Chapters · Four Emperors (Yonko) › Whole Cake Island

Chapter 841: To the East Blue

Arc: Whole Cake Island · Saga: Four Emperors (Yonko) · Released: 2016-09-12 (approx)

Summary

Sanji’s childhood flashback continues in the seafaring nation of Germa. Six months into his imprisonment, the young Sanji — locked in an iron mask in the dungeon as the family’s “failure” — secretly cooks meals for his bedridden, gravely ill mother (the Queen), defying his father’s orders. His three brothers, bio-augmented into emotionless superhuman soldiers, train to King Judge’s delight, while Reiju explains that the augmentation left the other three without pity, sympathy, or sadness — and that she and Sanji are the exceptions. Sanji discovers the All Blue in a cookbook and dreams of becoming a cook. As Germa climbs the Red Line to wage war on the Kingdom of Kojia in the East Blue, Reiju helps Sanji escape. King Judge confronts him but lets him go on one condition: that Sanji never tell anyone Judge is his father — calling Sanji his “secret shame” — and fakes Sanji’s death to the brothers, ordering him to run and never return. In the present, Reiju treats the beaten Sanji and asks why he came back to the family he hated instead of simply abandoning his old boss. Intercut: eleven hours into the Seducing Woods battle, Luffy is force-eating Cracker’s endless biscuit soldiers, both refusing to give up.

New reveals

• Sanji’s six-month imprisonment. Caption (p.2): “Six months into Sanji’s imprisonment.” The boy Sanji is held in an iron mask in the Germa dungeon; staff are forbidden from the kitchen and the guest chamber, fueling rumors of “screams from the basement.”
• The Vinsmoke children are augmented super-soldiers. Judge praises the brothers’ “dizzying… absolutely superhuman” progress (p.3); Reiju states “They successfully augmented my body too” (p.8).
• The three brothers feel nothing. Reiju: “They have no emotions like pity or sympathy or sadness. The other three are Father’s ideal soldiers” — and “that’s one area where I’m different from them” (p.8). Sanji is likewise emotional.
• Sanji’s sick mother, the Queen of Germa. Bedridden in the infirmary, she eats Sanji’s first dish (“Scrambled eggs… fish and… bananas?”) and praises it; she had earlier ordered the staff to bring her what Sanji cooked (pp.5-7). Her given name is not printed on-page this chapter — she is “Mother” / “Her Majesty.”
• The All Blue origin. Sanji is given “a cookbook and tools,” reads it, and lights up at “All… Blue…?” (p.7) — the genesis of his lifelong dream “to be a cook” (p.10).
• Germa is a war-nation for hire. It “fights a few wars in the East Blue,” climbs the Red Line (“Now beginning travel… in the direction of the East Blue!!”), and invades the Kingdom of Kojia (“Bring down Kojia!!!”), making landfall (pp.9-11). The attacking army is named on-page: “It’s Germa 66!!!” (p.10).
• Judge disowns and frees Sanji. Judge gives Sanji the key to the iron mask (p.13) on one final condition: “never mention… the fact that I am your father!!! It is a black mark on my success, my secret shame” (p.13). He fakes Sanji’s death to the brothers and orders him to “run!! Don’t ever come back here!!!” (pp.8, 14).
• Present-day frame. Reiju treats the bloodied Sanji and questions why he returned (pp.15); Luffy and Cracker are eleven hours into their fight in the Seducing Woods, Luffy eating Cracker’s biscuit soldiers faster than Cracker can make them (pp.16-17).

Foreshadowing seeds planted

Payoffs (seeds from earlier chapters that resolve here)

Mentions / appearances

• Sanji — flashback (child, iron mask) and present (treated by Reiju)
• Vinsmoke Judge — “King Judge”; frees and disowns Sanji
• Vinsmoke Reiju — “Lady Reiju”; aids Sanji’s escape (flashback) and treats him (present)
• Vinsmoke Sora — the Queen / “Mother” / “Her Majesty” (name not printed this chapter)
• Sanji’s three brothers — shown as children, caps numbered 1, 2, 4 (individually unnamed this chapter)
• Germa 66 — named and shown in the flashback (ships, army, landfall)
• Luffy, Nami, Charlotte Cracker — present-day Seducing Woods battle
• Charlotte Pudding — referenced as Sanji’s “fiancée” (p.15)
• Zeff — referenced obliquely (“your boss from a restaurant you used to work at”, p.15)
• Vinsmoke, Charlotte
• East Blue, Red Line, Whole Cake Island; Kojia (East Blue kingdom, flashback); the Germa Kingdom; Seducing Woods

Notable panels

• Page 1 — Reader-request art (B/W): goats chowing down on Whitebeard’s mustache (“Request: ‘Goats chowing down on Whitebeard’s ‘stache’ by White Goat Ate the Letter from Okayama”). One-off illustration, not a serialized cover story.
• Page 2 — Caption “Six months into Sanji’s imprisonment”; Germa kitchen staff trade rumors about the forbidden basement and guest chamber.
• Page 3 — Sanji cooks behind bars in the iron mask; the brothers train as Judge cheers their “superhuman” progress.
• Page 5 — Germa as a seaside fortress-nation; a storm and a sea-king as Sanji sneaks food to the infirmary.
• Page 7 — Sanji reads the cookbook; “All… Blue…?” — the dream is born.
• Page 8 — Brothers’ caps numbered 1, 2, 4 (3 absent = San-ji); Reiju’s emotion/augmentation exposition.
• Pages 9-11 — Germa climbs the Red Line into the East Blue and invades Kojia; “It’s Germa 66!!!”
• Pages 12-14 — Judge frees, disowns, and fakes the death of Sanji; the “secret shame” speech; “Now run!! Don’t turn back!!!”
• Page 15 — Present: Reiju treats the beaten Sanji; “Why return to a place… that you never wanted to remember…?”
• Pages 16-17 — “Seducing Woods, Luffy vs. Cracker,” eleven hours in; Luffy devours the biscuit soldiers.
• Page 18 — SBS Question Corner (Donquixote Family + Mary’s Lamb birthdays; ages of Buggy/Kuro/Krieg/Wapol/Foxy).

Open questions raised

• What is the Queen’s name, and what is her connection to Sanji’s retained emotions? (Name unprinted; her role off-page.)
• What exactly is the Vinsmoke “augmentation,” and why did it produce emotionless brothers but emotional Reiju and Sanji?
• Why did Judge keep Sanji alive for six months rather than simply discarding the “failure,” and what does “the contract” / mercenary war-for-hire model of Germa entail?
• In the present: can Luffy’s stamina outlast Cracker’s apparently infinite biscuits?