I still don’t think the ship has sailed on some Mr Prince-style trick; like, I wouldn’t put it past OP to have Sanji literally kick a message into Luffys body.
Taken completely on its own theres a lot to like about this chapter, and even if you can draw plenty of parallels to prior events theres still enough new stuff that I really dig (like Sanjis motive being unambiguous from the start from our perspective, thus making his actions immediately tragic)
But the whole thing is undermined by a single issue:
Luffy and Nami have also been informed of the hostage situation beforehand. I know that Sanji doesn’t know that they know, but we saw Luffy-and more importantly, Nami- get informed that Big Mom gets people to comply by taking their loved ones hostage, like say for instance the Baratie chefs. Said in pretty much those exact words.
With this in mind, I can see two routes this story can go from here
1: Sanji has pulled some Mr Prince sneakery and relayed information to Luffy and Nami and/or Nami and Luffy were in on it the whole time and/or Nami and Luffy eventually remember the bit about hostages, and realize that this perfectly explains Sanjis behavior. The problem is that this would cause the main tension of this chapter (Sanji disowning the crew) to instantly dissipate (“Oh! Its turns out that its totally unambiguous that Sanji hasn’t ditched us!”). And if we take the perceived threat to the crewmate bond (as far as Nami and Luffy are concerned) away from this chapter, we’re left with “its sad that Sanji had to kick Luffy a bunch, because they are friends”.
2: The fact that Luffy and Nami were informed beforehand is entirely forgotten and/or Sanji didn’t communicate with them in any way and is currently tragically resigned to his fate –in other words, the straightforward “Crewmate tries to push Luffy away and comes across as a dick, but Luffy won’t take no for an answer” approach again. Nami and Luffy apparently charging in with no plan beyond Find Sanji–>leave! could suggest this is the current approach.
Either way, theres no question that things are presented as straight-faced drama in this moment – its just that either the drama is fake, or forced and repetitive.
Mind you, I don’t actually mind the “repetitive” part; Like I said, the chapter has a lot going for it; theres excellent art with a real brutal emphasis to the kicks, and the flow and panel layout is great. It benefits greatly from being a non-flashback chapter with a singular focus and nice big panels, just how Daz likes it. And even in a situation like this, I love seeing the return of old moves- Concassé is one of my faves, and even if it comes short of the (art-wise) impact on Satori, its great to see it again.
And again, seeing Sanji forced to beating up Luffy with the full knowledge of why he has to and how much its tearing him up inside is a really damn effective setup…its just marred by that one tiny detail. Like, if Pekoms had not been as on-the-nose in-the-know with exposition, and just gone “Big Mom apparently has a deal Sanji can’t refuse” this encounter would work better, at least for me.