Seven Warlords of the Sea

The Shichibukai (七武海 Shichibukai, literally Seven Military Seas, The Seven Warlords of the Sea in the English versions) are a set of fictional characters in the anime and manga series One Piece.

About the Shichibukai


The Shichibukai are seven of the strongest pirates in the world and are one of the 3 great powers, the other being the Yonkou and Marines. 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 it's said that they share a percentage of their income collected from this bounty hunting with the World Government.

The Shichibukai are apparently granted a great deal of autonomy in how they operate from what has been shown to date.

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.

History
To date, the group is currently at least ten years old, as Gecko Moria had been a Shichibukai for at least 10 years prior to current storyline and Jinbei became a Shichibukai 8 years ago.

In order to someone becomes a Shichibukai, he must be able to show their strength against other pirates while choosing to pledge loyalty to the World Government. For example, defeating a famous powerfull pirate.

Because of the risk involved with maintaining the three great powers, the Government tolerates many illegal activities of the Shichibukais and attempt to protect them (or at least mantain their fame). The Shichibukais doesn't care or respect the Government (excluding Bartholomew Kuma) or even their group. Several high-ranking Marines expressed surprise that several of the Shichibukai actually bothered to show up when summoned for the meeting in Mariejois about Crocodile defeating.

About their power compared to the Yonkou and Marines, at least two of them (Moria and Mihawk) are said to have been rivals of Yonkou members, Kaidou and Shanks respectively. Also they doesn't seem to fear the Marines, notable that Sengoku and the Shichibukais in Mariejois were freely ofending each other, but the Government believed that Aokiji should be able to stop Crocodile.

So far there is one member left that is 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. He has been replaced with Blackbeard.

Duties of the Shichibukai
The Shichibukai 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.

They are only allowed to attack other pirates or barbarian civilizations and must also pay the Government a tenth of their loot. Each member of the Shichibukai must also have strong intimidation skills and a fearsome representation to put off others becoming a pirate and make them fear them.

In exchange for these services, the Shichibukai are pardoned for their former actions and any existing bounties are rescinded.

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.

The concept is also based on the movie The Seven Samurai which is one of Eiichiro Oda's favorite movies.