In the One Piece anime, Sanji is reluctant to leave the Baratie restaurant, but the Netflix live-action changes things up a bit.
Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the One Piece manga and anime did its best to capture the essence of Eiichiro Oda’s original story, and it largely succeeded in many ways. It featured impressive acting by the main cast, wonderful set pieces, authentic costumes, and exciting action sequences. Still, some compromises had to be made to maintain the pacing, as fans saw in the Baratie story arc.
A lot of material was cut from the Baratie arc, where Luffy and his friends recruited Sanji Vinsmoke, a chef working aboard the Baratie restaurant ship. Out of necessity, the series didn’t just cut Luffy’s fight against Don Krieg – it also streamlined Sanji’s recruitment, which was a change for the better. That allowed Netflix’s One Piece to focus on what matters most about Sanji’s character.
The East Blue Arc Had Repetitive Recruitment
In the original One Piece manga and anime, the East Blue saga did its job well to introduce the first five Straw Hats and explore their respective backstories, but at the cost of making the East Blue saga more repetitive than later sagas. To give the story some momentum, One Piece first introduced protagonist Monkey D. Luffy, then brought in four more Straw Hat crew members, one per arc. That made the East Blue saga feel repetitive compared to the likes of the Alabasta saga and the Water 7 saga, each of which added just one new Straw Hat. Of course, it was necessary for Luffy to have more than one or two crewmates before visiting the Grand Line, but even so, the East Blue saga felt like the same story being told four times in a row. That held back the narrative somewhat.
Telling the same recruitment story so many times held back the true creative potential of One Piece in the East Blue saga, and it was a case of diminishing returns, too. On one hand, it was fun to meet so many new recruits for Luffy’s pirate crew and have them settle into vital roles aboard Luffy’s ship. On the other hand, this made One Piece‘s drama more predictable and created some fake tension. It quickly became clear that anyone whom Luffy wanted to recruit would definitely join the crew sooner or later, since Luffy has protagonist powers and Zoro, Nami, Usopp, and Sanji intuitively felt like shonen protagonists, as opposed to the timid Koby. Once a character like Nami or Sanji showed up, it was obvious they would join Luffy even if they said no at first.
That just made it a formality to show Luffy and his new friend arguing back and forth on whether the latter should join the Straw Hat crew, and that made the drama rather transparent. Once Sanji appeared and Luffy made his pitch, fans would assume he would join – Sanji had a shonen hero vibe and was too cool a character to reject Luffy and wander off on his own. Once characters like Sanji and Usopp appeared, the tension surrounding whether they would join the crew was almost instantly lost, leading to fake drama and suspense about what would happen next. In-universe, there were solid reasons for characters like Zoro and Sanji to say no at first, but still, doing that so many times wasn’t optimal for the narrative. So, Netflix found a new, better approach.
Sanji’s Recruitment Was Perfect In Netflix’s One Piece
In the original One Piece anime series, Sanji stubbornly refused to join Luffy’s crew at first, but seeing Luffy fight so hard against Don Krieg helped change his mind. In the Netflix version, there was no Don Krieg fight, so Sanji needed a different motive to join Luffy’s crew. Sanji may have found Luffy’s brave fight against the villainous Arlong intriguing, but ultimately, Sanji Vinsmoke joined the Straw Hats for his own reasons, and he didn’t need as much convincing as Zoro and Nami. While Zoro and Nami were annoyed at Luffy at first and denied that they were a crew, Sanji had a different attitude in the live-action series. Sanji gladly teamed up with Luffy and seemed happier and more relaxed than ever as he boarded the Going Merry. Still, this recruitment wasn’t without its drama.
Instead of tedious and transparent drama about whether Sanji would join the Straw Hat crew, the Netflix One Piece series focused on Sanji’s relationship with Chef Zeff even more acutely, and made that the primary focus rather than Luffy’s recruitment efforts. In this version of the story, Sanji joined Luffy’s crew on his own accord, and that meant Sanji had to settle his business with Zeff first. Sanji’s long-standing dream to find the fabled All Blue stood out since there was less drama about Sanji’s potential recruitment, and that made Sanji less stubborn and more idealistic this time around. Sanji didn’t have to be dragged aboard the Going Merry and didn’t need Luffy to mentally wear him down with repeated recruitment pitches. Sanji was more internally driven, and that made him more sympathetic than ever and set his recruitment apart from Zoro’s, Nami’s, and Usopp’s. Sanji was a dreamer in Netflix’s One Piece, a refreshing way for Luffy to gain a new crew member.
Netflix Streamlines Luffy’s Recruitment Process
Sanji Vinsmoke’s recruitment to the Straw Hat crew was the single best instance of a new crewmate joining Luffy’s team, but it wasn’t the only example of Netflix handling this process well. Nami and Zoro were recruited together so the series could be less repetitive about building up Luffy’s crew back in the Romance Dawn arc, and that also allowed Zoro and Nami to play off each other not as fellow Straw Hats, but as fellow rogues, letting One Piece fans see a new side to each of them. This streamlined the recruitment process and allowed the story to focus on other things. Then, something similar happened to Sanji, with the series focusing more on why the new Straw Hats join the team, not whether they will. That’s the real meat of the matter.
All this is part of the live-action One Piece‘s overall strategy of presenting the core essence of the original anime but in an entirely new package, a leaner and more condensed version of the story that hits plot points with brisk pacing. There’s simply no time to linger on fake drama about whether four different people will join Luffy’s crew when fans can already tell that they will sign up. Netflix’s One Piece breaks down the lengthy original anime and builds it back up in a tighter narrative, complete with compromises and cutting redundant material. It’s a great way to quickly build up a shonen-style pirate crew and get fans pumped for whatever adventures they may have in the future Season 2 of live-action One Piece.
