Toei Animation's anti-Sanji bias comes through yet again in One Piece episode 1123

One Piece episode 1123 was released on April 6, 2025. The episode featured the return of the shonen series after a few months, and the fans were satisfied to witness the Straw Hats trying their best to escape the Egghead Island. However, just like before, there was a key issue in One Piece episode 1123, at least according to a certain character's fans.

Sanji is portrayed as a playful character in the episode, focused on flirting with Bonney. However, when compared to the source material, fans realize that Toei Animation added this scene by themselves and made Sanji look like a flirtatious person on purpose, bringing back the allegations that the animation studio might have an agenda against the Black Leg of the Straw Hat Pirates.

Disclaimer: This article contains potential spoilers from the anime series and expresses the author's opinion.

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One Piece episode 1123: Toei Animation using the Sanji gag no longer acceptable to the fans

One Piece episode 1123 focused on the Straw Hat Pirates, holding Vegapunk York captive on the Egghead Island. As the episode reached its climax, Monkey D Luffy revealed his plans to use York as bait and escape the island with Vegapunk Stella and the other satellites. While this was happening, the other Straw Hat Pirates were sitting around, doing their own thing.

Sanji, however, was focused on sharing a meal with everyone and, as expected, favouring the female characters like Bonney. As this was his running gag for a long time, some fans didn't pay much attention to it. However, the manga readers compared One Piece chapter 1123 to its source material and discovered that Toei Animation might have again done an injustice to Sanji.

In the manga chapter, Sanji was just serving everyone a hot meal, without showcasing his flirtatious side. However, the anime has improvised the manga scenes and added anime-original content to use Sanji's 'flirtatious' gag. Moreover, even though there was no conversation between Bonney and Sanji in the manga, One Piece episode 1123 showcased Sanji trying to get close to Bonney.

Sanji was also excluded from the panel where the Straw Hat Pirates were standing beside a tied-up York. According to the Sanji fans, this was utterly unacceptable, and they blamed the animation studio for doing so due to its history with Vinsmoke Sanji. Since the Egghead Arc started, Toei Animation has been using the Sanji gag a lot to fill up scenes.

One of the most recent examples is Sanji's encounter with Stussy, where the animation studio extended their scene and emphasized Sanji's degenerate behavior. While this scene was structured to be pretty hilarious, the Sanji fans took it personally and started putting allegations on the animation studio, claiming that Toei Animation might be misleading the fandom by robbing the Black Leg of his dignity.

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Analysis and Final Thoughts

Sanji as seen in the anime (Image via Toei Animation)

The Sanji gag might be one of the most overused ones in One Piece, given how the studio opts for anime-original content to add where it might not even be needed. The concerns of Sanji fans might also be correct, as they want a true adaptation solely to witness the spotlight moments of their character.

However, Toei might prefer the Sanji 'flirtatious' gag to fill in the gaps in episodes instead of doing a ditto adaptation of the manga. While the reasons behind Toei's treatment of Sanji are still unknown, it might be wrong to put allegations on the animation studio based on a few scenes.

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Related Links

• One Piece episode 1123 full highlights
• One Piece Episode 1123 review
• Did One Piece dehype Shanks in chapter 1123? Explained