Zeff

Zeff is a former pirate known as "Red-Leg" Zeff and is also Sanji's mentor.

Personality
Zeff is the tough former Pirate "Red-Leg". He is hard on those around him and is always seriously (at times appearing frighteningly serious) about everything. He doesn't take laid backs and if you do a mistake he will beat the error into you and keep beating you until you were better (as Sanji found out in his childhood). Zeff normally doesn't show emotions other then a hot temper and holds a firm hold of authourity at the Baratie.

Relationships
While he was ever brutal to Sanji, he did this to make Sanji into a great chief. Though Sanji objected to it at first, eventually he seemed to com to understand what Zeff was up to. In a way Sanji seemed to become like a son to him. He found himself crying at Sanji's departure from the Baratie and was other joyed at hearing he had a bounty.

One of Zeff's most precisious pocessions is his journel from his days as a pirate. He considers it valuable because it contains the memories of him and his crews journey in the Grand Line. This means that while his days of a pirate are long past, he still holds them dear and was not prepared to just let Don Krieg take this away. In a contrast of actions, after the events of the baratie were over, Zeff was impressed by Luffy's efforts and offered the journel willingly to Luffy, only to be turned down.

Abilities and Powers
Zeff is the orginal Master of the techinque known as Red Leg. Because of the power of his lethal kicks, his shoes were left covered in the blood of his enemies, leding to his name nickname of "Red-Leg". He could easily break through rock and left imprints on iron of his footprints. At the Baratie he struck a number of Pearl's fire pearls in mid-air, causing them to loosing their fire and fall to the ground.

Even with a peg leg, Zeff's kicks can still kill a man and he passed the art on to Sanji.

Past Story
When Sanji was a kitchen boy, the ship he worked on was attacked by Zeff's pirate crew. Sanji had the guts to attack Zeff himself, claiming that he wanted to live in order to find the mythical sea "All Blue," (Great Blue in US TV version) Zeff's own dream as well. During the skirmish, a fierce storm wiped out both Sanji's ship and the pirate ship, nearly drowning Sanji. Zeff went into the water to save the boy because they shared the same dream. In the anime, Zeff's leg caught on debris during the rescue, and he had to cut it off in order to get Sanji and save them both. He does this by wrapping a chain around the trapped leg and letting the force of the ships sever it. In the manga he actually looses his leg on the island, after giving Sanji all his food he smashed his leg of with a large rock and ate it to stay alive.



After the rescue, they were washed up onto a tall, rocky island by a wave. There was no food on it, and no way to get to the sea and back to land for fish. Unknown to Sanji, Zeff gave all of the food that had washed ashore with them to the young boy and kept none for himself (In the manga, he still had both his legs but cuts off his right leg and eats it to keep himself alive). After eighty or more days with little food they were finally rescued, and Zeff swore that if he made it off the island alive, he would open a restaurant on the sea and serve anyone who was hungry, whether they be naval marine or pirate. Moments after revealing his dream, Zeff and Sanji are rescued by a passing ship.

Years later, Zeff makes good on his promise and opens Baratie, a floating restaurant shaped like a fish, famous for its amazing food and fighting cooks.

Present Story
When Luffy comes to the restaurant and defeats Don Krieg, Zeff encourages Sanji to leave the restaurant to pursue his dream for both their sakes. He also offers to give Luffy his log book that records the days he spent on the Grand Line, but Luffy refuses, saying he wants to create his own adventure and not recreate that of another.

Translation and Dub Issues
In the manga Zeff has a tendency to call Sanji "Little Eggplant" and Sanji calls him "Crap Geezer" in return. In the 4Kids dub of the anime, Zeff has a tendency to call Sanji "String Bean" and in return Sanji calls him "Ol' geezer".

Trivia

 * Zeff is a playable character in One Piece Grand Adventure.
 * In a recent Japanese Fan Poll, Zeff is currently ranked the 29th most popular character in One Piece.