Now you also show that Sanji was able to almost break through Blueno's defense. Noticeable enough that Kaku himself stole the attack for himself. Now I'm sure you signed off on the whole Kakuk saying that even though Sanji has no bount that he's a main fighter in the crew. So the story of Luffy and Zoro's goals being fighting based and Sanji's not being so is nonsense. Whitebeard wanted a family. Big Mom wanted to unite all the races (thought that requires a lot of power and influence). Well Sanji wants to find where all four seas unite. Which you could easily, as some people theorize, expand into Sanji uniting all four seas. Something that is threatening to the World Government. Of course Luffy's goal is to be the King of The Pirates but Sanji being under him can be the person who unites all the seas that the Pirate King rules over. Anyway, we constantly see you depicting Sanji to be no slouch of character. You have him joining in a combo attack to take out a Pacifista. You have him train timeskip with A Revolutionary Commander. Someone who is very influential in the Pirate world. A level 5 Impel Down prisoner and Revolutionary commander who is part of the crew that directly opposes the World Government. Just like you had Zoro train with the World Strongest Swordsman who he told Kuma he aspires to be. Then you had Luffy train with the 2nd in command of the Pirate King's crew he hopes to surpass. Then you had them coming out the timeskip each single-handedly (and single-legged) able to defeat a Pacifista. Something some of those pirates, including high bounty ones, could not defeat. Then you had it displayed that Sanji is one of the three (out of Luffy, Sanji and Zoro) who can handle a Logia. Now I'm sure that out of the Supernova only the captains can do that and Killer. But Oda, you wrote Sanji to be in that category of being able to fight Logia. You showed the three Admirals as Logia originally of course now you only have one, possibly two Logia and a Paramecia and if not a two logia another Paramecia, or a Zoan or non fruit user. But you made Sanji that way for a reason. Maybe you are in conflict with this supernova infatuation. I'll admit, writing all those devil fruit powers would seem to me very fun vs a non powered up character. But you made Sanji this way for a reason. Then you showed that the captain trusted Sanji to watch over the rest of the crew like he would Jinbe or Zoro. And even trusted him to attack a Big Mom ship. Something he probably would've told someone else to escape. So he sees Sanji as top crew member. Then you show people like Bege, Tamago, Doflamingo and such looking at Sanji as a powerful character. You have Sanji being able to hold off Vergo. So he's one level with a Vice Admiral. Yet for some reason you seem to want to down play Sanji as a character to the point you kept him out of league with the Supernova. My thing is why? I rationalized that adding Zoro gave away too much, hence you had to add Killer and thus adding Sanji would be overkill. But unless you are going to write this like Yu Yu Hakusho them we know the Strawhats are going to be the strongest crew here. So adding Sanji would not have made Kidd's crew stick out less. We would've still wondered why Kidd's crew had multiple Supernova. From what I see no other crew's number two is even on Sanji's level. Killer we can see is weaker than Zoro and he's probably as strong as Sanji. You can say well Sanji being a Supernova would have affected the Judge storyline but even that isn't legit. Because you had Cracker's bounty poster not his real face. They knew there was Charlotte Cracker but not who he was. So it was open to put him there. And I'm not saying because Zoro is one, to turn it into Sanji vs Zoro. I'm saying that because they are depicted as the right and left hand of Luffy, then include him. You've shown Sanji not being a supernova but to be just as strong as them. You just showed Sanji: Launching attacks on Vergo, Doflamingo, teaming up with Luffy against Big Mom, taking out Yonji who with his raid suit is strong as or stronger than Daifuku, dodging Katakuri's jelly bean, speed rushing Oven, Blocking Daifuku's big halberd that he was using to take out Carrot, you just showed him fight Page One, you just showed him fight the Super Nova X Drake with no raid suit and take minimal damage (while showing him as, while showing him one par with Zoro. As you wrote as the two reunite in 943. You again depict them as in league with each other. But it seems you all favor Zoro as if their is a scale you have to constantly keep tipped in Zoro's favor. I mean you showed us all through the series that their is a slight Zoro Sanji rivalry. You have no problems keeping that in Zoro's favor. But you felt you should keep the Supernova dynamic balanced and not in favor of the main characters. I feel like there was a no reasoning not to have Sanji in there. I mean look how you depicted this Sanji and Zoro thing. The two reunite as in them being equals in a sense. Luffy, Law, Kidd reunite they are deemed equals. At this point, I'd be completely scared that you just write Sanji out the story as joining a new crew officially. Then you have this whole Zoro, Luffy and Oshiruko stuff. Yet the guy who is a chef who you still depict as against wasting food, you all don't even show him to be angry as his character should be. You showed Sanji was so serious about cooking with the fullbody incident and then the Cosette stuff. Then you have it show again when you had Sanji against poisoning Big Mom because of Sanji's respect towards food. Yet you have Kaido and these people playing with food with the SMILES and the left over town stuff poisoning the people. This is my thing Oda you may really be slipping with this Sanji thing. Of all the people in the crew from outside of Wano, the one that should have the biggest gripes with the Yonko is Sanji. Now that doesn't mean that I believe Sanji should be the one to defeat both Kaido and Big Mom. But it should (and not could've, should've, would've) mean that Sanji should be right up there with those supernova. Come on, Big Mom tried to kill him and his family, and Kaido is poisoning people through food and all the other food stuff. Its like you're stuck between the supernova or monster trio dynamic. Maybe you need a push to tip the scales. The Monster Trio dynamic is much more important than the supernova dynamic. Its so crappy to just constantly display Sanji in their league but then constantly leave his behind out of everything. No way should Sanji be stuck down in the building facing Black Maria when everyone else is facing off with the Yonko talking about the new Era. He deserves the same. You see I'm not even arguing this for Jinbe. Jinbe already has his reputation and so forth. He doesn't need that character building aspect. When you wrote this you heavily focused on the supernova. And through the Whitebeard Trio, you showed us that at some point Sanji is suppose to be able to take on an Admiral. Now look at Roger's crew. The dynamic of 3 again. You have Roger, Rayleigh and Scopper. All eager to take on Oden. Even though Oden was described as a monster. Because they are the three-headed horse of the crew. Then when you add Oden to Roger? You have another trio that excludes the Captain. Rayleigh, Scopper and Oden. That number seems to serve great importance. For Sanji to be treated in the manner he is real sucky. Espeecially when you've watched the character Sanji through this whole journey. You ran him out of Skypeia. Yeah you've given him roles where he's been vital to the crew in other ways. But then you do things like giving him Blue Walk. Then you show Coby being able to catch a torpedo underwater. Of course Sanji's speed was under much more water pressure than that. Then you have Sanji learning Sky Walk. Only for him to go into Big Mom's territory and just be treated like that ability is nothing. You know how many of us can do that. Then you show him get outclassed in speed by Niji. But then you show Sanji standing up to his tormentors including his father. But then again, at the start of the post Time Skip you show Sanji, Luffy and Zoro taking out Pacifista. No one else in the crew. So right there you are showing those three to be in a class of their own. Then on the way to Fishman Island? You have only Luffy, Zoro and Sanji go out in the bubble against the Kraken. You didn't take Nami or Usopp even Franky. You took Luffy, Zoro and Sanji. Becuse you demonstrate them as in a class of their own. You've had Luffy, Zoro and Sanji depicted by Nami as monsters. She doesn't say that about anyone else in the crew. Then you go to Punk Hazard? Who can fight a Logia with Haki in the crew? Well Luffy, Zoro and Sanji. And what was established, that we had 3 Admirals who were all Logia. So you showed that those 3 would eventually be like Whitebeard's top men able to go toe to toe with the likes of those guys, which they could not before. And One Piece is definitely supposed to be more about the Monster Trio. You obviously see that this Alliance isn't forever. You saw Law's grimace when he found out Jinbe was joining the Strawhats. It wasn't a joyous feeling because it meant that he'd fall behind the Strawhats in power. So now we know this story is more about the Strawhats. So Sanji should be up there with them. Its always been about the Strawhats. You showed him to be the leader behind the other 2 as well. Sanji has had to suffer a lot in the series. From you writing him into the anti-Sanji island for 2 years. The Germa mess. His bounty posters. Him apparently only getting a boosted bounty because of the Germa stuff. Isn't about time you start giving Sanji his due. Besides him, Luffy and Zoro well who else in the crew could've taken on Vergo. Smoker struggled with Vergo a bit a bit I believe. And Sanji didn't know what he was up against in Vergo to really strategize. Like for example, Blueno. Where he used a regular kick then realized that wouldn't work on him. But all I'm seeing from you Oda is, Sanji deserves the glory but I'm just not going to give it to him.
You know what would fix it? At this point, unless Law was to use his ability to bring Sanji up there, he's stuck on the floor below. So you could have the Yonko acknowledge Sanji as just as strong as some of those Supernova. Not because I'm a Sanji fan. Its just right that Sanji should be up there in those moments of glory facing of against those two as well. How can you write Sanji as top 3 of the main characters and constantly just write him out of things. Even the Skypiea thing you had him be one of the first set of people taken out during the arc. To be fair, you also had Zoro taken out of an arc with the whole Mihawk battle. So its not completely like its only Sanji. But more times than not, Sanji is getting screwed over. They're monster trio. Its like if you had a Cerberus, the two heads are always awake but then the third one is constantly incapacitated. Its just not right. We all know Sanji is a competent character. It looks like in the New World you are still developing him and trying to make Sanji overcome something. But come on now, in these pivotal moments Sanji is just out the picture. He has just as much reason to be up there than anyone. It is your story so you can keep screwing over Sanji but still its really tiresome. Going into another anime, its like how you had Kenshin and Saito then you have Sano leagues below them. Except there Sano was always depicted as such. In this case Sanji has been always depicted as in league with his counterparts but you write him as if he's not. Its ridiculous at this point. I know of course I don't know what you have in store for the story and I don't know it all. But if I went based on the current depictions, not much. Somehow you'll weaken Sanji so he'll get his behind kicked and do nothing of fighting significance. This isn't even a Zoro vs Sanji thing for me. Its the collective of all three. Against Hody, you showed that Zoro and Sanji represented the right and left hands of Luffy. That's a theme you should stick to. It may get repetitive but when it comes to major events like this then it should definitely be a thing. Give Sanji some damn glory, you put him through hell since during and after the timeskip and turned his whole character into something strange. Like if you're sure how to write Sanji well just look back to how you wrote him in Enies Lobby or as I said before, how you had him Luffy, Zoro and Sanji team up against the Pacifista Pre-Timeskip. That's not just a me thing. That's what the fans like. Even though this is your story. Its not real life where fans would be wrong to tell you how to live your life. And its not about catering to something unrealistic. You've constantly demonstrate the basically no named-ness of Sanji. He's part of the Strawhats and the top 3 in the crew, he gets no notoriety. He's a Vinsmoke, nobody knew about that. He gets no notoriety for it all. You even have it this arc. Queen shows Zoro and Sanji and say they are the number 2 and number 3. Then you have Sanji simultaneously in the corridor's and they mention Luffy and Jinbe and completely phase his existence out. Like basically depicting him like Buggy. He's Usopp's opposite. Where Usopp is the weakling and get whole heaps of praise. Sanji is of the monster trio and gets phased out at times. That's some screwy writing for Sanji. I mean if you want to keep him in the shadow that's one thing. Doflamingo was a big name character but nobody really knew he was Joker as well. Oda its not wrong for you to write Sanji as the powerhouse character he deserves to be shown as.
Now for the record I believe one piece is the best anime out there. Even beyond Dragon Ball Z. It has the potential to run on longer than the timetable you claimed. Just because you've touched on so many things that you could literally expand this stuff for a long while and not have it get stale. Thought the Yonko were the strongest, now we have a few even greater enemies who come across some very powerful devil fruits and so on. So I mean I love One Piece. I just feel that Sanji stuff, especially in this moment has to change. Especially when you've already show Sanji to be willing to go out on his own against Big Mom. Brook is different because he was cornered by her rather than went to face her alone. Like how could you leave Sanji out especially when there is history like that.
It feels so off to do.
And for the record this isn't just a Sanji thing. Because the other thing that I feel (doesn't mean its fact) needs touching up is how Nami is just looking like a super weakling even in the New World still. Same with Usopp. But a Devil Fruit would definitely work with Nami's character. And the crew being Haki-less and stuff. But this Sanji thing here is something that has to upgrade.
But I mean, I wish you good health. Not to overwork yourself. Hopefully you show Sanji in a much more redeemable manner because he deserves it.
Not that I expect you to oblige to my request but
Thank you.
interesting he landed Redhawk/red roc on Hody, Doffy and kaido
