One Piece Ramblings

I am suddenly reminded that Sanji's name was almost Naruto.

I’m glad that you brought this up @icantbelieveimadeanaccount :) I like that Oda revealed that Sanji’s name was originally Naruto. Then SaNami’s names would have been Nami and Naruto. 

They still would have had: 1) completely Japanese names, 2) both their names have connections with the sea (Nami=wave, Naruto=whirlpool), 3) they both would still have had the same number in their name(7 instead of a 3), and 4) their names begin with the same sound (na). I don’t know what Oda likes, but I can think of a few manga pairings, where the couple’s names begin with the same letter/syllable (the only example in OP that comes to mind is Roger and Rouge, though). My professor once told me of a superstition that couples whose names begin with the same letter are supposed to be very compatible. 

I’m glad though that Oda switched to Sanji because having 2 Narutos would be so confusing for the anime fans. 

This post doesn’t have anything to do with the latest chapter, but just some more SaNami stuff that I wanted to post for a while. 

These are some more connections between Bellemere and Sora that I came up with while chatting with @chefalier and also with @monkeydluffy19920.

Sacrifices: Sacrificial mothers are a common theme in One Piece, but I realized that both Bellemere and Sora sacrificed their lives for their children, fighting against an enemy. Bellemere died fighting Arlong, because she couldn’t deny her daughters, while Sora died because she fought against Judge’s plan to raise monster children. Both Sora and Bellemere died, and both Sanji and Nami grew up abused by Judge and Arlong. They also have older sisters who really care about them (so far I think they’re the only SHs with loving older sisters?). 

Marines: Sora has the same name as the comics hero Sora who fought against Germa 66. I’m not sure what connection Sora, Sanji’s mother, has with the Sora from the comics, but there is probably some connection between them. I saw some theories that Sora may have been a Marine, and I think Rogersbase speculated in a video that Sora was a Marine and her marriage with Judge was kind of like a Romeo/Juliet story (except they got married). We do know that Bellemere was a Marine, so it’s possible both Sora and Bellemere have some connection with the Marines.

It’s interesting that Nami told Usopp that she had a soft spot for tough, Marine women, because they reminded her of Bellemere.

Names: Then there’s their names. I mentioned both of their names in earlier posts (here and here), but Bellemere is a French name and not only that, but can mean mother-in-law (or stepmother), and interestingly when Oda assigned nationalities to the Strawhats, he said Sanji would be from France. Sora means “sky” in Japanese, and Nami has some connections to the sky. She spent her timeskip on a Sky Island, and her being a navigator requires her to read the sky very well. She also controls the weather, which is closely connected to the sky (and sora could also even refer to the weather sometimes). When we talk about the weather, we often mention things like the sky being cloudy or sunny, etc…

Pudding’s one thought bubbles about Brook kind of convinced me that she didn’t notice Sanji was listening to her in Chapter 850-851. But first of all, I have a slight issue with the translation of Pudding’s thoughts and since I saw some speculations about this...

When I read the Japanese spoilers, Pudding said this, “あの骨男こんな所にいたのか…ま…捕まったのならよかった.” She essentially said, “That skeleton guy was here (in a place like this)?” which to me sounds very different from the translation, “He made it all the way here?” She seemed to be startled that Brook was there in the room with Big Mom and seemed to not have noticed him until then (and not that he made it all the way to the island). Then she says, “Well...he’s captured so that’s fine/good.” 

Hello @zjstars! Thanks for the ask. I’m not sure if you’re expecting a serious answer, or a fanfic, but it’s interesting that you ask. Actually @konekonami and @luffyasksandanswers have been rp-ing a Chopper clones series on their rp blogs, which is pretty entertaining, so I think their blogs would answer your question better :)

These are some of my thoughts after reading One Piece Chapter 852.

Going back to the chapter parallels, Chapter 53 is the first chapter that we actually see Sanji fight (his fight with Fullbody was off-paneled in the manga). It’s also when the Baratie’s ultimate weapon (Sabagashira #1) is revealed, and Sanji kind of takes charge of defending the Baratie.

So I wonder if that means next chapter we’ll finally see Sanji take some action? I hope so, but I always expect Sanji to do something the next chapter, and it always turns out to be too early. Since he finally admitted that he was naive to think that he could sacrifice himself and marry Pudding to save his friends, I hope this is the turning point in the arc for him.

Overall, I really liked the chapter, even though it was a relatively calm transition after all the crazy revelations that we got in the past few weeks. We still got a lot of important information -- and this chapter was packed full with info -- and also an emotional scene between Sanji and Reiju. 

Sanji and Reiju

I really loved this scene, because the relationship between Reiju and Sanji was always kind of an enigma to me. I always felt there was more to their relationship than was shown earlier, and that Sanji cared more about Reiju than he expressed. In spite of the fact that Reiju and Sanji’s last parting during their childhood was very emotional (with Reiju rescuing little Sanji from his cage, and both of them parting in tears) we didn’t get any touching reunion between them and Sanji was even pretty cold to his sister when we first saw them together. So I always wanted to know how these two really felt about each other. Overall, I really love Reiju but her character was really mysterious and I’m glad I finally got to know how she really felt about Sanji, their mother, and the Germa kingdom.

I loved seeing Sanji’s mother again, and it’s interesting that her name is Sora/Sola ( ソラ ), which means “sky” in Japanese (according to my friend, it also means “seashell” in Korean?). It’s also the same name as the hero in the comics that Vito mentioned. According to Vito, this Sora fought against the evil Germa army and could walk on water, and had a seagull and robot sidekick (when I think of transforming robot, somehow I think of Franky and Vegapunk :)). I wonder if the seagull is important? All I could find was that it’s a scavenger, very opportunistic, and the “gull” comes from “gullible” because seagulls swallow anything you put in their beak. They also stand for freedom. 

It’s interesting that the comic Sora can walk on water, because Judge wanted his children to become superhumans. I think it’s fitting since both Soras fought against Judge and the Germa kingdom (it would be cool if Sora could actually walk on water). Anyways, I wonder if this possible connections between the 2 Soras will become important later. 

I think it’s pretty sad that Sora was so happy that Sanji told her to get well again (to the point she was crying like a baby and calling him such a good kid), because telling their sick mother to get better is something any normal child would say.

It seems like self-sacrificing tendencies run in this family, and Sanji must have gotten his sacrificial traits from his mother. Not only did Sora sacrifice her life for her children, but now Reiju is planning on dying with Germa, and putting Sanji’s life before hers. The three of them are so alike, and yet so different from Judge and his other sons (who use their soldiers as human shields to die for them). Why did Sora marry Judge in the first place??

Sanji’s kindness is really emphasized a lot in this arc. After all the emphasis on his kindness, I feel like it wouldn’t make sense for him to leave Reiju, or even the rest of the Vinsmokes, to their death. Sanji hasn’t really been the type to just leave people to their death.

Also, I think it’s important that Reiju said she was investigating Pudding and was suspicious of Pudding all along, because she was too good to be true. This kind of adds weight to Pudding being really evil for me, because I don’t think Reiju would have been suspicious of her for no reason. If Oda makes Pudding a good person, then it will make Reiju look pretty stupid, for suspecting an innocent person for no reason. It also kind of explains why Pudding shot Reiju , even though Reiju is supposed to die during the wedding. Reiju was probably caught snooping around by Pudding (and maybe found out something that would endanger Big Mom’s wedding plans), and the latter had to immobilize her and alter her memory. I know some people think Pudding shot Reiju to mess up the wedding plans, but I think Pudding had to shoot Reiju, to prevent Big Mom’s wedding plans from getting messed up.

Well, next time I see a character in OP who seems too good to be true, I guess that means I should be suspicious of them.

I also love how Sanji can be so stealthy, that he snuck onto Pudding’s balcony (probably) unnoticed, and now took out the infirmary guard and snuck into Reiju’s hospital room without anyone noticing in a castle where Homies are watching everything, but in the meantime, Luffy is raising a huge ruckus running around and yelling for Sanji.

Luffy, Nami, and Jinbei

Switching to Luffy, Nami, and Jinbei -- I’m kind of sad they burned the book, but I hope the other prisoners were also able to escape. It’s probably better to set the prisoners free and create some chaos, so that the Strawhats can escape more easily later.

Nami got a new outfit. I’m a little sad, because her WCI little dirndl dress was one of my favorites from her. I like that she gets to wear different costumes in this arc, rather than just bikinis, because I love seeing Nami cosplay (Note: I just realized she has her hair in 2 ponytails, kind of like Pudding...is this a coincidence?). Her new outfit seems to be stolen from a soldier and look like overalls? It’s not as cutesy as her dress, but she still looks cute in it (Oda has been making her look really pretty lately). And it’s probably easier to move around and fight in, so I’m wondering if this is a sign that she’s getting a fight soon. I’m sure Usopp didn’t upgrade her climatact for no reason so I’m hoping we’ll really see her use her new moves this arc. 

Besides, out of the Strawhats, we had: 

Luffy (w/ Nami’s help) vs Cracker (winner: Luffy)

Chopper and Carrot vs Brulee (winner: Chopper/Carrot)

Luffy & Nami vs Enraged Army(winner: Enraged Army)

Brook vs Big Mom

Pedro vs Tamago. 

This leaves Nami. She was an essential help during the Luffy vs Cracker fight and really put up a fight against the Enraged Army. She was really badass and useful this arc, but Oda offscreened a lot of her moves, so we didn’t really get to see her using her new climatact. I feel like this means she’s going to take down someone (hopefully). Since there’s so many women on Big Mom’s crew, it’ll probably be a female? Maybe Smoothie, since we haven’t seen her fight yet either, or Pudding, whose fighting skills we still don’t know a lot of? At this point, I can’t really tell. 

And Luffy -- somebody, Sanji! please feed this boy! His hunger is brought up again this chapter, and I really feel it’s time for him to get some food. I hope he’s the first one to run into Sanji and eat that bento. 

One more thing: it seems like most of the obstacles Sanji has been facing, are being almost magically removed in this chapter. But the way Oda seems to be tying things up so smoothly makes me nervous. I get the feeling that something really awful is going to happen to throw everything off again. Also, since this chapter didn’t end on a huge cliffhanger, and we have a break next week, I kind of get the feeling that Chapter 853 might bring some kind of huge plot twist. 

Vito’s whisper?

Also, we still didn’t get confirmation about what Vito whispered into Sanji’s ear, back in Zou. I think the whole head-in-the-box threat that Pekoms mentioned could be a red herring from Oda to throw the readers off, and Vito’s threat is something that us readers either don’t know about, or something almost impossible for us to predict. We had 2 whispers in 2016 -- Pudding’s whisper to Luffy and Nami, and then Vito’s whisper to Sanji. Although Sanji’s reaction to Vito’s whisper was not as shocking as Luffy and Nami’s reactions to Pudding’s whisper, Pudding’s whisper was revealed only 2 chapters later, while Vito’s whisper has still been unrevealed for almost a year. Seeing how shocking Pudding’s whisper turned out to be, it’s possible Vito’s whisper is going to be something really shocking. But either way, even if Sanji’s cuffs are fake and Big Mom really doesn’t care about Zeff’s life, the Vito threat could still be an important threat for Sanji.

This is me really stretching things again, because I’m crazy and I want to find some tiny connection between Nami and Sanji in every chapter…

Why does Pudding hide her 3rd eye when she's good Pudding? 

I think one reason that good Pudding always keeps her 3rd eye covered could be because, in spite of how good at acting she is, her 3rd eye gives away her true feelings. Meaning, her regular 2 eyes can act, shed fake tears, etc., but her 3rd eye reflects what she's really thinking. 

Her 3rd eye sometimes moves independently or does something different from the other 2 eyes. For example, whenever she's crying, her 2 eyes are shedding tears, but her 3rd eye doesn’t seem to be crying (although it’s hard for me to tell). And in the 2nd panel, when she tells Luffy and Nami how she's going to shoot Sanji, her 2 eyes are looking straight ahead, but her 3rd eye is looking suspiciously to the right. 

Clocks seem to be emphasized a lot during this arc. We see them in the seducing woods, in Pudding's place in Chapter 828, in Pudding's bedroom in 845, and also in Sanji's room when he's cooking for Pudding (849).

Something that stood out to me from the clocks were the numbers 5 & 8.

…that he always sticks to his moral code without compromising, no matter what the consequences are. Sanji’s moral principles are not very popular nowadays and he gets a lot of criticism from fans and even from characters in the manga for his decisions. Even I don’t always agree with his decisions, but I still respect him for never compromises his values, regardless of what other people say. 

He fed Don Krieg and saved him from starvation, even though his fellow chefs at the Baratie opposed him and he knew Don Krieg was going to come back and attack the Baratie. He stuck to his chivalry even though Kalifa humiliated him and almost killed him for it. It’s not easy to be so uncompromising so it’s one thing I appreciate about him. 

Tagged by: @monkeydluffy19920 

Hello @emeraldragon23​ and thank you for your ask~ Honestly, I’m not sure about the popularity ranking of pairings in Japan, and I think many Japanese fans either don’t know or don’t really care. I’m not sure if there were any specific pairings you wanted to know about, but anyways, this is just my impression based on what I saw on forums/fanfics ;)

I think that ZoSan might be the most popular pairing in Japan, going by the amount of doujinshi & fanfics. When it comes to het pairings, I’m not sure. I saw some tumblr posts about a het pairing poll taken in a Japanese forum in 2014-15, and #1 was LuNami, #2 was FroBin. Unfortunately, I was unable to find the Japanese source/link for this poll, so if anyone knows where it came from, I would appreciate it x) But #1 is quite likely :)

The impression I get from forums is that there are always lots of ZoRobin fans, as well as LuNami, SanNami and ZoroNami fans (or just uke-Nami fans), and Vivi x Kohza. In the fanfics site here, there’s been mostly Zosan, Zorobin fics & also lots Lawluffy & Sannami recently. But the number of fanfics don’t necessarily reflect the actual popularity of pairings in real life. My guess is ZoSan and LuNami are the popular ones after all?  

The only online pairing poll I found was this funny one taken in 2016. It’s a tiny poll with only 61 voters, and I’m not sure if I should take it seriously because the winner is Zoro x Perona ^^

This came out of nowhere but...Is it just me, or does the picnic basket that Sanji has in Chapter 851 look similar to the picnic basket he has in this colorspread? It looks like it has different food inside (baguettes and grapes), but the baskets look kind of similar. Is it just a coincidence?

Hello @thehehehestalks​ and thank you for your ask ❤️  No, you’re not being rude at all, I was happy to hear from you!

The main Japanese One Piece forum that I know of is this one: http://onesoku.com This is just a general forum, though, but you could probably find pairing posts too.

I don’t really know of forums that are just for SanNami, but I did read some SanNami essays by Japanese fans:

https://matome.naver.jp/odai/2147210553628978401 (Nami’s role in the Sanji Rescue Arc)

http://onepiece-no-mi.net/%E3%81%9D%E3%81%AE%E4%BB%96/post-3255/ (Will the romance between Sanji and Nami blossom? Will the wedding with Pudding be cancelled?)

http://manga-netabare-kousatu-ou.info/?p=6858 (Will Sanji get married? Will he marry Nami or Pudding?)

http://xn–zckm5bnq2mpa6a1fz490bkx4ayzmvi9g.com/?p=3237 (Will Sanji really marry Pudding? Will the love triangle with Nami get dirty?)

Interestingly, all of these were written during Zou/Whole Cake Island. The last 2 are about the love triangle between Nami, Sanji, and Pudding.

Mostly when it comes to shipping, at least for Sanami, Japanese fans seem to be more into fanart and fanfics. If you google サンナミ in Japanese, the top results are usually fanart sites. You can also find Sanami fans, esp fanartists on twitter. I usually read Sanami fics here. 

What does love mean to Sanji?

One of the things I was wondering about when I read this arc was, "Is Sanji in love with Pudding?" Although I don’t have an answer, I noticed one detail. 

We now know how Pudding feels about Sanji. It's like she went from a Sanji fangirl in Chapter 828 to a complete anti-Sanji hater. But how did Sanji feel? I saw a lot of arguments about whether he was really in love with Pudding. 

First of all, what does being in love mean when it comes to someone like Sanji? This is Sanji we are talking about, the most girl-crazy guy I've ever seen in a manga. It's a little too early to say Pudding is his one true love, when he falls in love so often, but also to say he doesn't have any feelings for her.

I think Sanji was really heartbroken when Pudding was mocking him, his proposal, everything, and I think he did have some feelings for her. She was the first girl who seemed to be sincerely in love with him -- I'm sure that meant a lot to him, considering his past and how desperate he was to be loved. 

However, I did notice something unusual about Sanji in this arc. For most of the series, Sanji has been infatuated with love. He uses that word 恋(koi=romantic love) a lot. I saw a compilation by a Japanese fan of all the "love quotes" that Sanji made, and the list was pretty long.

But even though Sanji calls Pudding his "savior" and "only ray of hope", etc., why doesn't he ever use the word love? The only time I think he uses the word love in this arc, is when he reminds himself, "I'm a love-cook." But it's a little different from his usual self, when he calls girls "My love” ( ああ恋よ♡ ), “Drifting love,”( 漂う恋よ♡ )or refers to "love hurricanes” ( 恋はいつでもハリケーンなんだよ!! . He says things like "I can’t stop the love!"”ordeal of love” “love trap” etc...

I do think the absence of the word love is an important detail. I was kind of surprised he never called Pudding "his love." but "his savior" or his "ray of light." Is it because he’s in such a dire situation?  

Like I said, it's hard for me to believe that Sanji doesn't feel anything for Pudding, because this is Sanji. And I think Dressrosa gave us a hint as to how happy Sanji would be if a girl loved him. So probably he took Pudding's hints of loving him very seriously and probably valued her feelings. I also think he convinced himself that he could make this marriage work and was serious about making Pudding happy.

If Sanji did fall in love with Pudding, though, I wonder at exactly what point he developed feelings for her. I don't think it was before Ch.845, before I think it would have been too hard for him to say he wouldn't marry her. Was it during Pudding's speech in 845?

 But anyways, I just wanted to point out this little detail, that Sanji doesn't use the word love.