Oda Reveals The Secret Behind Sanji’s Flames

Highlights

Sanji is one of the most powerful members of the Straw Hat Pirates and has the ability to ignite his legs on fire during combat.
Sanji’s ability to burst into flames was first hinted at during the Baratie arc, and he fully developed it during the Enies Lobby arc.
In the Wano arc, Sanji’s flames reached a new level with the ability to produce blue flames that burn from the inside. The source of his flames is linked to his lineage factor manipulation and scientific advancements.

Sanji is one of the most powerful characters in One Piece and an integral part of the Straw Hat Pirates. Playing the role of the chef, Sanji isn’t limited to just cooking. In fact, when it comes to fighting, Sanji is one of the very best of the crew, behind only the likes of Luffy and Zoro by a fraction. All the members of the Straw Hat Pirates have different fighting styles and, when it comes to Sanji, he makes use of his legs while engaging in combat.

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Specifically, one of Sanji’s most powerful abilities is the power to ignite his legs on fire. This ability has confused fans for many years, however, Oda has finally hinted at the major secret behind his ability to ignite himself.

How Sanji Awakened The Power To Use Flames

Sanji is an incredible user of pyrokinetic abilities. The first time he awakened this power was during the Enies Lobby arc and, here, he ended up fighting against none other than Jabra of the CP9. However, Sanji’s resistance to flame was actually teased long ago in the story. In the arc where he was introduced, Baratie, Sanji was shown to be fearless in front of fire. According to him, a cook could never be afraid of playing with fire and that is something that impressed the fans quite a lot about him at the time. Pearl, who was one of Sanji’s foes, could ignite himself on fire and nobody dared get close to him, however, Sanji absolutely did not hesitate even once in trying to strike at him.

This was quite indicative of the fact that Sanji had special abilities, however, fans did not pay much attention to it at the time. During the Enies Lobby arc, this unfazed nature that Sanji had was taken to the next level when he managed to develop the power to produce flames by himself. Sanji put up quite an incredible fight against Jabra, even without the flames, however, he realized that he needed something stronger to pierce the iron-like exterior of Jabra. This is why he came up with the ability to burst into flames. By spinning on the ground, Sanji could light his legs up on fire and the temperature got so hot that he likened it to the leg of the devil itself.

According to Sanji, his leg was a gift from the devil and just a single kick from it was enough to severely injure Jabra. Two kicks are all it took to finish off an enemy as strong as him and that just goes to show how powerful Sanji’s new flame ability, Diable Jambe was.

The Evolution From Diable To Ifrit Jambe

Diable Jambe is certainly one of the most powerful abilities that Sanji has had. He continued to develop this power with time. For the remainder of the timeskip, Sanji developed the ability to use it more efficiently and, over the timeskip, Sanji gained the power to use it over both legs and instantaneously light them up without the need of spinning. However, curiously, Sanji also developed the ability to spontaneously burst into flames. Sanji would randomly ignite on fire, such as during the event of the Thriller Bark Arc, where he did this on many occasions. Of course, fans played it down as a gag at the time, however, his ability to do that might actually be tied to his birth.

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Before all that is discussed, fans need to know the next level that Sanji managed to hit in the Wano arc. Sanji has always been capable of generating hotter flames than Diable Jambe, however, he knows that he can only produce flames as hot as his body can handle. That is precisely why when Sanji received his scientific upgrades, in the form of an exoskeleton and an overall physical boost when his latent Germa powers awakened, he also realized that he could now produce hotter flames. Instead of using this Diable Jambe, Sanji produced an ability known as Ifrit Jambe. The color of these flames was blue and they also produced electricity, which burnt the target from the inside when being struck with it. If it’s much hotter than the average flames and burns so hot that an Ancient Zoan devil fruit user and a master of Armament Haki such as Queen could not withstand its powers.

The Secret Source Of Sanji’s Flames

When coming over to the source of Sanji’s flames, Oda has highlighted a particularly interesting narrative in the manga itself. In the manga, when Sanji is quizzed about how he can light his leg up on fire, he says that it is his burning passion that allows him to do so and it is also why he himself doesn’t get burned. Simply put, because his heart burns hotter, he isn’t hurt by his flaming leg. However, quite a lot of the fans immediately knew that this wasn’t going to be the real reason, simply because Oda is a master of deception. This was first indicated during Sanji’s fight against Queen. Queen made it quite clear that no human can spontaneously burst into flames. This is not a human ability, regardless of how much heat Sanji’s spirit possesses. Sanji doubled down on his previous claim by saying that he’s special and that his heart burns hotter than any other flame, which is why his flames are the hottest.

Sanji Using Ifrit Against Queen In One Piece's Wano Arc

However, the curious part is that Oda finally revealed the source of Sanji’s flames in One Piece volume 105 SBS. Here is what Oda had to say:

“D: I have a question. In Chapter 1031 of Volume 102 Sanji’s eyebrows were reversed, but in Chapter 1044 of Volume 103 they returned back to normal. Why did they change back to normal? P.N. Rooftop

O: You noticed it well~. His eyebrows have definitely changed. Going back to the Whole Cake Island Arc, all of Sanji’s brothers and sister have had superhuman qualities and strong skin called “Exoskeleton” since they were born due to “Lineage Factor Manipulation”. However, only Sanji was born as a normal human due to his mother’s resistance. Look at his brothers and sister’s eyebrows.

Everyone has “66” like Yonji. Sanji is the exact opposite. That was the battle where “the power of science” was manifested in the wake of the raid suit! Sanji originally had an abnormal resistance to “flame”. It was strange. Let’s keep watching.”

The most interesting part here comes towards the very end, where Oda mentions that Sanji originally had an abnormal resistance to flame. Fans have seen it throughout the series, right from the Baratie arc and, in the Enies Lobby arc, it was taken to the next level where this resistance to flame manifested itself as Diable Jambe. In Wano, this resistance got taken up a whole another notch and manifested itself as Ifrit Jambe. In Oda’s own words, this resistance to flame is strange and, he directly ties it to Sanji’s lineage factor manipulation and the scientific advancements that Judge had accomplished and utilized on his body.

According to Oda, fans should keep a close watch on this because it will likely be a very important plot point later down the line. However, now fans know for a fact that Sanji’s flames are a product of the power of science and could very well have ties to either other Devil Fruits or, perhaps, the people of Lunaria, which Sanji has often been likened to. Fans will have to sit back and wait for more information.

One Piece is available to read via Viz Media. The series can be read by the fans officially and for free on the Shonen Jump and the Manga Plus app. Since One Piece is going to be on break, the release date for the next chapter of One Piece, One Piece 1102, is set to be December 25, 2023.