Sanji

Sanji aka "Black Leg" is a pirate and the chef of the Straw Hat Pirates. He is the fifth member of the crew and the fourth to join. Since he was born in North Blue, he is the first Straw Hat not to originate from East Blue. He is one of the top three fighters in the crew alongside Luffy and Zoro. His dream is to find the rumored All Blue, which is where East Blue, West Blue, North Blue, and South Blue meet along with their wildlife, a chef's paradise. He has a bounty of 177,000,000.

After the Timeskip


After the two year timeskip, Sanji now covers his right eye, shows his left eye, and has grown his hair just slightly longer. He also sports a dark goatee, and stubble on his upper lip. Both his left and right eyebrow are curled to the right. Sanji's neck has gotten thicker as well, similar to Luffy and Zoro. He wears a black and yellow 3-piece suit. In Punk Hazard, he wears a full black three-piece suit. While on Punk Hazard,  Kin'emon used his unnamed Devil Fruit ability to give Sanji a double-breasted coat for the cold, as he was trapped in Nami's body because of Trafalgar Law.

The Dream of Two Fools
Sanji was Zeff's protégé and sous-chef, and the two had a long history together. Nine years earlier, when a young Sanji was working as a ship's cook on the Cruise Obit in the North Blue, the pirate Red Leg Zeff and his crew attacked the ship. However, both ships were caught in a sudden storm, and sank. Zeff managed to save the young Sanji from drowning, losing part of his leg in the process and the two were washed onto a rock outcropping, high above the sea. Before the storm tore the boats apart, Sanji cried out his dream to find the All Blue, and was saved by Zeff after. Sanji realizing that Zeff has lost his leg. Despite their good fortune, there was little food for them: a few rations had washed onto the rock with them, but there was no vegetation, no animals, and no way to reach the water to fish. Splitting up what little rations remained, Zeff ordered Sanji to sit at the other end of the island, and look for a ship. Sanji protested that Zeff was keeping a large sack for himself, but Zeff brushed him off, saying that as an adult, his stomach was bigger. Days passed, Sanji had no more food, but there was still no sign of a ship. Many weeks afterward (the exact amount of time differs between the manga and anime), an emaciated Sanji decided to take a chance, and kill the old man for his food. He did not kill Zeff, however: when he slashed open the old man's sack in a fit of rage, he discovered that there was no food inside, only treasure. To his horror, he realized that Zeff had sacrificed his own leg to save Sanji.

Zeff confessed that he often lacked food on the high seas, and planned on opening a restaurant on the seas. Sanji, guilty over plotting to kill Zeff, agreed, but Zeff remarked that he was too weak to help. Soon after, a ship appeared, and they were spared from death. Because of this ordeal, Sanji pledged to never refuse food to a starving individual, no matter how evil or poor they may be.In the manga, Sanji began smoking shortly after starting to work at the Baratie in order to impress Zeff, despite Zeff's warnings that it would destroy his taste buds, only for Sanji to reply "Now, I am a man!".

Abilities and Powers
Sanji is one of the crew's top three fighters (despite not having one of the top three bounties, which Robin  takes). While Luffy and Zoro usually fight the strongest and second strongest enemies respectively, Sanji usually ends up fighting with the enemy considered the third strongest.

Physical Abilities
Immense Strength-Although Sanji is primarily known for his incredible leg strength, the rest of his body is shown to be just as superhumanly strong and durable, including his arms, which enables him to use an array of handstands, for his fighting style, which makes him much more versatile in certain combat situations.

One example of his inhuman strength is shown during the Skypiea Arc, while riding on the Going Merry, he was capable of lifting a large mallet that looked to have weighed several tons (though this is unlikely, as it belonged to Usopp and as such was probably another Usopp Pound decoy) before using it to slam an Impact Dial that was sitting on top of a barrel; needless to say, the impact would have most likely busted a hole on the Going Merry's deck had it not been absorbed by the Dial.

Another example of his physical might is seen when he was able to hold Absalom in place by gripping onto his leg, despite the latter's reinforced muscular structure and being struck multiple times while doing so.His upper body is also superhumanly durable as well, having been known to take head-on attacks like Kuroobi's fists and half of Jabra's "Gekkou Juushigan" just before counter-attacking them with his kicks, and, along with Zoro , he has also shown himself to be resilient enough to be able to take Bartholomew Kuma's "Ursus Shock" attack head-on, despite having just endured an exhausting battle with the giant zombie Oars, and still remain conscious afterwards, before being knocked out by Zoro.

After his two years of training, his body has become much more stronger and faster, being able to break the neck of a Pacifista with only a kick, critically damaging it, and not showing any trouble afterwards (something he was not able to do before the timeskip) or being able to break a Kairoseki cage just with kicks (as seen in Episode of Luffy). He is also now able to withstand pressures of over 5000 feet under water without a coating, a depth which would have crushed a submarine. His overall endurance has also increased, as he was seen being able to take direct punches from both Jinbe and Luffy to the head, from both sides simultaneously, with relatively minor injuries (though left bleeding on the ground).

Also, during the time he spent running away from the Okama on the Momoiro Island, he developed both the "Blue Walk" and "Sky Walk", techniques similar to the Rokushiki's technique Geppo, enabling him the ability to swim (at great speeds) and fly respectively. His new strength is also shown when Sanji manages to fight on par with Vergo, a Marine Vice Admiral who could also fight the likes of Smoker equally, for a short period of time, even after being wounded by attacks from Caesar Clown and having one of his legs broken.

Fighting Style
Sanji has mastered a martial art referred to as the "Black Leg Style" that the pirate Zeff apparently taught him. His legs and feet are extremely powerful, able to smash boulders and effortlessly defeat creatures much larger than himself (like Bananawani and Mohmoo). His legs also imbue him with superior agility, and his speed is close to superhuman as he was easily capable of out-pacing the super fast CP9 member Kalifa despite ultimately being beaten by her (though he stated that he refuses to fight women). He has also stated that the reason he fights with his feet is that he does not want to risk damaging his hands as he needs them to cook, though handstands aren't prohibited. He is also able to use one-handed handstands, and execute consecutive back handsprings (as seen during his fight with Jabra).

After spending two years running away from okama, his sprinting abilities have reached a point where he can momentarily run under water, using a Geppo-like technique he calls "Blue Walk". Not only is he not slowed down by the weight of water as he was during the Arlong Park Arc, but he can run to a degree of incredible speed as fast as a fishman, Usopp has also stated that Sanji's speed is on par with a fishman, who are at their physical prime while under water. He is also able to leap and run much farther than most humans. He has then improved this to using his version of "Geppo" in a move he names the "Sky Walk". Whether or not his proficiency with the technique is on par with other CP9's members still remains a mystery.

Also after the timeskip it's been shown that he can now utilize fire in his strikes similar to his Diable Jambe. This is partially due to the trauma Sanji endured form the last two years, so much so that simply reminding himself of it causes him to burst out in flames through sheer anger. Which he shows after easily defeating the gigantic fishman Wadatsumi, using "Hell Memories" while in this mental state to engulf the massive foe in flames.

This unusual martial art seemingly takes some inspiration from the Brazilian martial art, Capoeira, and the Korean martial art, Taekwondo and may have took some from the Chinese art, Tan Tui and bears an almost identical line, in name and in style, to the extremely powerful and dangerous (to both the user and opponent) style, Blood Leg. Inspirations may also point to a French fighting style now known as, Savate. Originally developed by French sailors, Savate employs similar techniques that utilize the hands to support the body and give added power to kicks, and is especially useful on a swaying ship. French law at this time considered hands as lethal weapons, which could lead to death if hands were used to kill someone. Possibly for this reason, Sanji's main opponents throughout the series so far were all martial artists with their own unique style (such as Kuroobi's "Fishman Karate", Bon Kurei's "Okama Kenpo", Wanze's "Ramen Kenpo", and Jabra's "Tekkai Kenpo").

As for using his actual "attacks", Sanji has a very large number of specific kicks and techniques he uses to fight with. It should be noted that he does not call out an attack name whenever he kicks someone or something, but for important events and fights he usually will. Most of his attacks are said in French and are usually cooking/food terms related in some way to the specific portion of the opponent's body that he's targeting or to the nature of the attack itself. In the 4Kids English anime, the attacks are changed to be funny sounding, non-existent food items that have something to do with the target area of the attack.

Common attacks are "Mouton Shot" (Sanji jumps and flips, and kicks with all his might into the foe's mid-region or head) and "Anti-Manner Kick Course" (one of Sanji's most powerful kicks where he delivers a 180 degree vertical kick upward into a giant foe's torso or back, which is usually used on those he sees as having no manners, e.g. those that attack women; a typical finishing move).

Sanji's comedic finishing move "Parage Shoot", is a series of kicks directed at his opponent's face. This results in a rearrangement of the victim's facial structure, often turning them handsome or bishounen-like, as seen with Wanze and Duval.

Haki
It was stated by Luffy that Sanji possesses Haki, when discussing it in the context of members of his crew who could fight Caesar Clown, a Logia user. Because Law was referring to the ability to coat themselves in armor it confirms Sanji as a Busoshoku Haki user. However, Sanji did not actively display any of these abilities until the Punk Hazard Arc when searching for Kin'emon's body using Kenbunshoku Haki.

Although it is unknown if he can use it, Sanji does know about Haoshoku Haki, something he (along with the rest of the crew) had not shown any knowledge of during the first half of the series. But he, along with Zoro, has commented on Luffy's ability to passively knock out half of Hody's men, noting that he actually possesses it. It was also hinted at during the Fishman Island Arc, that both he and Zoro possess Kenbunshoku Haki when asked by Luffy if the pair could sense a "wild animal" in the Ryugu Palace, which they both answered that they could.

Kenbunshoku Haki
Kenbunshoku Haki is Sanji's speciality concerning Haki. When helping Kin'emon recover his torso from within the lake on Punk Hazard, Sanji actively used Kenbunshoku Haki in order to locate the samurai's torso within the dark water.

Chivalry Senses-It has been demonstrated several times that he takes chivalry to such an extent that he can sense when a woman is in danger when he is nowhere close to within earshot, such as when Brogy approached Nami in Little Garden and when Tashigi was in tears after her failed attack on Vergo. Culinary Expertise -Last but not least Sanji is an expert cook, possessing vast knowledge and the capability of preparing almost any kind of food with a strong sense to the aesthetics of cooking. He cooks with amazing speed and dexterity, particularly in his use of knives. His sense of taste also is not lacking; often, he is able to deduce the qualities of aspects (i.e. ingredients, and method of cooking and preparations) involved in a prepared dish under a very short period of time. By the end of the two year timeskip, its been shown that Sanji has already won the 99 recipes of Kamabakka Kingdom's Attack Cuisine as prizes for managing to defeat the Okama Kenpo masters on Momoiro.