Book Review: One Piece: Shokugeki no Sanji

 

One Piece: Shokugeki no Sanji       

Author: Yuto Tsukuda

Publisher: Viz Media

American release date: March 12, 2024

Format/Genre/Length: Paperback/Manga/Action Adventure/232 pages

Overall Personal Rating: ★★★★★

 

When a famous gourmand, known as “the tongue that spans the seas”, arrives at the Baratie, she is instantly disdainful of all that she sees and questions how good the food can possibly be. She makes ridiculous assumptions concerning the head chef as well as Sanji and the others. Sanji offers to make a dish for her, but under one condition – if she is pleased by what he cooks, she must clean her plate. Game on!

The crew of the Go Merry run across a castaway adrift on the ocean and bring him aboard, although he is less than thrilled and feels they should have left him. Finding a wedding invitation, Sanji surmises that the man is a chef from a nearby island whose only daughter is getting married and he has gone in search of some special seafood he could make for the occasion, but after catching the Draconic Super-fillet salmon, he got caught in a squall. However the weather is the least of his concerns – once he has the beautiful fish, he is unable to properly filet it! Sanji offers to help, but will this task prove to be beyond even his amazing culinary skills?

In the kingdom of Alabasta, a feast is being held to honor the heroes who saved the kingdom! But with Luffy’s enormous appetite and the chef’s staff being temporarily short-handed, a problem is about to arise. Sanji wants to help, but he doesn’t want to intrude. So he introduces himself and says he wants to see how such a large kitchen works, and he is willing to do anything, such as peel potatoes. They quickly take advantage of his generosity!

Sanji finds himself a hostage of the inhabitants of Kamabakka Queendom – an island comprised of drag queens! They challenge him to earn the rights to the 99 recipes of attack cuisine. But this will be no easy task. Challenge accepted!

Sanji – who now goes by Sangoro – is looking for a powerful samurai to join his crew, so decides to use his culinary skills to attract candidates. But as he and Usopp brainstorm, he discovers a soba noodle vendor who seems to have the market cornered. Sanji is never one to resist a challenge, so he challenges them, but soon learns they do have a monopoly on the best buckwheat flour. Can Sanji work around such a problem?

This volume takes the character of Sanji from Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece and features him in his own set of stories taken from various points in the original manga. It’s not hard to see that these stories were done by the creators of Food Wars, as the style is unmistakable.  I love Sanji, so buying this was inevitable. They did a wonderful job with five interesting stories featuring Sanji, as well as a bonus story. If you love One Piece, particularly Sanji, as well as Food Wars, this book is for you.