Btw, remember when I said Sanji popping Nami's tits out during PH was "out of character"?
In Little Garden, he covers her up when he meets the group.
@Pot Goblin
I never miss with ma boi.
Yeah he felt like a very different character post TS especially in What The Punk Hazard.
That moment is one of the times his character really grew on me and I knew his chivalry was sincere at the time. I really respected and admired him. He felt like a "better" version of James Bond and Johnny Bravo for me, like a badass martial artist combination of them lol.
Sanji was the ultimate gentleman pre TS at least.
Punk Hazard really did make me hate Sanji for the reasons you mentioned too, the absolute creepiness with Namis body. But we also had Robin grabbing Frankys junk literally and him being exposed naked, so I guess its"#JustJapaneseThings" and "part of their culture" as in they they see it as acceptable or "fun" even ofc.
Him also being so cold/harsh towards the kids in that arc and Oda making him look terrible vs Vergo and not being able to rescue her from Vergo bothered me a lot too.
I actually wish he could have been the one to fight Monet and beat her too, fire vs snow, hot vs cold and thus Sanji calling her out for being beautiful on the outside but ugly/abhorrent on the inside or something. But he also can never lay a finger on a woman so to speak, so thats an impossibility ofc, it was never gonna happen.
At least Oda made up for him massively in this arc especially though imo. This might actually be my favourite arc for Sanji in the entire series tbh!