One Piece 813 Review: Sanji's Note

One Piece, Chapter 813: The Tea Party Invitation

A far more solidly-paced chapter than the previous one, and while we still don't get too much information regarding the workings of the Vinsmoke (which makes a lot more sense than Vinsmoak) Family or Big Mom's pirates or whatever, but Sanji gets a crapton of focus and he does a fair amount of cool shit in this chapter. 

We get a nice cover page of Laboon and Crocus being happy. Did Laboon know about Brook? That's a question that's been bothering me for a while. I guess he does? But, eh, whatever about Laboon. Be all happy. This chapter continues upon the big bombshell that Capone dropped on us last chapter, and Sanji is just so shocked that the cigarette just drops out of his mouth (and sets Capone's castle-floor on fire a couple pages later, which I thought was hilarious). Brook apparently knows what the Vinsmoke Family is, though in true anime fashion he just trails off and doesn't tell us what he knows.

Capone confirms that Sanji's family was the one who approached Big Mom and arranged for the wedding, and Caesar also confirms that Pudding (or Purin, depending how you want to romanize her name) is Big Mom's daughters, and it's definitely a power play on Big Mom's part to get Luffy's crew as her underlings.  Lady's got a lot of daughters! That must've been hell for her womb. Or maybe she just adopts daughters the way Whitebeard or mafia godfathers do. Nami and Brook discuss this, and we get a short flashback of pre-timeskip Sanji during the pre-Skypiea arc telling the crew about how he was born in North Blue instead of East Blue, and Brook confirms what the theorists have been clamoring about for years, that it's not easy to go from North Blue to East Blue, because you have to pass through the Red Line. 

Of course, it's something that would be easily explained if Sanji was the son of a Tenryubito/King/Gorosei or whatever, but why any one of these parties would want to wed Sanji to a pirate's daughter, let alone the daughter of the Yonkou... Obviously Big Mom is one of the most powerful people in the One Piece world, but you'd think the Tenryubito and the Kings would look down on encouraging pirates, unless Sanji's family cares so little of him that they just want to have some leverage over Big Mom? I dunno. It's weird.

Sanji gets over his shock quickly, though, and gets to be all badass, talking down on Capone and Big Mom's tea party, and firmly tells Capone that Monkey D. Luffy will never be anyone's underling because he'll be the Pirate King. Hell yea. It's always awesome to hear the likes of Sanji or Zoro, people who are equal badasses as Luffy is, insist that Luffy will be the Pirate King. 

Sanji goes all "I'll let you keep Caesar. Let us go" (so much for that theory that the Curly Hats will be developing a reverse-Stockholm Syndrome on Caesar Clown), going all ultimatums on Capone, but Capone himself isn't backing down. Capone notes how the Curly Hats don't have a choice since they're already captured within Capone's castle -- the large body can walk on its own apparently -- and Capone displays more of his ability, able to morph the insides of his castle body and create cannons, goop Nami up, create chandelier-knives and whatnot. 

One of Capone's Firetank Pirates, "Monster Gun" Vito (who is the Caribou-looking dude fro before) shows up and monologues about how scary Big Mom's tea party is and how people who are invited but don't come basically sign their own death warrants. Vito's got huge hands and ends all his sentences in -rero, which kinda reminds me of... Rubber Soul, was it, from Stardust Crusaders? The one who created the memetic rerorerorerorerorerorero thing? In any case, though, Vito (love the Godfather reference, by the way even if this Vito has nothing in common with Vito Corleone) whispers something into Sanji's ear that kinda pisses him off. This apparently causes him to get a resolve to go along with the marriage thing for now. 

Sanji writes something on a paper, basically an innocent-sounding "hey Luffy I'm going off to see a girl", and makes a show of being all whisper-whisper with Nami, Brook and Chopper. Sanji notes how he needs to deal with all his past alone -- basically kinda like Robin from Water Seven but a lot more badass since Sanji's planning to fight instead of just let fate have its way -- and having sensed a powerful presence outside (good ol' Observation Haki!) Sanji kicks the three other Straw Hats out, leaving a pretty distraught Caesar and Sanji himself stuck inside Capone. 

Sanji doesn't stop there, though, stealing a gun and pointing it at Caesar Clown's head, taking the poor gas man hostage. Sanji does an awesome monologue reminding the Firetank Pirates about his 'only alive' status, how the person who arranged his marriage and the one behind the wanted poster are likely one and the same, and he makes an awesome demand for everyone to leave his friends alone, while Sanji will come with Capone. Capone takes the deal...

Though in the outside world, Nekomamushi has shown up and is towering over Capone's real body. Nekomamushi is pissed off, having found Pekoms (who in the present-day is probably hanging out with Nekomamushi, which makes sense that we haven't met Nekomamushi in the present day since that would spoil Pekoms' presence) bleeding and whatnot. Capone tells Nekomamushi that he is Pekoms' comrade (he's not wrong there) and they were attacked by one of Jack's subordinates. There's a bit of confusion, and Nami's just screaming at Sanji (who tells him that he'll be back) and Capone... transforms his legs into tank treads and rolls off. Wait, what? If your body is a fortress you turn into T-1000? What the hell? That's Baby-5's power!

Wanda begins pursuit of Capone, but Brook tells them it's useless, because even if they catch up to Sanji, Sanji has no intention of coming back. Well, Sanji doesn't accept his fate to be executed so you can bet he's going to do some stuff in Big Mom's presence and all that. Getting more and more interesting here and I honestly don't care much for staying long at Zou and dealing with the likes of Whitebeard Jr or the samurais. Get on with either Jack or the big Big Mom arc! Or both!