“To the East Blue! Sanji’s Resolute Departure!”
What They Say:
The terrible history of Sanji’s family continue to unfold. From a rare moment of compassion he is able to escape, only to face his father’s cruelty before setting out on his own. less
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The mix of material for One Piece is uneven to say the least in this arc but that’s also fairly standard. While some characters are largely missing in action, others get a bit more time and attention while some are getting token moments. And it can shift for a few episodes in another direction as well, which is fairly standard and just a bit frustrating. With Luffy getting past recovery mode there’s a good chance of that picking up more with Cracker but the main focus has been the flashback side of things. And those can be hit or miss in general. But giving us young Sanji material is something that feels fresh and new which in turn makes it a lot more enjoyable than you might initially expect as it’s an interesting backstory for him that leads to where we first met him about eight hundred or so episodes ago.
Of course, it’s not exactly enjoyable for Sanji. While his siblings for the most part revel in what their father wants them to do, he’s suffering handily for having empathy and trying to take care of others. His solitary confinement with headgear no less is tough to watch and you can see how it would certainly impact him long term. What’s useful amid all of this is understanding that his mother was the helpful factor in keeping the peace for some time but her death really put everything into a bad place where what Sanji learned from her, and comes by naturally, is seen as a huge weakness to his father. What he doesn’t see is the stark determination that Sanji gets from wanting to do the right thing and how much of an asset that is. The material with his mother is certainly interesting and adds a new layer to the family dynamic as a whole.
There are a lot of things going on in this flashback that reaffirms what’s obvious, such as the brothers having no empathy and being groomed as perfect fighters. The small bit with Sanji’s mother works well to establish things and the quiet help that he gets while in his cell makes clear what’s to come in the future, especially as we see the rise of the Garma 66 fleet. As the fleet makes its way to a country that it’s going to destroy, this proves to be the first real opportunity for Sanji, again with a little help from his sister, to escape. With him becoming a pretty good culinary student on his own in his cell and learning about the all Blue, the desire to get out of this place is strong and he even challenges his father over it. It’s almost a weirdly tender moment with how his father reacts to this but it also reinforces just how his father views him as useless in his grand plans and is better served by him voluntarily leaving – with conditions.
In Summary:
A greater exploration of Sanji’s past is pretty well done as it helps to expand on the character with new and interesting details that were hinted at before but never delved into. It’s far more packed than a lot of other episodes in a way that’s really surprising because it’s easy to imagine they could have drawn this out for half a dozen episodes if not more to give us a really full look at his past and give the manga more time to move forward. It’s a pretty solid piece that while predictable helps to further humanize Sanji. Not that he needed it but it’s some interesting new angles that are getting worked through and it helps to update your view of the character even if we know how and who he is in the here and now.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
