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The Shichibukai (七武海 Shichibukai, literally Seven Military Seas), called the Seven Warlords of the Sea in the English anime and manga, are a set of fictional characters in the anime and manga series One Piece.
Overview
Template:Spoiler The Shichibukai are seven of the most powerful pirates in the series, and one of the "Three Great Powers", along with the "Four Emperors" and the Navy Headquarters. The Shichibukai is an organization of seven privateers that are in the service of the World Government. These seven individuals are former pirates that hunt active pirates, though they apparently share a percentage of their income collected from this bounty hunting with the World Government, and possibly act as informants or intermediaries with active pirates. In exchange for these services, the Shichibukai are pardoned for their former actions and any existing boutnies are rescinded.
The Shichibukai are one of the Three Great Powers that help maintain the balance of the Grand Line, though they seem to be a mixture of the more chaotic Yonkou and the more orderly Marines. They do not offer open opposition to the rule of the World Government, but are not guaranteed to follow its orders either. Judging by the those instances where the Shichibukai have interacted with one of the other Powers, they seem to be on closer terms with the Yonkou than the Marines, whom several of the Shichibukai appear to hold in open contempt. This is not surprising as they are former pirates themselves.
The Shichibukai are apparently granted a great deal of autonomy in how they operate from what has been shown to date. Crocodile seems to have been unsupervised for an extremely long period of time and several high-ranking Marines expressed surprise that several of the Shichibukai actually bothered to show up when summoned for a meeting. Presumably the World Government tolerates these actions from the Shichibukai because even a reticient Shichibukai is still better than an active pirate of that strength.
The other known members of the Shichibukai are Donquixote Doflamingo, Bartholomew Kuma, Jimbei, and Gecko Moria. There is one member left that has yet to be introduced, plus Jimbei who hasn't made a physical appearance. Sir Crocodile was initially a member of the Shichibukai, but he was defeated by Monkey D. Luffy at the end of the Alabasta arc, arrested for his crimes, and stripped of his rank. His replacement has not yet been decided, but the captain of the Blackbeard Pirates, Marshall D. Teach, appears to be interested in the position. Sir Crocodile's replacement and the final as-yet unnamed member have not yet been shown in the manga.
All current and former known members of the Shichibukai have animal-themed names.
Because of their deal with the World Government, the Shichibukai are considered "Government Dogs" by other pirates. At the same time, they are also feared by them because all of the Shichibukai are insanely strong. The Shichibukai named to date are:
Current known members
Dracule "Hawk Eye" Mihawk
- Theme: Hawk
- Former Bounty: Unknown
- Seiyū: Takeshi Aono
- Voice Actor (4Kids): Wayne Grayson
Mihawk is regarded as the greatest swordsman in the world. The only time Mihawk appears so far in One Piece is during the Don Krieg Arc where he fights, though Zoro knew he was no match, he still kept fighting, Mihawk realized that Zoro will stop to nothing to make his dream come true, so he gains respect for him, and for that Mihawk decides to finish off Zoro with his Black Sword, but in the end Mihawk lets Zoro live so they can fight once again. Mihawk is very strong and took down 50 of Don Krieg's fleet ships in just mere seconds because he was bored. Zoro hopes to defeat Mihawk to claim the Best Swordsman in the World Title.
Donquixote Doflamingo
- Theme: Flamingo
- Former Bounty: 340 000 000 Belli
- Seiyū: Hideyuki Tanaka
- Voice Actor: ?
Doflamingo (ドンキホーテ・ドフラミンゴ, Donkihōte Dofuramingo) first appeared in chapter 234 in the manga, and in episode 151 in the anime. He has a former bounty of 340 million Belli, the highest known bounty displayed in all of One Piece. Currently it is unknown why his bounty was so high. He seemingly has the power to control people's bodies like puppets (this seems to be dependent on "puppeteer" movement by his fingers).
Bellamy the Hyena used to serve under Doflamingo. Both tend to laugh at people's dreams, in preparation for the "New Era." While he appears to regard those weaker than him who work under him as mere underlings rather than crewmates (which gives him a similar view to Captain Kuro on crewmates), he does still have some pride and a small sense of honor for his old flag and despises the idea of those failing while using it. Such as, when Doflamingo learned of Bellamy's defeat at the hands of the Straw Hat Captain Monkey D. Luffy, Doflamingo came to Jaya and promptly kicked him out of his crew, forcing Sarquiss' hands to possibly even kill Bellamy in the process. It is as of yet unknown whether or not Bellamy was the only captain under Doflamingo's command.
Doflamingo is named after Don Quixote, as well as the flamingo (whose brightly-colored plumage is reflected in Doflamingo's style of dress). Doflamingo seems to have a penchant for the dramatic, as well as a habit of exaggerated posing when giving declarations. He also seems to be the most laid-back of all the Shichibukai, and displays rude bravery, demonstrated when he sits on the table during the gathering of the Shichibukai. Also, the way he walks is rather humorous (a bow-legged waddle). Most of these things resemble habits of Don Quixote. Ironically, his ideals of the pirates of the new era, the pirates who don't dream, are exactly the opposite of the original Don Quixote ideas.
Bartholomew Kuma
(バーソロミュー・くま, Bāsoromyū Kuma) Little is known about Kuma except that his former bounty was 296 million beli, however recently Luffy's bounty has become higher than his at 300 million beli. Like Mihawk and Donquixote Doflamingo, he was present at the government summit of Mariejoa following Sir Crocodile's defeat in Alabasta. Due to his apparently reserved disposition and the fact that he is invariably seen with a large bible, Kuma is likely modeled after Bartholomew "Black Bart" Roberts, a gentleman pirate known for his religious obstinacy. "Kuma" means "bear" in Japanese.
Jimbei
- Theme: Whale Shark
- Former Bounty: Unknown
- Seiyū: ?
- Voice Actor: ?
The Arlong Pirates used to be part of Jimbei's crew, but the two groups separated 8 years before current storyline. While Jimbei remained in the Grand Line, Arlong travelled to the East Blue to conquer it. Although Arlong was referred to as Jimbei's equal, the odds of one of the Shichibukai being equal to a pirate with a bounty of 20,000,000 belli is very unlikely. It is therefore speculated that Arlong was Jimbei's equal before he left or that it refers to rank as based on his growing up with Jimbei on Fishman Island and not on actual strength although it has been stated that if Arlong had not been keeping a low profile his bounty would be much higher. He is speculated to be a Whale Shark fishman, as 甚平鮫 jinbei-zame means "whale shark" in Japanese.
Gecko Moria
Moria is a member who currently resides on the world's biggest pirate ship, Thriller Bark, and is apparently the captain there. He is the one who stole Brook's, and various other beings' shadows.(The loss of a being's shadow causes them to be vaporized if they come in contact with sunlight.) He has slept for 4 days straight,since the last Night Attack. According to Nico Robin, he is a man of many mysteries and his former bounty was even higher than Luffy's 300 million bounty. He is a giant and is assisted by Dr. Hogback, Graveyard Absalom, Perona and an army of zombies.
Former members
Sir Crocodile
- Theme: Crocodile
- Former Bounty: 81 000 000 Belli (But according to Oda, Crocodile's bounty would be at least double that, if reflective of his actual threat level during the Alabasta arc).
- Seiyū: Ryūzaburō Ōtomo
- Voice Actor (4Kids): Michael Alston Baley
-Stripped of his title and arrested for his attempted coup d'état of the Kingdom of Alabasta and involvement with Baroque Works. Currently on his way to serve a life sentence in Impel Down.
Aspirants for post
Sir Crocodile:
Manga/anime influences
The Shichibukai are loosely based on the privateers of old Europe. The privateers were approved pirates, considered heroes in their homeland and pillagers in others. Their main goal was to plunder the villages and towns of the then mighty country of Spain.[1]
The concept is also based on the movie Seven Samurai which is one of Eiichiro Oda's favorite movies.
See also
References
- ^ SBS questions: One Piece Manga - Vol.28 - Chapter 260, Fan question: Are the Shichibukai based on the privateers of old England and France?