The One Piece anime is currently in the Egghead Island arc and audiences witnessed Zoro vs S-Hawk in episode 1109. Directed by Nanami Michibata, the highly anticipated fight featured some big names from the series. industry, as Shoutarou Ban and Vincent Chansard participated in.
This is Vincent Chansard's first scene after signing a one-year contract with Toei Animation. The episode also features a scene where the Kid Pirates challenge the Red Hair Pirates. While the episode received nothing but praise from the fandom, it also once again exposed Toei to bias.
Sanji fans often express disappointment towards the animation studio for its unfair treatment. This became more relevant in the Egghead Island arc, when the studio misinterpreted one of Sanji's speed feats in episode 1105.
While pacing is always an issue, it's not hard to see that Sanji suffers the most, while Zoro often gets his cool moments. The extended version of Zoro's battle with S-Hawk is a classic anime scene, in which both characters shine thanks to their beautiful fight choreography.
However, when compared to episode 1095, where S-Shark threw Sanji several meters away with just a simple attack, the bias was obvious. Both scenes are classic anime scenes, however Toei downplays Sanji in one scene, while exaggerating Zoro in another.
Sanji's jokes are also greatly exaggerated, just to have more scenes for the anime. However, in the long run, those pranks only made Sanji worse. Not to mention the chef seems weaker in the anime, although the manga often shows that Zoro and Sanji have relative strength, although the swordsman is a bit better.
One fan shared: “It's clear that Toei has a lot of sympathy for Zoro compared to Sanji. I mean, Zoro is definitely stronger, but they see Sanji as a joke.”