Sanji lost a lot of respect from fans of One Piece during the Fishman Island Arc that nobody wants to acknowledge ever happened in the series.

SUMMARY

The Fishman Island Arc of One Piece is one of the worst canon arcs in the series and includes the most embarrassing Sanji moment.
Sanji wasn’t around to fight in majority of Fishman Island because he bled too much from seeing Merfolk.
Eiichiro Oda was clearly trying to make a point with Sanji’s blood loss contrasting with Luffy’s but there had to be better ways.

There are quite a few embarrassing moments in One Piece that make you look away from the screen. Some can be funny but some of them should be erased from the history of the series. Fans have tried to forget this specific arc due to this Straw Hat Pirate’s extremely embarrassing moment that we do not acknowledge happened.

Sanji, the chef of the Straw Hat Pirates, is known for his love for women which can get too extreme and overwhelming. The way he swoons after women was already slightly annoying but in the Fishman Island Arc, Eiichiro Oda took the running gag too far.

Sanji’s “in love” face in One Piece. [Credit: Toei Animation]

There’s always a debate about who is stronger: Zoro or Sanji. In Fishman Island Arc, however, there was a clear answer. Sanji wasn’t even in action during that arc because the sight of mermaids made him bleed out so hard that he was unconscious for the majority of it.

There was a purpose behind Sanji’s nosebleed, despite it ruining the Fishman Island Arc

Jinbei donates blood to Luffy in One Piece. [Credit: Toei Animation]

The stigma surrounding the Fishmen in the One Piece universe runs deep in their society. Beyond the wide-scale enslavement, there were other unjust methods to segregate the community from the human beings. One of them was a law forbidding Fishmen from donating to humans and vice versa.

In the Fishman Island Arc, Jinbei disregarded this law and donated his blood to Luffy when he desperately needed it to survive since they were the same type. Considering their friendship and Jinbei’s promise to Ace, it possibly contributed to his willingness to go against the law.

In contrast, when Sanji was bleeding out, none of the Fishmen were willing to donate blood. His case was more severe since his blood type was incredibly rare. Ultimately, Splash and Splatter, twins in the Newkama pirates, donated blood to him.

Thus, Eiichiro Oda seemed to be making a point with Sanji’s nosebleed. There’s a lot of work to be done before Fishmen and humans of One Piece can live in peace and not be afraid but it seems to be repairing slowly as the series goes on. However, the attempted enslavement of Shirahoshi, who is royalty, shows how slow the progress is unless Celestial Dragons are taken down.

Why Eiichiro Oda’s point went over everyone’s head

Sanji in the Fishman Island Arc of One Piece. [Credit: Toei Animation]

Oda wanted to hone in on how much the oppression of the Fishman by humans has affected the world that they aren’t even willing to donate blood to someone who they know isn’t prejudiced towards them. However, if the mangaka had just chosen a better way to portray Sanji, the point would’ve hit home.

Sanji being out of commission just because he saw some Merfolk was one of the most foolish writing decisions. The sheer stupidity of Sanji made Oda’s message completely go over everyone’s head. After all, who would want to donate to someone whose nose bled because he was turned on? This isn’t the first time Oda has ruined his character with this gag.

There were better ways to prove the point, whether by making Sanji fight in the battle against Hody Jones and being fatally injured or taking a fatal blow for one of the Merfolk. Anything that didn’t involve making the chef lose his likeability would’ve sufficed.