Shyarly

Madam Shyarly is a shortfin mako shark mermaid living on Fish-Man Island. She is the proprietor of the Mermaid Cafe and Arlong's younger half-sister. She used to be a fortune teller until she decided to discard her crystal ball.

Appearance
Madam Shyarly is a large mermaid with purple nail polish, red lipstick, and blue eyes with slanted pupils that resemble shark eyes. When angry, her eyes take on an ominous appearance and she shows sharp teeth. She has short black hair that covers over the right side of her face. Her tail is dark blue with a dorsal fin on her lower back where her human and fish halves meet, a white patch below the dorsal fin, smaller fins on the lower front and back, and a lunate caudal fin. Uniquely, the dorsal of her fish attribute is the front of her tail, with the usual ventral attribute facing the back.

She wears a hooded purple blouse that is only buttoned in the middle, revealing her cleavage and stomach and has a belly-chain around her waist. She is often seen smoking a pipe.

As a child, she wore a light-colored hooded dress with a stripe down the side. However, the anime showed that her dress is the same color as her current outfit.

Personality


Madam Shyarly is a very kind woman, as she lent the Straw Hat Pirates a room in which they could take care of Sanji, even though said crew defeated her brother. She also gave Camie the rest of the day off so that she could spend time with her friends. She apparently does not like rudeness or vulgarity as she became very angry when Luffy asked if mermaids poop. However, her anger seems to be short-lived, as she calmed down and returned to her normal self almost instantly after Luffy apologized.

Even though she is a fortune teller, Madam Shyarly regards her gift as a burden, since most of her visions are of bad things. As a consequence, she thinks that the future is better left unknown. However, even though she said that she quit fortune telling, she was still curious enough to look into Luffy's future. When she had a vision of a man in a straw hat who will be responsible for the destruction of Fish-Man Island, she went into a state of panic screaming that Luffy should be banished from Fish-Man Island, which showed how terrified she was. However, this changed when the New Fish-Man Pirates started taking over the island and Shyarly calmly told their captain, Hody Jones, that Monkey D. Luffy will be the one to destroy Fish-Man Island and not Hody himself, showing that she is willing to believe her own fortune telling over any other apparent predicaments. After the civil war ended, she destroyed her crystal ball, claiming that she will never look into the future again and that she would be very happy if her last prediction did not become true.

Unlike her brother, Arlong, Shyarly is not prejudiced against all humans as she even encouraged the Fish-Man Island children to see with their own eyes instead of just listening to the opinions of others.

Abilities and Powers
As the proprietor of the Mermaid Cafe, she has complete control of the restaurant.

Being a mermaid, she has several abilities unique to her race. It is not yet shown but she may have the ability to talk to fish and call out to them using sonar waves, which is one of basic ability found in all mermaids. Apart from the ability to breathe underwater, as a mermaid she also has the ability to swim very quickly at speeds much faster than the flying fish used by the Flying Fish Riders. However, like any mermaid, she is vulnerable on land.

Scrying


As a fortune teller, she has the ability to see the future. She uses a crystal ball as a medium to look into the future and see events that are yet to come. The one limitation to her power is that she cannot predict the exact time period when her predictions will happen, but only that they will happen. Since it was seen on a giant clam, it is unknown if it is an actual crystal ball or a giant pearl used as one. By breaking her own crystal ball, Shyarly has given up on her scrying abilities.

She is very accurate in her predictions; according to the people of Fish-Man Island, her predictions have never been known to be wrong. She predicted the dawning of the Great Age of Pirates, as well as the outcome of the Summit War of Marineford and Whitebeard's death.

She more recently made a prediction that a man in a straw hat, whom she presumes to be Luffy, will destroy Fish-Man Island. However, Luffy left Fish-Man Island without destroying it so that prediction has not come to pass. But since events that Shyarly foresaw can happen anytime from a day to a year later, there is still a possibility that Shyarly's prediction is not wrong yet.

Past


In her younger years, Shyarly was abandoned by her father and left with a 15-year-old Arlong in the Fish-Man District. At the age of three, she predicted that the Mermaid Princess would be born and told Gol D. Roger that she would be born in ten years. At the age of four, she made a prediction about the coming of the Great Age of Pirates and many pirates indeed came to Fish-Man Island one year later.

At some point, she listened to Hatchan's story about Silvers Rayleigh. Before the Whitebeard War, Shyarly predicted Whitebeard's death and he indeed met his end.

Fish-Man Island Arc


Shyarly allowed the Straw Hat Pirates to use the back room of her Mermaid Cafe for the treating of Sanji's blood loss. Camie advised Shyarly not to go back and check on Sanji, as her beauty could be harmful to him, and to not let him know they are in the back of the Mermaid Cafe for the same reason. When Monkey D. Luffy and Usopp found her crystal ball, Shyarly told them not to touch it. She went on to say that she had quit fortune telling, as the future was best left unknown. When Luffy asked if mermaids pooped, Shyarly became furious at him, but was immediately quelled when Luffy apologized at the urging of Camie. Shyarly then suggested that Camie take the rest of the day off and show her friends around the island. After Camie remembered she had to bring a clam to Pappag, Shyarly told her that he was in the café, making quite a ruckus with an old friend of his.

After the pirates left, Shyarly felt an urge to check her crystal ball and foresaw a person in a straw hat destroying Fish-Man Island. She then went out into the streets of Coral Hill and shouted for everyone to find Luffy and force him off the island. The three princes of the Neptune Family soon came to visit her. Having calmed down, Shyarly told Prince Fukaboshi about her prediction.



After the New Fish-Man Pirates defeated and captured the three princes and placed them beside King Neptune in Gyoncorde Plaza, Shyarly interrupted Hody Jones as all of his subordinates assembled in the plaza. She calmly and boldly told him that he will not be the one destroying Fish-Man Island, and the one to destroy the island would be Luffy, implying to Hody that all of his efforts would be pointless. Out of anger, Hody struck her with a water shot and knocked her to the ground. He then exclaimed that he was not like her brother, Arlong. He proclaimed that the name Arlong Pirates was nothing more than an empty symbol to unite under and that the New Fish-Man Pirates had obtained power. Shyarly was assisted by a nearby mermaid.

Later, while being helped by a doctor, she was approached by some children who asked her when Luffy was supposed to destroy the island. She told them that she did not know since she cannot tell exact dates from her predictions and told them it could be anytime between a day or a year from then. Much to everyone's surprise, the Straw Hat Pirates arrived, saved Neptune and the princes, and started fighting the New Fish-Man Pirates. She watched as Luffy and Hody took the battle outside Fish-Man Island.



While Luffy attempted to stop Noah from falling down upon Fish-Man Island, the rest of the New Fish-Man Pirates and the Straw Hats continued fighting, with Hody's crew attempting to martyr themselves in the name of spreading their grudge. Shyarly convinced a group of children to judge based upon only what they see (forming their own opinions), rather than what they hear, upon the nature of humans.

After the Straw Hats defeated all the leaders of the New Fish-Man Pirates, Shyarly and the other citizens looked up into the sky as Luffy tried to destroy Noah. When the Sea Kings appeared and stopped Noah from falling, saving the ship and the island at the same time, everyone on Fish-Man Island celebrated.

When the mermaids working at the Mermaid Cafe informed Shyarly that the Straw Hats were leaving the island, She told them to bid the Straw Hats farewell, and the mermaids happily obliged. Now that her usual customers would return, Shyarly asked her employees to do their best. Camie then noticed Shyarly's broken crystal ball. Shyarly revealed to Camie that she did not want to predict the future again and that she would be happy if her prediction about Luffy would be wrong. She then asked for forgiveness from Camie for suspecting her friends and asked if she could trust them, which Camie affirmed.

Anime and Manga Differences
While the manga shows the silhouette of a man in a straw hat in Shyarly's vision of the future concerning Fish-Man Island's destruction, it does not show Luffy's image. This led some fans to speculate that Luffy might not be the one who actually would destroy the island. In the anime, the clear image of Luffy is seen in her vision.

Translation and Dub Issues


Madam Shyarly's name was first thought to be spelled Shirley, as that is the typical romanization of シャーリー (Shārī). However, in Chapter 610, the romanization Shyarly can be partially seen on her house in the background, but this was initially not noticed. The name is shown in full in Episode 529. Despite this, her name was spelled Shirley in the Vivre Card databook.

In the VIZ manga and Funimation subs, her name is translated as Sharley.

Errors and Corrections
Shyarly was originally depicted as a young woman during the flashback of Hody's childhood, which suggested that she was older than him. However, Hody and Shyarly's present ages are 30 and 29 respectively. This was retconned in Volume 65's release of the chapter, where she was depicted as a prepubescent girl in the flashback.

Playable Appearances

 * One Piece Treasure Cruise

Support Appearances

 * One Piece: Great Pirate Colosseum

Non-Playable Appearances

 * One Piece: Gigant Battle! 2 New World

Trivia

 * Her name may be a pun on her being a shark mermaid, as "Shyarly" (シャーリー) begins with the same syllable as "shark" (シャーク). The official English translations use the spelling "Sharley" which makes this more apparent.
 * As noted, the events of the Fish-Man Island Arc draw many elements from "The Little Mermaid", Shyarly can be considered a parallel with the sea witch in the storyline, whose magic had been responsible for the events within the storyline just as it is Shyarly's prediction that is responsible for elements of the events of the arc. In some cultures, fortune telling is seen as a part of witchcraft and black magic.
 * Shyarly's prophetic ability also has a precedent in Japanese folklore. The Amabie is a mermaid who could prophesize both good and bad fortune, though it seems that she thinks that she is capable of foretelling only bad events.
 * While "madam" is a polite way to address a woman in English meaning "Ms." or "Mrs.", it also can refer to the female owner of a brothel. While Mermaid Cafe is never declared a brothel nor her female staff members ever called "prostitutes", the cafe mimics certain aspects of the brothel style; set up within, young and attractive women bring men to the establishment for their charm and beauty like a hostess club. It can also be noted that in English, Madam(e) is a common title of the stereotypical fortune teller.
 * Her birthday is on September 9, which is known as "Fortune-telling Day" in Japan (占いの日 Uranai no Hi). Coincidentally, she shares the same birthday as Basil Hawkins, who is also capable of fortune telling.
 * Though Shyarly once stated that she couldn't predict when an event would happen, only that it would, in Chapter 967, she accurately predicted when the Mermaid Princess would be born.
 * Her favorite food is black tea with rose jam.

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