One Piece anime's alleged special treatment of Zoro over Sanji is finally explained (& it teases a larger truth)

One of the most controversial aspects of Toei Animation’s One Piece anime series is how Roronoa Zoro and Vinsmoke Sanji are portrayed relative to Eiichiro Oda’s original manga. Many fans accuse the animation studio of favoritism, arguing that Zoro is given special treatment and extra effort, while Sanji is given less favoritism at best and plotted against at worst.

While there’s obviously no way to prove Toei is actively choosing to make Sanji look bad, there may be another explanation for this apparent discrepancy in the One Piece anime. Paraphrasing beloved series’ animator Vincent Chansard, content creator and community personality Brago D. Ace recently spoke on why Toei seemingly goes the extra mile for Zoro.

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Zoro’s dream being integral to his portrayal in the One Piece anime could explain Toei’s apparent favoritism

During a recent livestream where Brago D. Ace reacted to chapter 1148’s events, he recalled a recent conversation he had with Toei Animation’s own Vincent Chansard. Vincent is known primarily as an animator on the One Piece anime series, with many fans claiming him to be the series’ best animator. Paraphrasing him, Brago claims Chansard said that Zoro’s moments are “narratively more important” in comparison to Sanji’s, which are less narratively important.

Chansard’s original example of this was his being involved in the fight against S-Hawk and S-Bear with Monkey D. Luffy, Rob Lucci, and Kaku. Without a doubt, this is an incredibly narratively significant moment in the Egghead Arc’s story. Likewise, it makes sense that Toei would go out of their way to make such a relevant fight scene look as good as possible. However, this doesn’t explain the alleged discrepancy’s presence in the rest of the series.

While speculative and not stated by Chansard nor any other Toei Animation representative, it could have to do with the narrative significance of Zoro’s dream. Whereas Sanji’s dream is to find the All Blue, Zoro’s is to become the World’s Strongest Swordsman. Coincidentally, battle shonen series like the One Piece anime typically allocate most of their available resources to fight scenes and general action sequences.

This is due to it being one of the most fundamental parts of the informally named genre’s narrative. As it would happen, Zoro’s dream of becoming the World’s Strongest Swordsman is intrinsically linked with combat and his performance in it. This is obviously further emphasized in an anime medium, in which fight scenes are much more fluid, lively, and can, at times, better portray a character’s strength than source material.

Thus, it’s logical that Toei Animation would find it more important to go the extra mile for Zoro’s fight scenes and action sequences as opposed to Sanji’s. If Zoro were portrayed as anything but one of the One Piece anime’s strongest fighters, it would inherently undermine his dream and its pursuit. Conversely, Sanji’s stated dreams and goals aren’t as reliant on strength or combat as Zoro’s are, and thus may be of a lesser priority for Toei Animation and its staff.

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Final thoughts

Zoro and Sanji's alleged different portrayals in the One Piece anime may simply come down to which is worth prioritizing in Toei Animation's eyes (Image via Toei Animation)

As aforementioned, the above analysis is purely speculative, with Chansard not commenting beyond his conversation with Brago and Toei not commenting, period. That being said, Chansard’s phrasing in his conversation with Brago would suggest the above to be one possible explanation of this apparent and alleged discrepancy in portrayal. Unfortunately, speculation is likely all fans will be able to do, with a more official word than Chansard’s unlikely to come.

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Related links

• One Piece creator admits Sanji will never be ‘cool’ again
• One Piece fans accuse Toei of sabotaging Sanji's coolness in episode 1105
• 7 times Toei "ruined" Sanji's scenes in One Piece anime, ranked bad to worse