Juracule Mihawk

Juracule "Hawk-Eyes" Mihawk (ジュラキュール・ミホーク, Jurakyūru Mihōku) is a member of the Shichibukai and the greatest swordsman in the world.
 * The subject of this article is sometimes called Juraquille Mihawk and Dracule Mihawk.

Appearance
Mihawk wears ornate clothing of black and red, with a crucifix, giving him the appearance of a Spanish swordsman. He wears a wide-brimmed hat decorated with a large plume, and a long, open black cloak. His large sword is black, and also in the shape of a crucifix.

He is compared to the real-life pirate Bartholomew Roberts, AKA Black Bart, who is famous for his crimson overcoat, wide brimmed hat with a red feather, and a diamond cross attached to a gold chain around his neck.

His nickname comes from his strangely colored eyes, which resemble a hawk's eyes.

Name
Mihawk.

Enemies
In the past Mihawk was also a rival to one of the most powerful pirates in One Piece, Red-Haired Shanks, which also speaks volumes about his power, but ceased their rivalry after losing interest in fighting a one-armed man like him. He still has a neutral relationship with Shanks and seems to know how to track him down if he has business with his old rival. 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.

Having lost one rival in Shanks, he now shares a rivalry with Zoro and is prepared to wait to any lengths and fight Zoro at his strongest form. Mihawk seems to be watching out for Zoro's progression and is delighted when Zoro gains his first bounty.

Mihawk also made himself to be a dangerous enemy of Don Krieg in their attempt to conquer the Grand Line. However, this issue seems to have resolved itself with Krieg's defeat to Luffy. Nevertheless upon sighting Mihawk, Krieg's anger led him to attempt to take him out despite witnessing the event between him and Zoro mere moments beforehand.

Abilities and Powers
Mihawk is the strongest swordsman in the world; a monster superior to monsters, as one character calls him. Because of his status and power, defeating him is Roronoa Zoro's ultimate goal. Mihawk is so strong, in fact, he is accused by some characters, as well as some fans, of having the power of a Devil Fruit; however, in the Databooks, his abilities appear to be simply pure skill and power.

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 across 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 Don Krieg's fleet of 50 ships and 5,000 men by himself just before a storm struck.

Weapons
He wields the Black Sword Kokutou Yoru, the strongest Sword in the world. It's an ornately decorated, man-sized (6 feet) sword shaped like a cross with a shiny black blade, which is curved at the end. It also seems to generate otherworldly purple streaks as it slices, as seen when he cut down Zoro and when he split Don Krieg's ship in half. Yet as well as having the ability to use it to slice up entire fleets of ships, he is graceful with the blade enough to knock bullets and change their course with little effort.

The cross pendant worn on his neck is actually a 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.

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.

History
Eat rice and fruits.

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).

There is currently no explanation as to why "Dracule" exists in the English version. "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. 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. 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").

All of the crosses on Mihawk's person 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 Unlimited Adventure game, these previous edits were continued even though the right had already passed to FUNimation, who had decided not to continue this edit. In the 4Kds version he has a French-Caribbean accent, possibly linked to "Dracule" being a variation on "Dracula", however this is a mismatch against a Transylvanian accent used in popular fiction for vampires.

The bloody slash he gave Zoro was erased to him just ripping his shirt, plus the drinking scene with Shanks was edited out.

Trivia

 * In a recent Japanese Fan Poll, Mihawk ranked as the eighth most popular character, making him the most popular character outside Luffy's crew.
 * On his character poster for Grand Battle! that appears when you unlock him, his name is spelled "Mihark".
 * Ironically, he is the only Shichibukai whose bounty is unknown even though he was the first Shichibukai to appear in the story and the one used to introduce their group in the manga.
 * His name is translatable to "Juracule" or "Jouracule" depending on whether you read the name as "Jules" or "Joule". Jouracule can be linked to "James Prescott Joule". Jules Verne, another link to the other possible translation, was the writer of the classic famous novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea". Jules Vernes' work is the second translated in the world, his novels have been translated into many languages including into Japanese.
 * His name contains 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.
 * He and Jinbei are the only Shichibukai who don't have any confirmed Devil Fruit powers.

Related Articles

 * Shichibukai
 * Shanks
 * Roronoa Zoro

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

Mihawk Dulacre