One Piece’s recent backtrack with Yamato diminishes what semblance of character growth he had achieved. Ironically, this mirrors the series’ mishandling of Sanji in what could have been a rare moment of character evolution in the series.
Much earlier in One Piece, the Whole Cake arc saw Sanji undergoing what originally began as an appropriate plot line for his kind of character. Sanji was known as One Piece’s hopeless womanizer to a point that it has made many fans uncomfortable. But then his creepiness was put to the test when he was forced to marry Pudding. This should have been a dream come true for the inappropriate flirt, especially since Pudding appeared to be his type, and yet, something about this was different. Sanji took their fates seriously to the point where he treated Pudding with respect. The well-written irony was that he had been willing to put his dreams and friendships on the line to marry her even though she was originally just using him. Because she turned out to be a villain, Pudding’s betrayal risked Sanji reverting to how he was before meeting her.
But One Piece found itself unable to follow through on what could have been a significant moment of character development. However, the series seemed to rectify this failure with another character when it had Yamato choose not to join the Straw Hats because he ostensibly wanted to first travel across Wano just like his idol, Oden. But there was some serious backpedaling in chapter 1,059 when Yamato revealed that the idea of traveling through Wano was just a lie to appease Momo. He really planned to stay in Wano to protect his country from further enemies.
Yamato’s Character Arc Was So Close to Working
Like the Sanji debacle, this retcon is a disservice to Yamato’s character in One Piece. Yamato was born as the child of Kaido, and yet, he came to adore Kaido’s enemy Oden. It’s therefore understandable why Yamato would reject everything his father represented since he was responsible for Oden’s death. But what readers should have clearly understood was that in his endeavor to be more like Oden, it made perfect sense that he would want to do everything that he did. And since Oden traveled around Wano, he would, of course, attempt to do the same thing. And yet One Piece perplexingly dropped this for a much less inspiring reason.
This failure reminds critics of Sanji’s lack of character growth after Whole Cake because One Piece also failed to follow through with him. Since Sanji and Pudding became close friends, it would have made sense for him to begin treating women with more respect. But, he didn’t. Since then, he’s been his same old self, with hearts bursting out of his eyes at the sight of attractive women. Instead of focusing on its characters, One Piece puts all of its attention into creating elaborating plot lines, leaving its characters static and unchanging. Unfortunately, One Piece is doomed to repeat this same story over and over again.