One Piece is Eiichiro Oda’s global smash hit, the current best-selling manga ever. However, its spinoffs continue to drive public interest, especially with Shokugeki no Sanji by Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki. For those who noticed the spinoff’s name, it’s done in the same spirit and style as their famous collaboration, Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, with One Piece’s Sanji spinoff manga being a perfect vessel for their creativity. Reuniting with Yuki Morisaki to concoct the most delicious eats on the Grand Line, readers of One Piece: Shokugeki no Sanji will eat this spinoff right up.

However, Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki have worked together on more than simply Food Wars! and One Piece manga spinoffs. They recently also channeled their passion and love for filmmaking in Tenmaku Cinema. They continue to assert themselves as an impressive duo with a unique flair for the craft that’s even titillating, sometimes to a fault.

However, with One Piece: Shokugeki no Sanji, the Straw Hats’ chef gets a much-needed dive into his culinary adventures over the years in this beautiful spinoff manga newly released by VIZ Media.

One Piece: Shokugeki no Sanji is a Self-Contained, Gorgeous Spinoff Manga

Who Better Than the Food Wars! Team to Highlight Sanji’s Culinary Talents?

While the volume is essentially the collection of all six one-shots penned between 2018 and 2022, One Piece: Shokugeki no Sanji was made available in print by VIZ Media on March 12, 2024. Each chapter of this spinoff manga is a self-contained culinary adventure for Sanji as Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki explore his noteworthy cooking feats between his time on the Baratie and in Wano. The result is a gorgeously drawn, thoroughly researched, and educational manga showcase just like Food Wars! It features delicious dishes only Sanji could create in this One Piece spinoff’s most decadent fashion imaginable.

Sanji creates everything from sushi, from the fabled dragon salmon to the mouthwatering Momoiro Duck Tagliata. In typical Food Wars! fashion, this manga spinoff features characters getting carried away by their reactions to every scrumptious morsel. It’s perfectly fitting for a womanizer like Sanji, and it’d be believable from the character’s perspective that his food is so overwhelmingly delicious it causes an almost primal, erotic reaction. Readers of this One Piece spinoff manga may find the fanservice plentiful, but it’s on-brand for the Food Wars! team.

One Piece Food Wars! Manga is a Strong Case for More from the Creators

Tenmaku Cinema Deserved Better

Despite One Piece: Shokugeki no Sanji releasing in print this year, Tenmaku Cinema ran between the beginning of spring and the end of the summer in 2023, with an all-too-concise run of the manga by the Food Wars! team. It features fewer fanservice moments, without removing them completely, despite predominantly featuring a cast of high school students. But the greatest common element between Tenmaku Cinema, Shokugeki no Sanji, and Food Wars! is Shun Saeki’s gorgeous artwork, and Yuto Tsukuda’s thriving passion for the topic.

One Piece: Shokugeki no Sanji’s team and their other mutual manga projects put exhaustive research into real-world influences, elevating their work into extraordinary art. It helps that their frequent collaborator, renowned chef Yuki Morisaki’s insight into cuisine shows in the detailed historical annotations added to each dish Sanji serves to his distinguished guests. The same can be said about Tenmaku Cinema, with reverence for the entertainment industry, along with every chapter exploring the difficulties of a student making his first movie, with the passion of a veteran director. It’s a strong case for more manga from the duo.

One Piece Newcomers Get a Sample of the Manga’s Popular Arcs

A Tasty Appetizer For Those Yet to Fully Dig in

The first chapter of One Piece: Shokugeki, no Sanji’s manga, unsurprisingly shows Sanji as the bad boy sous-chef of Baratie, winning over the heart of a notorious critic aboard his restaurant ship. However, his culinary adventures soon take him aboard the Going Merry, Alabasta, Momoiro, and Wano. While Sanji’s character doesn’t necessarily endure much noteworthy growth in these chapters, it showcases his greatest assets in the One Piece manga.

Sanji may be an infamous womanizer in One Piece, but the Shokugeki no Sanji manga reminds readers of his obsessive perfectionism, dedication to finding exotic fish, and sense of honor. Despite being among pirates and given an unfair disadvantage with inferior flour in a soba noodle cooking challenge, Sanji rises to the occasion without resorting to similar sabotage. It’s not entirely arbitrary, either, as he brings up how revealing his rival chefs’ deception would only humiliate and publicly shame the patrons duped into enjoying their inferior products. This is a great character moment in this One Piece spinoff manga.

One Piece in the Food Wars! Style in More Ways Than Food

Every Chapter Has Fanservice Moments

One Piece: Shokugeki no Sanji, which has some of the most beautiful dishes ever drawn is not the only common element shared with Food Wars! Shun Saeki’s artwork is also showcased, with its characters often depicted enjoying their food to a comical degree, their clothes suddenly ripping off in many cases as they’re carried to culinary nirvana. It’s total fanservice and thoroughly unsurprising for those who have read Food Wars! or the works of Shun Saeki before.

As it turns out, Saeki’s resume before Food Wars! includes art of the more risqué variety, working as a hentai artist. Given the characters depicted in this One Piece spinoff, this is not relatively problematic, with the only risk being pre-time skip Vivi. However, the creators opt to make her dining experience one fueled by nostalgia instead of a more carnal reaction. The result is a One Piece and Food Wars! blend of themes and characters that only the Food Wars! team could pull off.

Shokugeki no Sanji Makes Readers Wish to Sail the High Seas

It Seems Cruel to Introduce Delectable Seafood That Doesn’t Exist

While the culinary influences and techniques are all too real in One Piece’s Sanji spinoff manga, many of the creatures featured are not real, which is a shame, as they’re desirably presented. The tomahawk lobster’s design is imposing to encounter in the water, but seeing it served on a platter for a discerning diner is immensely entertaining. Sanji using a katana to elegantly fillet the infamously difficult dragon salmon is practically iconic. However, it’s an experience that isn’t likely to happen in real life, which is good; it’d likely be prohibitively expensive.

But perhaps the most interesting part of the One Piece: Shokugeki no Sanji spinoff manga is it could entice any readers not yet familiar with One Piece. This seems hard to believe, with the series selling half a billion copies. Still, the gorgeous artwork and reverence for familiar characters in this global smash hit can entice readers to learn more, especially with some great story arcs teased. But aside from One Piece, there’s a strong case for readers to check out the other collaborations and spinoff manga featuring Yuto Tsukuda, Shun Saeki, and Yuki Morisaki.