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.

Who are the Shichibukai?


The Shichibukai is an organization of seven privateers that are in the service of the World Government. Some of the members do various tasks for the government, such as taking over new islands for the World Government (described as "liberating") and guarding nations, but their ultimate purpose is to keep other pirates in check. Most importantly, the Shichibukai serve to help keep the balance of The Three Great powers.

As the Shichibukai are no longer outlaws, they can make money through legitimate business, as well as bounty hunting. Some, however, are content to simply float around the sea on their ships. The government does not seem to mind, and the Shichibukai are granted a great deal of autonomy in how they operate, at least thus far. Crocodile and Moria seemed to have gone unsupervised for an extremely long period of time, as both created large, malevolent organizations and the government seemed to be completely unaware.The Shichibukai do not care about or respect the Government (excluding Bartholomew Kuma) or even their group.

So far there is one member who is yet to be introduced, as well as Jimbei, who hasn't made a physical appearance.

Becoming a Shichibukai
In order for one to become a Shichibukai, one must be able to show their strength against other pirates while choosing to pledge loyalty to the World Government. Most current members were already notorious pirates with high bounties, but even relative unknowns can be admitted if they accomplish some feat to prove their strength, such as defeating a famous powerful pirate.

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 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In exchange for these services, the Shichibukai are pardoned for their former actions and any existing bounties are rescinded. There is an enormous range in the bounties between the members, with Donquixote Doflamingo, who has the highest known former bounty of the Shichibukai (or any other known person) at 340 million beli, Crocodile with a bounty of 81 million beli, and Blackbeard, with no former bounty at all.

Theorically the Shichibukai are allies of the government, and in war time would fight alongside the Marines. Still, many Marine officers (for exemple Captain Smoker and Fleet Admiral Sengoku) dislike them and think of the Shichibukai just as pirates. Several high-ranking Marines expressed surprise that even two of the Shichibukai actually bothered to show up when summoned for the meeting about Crocodile's removal, and they were shocked when a third arrived. Tellingly, of the two other than Kuma that showed up, Doflamingo came out of sheer boredom (passing the time before the meeting by nearly forcing two marines to kill each other), and Mihawk came only to hear about the Strawhats.

Dismissal
Even if they break the law, the World Government and Marines may choose not to take any notice, as proven with Doflamingo and the human auctioning house. Because of the risk involved with maintaining the three great powers, the Government tolerates the illegal activities of any Shichibukai and attempt to protect them if possible (or at least maintain their fame).

That is not to say they would not dismiss a Shichibukai for such actions. Crocodile is the only known example of such a dismissal from the Shichibukai. Crocodile's actions in Alabasta left the World Government with few options on dealing with him. Moria's later defeat was met with horror by the World Government as they had only just replaced Crocodile's loss. They feared what would happen if another fell. The defeats of both Crocodile and Moria were accompanied by cover-ups, and Moria's defeat would have remained essentially unknown as the survivors of Thriller Bark were killed before word got out. However, as Kuma (the one sent to deal with the problem) left the island alone, it is unknown what effect Moria's defeat has had on the Shichibukai as of yet, or indeed, Moria's status as Shichibukai.

Power
The Shichibukai are seven of the strongest pirates in the world and are one of the 3 great powers, the others being the Yonkou and Marine Headquarters.

In terms of power, the exact relationship between the Shichibukai and Marine Headquarters is unknown, however, considering that these organizations are stated to be a balance and the fact that the loss of Crocodile threatened said balance, the most reasonable conclusion is that each organization is roughly equivalent in strength. At least two of the Shichibukai (Moria and Mihawk) are said to have been rivals of Yonkou members, Kaidou and Shanks respectively.

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, each capable of destroying an average pirate crew on their own with no effort.

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 Jimbei became a Shichibukai 8 years ago. 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 by Blackbeard.

With the exception of the unknow member, all members of the Shichibukai have crossed the way of the Straw Hat Pirates, directly of indirectly.

Most recently, Doflamingo revealed that the Shichibukai have been summoned to fight the Whitebeard Pirates.

Trivia

 * 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.
 * In Yosaku's explanation of chapter 69 (and anime episode 31), there is an early image of the Shichibukai group, showing shadowy figures which all are designed from Mihawk and all are holding swords. With the exception of Mihawk, none of these silhouette match the current members, least of all, Kuma and Moria.