kgchls

Hii! it's been a hot minute since the previous part, you can see my style shifted a bit, especially when I compare Sanji's hair lol I never know how to draw it, in canon it's more straight but when I'm not thinking about it I instinctively give him more of a wave. It's also generally a bit more loose and sketchy then in the previous ones, I used to use less lines back then. I somehow didn't notice the shift until I was done lmao

I remember I sketched out most of it right along the previous two, but wasn't feeling the panels after "nothing happened" and BAM over 2 months pass and I drew the panels with the hands and OH MY I'm so happy with those, they are a bit dramatic I admit lol but I love a good closeup shot, the way you can push forward a story with just showing small gestures!! And it's something different from the constant ping-pong of the shots where you can see them talking, so it's a breather but it's also holding a lot of tension!

In this sequence MagicPoser was a real help, I posed the models and moved the camera around so I had anatomy refs from any angle I wanted!

YES YES YES They're communicating, they're miscommunicating, they're talking with and past each other, they are doing in ALL With Sanji it's the never ending push and pull of wanting to be honest and not letting himself be so. And for a million reasons: it's too dangerous, it's my mess, so I need to deal with it, I don't want anybody to get hurt, I don't deserve help... OBVIOUSLY deep down Sanji knows he doesn't wanna be there, he wants to go back to the crew and feel safe with them again, BUT HE CAN'T ASK FOR HELP, he fears the threat is too big and even if the crew were somehow to be allright after angering both Big Mom and Germa, which is insanely unlikely already, what about the Baratie? what about Zeff? Sanji convinced himself he has to do it alone, that it's the only way, besides... the strawhats can just go and find another cook, right? It'll be better for everyone involved if Sanji just goes along with Judge's demand... The safest way, noone dies, he just has to grit his teeth, suck it up and cut ties with everything he holds dear. At least they won't kill him, not right away at least... Not until he's useful one last time. He can't keep his facade fully with Zoro though, he always got under his skin and after already fighting both Luffy and Zoro, it just becomes too much.

THIS ^^^ That's exactly the way I meant it! I wanted to convey that he's hinting at what's really going on in the most roundabout way possible, OFC HE CAN'T SAY DIRECTLY! It's like he's saying to Zoro "I'm doing this to protect the crew and you owe me one, nothing happened, like you asked, now you do the same for me". It's not like with Kuma, Zoro can't take his place this time, noone can, there's no way out... And that still panel, I was debating on whether I should add dialogue there or not, but ultimately they are not gonna reach agreement lol I hope that, after Zoro says "That was different" it leaves you with the space to ask... was it? I mean, of course it was different, but... was it? I have no answer to that, I just wanted to draw a parallel between the two situations and leave it up in the air, I don't think it needs a conclusion And Zoro needs time to process what's happening lol

read me like an open book lmao, that's so awesome!! Anger that's not JUST anger!! You put that so well!

Truth be told I didn't think that much about that first panel lol But I love that it lends itself to an interpretation like that!! I love your observation that usually Zoro takes out more swords the more serious the fight, I wanted him to take out all three at the start in the previous part to show that he leaves no chance for this not going his way, he treats Sanji as a serious opponnent. The only reason he's not wearing his serious-business-bandana is for aesthetic reasons lmao