User blog comment:Kaido King of the Beasts/Chapter 898: No One Expects the Germa Inquisition/@comment-28995593-20180316082336/@comment-7606564-20180316195019

I think setting is important. Our three big fighters, Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji, only get badass fights when they're one on one. Sometimes we see hints at epic power when they use one powerful attack to fodderize underlings. However we never see them go all out unless it's one on one (Luffy vs Enel, Luffy vs Lucci, Zoro vs Pica, Zorro vs Ryuma, Sanji vs Kuroobi, Sanji vs Jabra). A lot of us are expecting an epic fight from Sanji, but I don't believe the setting is right for it. Of course we, the fans, demand at least one epic fight per arc, but when the nature of the arc is infiltration of a hostile and immensely powerful nation, how do you allow a one on one fight? Anyone in the vicinity would hear it (or feel it) happening and quickly our straw hats would be outnumbered, surrounded, and likely defeated. I give Oda a lot of praise for his planning of strategies. Mirror World was exactly the stage we needed for that epic one on one fight we demanded. I believe Oda started the writing there, made brulee for that purpose, and created the seducing woods to properly introduce her to the story. Anyways, back to the point. Sanji will not get his one on one fight unless it's happening out at sea during the escape or Oda creates another "stage" where a fight can happen uninterrupted. It can't be mirror world, we've already been there, it would be repetative.

Lastly, I understand the parallels you draw to Enis Lobby and Arlong Park, but I don't agree that Sanji's role should match the former. He has explicitly been labeled a fighter from the start. I think that we need to understand his being "semi-nerfed" as a lack of setting for the fight we're all expecting. The creation of the cake was the easiest way to display some sort of power from his character with the "stages" we have to work with.