I recently started thinking that Sanji probably does have hardening. If so, he likely had it for most of post timeskip and didn't suddenly unlock it (there hasn't been any moment where he "awakened" his haki like Don Sai or Usopp did in Dressrosa). I would explain below why I think he has hardening, the reasons for scepticism, and what would change my mind.
The Case For
There have been two separate instances where Sanji displayed shading that looked like hardening.
The first was when he kicked Drake in his Zoan form:
The next was when he blocked Kanjuro's arrows:
The shading that looks like koka in the above instances are in the red ovals. The common counterargument to these claims points out the vagueness of the supposed uses of hardening, how unclear the shading is, etc. If Oda wanted us to know Sanji was using hardening in these moments he could have made it clear. Oda is not going to let Sanji's first use of hardening in the manga be some irrelevant side panels that are so ambiguous.
I think the counterargument is decent, but I'm not really convinced of its veracity. A very similar argument was raised when Jinbe first displayed shading that looks like hardening:
However, Jinbe later went on to demonstrate hardening much more unambiguously:
Looking at the similarities between the two panels, I think the former panel was an instance of hardening and Jinbe's first demonstrated instance of hardening. This substantially lowers my credence in the claim that Oda wouldn't depict Hardening so unambiguously when a character first demonstrates it โ he seems to have done just that for Jinbe โ as a result, I'm willing to more seriously entertain the hypothesis that those instances of shading were in fact hardening.
In addition to the above two instances, there's another case which might have been hardening, when Sanji blocked Daifuku Genie's spear:
Admittedly, this is extremely ambiguous and vague. The shading in the red oval (where he presumably used hardening) is not noticeably different from the shading in the blue oval (where he presumably did not use hardening, even in the anime (only one leg appears to be hardened)). You can't meaningfully distinguish Sanji using hardening from not in that panel. I initially did not even think to include it as I never noticed hardening at all when I initially saw the scene (@Yo Tan Wa and @Sadistic Senpai are the ones who brought to my attention that it might have been a display of hardening). I mainly include it for completion.
A case for it being hardening would be that blocking such a massive bladed attack would have required colour of armaments haki. However, a counter would be that mere invisible COA (e.g Tashigi vs Monet) may suffice (and Sanji did appear to use invisible haki when he fought Judge). However, the anime rendition of the scene also depicts it as hardening:
Toei may have consulted Oda before depicting this scene, so this is evidence in favour of it being hardening. However, the anime also depicted Batman as having hardening (and at the level of being able to block a blow from Luffy), and takes many other artistic liberties in their depiction of fights. As a result, I think this is very weak evidence.
The Daifuku scene does not noticeably raise my credence in Sanji having hardening. I include it to make my analysis more complete, and because others may grant different credences to the anime depiction of the scene (or be sceptical that mere invisible COA could have blocked the Genie's attack).
What makes the hardening explanation more compelling to me is that we have not one but two (or three if you count the Daifuku scene) instances where Sanji may have demonstrated hardening. If we accept that Oda is willing to depict initial uses of hardening so unambiguously, then there is not much reason to doubt that the aforementioned instances are hardening. The fact that the phenomenon has repeated itself makes it even more convincing. Furthermore, on priors I would expect a fighter of Sanji's calibre to be capable of using hardening. It seems to be common even among characters much weaker than Sanji (Raisin, Opera brothers, etc). I'm aware that strict tier logic doesn't apply to haki (Aisa had island level range with her COO from birth, and the preskip Boa sisters could use Ryuo), but these examples seem to be rare and appear to be exceptions not the rule. Top veteran level characters without devil fruit abilities (what Pre RS Sanji was) should be able to use hardening. Especially as we already know Sanji has COA.
The Case Against
That said, I am not all that confident in Sanji having hardening. There have been many instances where he had cause to reveal hardening but he did not.
The most common counterargument to Sanji not using hardening in those instances was that Oda was holding off on revealing Sanji's hardening until an important moment (e.g. Zoro didn't use Koka until his fight with Pica, and Sanji has yet to have an extensive 1 vs 1 confrontation where he triumphed postskip). That explanation for Sanji not using hardening prior makes sense, but if we accepted it, then we would expect Oda not to reveal Sanji's hardening in such an unambiguous fashion. If you don't accept the counterargument, then the question of why Sanji didn't use hardening before remains.
The other counterargument (and one I don't have much credence in) is that Oda did not depict Sanji using hardening before because it would have been hard to show with his black suit. I do not buy this for a few reasons:
No matter how I see it, either the instances above are not instances of hardening, or the question of why Sanji did not display hardening previously lacks a satisfying answer.
I have heard some people mention Sanji receiving the Raid Suit as an argument that he likely doesn't have hardening as the Raid Suit obviates the need for hardening, but I have very little credence in that argument:
Another argument against Sanji having hardening is that Luffy and Zoro's first uses of hardening were highlighted. While Jinbe did not have a highlighted first use, he has hardly been in the same circumstances as Sanji; prior to WCI, there wasn't any opportunity for Jinbe to demonstrate hardening. Furthermore, Jinbe is simply just not as important a character as Sanji is. If the other members of the "monster trio" had highlighted first uses of hardening, then we should expect that Sanji's first use would be highlighted as well. That this didn't happen is indicative that Sanji has not yet used hardening.
I am not really aware of any good counterarguments to the above. I think it's plausible and have some credence in it, it makes me significantly less confident that the aforementioned instances are indeed hardening.
Conclusion
All things considered, I cannot say that I am very confident that Sanji has hardening, but I have (slightly) more credence in him having hardening than not. The main reason is probably that my prior for Sanji having hardening is reasonably high, so starting with the prior expectations I have, the evidence on ground is not enough for me to update towards Sanji not having hardening (I think the balance of evidence is ambiguous, but slightly favours Sanji having hardening). However, not everyone would share my priors, and given that the evidence isn't very compelling, I don't really expect there to be consensus at this point in time. I think both positions are reasonable to hold (for example, I am significantly less confident that Sanji has hardening than when I started writing this post).
If the following things happened, I would update towards being wrong and conclude that Sanji most likely didn't have hardening at the beginning of Wano:
What do you guys think? Does Sanji have hardening? Which (if any) of the mentioned instances were displays of hardening?
The Case For
There have been two separate instances where Sanji displayed shading that looked like hardening.
The first was when he kicked Drake in his Zoan form:
The next was when he blocked Kanjuro's arrows:
The shading that looks like koka in the above instances are in the red ovals. The common counterargument to these claims points out the vagueness of the supposed uses of hardening, how unclear the shading is, etc. If Oda wanted us to know Sanji was using hardening in these moments he could have made it clear. Oda is not going to let Sanji's first use of hardening in the manga be some irrelevant side panels that are so ambiguous.
I think the counterargument is decent, but I'm not really convinced of its veracity. A very similar argument was raised when Jinbe first displayed shading that looks like hardening:
However, Jinbe later went on to demonstrate hardening much more unambiguously:
Looking at the similarities between the two panels, I think the former panel was an instance of hardening and Jinbe's first demonstrated instance of hardening. This substantially lowers my credence in the claim that Oda wouldn't depict Hardening so unambiguously when a character first demonstrates it โ he seems to have done just that for Jinbe โ as a result, I'm willing to more seriously entertain the hypothesis that those instances of shading were in fact hardening.
In addition to the above two instances, there's another case which might have been hardening, when Sanji blocked Daifuku Genie's spear:
Admittedly, this is extremely ambiguous and vague. The shading in the red oval (where he presumably used hardening) is not noticeably different from the shading in the blue oval (where he presumably did not use hardening, even in the anime (only one leg appears to be hardened)). You can't meaningfully distinguish Sanji using hardening from not in that panel. I initially did not even think to include it as I never noticed hardening at all when I initially saw the scene (@Yo Tan Wa and @Sadistic Senpai are the ones who brought to my attention that it might have been a display of hardening). I mainly include it for completion.
A case for it being hardening would be that blocking such a massive bladed attack would have required colour of armaments haki. However, a counter would be that mere invisible COA (e.g Tashigi vs Monet) may suffice (and Sanji did appear to use invisible haki when he fought Judge). However, the anime rendition of the scene also depicts it as hardening:
Toei may have consulted Oda before depicting this scene, so this is evidence in favour of it being hardening. However, the anime also depicted Batman as having hardening (and at the level of being able to block a blow from Luffy), and takes many other artistic liberties in their depiction of fights. As a result, I think this is very weak evidence.
The Daifuku scene does not noticeably raise my credence in Sanji having hardening. I include it to make my analysis more complete, and because others may grant different credences to the anime depiction of the scene (or be sceptical that mere invisible COA could have blocked the Genie's attack).
What makes the hardening explanation more compelling to me is that we have not one but two (or three if you count the Daifuku scene) instances where Sanji may have demonstrated hardening. If we accept that Oda is willing to depict initial uses of hardening so unambiguously, then there is not much reason to doubt that the aforementioned instances are hardening. The fact that the phenomenon has repeated itself makes it even more convincing. Furthermore, on priors I would expect a fighter of Sanji's calibre to be capable of using hardening. It seems to be common even among characters much weaker than Sanji (Raisin, Opera brothers, etc). I'm aware that strict tier logic doesn't apply to haki (Aisa had island level range with her COO from birth, and the preskip Boa sisters could use Ryuo), but these examples seem to be rare and appear to be exceptions not the rule. Top veteran level characters without devil fruit abilities (what Pre RS Sanji was) should be able to use hardening. Especially as we already know Sanji has COA.
The Case Against
That said, I am not all that confident in Sanji having hardening. There have been many instances where he had cause to reveal hardening but he did not.
- Against Vergo (he even got his shin bones fractured).
- Against Doflamingo (to enhance his attacks).
- Against Judge.
- He outright used haki in his fight with Judge.
The most common counterargument to Sanji not using hardening in those instances was that Oda was holding off on revealing Sanji's hardening until an important moment (e.g. Zoro didn't use Koka until his fight with Pica, and Sanji has yet to have an extensive 1 vs 1 confrontation where he triumphed postskip). That explanation for Sanji not using hardening prior makes sense, but if we accepted it, then we would expect Oda not to reveal Sanji's hardening in such an unambiguous fashion. If you don't accept the counterargument, then the question of why Sanji didn't use hardening before remains.
The other counterargument (and one I don't have much credence in) is that Oda did not depict Sanji using hardening before because it would have been hard to show with his black suit. I do not buy this for a few reasons:
- All uses of hardening have lustre to them (Sanji's suit doesn't have lustre, so hardening applied to his feet may have shown just fine).
- Hardening is still applied to black objects such as swords, and IIRC Don Sai also wore black shoes but Oda had no problem depicting his hardening.
- The excuse completely does not apply to Diable Jambe at all.
- Sanji was in a white suit for most of WCI, and Oda had the perfect opportunity to depict him using hardening but failed to do so. The scene were he blocked Daifuku's Genie's blade would have been perfect.
No matter how I see it, either the instances above are not instances of hardening, or the question of why Sanji did not display hardening previously lacks a satisfying answer.
I have heard some people mention Sanji receiving the Raid Suit as an argument that he likely doesn't have hardening as the Raid Suit obviates the need for hardening, but I have very little credence in that argument:
- Hardening can still be applied on top of the Raid Suit thus enhancing it's durability even further.
- Hardening also increases the attack power of attacks, so it serves a larger purpose than just boosting durability.
- The Raid Suit obviating the need for hardening would suggest that even at the end of the series Sanji still wouldn't have hardening, and I find that extremely unlikely.
Another argument against Sanji having hardening is that Luffy and Zoro's first uses of hardening were highlighted. While Jinbe did not have a highlighted first use, he has hardly been in the same circumstances as Sanji; prior to WCI, there wasn't any opportunity for Jinbe to demonstrate hardening. Furthermore, Jinbe is simply just not as important a character as Sanji is. If the other members of the "monster trio" had highlighted first uses of hardening, then we should expect that Sanji's first use would be highlighted as well. That this didn't happen is indicative that Sanji has not yet used hardening.
I am not really aware of any good counterarguments to the above. I think it's plausible and have some credence in it, it makes me significantly less confident that the aforementioned instances are indeed hardening.
Conclusion
All things considered, I cannot say that I am very confident that Sanji has hardening, but I have (slightly) more credence in him having hardening than not. The main reason is probably that my prior for Sanji having hardening is reasonably high, so starting with the prior expectations I have, the evidence on ground is not enough for me to update towards Sanji not having hardening (I think the balance of evidence is ambiguous, but slightly favours Sanji having hardening). However, not everyone would share my priors, and given that the evidence isn't very compelling, I don't really expect there to be consensus at this point in time. I think both positions are reasonable to hold (for example, I am significantly less confident that Sanji has hardening than when I started writing this post).
If the following things happened, I would update towards being wrong and conclude that Sanji most likely didn't have hardening at the beginning of Wano:
- Sanji does not display hardening in a much less ambiguous fashion (akin to the Jinbe "Sharkskin scene") in all of Wano.
- Sanji has a moment of "awakening" prior to his unambiguous display of hardening.
What do you guys think? Does Sanji have hardening? Which (if any) of the mentioned instances were displays of hardening?
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