Shirahoshi

Princess Shirahoshi (しらほし姫), also known as the Mermaid Princess (人魚姫), is a giant smelt-whiting mermaid and the youngest of King Neptune's children. She was first mentioned by Pappug, claiming he knew her and even promised to introduce the Straw Hat Pirates to her when they arrived on Fishman Island (though later this is revealed to be a lie).

Appearance
Shirahoshi is a giant-sized mermaid, approximately the size of her pet Megalo, but still smaller than her father, and is described as "cute but huge" in her introduction; this makes her roughly eight to ten times the size of Luffy, an average human, excluding the length of her tail; she can hold and hide Luffy in one hand alone. According to Caribou's estimation, he put her about seven to eight times the size of a human-sized mermaid. Even as a baby, she was larger than her mother and brothers.

She has very long, flowing strawberry-blonde hair with a fish-shaped hairgrip. Her breasts are large, even relative to her giant-like size, and much of her upper body is exposed. Her broadly striped tail ends in a ruffle around her waist.

She wears a yellow, cleavage revealing halter top covered in pearls with a strap that widens and sticks out on the back of her neck. She also wears clam earrings and belly chains with a cloth hanging down in front. She has a very long light red and pink striped tail.

As a four year old, she wore a polka dot crop top with straps that floated behind her head and her tail alone was larger than her mother. As a six year old, she wore a light colored crop top with floating straps.

Personality
When she is first introduced, she proclaims she is not afraid of a potential attacker (which is what she believes Luffy is) but despite her size, she was rather easily frightened. She seems to have a very fragile personality, quickly breaking out into crying fits whenever she gets upset such as time when Megalo disappears, when Luffy bounces on her breasts during their first meeting, and when Luffy says that he doesn't like her for being a crybaby. She easily gets very emotional especially in cases when she gets yelled at. Her tendency to cry prompts Luffy to call her names. In fact, Shirahoshi easily tears up whenever she expresses her emotions such as joy, fear, or sadness.

Nevertheless, she is thankful since she willingly hides Luffy from the guards after he saves her from being struck by an axe thrown by Vander Decken IX and also thanks him for rescuing Megalo. She is very polite and addresses everyone with "-sama". She is also very considerate of her family and kingdom, saying that leaving Hard-Shell Tower even if she wants to would be a selfish thing for her to do.

Because of her ten years of solitude, she has very limited knowledge of the world outside her tower so she is rather curious about it as she asks Luffy about the sun, the animals, and forests, even asking him how he can eat so much for being so small. She is somewhat spoiled, as she claimed that nobody ever yelled at her before, and cried at the fact that Luffy would be the first to do so. She also does not seem to know about Devil Fruits as she called the powers of Vander Decken IX as a curse, although Decken also refer his power as such to other people. Much like the citizens of Kuja, she takes Luffy to be the norm for human males. Also due to being locked up she has a very low stimulation level, and often becomes overly stimulated due to the events during her time with Luffy, causing her to become emotionally worked up.

She refused Vander Decken's advances for ten years because "he wasn't her type"; whether this means his personality or physical appearance is not yet known. Alternatively, this could be her polite way of rejecting Decken.

She seems to be naive, believing a balloon dummy to be her father and only realizing that it wasn't when she looked at it closer right before being captured (although it was part of their plan to be captured intentionally). Even though she knew Hody was behind her mother's death when Megalo confided her, she did not tell anyone because she wants to honor her mother's last wish of not holding any hatred against the killer, but this ends up being a big mistake since this allows Hody to execute his plans.

However, regardless of her fragile personality (which Luffy makes fun of), she is sweet and innocent like a child which is evident when she promised to return to the castle by dinner time after leaving her tower. Even though not telling everyone about Hody was a mistake, this shows that Shirahoshi has a strong and gentle spirit since not hating her mother's killer (even though it's her mother's last wish) would be impossible for most people. When Decken nearly destroys Fishman Island with Noah, Shirahoshi shows her bravery for the first time, putting the lives of her people ahead of her own.

Family
She has a pet shark named Megalo, whom she loves very much. Megalo is the only friend she can talk to while being locked up in Hard-Shell Tower. When her beloved shark went missing, Shirahoshi got deeply upset and cried continuously.



Her father, King Neptune, and her brothers, Fukaboshi, Ryuboshi, and Manboshi, all care for her well-being. They gathered an army to hunt down Vander Decken IX, a criminal who kept pestering Shirahoshi with love letters and threatening marriage proposals. King Neptune considers Shirahoshi as his treasure.

Shirahoshi also greatly missed her deceased mother, Otohime, wanting to visit her grave since it was built. Her love for her mother was so great, the princess went through great turmoil to honor her mother's final wish by not hating Hody for killing Otohime.

Her family apparently had been too easy on her since Shirahoshi never had been yelled at until she met Luffy.

Monkey D. Luffy
At first, Shirahoshi thought that Luffy was an assassin aiming for her life and feared him. However, when he blocked a flying axe that was aimed at her and figured out that he was the one who saved Megalo, she warmed up to him. She even hid him from the guards when they were searching for Luffy after he and his crew were wrongly accused of kidnapping mermaids and after Madame Shirley's claim of envisioning Luffy destroying Fishman Island. Luffy, on the other hand, thought of Shirahoshi as a big crybaby who talks too much and yelled at her for it, which made her cry. Shirahoshi tearfully stated that Luffy is the first person to yell at her. However, Shirahoshi was able to leave the tower for the first time in ten years when Luffy offered to protect her, and the two seem to be getting along well after leaving the castle. Regardless of Luffy's tendency of calling her names such as weakling, crybaby, or scaredy-cat, he stands between her and Vander Decken IX.

Luffy's treatment of Shirahoshi is similar to how Ace treated Luffy during their childhood, and how Luffy treated Coby when they first met: harsh and blunt, but shows some kind of care, and then friendly. She trusts in Luffy's abilities, acting very care-free out in the open while he is around. After learning how Shirahoshi was able to honor her mother's last wish for so many years, Luffy acknowledged that Shirahoshi is not as weak as he had originally thought.

Vander Decken IX
Shirahoshi is terrified of Vander Decken IX for sending her threatening marriage proposals. Decken is completely obsessed with the Mermaid Princess and will do anything to get her. His obsession has mounted to the point where he plans on killing her if she refuses him, in order to ensure that nobody else could have her except him. Ultimately, she rejects Decken because he wasn't her type. Now rejected, Decken is Hell-bent on killing her.

Hody Jones
Because of Shirahoshi's ability to summon Sea Kings, Hody Jones considers her as a threat to his plans. Hody also states that the mermaid princess is one of the people he wants to eliminate the most. On the contrary, despite knowing that Hody was the one who killed her mother, Shirahoshi did not bear a grudge against him, nor report his crime to anyone, due to the princess following her mother's final wish of not hating the person who committed the murder.

Abilities and Powers
As the Mermaid Princess and King Neptune's daughter, Shirahoshi has some level of authority over the kingdom her family rules, probably on the same level as her three brothers, though this is somewhat off-set by the fact that she is exiled inside a heavily locked chamber due to Decken's dangerous abilities. It was stated by the Minister of the Right that her sudden disappearance from the Ryugu Palace could potentially trigger a nation-wide crisis.



Being a giant-sized mermaid, Shirahoshi is able to easily lift a normal-sized person with one hand, as she had done with Luffy and Nami. When she cried, her eyes released tear-drops so large that Luffy had to dodge them. Like all mermaids, she is one of the fastest swimmers in the ocean.

While merfolk can summon and communicate with normal fish and marine life via sonar waves, Shirahoshi has the uncanny ability to call sea kings via the same method, which according to Vander Decken IX, was the ability of a legendary mermaid princess. By screaming, she emits sonar waves that summon the sea kings to her. She has displayed this ability so far only once as a child. Despite having the ability, Shirahoshi was only somewhat aware that she might have the ability, as she had stated that she has never even talked to a sea king before. If she receives a huge shock, she might subconsciously send sea kings on a giant rampage. Otohime described this as the most fearsome ability in the world, and that it can change the whole world in great ways. However, in the wrong hands, Shirahoshi's powers can sink the entire world into the ocean. She was unaware of her ability when she was a child, but she does become aware of it at least now after Jinbe explained the history of Fishman Island.

Past
Sixteen years ago, Shirahoshi was merely a baby. But despite this, she was larger than her mother and older brothers. While her mother was away preaching to her people, her brothers would look after her at the palace.

When Shirahoshi was four years old, she was seen comforting her exhausted mother and attending her classes when Otohime was teaching about the surface world.

When Shirahoshi was six years old, an uproar had occurred when a World Noble arrived to the island in a wrecked ship. Otohime quickly dashed off to where the ship was docked. The four children of the royal family soon followed her to the scene. When Shirahoshi saw her mother being threatened by the noble she was protecting, she cried and unknowingly called forth Sea Kings, stunning all those present. When Otohime decided to accompany the noble to the surface, Shirahoshi and her brothers looked worried. For one week, she waited in the palace while Neptune tried to cheer her up.

Otohime returned safe and sound and she held a piece of paper that could make a difference. Shirahoshi and her family were overjoyed that Otohime finally succeeded in getting people's signatures. But that excitement was short-lived.



One day in the Gyoncorde Plaza, the box containing all of her signatures caught fire. While the soldiers tried to save the signatures, Otohime was shot. Admist the chaos, Vander Decken IX marked her with his Mato Mato no Mi powers. Shirahoshi, who was stunned seeing her mother get shot, did not noticed his presence. She was about to scream, but Ryuboshi and Manboshi managed to calm her down by dancing and singing in spite of their grief, thus preventing her from summoning Sea Kings subconsciously. As their mother passed away, Shirahoshi and her brothers touched pinky fingers with her for the last time.

Vander Decken IX, who set his sights on marrying Shirahoshi after witnessing her power, started sending letters to her. Before Otohime's funeral, the four children of the royal family told their father, Neptune, about the love letters that kept flying to Shirahoshi. Neptune told Shirahoshi and her brothers to not to go out to the funeral since danger still lurked around. During Otohime's funeral, Shirahoshi and her brothers were seen on a visual broadcast as Fukaboshi gave his speech.

Decken kept sending letters to Shirahoshi once a week. Soon, those letters grew into packages. When he started sending threatening marriage proposals, she became so terrified of him that she couldn't ignore him anymore. Shirahoshi was locked in Hard-Shell Tower for ten years for her safety. For ten years, she wanted to visit the grave of her mother and had many things that she wanted to say to her.

Meeting Luffy and Leaving Her Tower
Her pet shark, Megalo, had been missing for some time, having been captured and held in the Kraken's tentacles. Shirahoshi continued to cry until the shark returned to her, having been freed by Luffy after he defeated the Kraken.

When the Straw Hat Pirates were taken to the Ryugu Palace, Monkey D. Luffy wandered off on his own in pursuit of food that smelled good to him. Eventually, he stumbled upon her room, where Princess Shirahoshi was sleeping.



Luffy was unknowingly walking across her stomach, fell between her breasts, and bounced on them, thinking they were coral due to the coarse material in her top. When she woke up, she became greatly distressed, thinking that Luffy was an assassin targeting her life. She says she is not scared since she is the daughter of Neptune, but she starts crying to no end while calling for help.

As she continues crying, an axe thrown by Vander Decken IX comes flying into her room aiming for the princess. Luffy deflects the axe, saving Shirahoshi's life. When the guards come to Shirahoshi's room, the princess hides Luffy from them. She tells the guards that the noise they heard coming from her room was her having a bad dream. The Minister of the Right explains the situation with the Straw Hats.

Once the guards leave, Shirahoshi speaks with Luffy. Shirahoshi explains that she has been staying in Hard-Shell Tower for ten years because Vander Decken IX possesses some kind of "curse" which enables him to hit his targets from anywhere. While Luffy is eating, Shirahoshi asks him many questions about the outside world and wonders how Luffy can eat so much while poking him in the cheek. Luffy snaps back and Shirahoshi starts to cry saying that no one had ever yelled at her before. Luffy points out that Shirahoshi is a big crybaby causing her to cry even more. Luffy then offers to take a walk with her outside the castle with him being the bodyguard.



Luffy asks Shirahoshi about where she wants to go. The princess says that she wants to go to the Sea Forest. When she starts crying again, Luffy starts to refer to her as "weakling". Knowing that Shirahoshi's size will draw attention, Luffy comes up with a plan. As Brook and the Minister of the Right arrive at her room, Megalo bursts through the doors with Shirahoshi hiding in his mouth.

As Shirahoshi, Luffy, and Megalo are leaving, the Mermaid Princess, while thinking to herself, apologizes for leaving without permission and promises that she will be back by dinner. Once they leave the palace, she then tells Luffy how exciting it feels to be outside again, saying it was an adventure. Shirahoshi then tells Luffy that in the Sea Forest, there is a grave that she wants to visit. Shirahoshi and Luffy are then seen laughing together.

While hovering above Coral Hill, Luffy sees Chopper, Sanji, and a bandaged Hatchan. Once Luffy jumps down to meet them, he is met with accusations from the Fishman Island citizens for mermaid kidnappings. Megalo has finally reached his limit and spits out Shirahoshi. The Fishman Island citizens instantly interpret this as a Mermaid Princess kidnapping.

When Luffy asks her why she got out of Megalo's mouth, she apologizes, asking him not to get mad at her. She tries to tell the citizens of Coral Hill that Luffy was only helping her, but they tied him up anyway, along with Sanji, Hatchan, and Chopper. She looks frightened when Vander Decken IX showed up. When Decken proposed to her, she rejects him, saying that he was not her type. Enraged, Decken prepares to kill her, and she begins to run away, but Luffy tells her if she runs away, then he won't be able to protect her.

When Decken attacks Shirahoshi, Luffy intercepts his attack while still tied up. She then watches Luffy's fight with Decken which ends with Luffy smashing Decken into the ground. After the fight, Luffy tells her to get ready to go, calling her a scaredy cat. Shirahoshi asks him not to yell at her right now, as she is all worked up from the excitement. She then unties Luffy. When the locals ask why she is freeing him, she apologizes to them and promises to be home for dinner. Shirahoshi, Luffy, and his three other friends hop on Megalo and head for the Sea Forest.

The group eventually reaches the Sea Forest, much to Shirahoshi's delight. They soon meet Franky, Den, and Jinbe. Luffy introduces the Mermaid Princess to Franky and Jinbe is surprised to see Shirahoshi out of Hard-Shell Tower.

After Luffy deflects an axe thrown by Decken, Shirahoshi sits by Queen Otohime's grave and pays her respects. Nami and Keimi arrives bearing terrible news and Shirahoshi cries when she hears that her father has been captured.

Jinbe tells Shirahoshi not to worry, saying that he will save her father from the clutches of the New Fishman Pirates. Shirahoshi then listens to Jinbe as he explains to the group the back stories of Queen Otohime and Fisher Tiger.

When he finishes his account, Shirahoshi begins to talk with Nami and Chopper, brushing back her tears. She explains that she tends to cry whenever she thinks about her mother. She mentions that she feels strangely comfortable around Nami, who notes that it may be because they have similar backgrounds (both having lost a mother and were tormented by a fishman).

When Hatchan starts revealing Hody's plan, a visual Den Den Mushi appears and the group watches a visual broadcast by Hody Jones himself. After Hody explains his plan of creating the new Ryugu Kingdom, which includes executing King Neptune, Shirahoshi is about to go back with Megalo, but Jinbe stops her. Hatchan also tells the princess not to go since Hody is using her father as a hostage to safeguard against her ability to summon Sea Kings. After Luffy resolves to fight Hody, Shirahoshi then watches Luffy and Jinbe trying to settle their dispute on how to deal with Hody.

The New Fishman Pirates' Coup d'État
Shirahoshi is later seen riding on Megalo with Jinbe, heading to Gyoncorde Plaza to save the king. They then see what barely appears to be Neptune, floating in the air. As they approach it, it becomes evident it is nothing more than a dummy set as a trap, and the three of them got ensnared in a large net. Jinbe, Shirahoshi, and Megalo are then tied up in chains and taken to the plaza. Shirahoshi tearfully apologises to Jinbe for making him fall into such a trap. Hody then reveals to everyone that he was the one who truly killed Otohime. As he is gloating about murdering her right in Shirahoshi's face, the princess, by no means surprised, says that she knew all along.



She knew the truth behind her mother's death because Megalo witnessed the murder at the time, and relayed the information to her. However, she concealed the dark secret from everyone because she knew that it would engender more hatred towards Hody, and more importantly she wanted to honor her mother's last wish.

Hody laughs at her calling her actions stupidity. Hody then gloats that because Shirahoshi kept the truth to herself, her father, her brothers, and the citizens of Fishman Island are in danger of facing death. When he prepares to kill Neptune, Shirahoshi cries out to Luffy and he jumps out of Megalo's mouth and kicks Hody a great distance away. When the rest of the Straw Hats appear and line up, Shirahoshi is seen standing behind them.

Nami then gives Shirahoshi the World Noble's letter. Luffy comments that Shirahoshi isn't as weak as he thought. Jinbe tells Shirahoshi that he will help protect her ideals. The princess tearfully thanks everyone for their help. She is then amazed when Luffy defeats half of Hody's forces with Haki.

Hody and his crew then try to kill Shirahoshi, but their attempts have been thwarted by Jinbe and the Straw Hats. She was then left in the hands of Surume, who changed sides due to Luffy being a friend, but Hody blackmails Surume about his brother and starts squeezing Shirahoshi. Luffy then steps in by saying he is going to protect Surume's brother and Surume stops squeezing.

Vander Decken IX later arrives to Fishman Island while riding on Noah with the intention of crashing the ship into the island. Before the massive ship breaks the bubble surrounding Fishman Island, Shirahoshi leaves the plaza and appears in front of Noah. Shirahoshi offers her own life in exchange for the safety of her people. Vander Decken IX responds by throwing a knife into her shoulder.

Despite the wound, she flees to the sea to get Noah away from Fishman Island. Since the main entrance is too far away, she goes through the gateway to Ryuuguu Palace where she takes the straight path into the ocean. Noah follows her without destroying the bubble. Out in the sea, Vander Decken IX once again demands her to marry him. Shirahoshi refuses and Decken throws knives at her. Ryuboshi and Manboshi blocks the knives in the nick of time. The two brothers then try to lead Shirahoshi to safety.

Anime and Manga Influences
Shirahoshi's character has several references to fairy tales:
 * Some stories have kings with multiple sons and a single daughter. The only sister is usually the one who protects/saves her brothers, such as in "Ancilotto, King of Provino" and "The Wild Swans". "Childe Rowland" is one of the few exceptions where at least one of the brothers saves the sister.
 * In "The Frog Prince", a spoiled princess was disgusted by a frog but reluctantly befriends him after he retrieves her golden ball for her. Shirahoshi was initially afraid of Luffy but quickly befriends him when he saves her, she then learns that he was the one who rescued her pet shark.
 * "The Maiden in the Tower" is type 310 of the Aarne–Thompson system for classifying folk tales. One of the the most famous is "Rapunzel". King Neptune locked his daughter away to protect her; why a maiden is locked up varies, but it is usually for selfish reasons from her caregiver (such as jealousy).
 * Neptune protecting Shirahoshi from an unwanted suitor is a reversal of most type 510B stories, "The Unnatural Father/Love", where the father either wants to marry his own daughter or marry her off to someone she doesn't want to be with. In "The Bear", the king was overprotective of his daughter and locked her up (not necessarily in a tower) to keep her from any harm (and by extension, any suitors at all).
 * "The Little Mermaid" grew curious about the surface world after each of her six older sisters told her what the world above was like. Shirahoshi is also the youngest of her siblings (except she only has three brothers) and is curious about the world beyond her tower, finally leaving the tower after meeting Luffy who had traveled to many places. Also, Shirahoshi being tormented by an unrequited love is similar to the original version by Hans Christian Andersen, except Shirahoshi is the receiver while the story's mermaid is the giver (to a prince who later marries another woman).
 * In most fairy tales (especially type 510A "The Persecuted Heroine" and 510B), the death of a parent figure, often of the same gender as the protagonist, brings about unpleasant situations for the hero/heroine. Queen Otohime's death and Shirahoshi's imprisonment (due to her deadly stalker) happening at about the same time frame (ten years ago) recalls this trend. Some stories such as Andersen's "Little Mermaid" have one parent absent to begin with without explanation. In an English dub of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid (also a Toei production) the Sea King tells his daughters that their mother was killed in an "accident".
 * The fact that Vander Decken IX wants to kill Shirahoshi (rather violently) because she won't do what he wants, regardless of how enamored he claims to be with her, is similar to "Bluebeard" and its variants. Bluebeard's wife was rescued by her brothers, just as Shirahoshi's brothers raised an army to protect her. A husband or suitor who wants to kill his bride is made more monstrous than a regular murderer because he breaks the taboos associated with these roles, thus creating a very effective antagonist.

Trivia

 * When Shirahoshi told Luffy her name, he said it was hard to pronounce. This is probably because of the Japanese linguistic convention rendaku, a vocal phenomenon that tends to morph the pronunciation of certain words when they are used in compound words. For instance, "hoshi" is usually changed to a "B" (boshi), which is what happened with the names of Shirahoshi's brothers.


 * Her name can be translated as "white star" and may come from Shiro-gisu (シロギス), the Japanese whiting.


 * The largest species of smelt-whiting is the King George whiting, growing to a length of 72 cm and 4.8 kg in weight. Overall the smelt-whitings are a relatively small fish averaging about 20 cm in length and 100g in weight; in contrast to Shirahoshi's size, which is on par with giants.


 * Shirahoshi is the second character introduced that Luffy has befriended to whom he has openly stated he "doesn't like" for being easily scared and cowardly, the first being Coby in the second chapter. Coincidentally, both happened at the beginning of their respective "halves" of the story. The first time happened shortly after Luffy began his journey and the second shortly after he resumed it.

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