Hancock Boa

Hancock Boa is a character from the One Piece anime and manga.

Hancock is the captain of the Kuja Pirates and the only female member of the Shichibukai. She is the current empress, known as the "Snake Princess", of Amazon Lily and rules over the Kuja tribe with her two younger Gorgon sisters, Boa Sandersonia and Boa Marigold.

She was first mentioned by the Risky Brothers at the end of the Thriller Bark Arc when comparing her legendary beauty to the beauty of mermaids.

Appearance
Hancock is considered by many people as the most beautiful woman in the world. She has a well proportioned figure compared to her abnormal and huge sisters. She is very tall and slender with long black hair that extends past her waist with locks of hair that frame her face down to her chin and shows off her high forehead, dark brown (dark blue in the pre-time skip then changed to black after the time-skip) eyes with long, voluminous eyelashes and pale skin. Like most of the females in the series, she has a narrow waist and very large breasts.

Her three measurements are (according to Sanji and series creator Eiichiro Oda in supplemental material): B111-W61-H91 (B 43.7" - W 24.02" - H 35.83"), making her breasts a J-cup in Japan and they appear to be much larger than Nami’s or Robin's breasts.

Her attire changes frequently. When first introduced, she wore a revealing red blouse that showed much of her chest and a loose sarong that exposed her long, slender legs with the green symbol of the Kuja adorned on it, along with a white cape sporting epaulettes more commonly found on the jackets of high-ranking Marines, and red high heel pumps. She then wore a qipao with a hooded cloak which she used it to cover Luffy until they arrived at Impel Down and then took it off during the battle against Whitebeard.

During the Whitebeard War, she wore a purple dress with Kuja designs on it and purple high heel pumps. Upon her return to Amazon Lily, she reverted to her original outfit (with the exception of her cape). In all her outfits, she has worn a pair of golden earrings that resemble snakes and high-heeled shoes; her attire is also adorned with the emblem of the Kuja, with an exception of when Hancock fell ill due to her Love Sickness, during which she wore a red blouse. After the timeskip, her attire looks the same as when she was first introduced, except it is colored blue (although it remains red in the anime).

Her extraordinary beauty is noted by many throughout the world: one of the Risky Brothers, her beauty is in second place of the mermaids, while others like Marguerite and Hannyabal claim she is the most beautiful woman in the world. She is also almost always seen with Salome, her large Snake Weapon, which is usually seen smiling despite wearing a skull.

Even though Hancock normally looks either calmly beautiful or cute (in an attempt to "apologize" for her actions), she can look very intimidating and angered with her eyes bulging madly and her teeth bared, as seen when Smoker nearly killed Luffy.

Before Hancock fell in love with Luffy and when she is not around Luffy, her eyes tend to look emotionless, but when she is around Luffy, her eyes show much more emotion, making her look like a girl in love.

Along with her sisters, on her back is the slave mark of the Celestial Dragon, something that she was so intent on keeping secret and was willing to petrify anyone (other than her sisters and Elder Nyon) who saw it. In order to make sure it was never seen, she and her sisters concocted a lie that what was really on the sisters' backs were pairs of Gorgon eyes which would petrify anyone who sets eyes on them. Hancock uses this "curse" as an excuse for her and her sisters' Devil Fruit abilities.

As a young child, she looked similar to how she does now, but the difference is that only her side-locks went past her shoulders and were worn in beads. During her escape from Mary Geoise, she wore rags and tied her hair in pigtails.

In SBS Volume 63, Oda drew the Shichibukai as children. Hancock is shown wearing a small laced top with exotic swirl patterns leaving her mid-riff exposed. Her only other piece of clothing is a small loin cloth around her hips.

Personality
Hancock is a very complex woman. At first glance, she appears to be selfish, pompous, spoiled, and used to having her own way. She can also act arrogant and cruel, usually justifying her less-than-admirable actions with her apparently unmatched beauty, causing her to think that she can get away with anything because the world will forgive her (and save for the handful able to resist she is largely successful in this approach, with gleeful suitors of both genders happily forgiving her every transgression). She also made it seem that she did not think much of the Kuja tribe either as she commented to Elder Nyon that she did not care if the island was destroyed or not, since everyone would forgive her anyway because she is beautiful.

Because of her beauty and strength, she is used to seeing men and women, young and old alike, fall instantly in love with her. As a result, people forgive her when she acts cutely apologetic or reminds them of her beauty. However, when Luffy came along and displayed a complete immunity to her charms, she initially felt that she could not bear the existence of someone completely invulnerable to her powers, and would collapse dramatically whenever insulted.

This feeling has eroded away, though, as she loves Luffy despite his immunity to her. Even after the two year timeskip, Hancock continues to be in love with Luffy as much as before despite that the latter openly rejected a wedding proposal from her.

It was revealed the reason for Hancock's lies and attitude towards life was that because of her horrible past, she did not want to ever show weakness again to anyone. She harbored a great fear of getting close to anyone, other than her own sisters, and would even go as far to deceive all of the other Kuja. This caused her surrogate mother, Elder Nyon, to fear that Hancock had truly turned as cold as ice. It wasn't until Hancock confessed everything to Luffy that she finally showed emotion, breaking down in tears after reliving her painful memories.

Deep down, Hancock is a rather-sensitive and vulnerable woman who is afraid and concerned about how other people (especially the other Kuja) might react to the truth of the shameful past that she and her sisters share. She is also much more soft and compassionate towards others when she opens up. That part of her was only first shown for the first time in several years in front of Monkey D. Luffy and she has not only befriended but more importantly fallen deeply in love with Luffy, even agreeing to venture to the land of her suffering, from her days of a slave, at his request for his brother.

Hancock has also shown to be very sly and crafty when the situation demands it. This was particularly evident when she aided Monkey D. Luffy into discreetly breaking through Impel Down's outer defenses, as well as manipulating the great prison warden, Magellan, to her whims before relaying a secret message to Luffy's brother Ace, whom Luffy was trying to rescue. She has also proven to be a very skilled liar who is excellent at fabricating stories, and her confidence leads her to never consider the consequences of her actions. An example of this is when she takes advantage of her beauty in Impel Down floor 6 to drive the prisoners mad, making them disrespect Magellan and causing enough trouble to speak to Ace freely without anyone noticing. Despite this, Hancock can be somewhat ignorant as she frequently mistakes many of Luffy's actions as romantic.

All of her arrogance seems to vanish when Luffy is on her mind, though. Whenever he is in her presence, she is quick to turn shy, barely able to meet him in the eye and gleaming over every action he takes. Even when he is not nearby, merely thinking of him causes her to blush and truly smile in a way that the other Kuja have said is unusual of her.

Despite the conceit she shows to her enemies and the facade she puts on for her people, she does show genuine care for people close to her. This was seen when she flew into a fit of rage and kicked Smoker away from Luffy after he had tried to kill him. Ignoring the possible consequences of her actions, she openly and publicly declared Luffy to be her beloved, effectively choosing her love over her title (and her people's treaty). During her fury, she showed none of her usual calm arrogance. This is seen again, to a lesser extent, when she screams at Aokiji for stabbing Luffy with an Ice Saber. Her anger is enough to make even Jinbe to cower in fear, albeit slightly and in a comedic manner.

Due to her suffering as a slave and how the first man she ever saw painfully burned her back with her slave mark, Hancock is very discriminating and judgmental towards men. She refused to listen to Luffy's story about how he was sent to her island or give him any mercy even after Margarette pleaded on his behalf. When she gave him the option to leave the island or help unpetrify Marguerite and her friends, Hancock believed he would act selfish to save himself and was speechless when he showed his selfless nature. After falling in love with Luffy, Hancock seems to have lessened her judgmental nature towards men as she allowed Law and his crew to dock at the edge of her island and chose to lift her country's law to some extent and permitted Jinbe to wander on the island without watch.

Because of the horrors she endured from the World Nobles, Hancock became a very bitter and cold woman, caring nothing for others (except her sisters) and usually maintains a tough and aloof demeanor. She maintain this attitude due to her belief she should be strong for her people and out of fear of being taking advantage of again. After falling in love with Luffy, she's become a lot more sympathetic and kinder. She now smiles more often and has started to treat her fellow Kuja's with much more kindness and respect and has even decided to do work with them such as helping them make food for Luffy rather than just order them around as usual.

While referring herself, Hancock uses "warawa" - an antiquated pronoun that signifies nobility—instead of the more common "watashi".

In spite of her arrogant behavior, Hancock has several running gags. The first is that when she looks down on people, she leans backwards so she faces the ceiling (or the sky) above her, apparently looking down on people so much she's looking up.

Another is that she appears to dislike small animals, in which she angrily asks who left the animal in front of where she's walking before kicking it away, no matter how cute it is. A Kuja responsibly apologizes, while the offended animal snarls at her, and Hancock advises her to be more careful in the future.

She also tends to lose her temper whenever someone tries to keep her from spending time with Luffy, such as when she glared angrily at Jinbe for trying to eat some of the food she made for Luffy and when Rayleigh forbid her from seeing Luffy during his training, which prompted her to angrily pinch his nose.

Lastly, she often thinks about Luffy and mistakenly thinks that they are married or engaged and despite (or perhaps because of) repeatedly being told that they are not, Hancock is now very intent on becoming Luffy’s wife.

Abilities
Hancock is widely considered to be extremely powerful by friend and foe alike. Ruling beside her sisters, Hancock has power over Amazon Lily and the rest of the Kuja tribe. As the empress and captain of the tribe, Hancock is the strongest Kuja warrior. The Kuja believe that "strength is beauty", and since all members of the tribe state that she is the most beautiful in the world, they believe she is immensely powerful, and the strongest among the entire tribe. It is to be noted that only the strongest Kuja warriors are allowed in the country's pirate crew, Hancock and her sisters were strong enough to be there when they were small children, although it is possible they were just apprentices like Shanks and Buggy.

Her strength is so great that it has even been acknowledged by the Fleet Admiral of the time, Sengoku of the Marines. Gloriosa believed that there was little chance for Boa Hancock to die in the Marineford War because of her great strength. Even former Admiral Kuzan commented on her skills, stating she is not to be underestimated. Further testament to her strength is how she was one of the three Shichibukai who managed to leave the war without sustaining any injuries. The fact that she can earn a 80,000,000 bounty after her first campaign as a pirate further supports her capabilities.

This is shown when she had managed to take down several Pacifistas single handedly without much effort, where it took the whole Straw Hat crew (before their two-year training) to take down just one, which left them greatly worn out.

Physical Abilities
Noted as the the strongest warrior of the infamous Kuja Tribe, Hancock has immense physical strength. She could perform extraordinarily powerful kicks of super-human strength that can easily break stone (in the form of petrified opponents) as well as take down numerous powerful Marine officers and New World pirates with incredible ease, and she could knock away Smoker, an extremely strong and powerful Marine, with a single Haki enhanced kick. Her strength is supplemented with tremendous speed and agility, able to land an extremely fast barrage of powerful kicks on numerous Marines and New World pirates at once.

She has tremendous skills in hand-to-hand combat, supplemented with her Devil Fruit abilities. She could easily take down numerous powerful and skilled Marine officers as well as powerful pirates from the New World. Similar to Sanji's fighting style, Hancock's fighting style seems to personally emphasis on powerful and versatile kicks, whether from kicking in-the-way cute animals or her enemies. Her kicks supplemented with her Devil Fruit powers allow Hancock to destroy several Pacifistas at once single-handedly.

Deception and Trickery
Hancock is extremely skilled in the arts of subterfuge and deception, managing to disguise Luffy inside her coat without eliciting much suspicion across an entire boat voyage and inside Impel Down, as well as being the sister to propose spreading the tale of the "Gorgon curse" to prevent her subordinates from discovering the humiliating brand of enslavement on their backs over a period of decades. Hancock is also highly intelligent, sly, and crafty when the situation demands it, being able to buy Luffy time, using her charms, after overhearing Magellan's plan to halt his infiltration and managed to manipulate events on Level Six of Impel Down by creating a commotion between the residing prisoners and a "protective" Magellan to speak to Portgas D. Ace in private and not attract any attention, as well as stealing the key to Ace's handcuffs for Luffy prior to his arrival, knowing it would be useful. Hancock is also a master seductress, she could use her beauty and charm to get whatever she wants. With only Luffy as an exception, both men and women have been shown to be susceptible to her charms which therefore allows her to manipulate people as she desires. Her claim that she's able to get away with anything because she is beautiful has so far been shown to be true, with her antagonistic actions during the Marineford war seemingly unnoticed despite her openly attacking Marines and declaring her love for Luffy. In Impel Down, she used her charms to convince Magellan to take her down to Level 6 in order to buy Luffy more time, and at Level 6, she used her charms once more to cause a ruckus in order to pass a message to Ace.

Culinary Expertise
Prior to the timeskip, Hancock was bad at cooking, but became skilled in cooking meat which is Luffy's favorite dish over the course of two years.

Marksmanship
Hancock is also adept in long-range combat and is capable of using her Devil Fruit powers to strike her enemies from a long distance. She has shown great accuracy in using Pistol Kiss in which she accurately shot Luffy who jumped from the Kuja Palace from a very far distance. With the Slave Arrow, she shot down multiple New World Pirates at once, petrifying them in the process.

Devil Fruit

 * Main Article: Mero Mero no Mi

Hancock was force fed the Mero Mero no Mi, a Paramecia-class Devil Fruit, by the World Nobles who enslaved her, as a form of sick entertainment.

Those who are seduced by Hancock are susceptible to a range of techniques used by the Devil Fruit which turn people into stone, from short to long-range attacks. Anyone with "dirty thoughts" will be turned into stone as long as they do not have a means to block it out either emotionally like with fear or pain, or simply out of ignorance. Hancock can also turn anything to stone with physical contact as shown when she kicks down large numbers of Marine officers and New World Pirates during the Marineford War petrifying parts of their bodies in the process. Hancock can use her petrification abilities for devastating offense as shown when she petrified the incredibly tough metal alloy of the Pacifistas into stone, making them much more vulnerable to damage and breaking, allowing Hancock to easily destroy all the Pacifistas, a feat which is extremely difficult when relying solely on pure brute force. Other than that, she has the same standard weaknesses as all Devil Fruit users.

As part of the secret to keep the shame on her back secret, Hancock made the Kuja tribe believe that the power to turn people to stone was a curse given to her by killing a Gorgon monster.

Haki

 * Main Article: Haki

Hancock is one of the very small number of people who can use all three types of Haki.

Haoshoku Haki
Hancock possesses Haoshoku Haki, which she can use to knock out a weak-willed people with a massive burst. Her exact level of mastery has yet to be demonstrated.

Busoshoku Haki
Hancock is highly skilled in Busoshoku Haki which she can combined with her kicks to bypass a Logia's intangible defenses as she kicked away Smoker, a physically powerful Marine with sufficient force to release his stranglehold on Luffy, whom Smoker pinned to the ground.

Kenbunshoku Haki
Hancock possesses the ability to use Kenbunshoku Haki.

Weapon

 * Main Article: Salome

She carries with her an extra large white snake with red marks on its body named Salome, that wears a skull with blue hair jutting out of the back and a constant smile. However, aside from using it as a throne as well as to elevate herself above the battle, changing itself into a spiral shape while doing so, she has yet to use it in actual combat.

It has the ability to track and sense things on the ocean floor, which was shown when it was able to sense Whitebeard's earthquake before it arrived and when it helped Hancock follow Trafalgar Law's submarine.

Trivia

 * Given that all members of the Kuja tribe are named after flowers, it is possible that her first name comes from the scientific name for the snowberry, a plant known for its showy flowers, symphoricarpos chenaultii hancock. Her family name, Boa, comes from the boa, a group of constricting snakes.
 * She shares her name with Thomas Hancock, the manufacturing engineer who founded the British rubber industry. This similarity relates to her relationship with Luffy, who has the power of rubber.
 * In Chapter 97, Nami can be seen dressing on clothes, one of which is identical to Hancock's prototype design.
 * She is the only Shichibukai to not be voted in the 4th Japanese Fan Poll. This is due to her character not being introduced at the time.
 * In the 5th Japanese Fan Polls, Hancock ranked as the tenth most popular character in One Piece making her the second most popular Shichibukai (aside from Trafalgar D. Water Law), the second most popular female character (Nami being the first), and the fifth most popular "non-Straw Hat" character in the series. She is also the only character on that poll's top 10 list who had made no major appearance in a recent arc.
 * In the 6th Japanese Fan Polls, Hancock ranked as the tenth most popular character again in One Piece making her the second most popular female character (Nami being the first) and the most popular of the Shichibukai and the fifth most popular "non-Straw Hat" character of the series. She again is the only character to maintain in the top 10 list while having no major appearance in a recent arc.
 * Hancock is the first female character in the series capable of using all three forms of Haki.
 * Her character has several references to Greek mythology:
 * Her tribe, the Kuja, being a nation of all-female warriors, is heavily based on the Amazons. And her relationship with Luffy starting off with malice but later turning into friendship and later love (on Hancock's half) which is a reversal of the Amazonian queen Hippolyta's relationships with Heraclesand (in some versions) Theseus, both of which started off friendly but ended rather adversely.
 * Similarities to Medusa include the ability to turn people into stone (although the methods are very different), the general snake theme, and most obviously, both are one of three Gorgon sisters (though Medusa was the youngest, as opposed to Hancock who is the eldest). In some versions of the myth, she was turned into a monster against her will by Athena; similar to how Hancock was forcefully fed her Devil Fruit by the tenryubito.
 * She is also very similar to Calypso; they both have an island inhabited by only women, they are irresistible to most men, and they are quite shocked that their respective hero (Luffy and Odysseus) can resist their charm and ask for a boat to leave (although Odysseus did take part in lovemaking with Calypso for quite a long while before his departure). The situation involving Luffy being the first one to ever really resist Hancock's charms caused the latter to fall in love with him also mirrors how Odysseus' resistance to Circe's charms eventually caused her to fall hopelessly in love with him too.
 * She is also similar to Penthesilea. They are both empresses of amazon warriors, they were slaves when they were young, and they later escaped with their two sisters. Penthesilea was also a talented archer, which may be a reference to Hancock's usage of her Devil Fruit powers.
 * Her ability to seduce men is similar to the sirens, who would seduce and lure sailors to a watery doom; only Sirens used their voice rather than their physical beauty.
 * Her favorite food is hot pot.
 * Her blood type is S.


 * Hancock's birthday, September 2, comes from her native tribe's name since 9-2 can be derived from ku-ja.