One Piece Sanji First Appearance Original Production Storyboard Sequence

One Piece reached its twentieth episode on April 12, 2000–just six months into a run that has since passed eleven hundred. Titled “The Famous Cook! Sanji of the Floating Restaurant,” it takes the crew to the Baratie, where Sanji introduces himself by kicking a Marine lieutenant across the dining room. The All Blue, the dream that will drive him for the rest of the series, is named here for the first time too.

This is Sanji before the eyebrows, before the battles, before the thousands of episodes, and before he became one of the most popular characters in anime history.

This lot comprises the production storyboards for the episode, running to roughly seventy pages. Every shot is framed, timed, and staged here before it became animated. Anime storyboards are scanned and distributed so that animation direction, key animation, backgrounds, photography, and sound can work from the same plan at once. What survives outside the studio is therefore production material in the form actually used by the crew, while the master remains with the production company.

In comics, a character’s first appearance is a major focus for collectors. Anime works the same way, but the material almost never survives—and material for a character of Sanji’s stature is a category that barely exists, making this lot remarkably rare.