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.
