By Rei Penber
Here's everything to know about Sanji's exoskeleton power.
Sanji is the cook of the Straw Hat Pirates and the fourth addition to Luffy's group after Zoro, Nami, and Usopp. Having joined Luffy on Baratie as the chef, Sanji's primary role on the crew is to feed everyone, however, he is certainly not limited to just that. Along with Luffy and Zoro, Sanji is the third most powerful and important fighter in the group, and forms the Monster Trio with them.
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Despite not training all the time, Sanji is able to keep up with the likes of Zoro, and the two have a big rivalry despite being on the same crew. Just as Luffy and Zoro progress with time, so does Sanji. After the events of Wano, Sanji was given a bounty of 1.032 billion berries and that is nothing short of staggering. This came on the back of him awakening his exoskeleton and the latent Germa abilities that he had inside himself, allowing him to take down Queen the Plague of the Beast Pirates.
How Sanji Awakened The Exoskeleton
Before being born, Sanji, along with his three sibling brothers was experimented upon by Judge. He altered their DNA, known in the One Piece world as the Lineage Factor, in very curious ways. He wanted to grant them tremendous amounts of power that would help him conquer North blue once again. Sora, his wife, vehemently argued against him and took medicine to reverse the changes that he intended to do to the children. Unfortunately, the Lineage Factor modification worked for three of the four children, except for Sanji. However, while for the majority of the story, fans assumed that Sanji was a normal human, in Wano, this proved to be untrue.
Sanji started awakening the same powers as his brothers in Wano during the fight against Queen and gained an extremely tough exoskeleton. On top of this, Sanji also gained other abilities such as a remarkably fast recovery factor, more muscles, and all that allowed him to become much stronger. With these powers, he was able to take on Queen in a battle where he won an overwhelming victory. Sanji was also able to awaken the power of Ifrit Jambe. Thankfully, however, Sanji is still human since his mother was able to save the emotions in him.
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Why Sanji's Exoskeleton Is Stronger Than His Siblings
Fans saw the Germa siblings fight during the Whole Cake Island arc. Yonji was the very first one of them that fans saw in action when he took on Sanji in combat. Much to the surprise of the fans, Sanji was able to deform his face with a simple attack of his. Yonji needed a hydraulic press to ensure that his body was working normally once more. Later on, during the Tea Party, all the Germa siblings fought against the Big Mom Pirates. Here, their strengths were put on full display even against the top tiers such as Katakuri, the billion berry man of the Big Mom Pirates. Ichiji faced off against Katakuri, however, was beaten very quickly.
Despite that, his incredible recovery rate ensured that he was back up on his feet just a minute or so later and was able to shrug off every bit of damage thrown his way. However, his exoskeleton proved to be rather weak. This is curious as Sanji's exoskeleton is known to be incredibly tough. Fans saw Queen perform his Brachiocoilus on him and, while he was able to bend his bones, he was not able to do any real damage to him. Thanks to his recovery powers, Sanji was able to recover within a matter of seconds.
What's more, Sanji then went on to fight against the Seraphim of Jinbe, S-Shark, on Egghead and was able to take a full-powered punch straight to the face without so much as taking a scratch. Once again, when compared to his brothers, where Sanji was able to deform their faces with mere kicks, Sanji can withstand a much greater force. This is proof that his exoskeleton is much stronger than that of his brother. This doesn't seem to be a random decision taken by Oda. When thinking about it, Sanji is deeply linked to the power of emotions. Sanji is at his strongest when he is full of rage, which is a form of emotion.
At the same time, Sanji also goes on to say that he is very passionate and this passion makes him light up on fire, explaining the abilities such as Diable Jambe and Ifrit Jambe. These emotions are, by the looks of it, the trigger for him to grow stronger. They were protected by Sora and Sanji is now stronger than his brothers due to that. As long as he has his emotions, he will always continue to grow stronger and so will his exoskeleton, along with other Germa abilities. The fights that he has been in recently are proof that he is much stronger than his brothers and that he will most likely continue to go down this path and possibly even become the most durable man in the world of One Piece.
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