Juracule Mihawk


 * The subject of this article is sometimes called "Juraquille Mihawk" or "Dracule Mihawk".

Juracule "Hawk-Eyes" Mihawk is a member of the Shichibukai and the current holder of the title, "Greatest Swordsman in the World". He also served as Roronoa Zoro's master of swordsplay for at least 2 years

Appearance
Mihawk is a tall and lean man with a short beard and sideburns pointing upwards. He wears ornate clothing of black and red, with a crucifix pendant, which hides a little dagger, giving him the appearance of a Spanish swordsman. His attire consists of a wide-brimmed black hat decorated with a large plume, and a long, open black coat, with red, flower-patterned sleeves and collar. His large sword, which he keeps on his back at times when not in use, has a curved black blade, and is also in the shape of a crucifix, with a golden handguard decorated by red beads (which are blue and green in the anime), and an hilt wrapped in bandages, with a particularly big bead at his extremity. In addition, he wears white (purple in the anime) pants held up by a decorated belt and tucked inside overly large boots in comparison to his leg size. During his stay in Kuraigana Island's castle, he sports different pants and an open white shirt with a ruffled neck. When he met up with Zoro outside, he had a plain dark cloak draped over his shoulders. His nickname comes from his strangely colored yellow eyes, which resemble a hawk's eyes.

24 years ago, during Gol D. Roger's execution, Mihawk didn't have his beard, nor did he wear his hat, and his hair was scruffier and shorter. He already had his crucifix pendant, and sported what looked like a flower-patterned jacket. He also did not seem to be in possession of the Kokutou Yoru at the time being.

Personality
Mihawk is possibly one of the most serious characters in One Piece; very little seems to surprise him, and he rarely smiles. He takes the revelation about Luffy being Dragon's son in stride, despite the surprise of those around him. Though he is the "swordsman above all the world's swordsmen", Mihawk remains grounded. Though he has obviously become jaded regarding the abilities of other swordsmen, he's able to recognize talent. In fact, he has a desire to see Roronoa Zoro surpass him after having witnessed Zoro's incredible determination and will after their battle. He displays a sense of honor which other Shichibukai seem to lack, with the exception of Bartholomew Kuma (before his final modification into PX-0) and Jinbei.

Mihawk is selective when it comes to fulfilling his "duties" as a Shichibukai, as evidenced by his history of poor attendance at Shichibukai summons, as well as his decision to hunt and harass some pirates over others. Zeff speculated that the reason Mihawk attacked Don Krieg and his men might have simply been because they disturbed his nap. Mihawk admitted that the only reason he followed them all the way back to East Blue from the Grand Line was to kill time.

Mihawk also shows some curiosity for the people he decides to attack. He attempted to strike Whitebeard just to see how strong he is and he attacked Luffy just to see if fate is on Luffy's side or not.

He also appears to have a sense of hospitality, having tolerated (somewhat) Perona and Zoro's presence upon his return to Kurogaina Island right after the Whitebeard War; he even went as far as relayed to Zoro the events that occurred concerning his Captain, Monkey D. Luffy, as well as offered a boat to help the Straw Hat swordsman leave the island.

Like many characters in One Piece, Mihawk has his own unique laughter though in his case he has two: "whahahaha" and "kukukuku." This is rarely shown, though, as he rarely laughs.

Enemies
In the past, Mihawk was a rival to one of the most powerful pirates in One Piece, Shanks. However, Mihawk lost interest in him after he lost his arm. He retains a neutral relationship with Shanks, and is able to track him down if the need arises. He and Shanks do manage to get along, regardless of the fact that the two are opposites in personalities. Shanks is also able to get Mihawk to join in when he threw a party to celebrate Luffy's coming, even when moments beforehand Mihawk had scorned how laid-back Shanks was. Mihawk even mused out an apology to Shanks during the battle at Marineford, where he declares that he won't be holding anything against Luffy right before going after him. When Shanks showed up during the Whitebeard War, Mihawk left the battle, stating that fighting Shanks was beyond the scope of the World Government's agreement.

Having lost one rival in Shanks, he now shares a rivalry with Zoro, and is prepared to wait as long as it takes for Zoro to become strong enough to beat him. To this end, Mihawk watches Roronoa's progression and is delighted when Zoro gains his first bounty. Even though they are enemies, Mihawk is willing to train Zoro because he is laying down his pride for the sake of someone else.

Mihawk also made an enemy of Don Krieg, destroying Krieg's entire fleet when he attempted to conquer the Grand Line. Mihawk, for his part, does not even consider Krieg a threat. Upon sighting Mihawk, Krieg's anger led him to attack Mihawk, despite having witnessed Zoro's defeat and his own ship having been sliced apart. Mihawk did not even bother to retaliate, instead merely slashing Krieg's ship again and departing during the distraction.

Abilities and Powers


Juracule Mihawk is considered to be the strongest swordsman in the world; a monster superior to monsters, as one character calls him. Mihawk is known to have frequently duelled with Shanks when they were younger. Because of his status, defeating him is Roronoa Zoro's ultimate goal. In fact, Mihawk's strength is so great that Don Krieg accuses him of having the power of a Devil Fruit; however, in the Databooks, his abilities appear to be simply pure skill and power. Mihawk also seems to have Super-Human Strength, as he was able to stop Zoro, a formidable swordsman with great mastery and enormous strength even to launch entire buildings and destroy them with powerful slashes, with only a dagger, and handling it with just one hand.

Befitting his epithet, Hawk Eyes, he has exceptional eye sight, able to easily track Luffy's Gear Second high speed movements, and strike with extreme precision, releasing a long-range slash at him whilst there was a chaotic battlefront of New World veterans and Marine Officers between them.

Mihawk travels around in a coffin-shaped raft with two green-flamed candles, a single black sail, and a single seat. The fact that he can traverse the unforgiving oceans, as well as the Grand Line itself, in such a meager craft is yet another testament to his abilities. His first demonstration of power was defeating all but one of Don Krieg's fleet of 50 ships and 5,000 men by himself just before a storm struck. Also the fact that Mihawk used to be a rival of Shanks, one of the Yonkou, implies that Mihawk might be one of the strongest characters in the series.

When he speaks to Roronoa Zoro, he states he will wait for Zoro no matter how long it takes and notes that he will continue to be the world's greatest swordsman, showing great confidence in his own skills and abilities.

Another testament of his great power is the fact that at the end Battle of Marineford, he remained unharmed despite clashes with even Crocodile, where the most powerful warriors of Marines, Shichibukai and Whitebeard Pirates battle each other.

Weapons
He wields the Black Sword Kokutou Yoru, the strongest Sword in the world.

It's an ornately decorated, man-sized (about 7 feet) sword shaped like a crucifix with a shiny black blade, which is curved at the end. He has the ability to expand his slashes to large distances as seen when he split Don Krieg's ship in half or when he split in half a giant iceberg in Marineford; and it also seems to generate otherworldly purple (later blue-green) streaks as it slices, as seen when he cut down Zoro. He is also able to cut through steel with ease and rapidity, as Zoro demonstrated with the steel-bodied Mr. 1.

Yet as well as having the ability to use it to slice up entire fleets of ships or giant mass of ice just by swinging his blade, making a powerful, long-range slice. He is graceful with the blade enough to knock bullets and change their course with little effort and at great speed.

He's able to attack enemies with powerful slashes made of a huge stream of energy or compressed air (it's unknown yet) like they were giant projectiles, like Zoro's Pound Hou techniques or the different variations of Rokushiki's Rankyaku (in fact, in the anime, they all have a light green colorscheme). He has also a smaller variation of this attack where he slices the opponent with a spiral-like stream (very similar to Zoro's Sanjuuroku Pound Hou) of energy or compressed air with great speed (to even strike a Luffy in Gear Second mode while he's moving).

The cross pendant worn on his neck is actually a very small dagger. Though it appears to have no value, in the hands of Mihawk, it was able to defeat Zoro with the slightest bit of pressure, and was able to stab close to his heart.

History
Much of Mihawk's past remains a mystery. However, he once saw a strong rival in Shanks. Their battles were said to shake the whole of the Grand Line and Mihawk often sought Shanks out for duels. After Shanks lost his arm ten years ago, Mihawk ceased seeking him out for duels. At some point Mihawk earned the title of "World's Greatest Swordsman" as well as joined the ranks of the Shichibukai. He was among those present at Gol D. Roger's execution. He also made the castle of Kuraigana Island his home.

Confrontation at the Baratie
Mihawk had been responsible for single-handedly destroying Don Krieg's entire fleet, excluding Krieg's flagship, during his failed attempt at entering and conquering the Grand Line. The destruction of Krieg's fleet drove the pirate from the Grand Line. He then followed Don Krieg to East Blue, to the Baratie and destroyed their flagship as well.



While at the Baratie, he encountered the Straw Hat Pirates, and Zoro immediately challenged him. Mihawk was able to block all three of Zoro's swords with the tip of his necklace blade, finally stabbing him in the chest with it. Mihawk was so surprised by Zoro's spirit, however, that he granted him a face-off against the Black Sword. Zoro then performed his strongest technique, Sanzen Sekai, but Mihawk completely overpowered it and shattered two of Zoro's three swords in the process (all but the Wadō Ichimonji).

Zoro, admitting his total defeat, allowed himself to be cut down by Mihawk face-to-face, like a true swordsman. Mihawk accepted this offer and cleaved open a massive diagonal cut across Zoro's entire chest, but held back just enough to allow Zoro to live. Luffy had already struck out at the Shichibukai unsuccessfully when Zoro tearfully called out to him, proclaiming that no matter what, he would never lose again. Afterwards, Mihawk told Zoro his full name, and gave him a challenge.

It's still too early for you to die. My name is Juracule Mihawk! Discover your true self, the true world, become stronger! However long it may take, I shall await you at the top. Surpass this sword! Surpass me! Roronoa Zoro!!!

After hearing Zoro's goals and giving him a challenge, Mihawk asked Luffy what his goal was. When Luffy told Mihawk it was to be Pirate King, Mihawk told him that was even harder than surpassing him.

With the events against Zoro over, Mihawk decided it's time he headed back to the Grand Line for a nap. Don Krieg took offense to the Shichibukai's attitude towards his men and launched an attack on him. Mihawk simply called out "You fool!" and in one final strike struck at Krieg's ship again, causing the already wrecked ship to fall further into pieces. When the dust cleared Mihawk was nowhere to be seen.

Shanks and Mariejois
Soon afterwards, Mihawk is seen visiting Shanks to bring news of Luffy's coming. Then later on he takes part in a meeting with the Marines and two of his fellow Shichibukai, Donquixote Doflamingo and Bartholomew Kuma.

Whitebeard War


He answered the call to the Shichibukai to battle Whitebeard and join the war, and is later shown dining with the other Shichibukai, except for Jinbei and Boa Hancock.

He is next seen at Marineford, alongside Bartholomew Kuma, Donquixote Doflamingo, Gecko Moria and Boa Hancock, ready for the battle ahead.

When Aokiji froze the two tsunamis that Whitebeard caused, Mihawk was one of the first to attack, wishing to measure his strength against Whitebeard. His attack, the "world's strongest slash", was stopped by Jozu; Mihawk's attack had not damaged him at all and it is unknown as whether or not Mihawk has an attack which could cut through diamond yet.

He shows slight amusement upon Luffy's arrival at Marineford, remarking that the Straw Hat pirate never failed to make things interesting. When Sengoku reveals the fact that Dragon is Luffy's father, he only comments that such a revelation isn't really surprising. When Luffy manages to break through the line, Mihawk goes to meet him head on. He addresses an apology to Shanks, saying he won't hold back and wonders if fate will save Luffy from his black sword.



His fight with Luffy mostly consisted of various long-range sword-slash attacks, the first of which attacked Luffy from long range and damaged him, and one which was strong enough to cut off the head of one of the frozen tsunami and send it crashing down upon the battlefield. For a brief moment of time Mihawk consistently launched slashes to Luffy, who managed to execute mostly-successful dodging. However, Luffy could not attack, was losing distance, and was having great trouble even simply dodging. Luffy grabbed Buggy and used him as a shield against Mihawk's attacks. Buggy launched a Muggy Ball at Mihawk, who proceeded to deflect it back at Buggy. As Buggy took the hit, Luffy dashed past Mihawk. However, the Shichibukai still had his sights on Luffy. Marco ordered Vista to take over the battle. As Luffy made his way to the execution platform once again, Mihawk concluded that Luffy's strange ability to make allies out of anyone, is the most dangerous ability in the world.



After the army of Pacifista appeared, Mihawk commented to Vista that it was time to finish their battle while the latter stated they both had a point in their favor.

After Whitebeard got stabbed, Mihawk was the only one to ignore the event and didn't even gaze at him. He is later seen fighting in the Oriz Plaza after the pirates managed to get through the siege wall.

When Luffy and Ivankov try again to reach Ace, Mihawk again arrives to stop them, but he's stopped by Mr. 1, of whose name he is aware. Daz Bones isn't a match for him and is easily defeated, but Crocodile intervenes and engages in combat with Mihawk, telling him to watch out because he's in a bad mood. He is later seen standing alongside Gecko Moria, seeing Whitebeard's dead — but still standing — body. After that he is seen leaving the battle with the arrival of Shanks, stating that he agreed to help in the war against Whitebeard, but fighting against Shanks was not part of the agreement.

Post-War Arc


After the battle, Mihawk shows up in the castle on Kuraigana Island. After reading about Moria's presumed demise, Perona starts to cry. Mihawk, without any sympathy, tells Perona to go cry elsewhere. Perona then scolds Mihawk for his inhospitality. Mihawk responds by saying that Perona intruded into his house while he was gone. He also says that despite the newspaper's assertions about Moria having died during the battle, he was alive during the whole big confrontation between the Whitebeard Pirates and the Marines. However, Mihawk cannot give Perona a definitive answer on whether or not Moria is indeed alive and questions the validity of the newspaper. Mihawk is unaware of the fact that Doflamingo was ordered to kill Moria.

He's later seen in the ruins near the castle, watching Zoro's fight against the armed baboons roaming the island. He comments on how Zoro is still far away from the sea even though he was away from the castle for a long time. When Mihawk sees that the boat he provided to Zoro gets damaged, he comments that the boat is now useless, but Zoro brushes off that comment saying that he can just use part of the boat to help him swim to his destination. Mihawk then explains to Zoro the reasons behind the baboons' fighting style, and then asks him to return to the castle and leave the following morning, but Zoro refuses, saying that he needs to reach Luffy. Mihawk gives up, and let's him do as he pleases.

Zoro later comes back and asks Mihawk to train him. Mihawk tells Zoro to go, believing such an idea to be foolish and assuming Zoro is simply incapable of defeating the baboons. However, Zoro has already defeated the baboons, and wants Mihawk to train him so that he may one day defeat Mihawk himself. In a rare moment of emotion, Mihawk laughs uncontrollably at the absurdity of him training the man who would one day duel him for the title of the strongest swordsman, but notices Zoro is putting his pride aside all for the sake of his captain. Mihawk gives in and tells Perona to heal Zoro so they can begin training.

Major Battles

 * Juracule Mihawk vs. Shanks (numerous times, unseen)
 * Juracule Mihawk vs. Don Krieg's Pirate Armada
 * Juracule Mihawk vs. Roronoa Zoro


 * Shichibukai and the Marines vs. Whitebeard Pirates and their allies
 * Juracule Mihawk vs. Jozu
 * Juracule Mihawk vs. Monkey D. Luffy
 * Juracule Mihawk vs. Buggy
 * Juracule Mihawk vs. Vista
 * Juracule Mihawk vs. Mr. 1
 * Juracule Mihawk vs. Crocodile

Translation and Dub Issues


There is some dispute as to Mihawk's name. His name has never been spelled in English by Eiichiro Oda, and many fans argue that his name is "Dracule" or "Juraquille". Viz, 4Kids, and FUNimation chose to use "Dracule" for his name.

However neither translate back into Japanese correctly and the closet match is "Juracule" or "Jouracule". His name seems to be formed from the middle part of "Dracula" (ドラキュラ) and the name "Jules" or "Joule" (ジュール).

"Dracul" is also seen in the Italian version, a translation that has been noted for being highly praised for its correctness of names. It can be speculated that it is because of Dracula's name being partly in Mihawk's family name and partly because his Japanese Voice Actor does not pronounce the "u". "U" is often silent in Japanese and Japanese Voice Actors will often not speak the "u" in words even when required to do so. There is currently no explanation as to why "Dracule" exists in the English version although a theory by fans is that it is because of the noted simulairity to the name "Dracula" in the first place and a generally acceptance amongst fans is that it is what Oda is aiming for. However, for the name to be "Dracule" correctly the beginning in Japanese would be "ド" instead of "ジュ". On note is that "ジュ" can also be read as "Du" as well as "Ju" which can give the variation "Duracule" and because of interchangeable "l" sound also "Duracure", "Joucurare" and "Jucurares" can exist are possible variation names. Other arguments include that the name "Dracule" is stern from a Latin text to Japanese error on Oda's part (also seen with Rob Lucci and the word "Luce"), or that it is intending to be an unusual translation in the first place.

On merchandise, it had been reported that "Dracule" exists; however, there are many problems with relying on merchandise as there has been many mistakes made in the past when a mangaka does not supply a name for a character (such as with Chew and Mr. 2 Bon Kurei being referred to as "Chu" and "Bon Clay" until Oda provided the corrected names). "Juraquille", the other popular fan name, does not transfer back into Japanese well. Its romanizaion in itself is "Jurakuyrure", which is a mismatch against the romanization of Mihawk's name ("Jurakyūru"). Fans can avoid the argument over his name altogether by using just "Mihawk" and miss out his surname completely as without confirmation from Oda, it is considered the most neutral take on his name. To this end, with the question on Mihawk's Latin name open for debate, he is subject to many variable degrees of false etymology.

All of the crosses on Mihawk are edited out in the 4Kids English dub, changing his necklace to an "I," and shortening the "arms" of his sword. This is mainly due to their religious references. In One Piece Grand Battle!, amongst the unlockable art content are unedited artworks from the anime showing pictures of Mihawk without these edits. In the FUNimation dub, his sword and necklace remain unedited. However, in the English version of the game Unlimited Adventure, these previous edits were continued even though the right had already passed to FUNimation, who had decided not to continue this edit. In the 4Kids version, he has a French-Caribbean accent, possibly linked to "Dracule" being a variation on "Dracula", though this is a mismatch against a Transylvanian accent used in popular fiction for vampires.

In the 4Kids dub, the bloody slash he gave Zoro was erased to him just ripping his shirt, plus the drinking scene with Shanks was edited out, too.

Trivia

 * In the 4th Japanese Fan Poll, Mihawk ranked as the 12th most popular character, making him the most popular of the Shichibukai.
 * On his character poster for Grand Battle! that appears when you unlock him, his name is spelled "Mihark".
 * Regardless of the name debate mentioned here on this page, his name is noted to contain part of Count Dracula's name. Along with his name combined with his macabre coffin-boat, his inhuman eyes and his extreme power, it seems that he may have a connection to vampires or have been inspired by them. All of the symbols on Mihawk such as his crosses and coffin-like boat are all representative of the iconic vampire of popular media and culture in some form. Furthermore, in Bram Stoker's original novel, Dracula was described as having facial features like a hawk. On another similarity, both men lived alone in castles located in hard to reach places.
 * He is the only known official swordsman of the Shichibukai.
 * As of yet, he is the only Shichibukai who´s previous bounty has not been revealed.

Related Articles

 * Shichibukai
 * Shanks
 * Roronoa Zoro
 * Yonkou

Links

 * Hawk - Wikipedia article about the animal reference in Mihawk's name
 * Vampire - Wikipedia article about the supernatural being Mihawk relates to
 * Vampire - Monstropedia article about the supernatural being Mihawk relates to
 * Dracula - Wikipedia article about the fictional vampire tied to Mihawk

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