One Piece 1034 Review: Ifrit Jambe

One Piece, Chapter 1034: Sanji vs. Queen

This one is a bit more of a simpler chapter... though it's not a bad one! Not at all. After a couple of chapters focusing on the Zoro/King fight, we get a chapter almost entirely focusing on Sanji. Other than a brief scene showing Momonosuke pushing the floating island, it's almost entirely exclusively Sanji and Queen scenes, which is... interesting. Sanji versus Queen is most certainly the less interesting fight compared to Zoro versus King -- we're lacking the mystery behind King and Zoro trying to figure out Enma out. And the fact is, unlike Zoro, there really isn't a point in the fight where Sanji feels like he's struggling against Queen, meaning that it is kind of less tense. Another criticism that I've seen people make online is the fact that a lot of the build-up that we had to Sanji's own crisis of faith -- like the ambiguity on whether he has truly 'lost himself' so much that he would hit a woman -- ends up being resolved very quickly and conveniently. 

Also, I guess this is a way for Sanji to 'win' against his brothers without showing Sanji actually beating up the Vinsmokes since they're more reluctant allies than outright enemies now?

Queen gets to show off for a couple of pages how he has the powers of the three Vinsmoke brothers, being able to use Ichiji, Niji and Yonji's powers, and he's basically super-excited to get Sanji to transform into a Kemn Rider in order to basically beat up Judge's masterpiece with his own creations. It's... it's all right, and the art is nice, but it's also something that I didn't really feel had as much mystique or impact as any of the other major antagonists in this arc. And, again, Sanji is just kind of dominating this fight. He quickly kicks and blows up Queen's tentacle-mechanical arm, then flanchet strikes Queen around.

Queen uses his version of Stealth Black, becoming invisible, and Sanji shows off his own super-speed, moving faster than the eye can see. Queen, chooses that point to attack a courtesan looking for her pet rat, which is the aforementioned bit of the story telling us that, hey, Sanji's innocent from beating up that woman, he's completely heroic, and it's Queen all along. A mite too convenient, but what can you do. 

Sanji has a bit of an internal monologue where he now can combine his super strength, his exoskeleton and his armament Haki to make his flames stronger into Ifrit Jambe, and spends the last three pages just doing through a multi-part "list off the terms to refer to meat parts in butchery" attack. It's cool! It's just that... it's kind of just 'Sanji defeats an opponent', and unless there's a colour change, I don't really think Ifrit Jambe packs as much of an impact visually. Pretty decent chapter overall, though.