Jimbei

Jimbei (ジンベエ, Jinbē), alias First Son of the Sea (海侠のジンベエ, Kaikyō no Jinbē) is a whale shark mermen, the second captain of the Sun Pirates after Fisher Tiger, and a former Warlord, who attained the title eleven years ago.

His name was first mentioned by Yosaku, when he was explaining about the Seven Warlords of the Sea. However, he is formally introduced much later, during the Impel Down Arc. He renounced his Warlord title at the Battle of Marineford, allying himself with the Whitebeard Pirates. During the war, he befriended Monkey D. Luffy, and later allied with him and his crew to prevent the New Merman Pirates' coup d'état against the Neptune Royal Family and the Ryugu Kingdom. He was even invited to join the Straw Hat Pirates, but declined due to having unfinished business of still being affiliated with Big Mam; however, he promised that once he was ready, he would return to Luffy again and ask to join his crew.

Jimbei's first bounty is 76,000,000 berries. Eventually, his bounty raised to 250,000,000 berries. After the timeskip, his bounty has been raised over 400,000,000 berries.

Appearance
Voice Actor: Not Known (English), Katsuhisa Hōki (Japanese)

Jimbei is a large (301 cm. (9'8") in height) blue whale shark mermen with a face that is commonly associated with various Japanese demons such as the Oni. His yellow eyebrows and grey sideburns are distinctly shaped like those found on such demons, in addition to a bulb-like nose and an angular lower lip pointing upwards. He has a lightning-shaped scar can be seen from his left side burn and reaching over his left eye which he obtained sometime between Otohime's assassination and meeting Ace. He also possesses two tusk-like conical lower fangs associated with Oni as well; the rest of his teeth from the upper and lower rows are pretty much the same, albeit much smaller. He also has a severe underbite, which makes room for his huge fangs.

He has long, two-toned black hair, with two long stripes, colored grey, coming from the roots over his forehead and trailing down the back, a topknot, and tuft of black hair on his chin with a slight green hue. This topknot did not exist during his time as a member of the Sun Pirates, instead his shorter and flowing black hair trails off half way to a light color concentrated at the back of his head. He kept his chin clean-shaven before joining the Sun Pirates, after which it gradually grew out over time. His hands and feet are also webbed, typical for a mermen, and his limbs that are somewhat thin in comparison with his enormous girth. His pale and pinkish gills are in between his shoulders and neck.

Under his pale red coat, he appears to be wearing a Coral colored traditional Japanese clothing called a jinbei covered all over with black and white square-shaped patterns with the black and white layers alternating each other (beginning with the black outline from the edge) and ending with a dark square at the middle of each and every one of them. He also ties this attire up with a purple scarf like a ribbon around his waist. His birthday is April 2nd, and his age is 44.

As Jimbei's pattern changes over time: he wore a karakusa and later a floral design during his time as a member of the Sun Pirates; he wore square designs during his debut and a plain one after the Battle of Navyford. Four years ago, when fighting against Ace, he wore a black gi instead with fish designs on either side of the chest, and a red sash with a tanto tied to it. Two years after the war, while waiting for Luffy at the Sea Forest, his jinbei has leaf-patterns. For footwear, he appears to wear simple sandals on his webbed feet. His Sun Pirates tattoo is on the center of his chest.

He wore a Neptune Army uniform while he was serving as a soldier. During Otohime's funeral, Jimbei wore a suit.

When Jimbei was younger. he was seen with light hair wearing a tattered gi practicing his Mermen Karate. He already has a black belt at this age.

Personality
Jimbei is a Merman of great pride and honor. He is known to the World Government as a pirate-hating pirate, possibly due to the actions of the pirates in Merman Island, kidnapping mermen, mermaids, and fishfolk to sell them as slaves. However, he has a soft spot for Whitebeard and his crew as he sees them as a completely different story. Because of what Whitebeard had done for his homeland, Merman Island, he understands the damage a war between the World Government and Whitebeard would cause. He knows that places like his home, which are protected by simply being part of Whitebeard's territory, would suffer the most should Whitebeard lose the war. Also, despite hating pirates, he does not spare a second thought of becoming one in order to aid his brethren Fisher Tiger.

Despite his pride, Jimbei appears to put his priorities and principles over his honor, and is not above retreating from an otherwise unfinished battle (despite being shamed or openly mocked by an opponent) if it was for the sake of the greater good. He also does not seem to hesitate from encouraging others to do likewise for a similar cause, as seen when he pleaded and managed to convince Luffy to prioritize Ace's safety first over avenging his brother's loss against Blackbeard. Jimbei has also displayed great humility regarding his personal strength and status, a trait most unique among the Warlords. This was made apparent by his willingness to even lose his status for his refusal to fight against the Whitebeard Pirates.

Also, unlike his former crew mate Arlong, the fact that he is willing to aid a human (Whitebeard) as well as team up with others separates him from the other mermen. Where as Arlong would never dream of such a thing (even Nami's recruitment into his crew was near slavery), Jimbei proves to be able to at least respect some humans and also acknowledge when he owes one a debt. While he is a fishman with great emotional control, he is empathetic and understanding of the pains of others, such as being brought to tears when Luffy broke down from losing his brother in front of him after he had awoken from the battle at Marineford. Jimbei is also capable of crying aloud when someone dear to him is lost, such as Ace and Tiger.

His personality in the past dramatically contrasts with the apparently tame temper in the present. In a flashback showing a battle between the Sun Pirates and Navy, Jimbei was shown to exhibit excessive brutality to enemies that even made Arlong ask him to stop. He seems to be a no-nonsense person and appears to be quite passive at times. Though he did not agree with Arlong's thinking that humans always looked down on mermen, he noticed that they always seemed to be afraid of them. After asking a former human slave named Koala why that is, she said it was because they did not know much about them. Jimbei stated that the unknown was scary and remembered Otohime talking about how mermen do not know anything about humans. Originally, Jimbei was doubtful of Otohime's ideals, thinking that they did not mean anything. He even openly stated that he did not care about her petition. However, after listening to Fisher Tiger's speech about peace, Jimbei grew supportive of Otohime and even admitted about the trouble the Sun Pirates caused her and joined the Warlords to support her cause. Jimbei shares the same perspective as Vivi on responsibilities. When Luffy asked Jimbei to join the Straw Hats, Jimbei refused saying that there are still things that he has to do. Jimbei's decision also resembles to Vivi's when he also asked Luffy to let him join his crew, if they meet again in the future. According to Neptune, Jimbei tends to take on too much responsibility and should learn not to. Jimbei states that he does not really care who the boss is of his crew despite his leadership skills so long as they can protect the crew, as shown when he allowed the Sun Pirates to work under Big Mam for their protection.

Friends/Allies

 * Sun Pirates
 * Fisher Tiger
 * Hatchan
 * Straw Hat Pirates
 * Monkey D. Luffy
 * Roronoa Zoro
 * Nami
 * Sanji
 * Tony Tony Chopper
 * Nico Robin
 * Franky
 * Brook
 * Whitebeard Pirates
 * Ward Newgate
 * Portgaz D. Ace
 * Emporio Ivankov
 * Bentham
 * Kuja Pirates
 * Boa Hancock
 * Silvers Rayleigh

Neutral

 * Big Mom Pirates
 * Big Mam
 * Seven Warlords of the Sea
 * Dracule Mihawk
 * Crocodile
 * Buggy Pirates
 * Buggy
 * Galdino

Enemies

 * Arlong
 * Navy
 * Kuzan
 * Borsalino
 * Sakazuki
 * Sentomaru
 * Impel Down
 * Magellan
 * Hannyabal
 * Minotaurus
 * Blackbeard Pirates
 * Marshall D. Teach

Abilities and Powers
It is stated that Jimbei was able to battle Portgas D. Ace on equal terms, even when Ace had Logia powers. They both nearly killed each other in a five-day long fight just before Ace was taken in by Whitebeard, and in Impel Down, he and Ace shared a cell on level six. He was able to easily punch Gecko Moria (a fellow Warlord) a few meters away, almost knocking him out.

Jimbei has a huge tolerance for pain: not only was he one of the few people to be able to take a "baptizing" in boiling water in Impel Down without flinching (which is considered an impressive feat), but he could stop a direct magma punch from Akainu with his bare hand, unperturbed despite being badly burned, and took a direct hit from Akainu, which pierced his body completely, and his only reaction was to apologize to Luffy for allowing him further pain. Oddly enough, he exclaimed in pain when bitten by Luffy, though this is most likely due to the fact that he was prepared for Akainu's attack, but was caught off guard from Luffy's bite.

Jimbei also has a knack for discerning military strategies after witnessing any subtle change in enemy formations, as seen when he quickly guessed that Magellan dispatched the order to the battleships outside Impel Down to flee during the mass breakout, and during the battle in Marineford where he surmises that the Navy were plotting something after Ivankov informs him that the enemy is retreating further into the plaza. He also has some penchant for strategy as he divulges a way to smuggle Luffy and his crew into Gyoncorde Plaza while deceiving Hody into believing he and the princess were captured.

As a merman who is so familiar with the sea, he is a capable helmsman, shown when he steered a stolen Navy battleship. Also, Jimbei is also aware of the existence of Haki, as he commented on Luffy's Haoshoku Haki he unleashed on the New Merman Pirates.

Being a merman, Jimbei possesses immense strength. He is the most powerful Merman seen thus far, shown when he threw away a giant merman with just one kick. He also appears to be quite swift, even on dry land, in contrast to his large size. He could intercept an enraged Luffy (in Gear Second mode) and prevent him from further assaulting Blackbeard, and later Akainu, when the latter was about to deal a second life-crippling blow upon the already-injured Ace (who was being held by Luffy) in the latter's last moments.

Though strong, he admitted that he is of no use on land battles, implying he is much stronger at sea. Jimbei stands up to this claim when he lifted one of Impel Down's massive entrance doors with little effort and used it as a raft to provide passage over the sea for Crocodile, Mr. 1, and Buggy (all Cursed Fruit users), with himself acting as the raft's propeller underneath. He not only managed to pursue the fleeing battleships, but even outmaneuvered the incoming cannonballs fired at them by the Navy with relative ease, all the while bypassing the Neptunians that infested the surrounding waters of the Calm Belt.

From his demonstration of underwater activity, it is obvious that he does not have the powers of a Cursed Fruit, even at one point cursing the weakness of Cursed Fruit users as he saved them from drowning. His power over sea water may very well make Jimbei a natural enemy of all Cursed Fruit users, as seen in his fight against Gecko Moria in Marineford, where the merman rendered Moria's ability to summon his zombies useless by splashing them with sea water, thus purifying them with the salt from the seawater.

Merman Karate
Jimbei is a master of Mermen Karate, revealed that he already had a black belt when he was still a child, which he can use to knock away many guards at once. His skill is such that his strikes do not even need to make physical contact with an enemy as the water particles in the air will blow them away after a few seconds of time from the attack's initiation. Another example of his strength and Mermen Karate level is that he defeated Minorhinoceros, one of the four Demon Guards, with a single uppercut.

He also displays the ability to manipulate water as if it were a tangible cloth through Mermen Karate, even using it to attack from a distance. He can cause devastating damage with this kind of technique, to both people and ships. Jimbei later reveals that Mermen Karate allows him to control all the water within his vicinity including the water in a person's body. Jimbei demonstrated this ability by splashing seawater on Moria's zombies even though he was standing on a battlefield covered in solid ice. And with this ability, he is able to harm Luffy despite him being rubber and even Caribou who is a Logia user. He is also able to secrete water from his body like Hody after overdosing.

Thanks to his mastery of Mermen Karate, Jimbei can perform blocking moves which are able to stop attacks as powerful as the thrusts from a shadow-strengthened Gecko Moria, a member of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. He was even able to stop Wadatsumi’s punch, who is a giant Merman and had also taken the energy steroid with a single kick and even breaking one of his fingers. It should be noted that few moments before, Wadatsumi had brutally defeated Surume, a massive Kraken well-known for its abilities. Moments before this he was able to deflect a super powered Hody Jones's water shot with relative ease, with Jimbei even commenting that Hody's own mastery of the fighting style pales in comparison to his. Also Jimbei is capable of using Mermen Karate’s hidden technique Buraikan. With this attack Jimbei blasts the opponent’s body with water. After Jimbei used this powerful attack, he sent Wadatsumi in the air.

Weapons
He was seen with a trident when he was a soldier in the Neptune Army though was never seen using. Other than that it was shown that he had a tanto under his belt when he was fighting Ace, but he did not use it.

Interactions with Marine Life
Among mermen, Jimbei has shown the unique ability to communicate with fish, even over long distances. The ability to speak with fish is usually unique to mermaids, so Jimbei's ability to do so is considered noteworthy by Crocodile.

He summoned a large school of whale sharks to the Calm Belt (which was usually too dangerous, with the Neptunians infesting it) to assist him in a mass-breakout of Impel Down. He can give the whale sharks precise orders, so they understand and obey him.

Due to the Calm Belt being dangerously inhabited by Neptunians, Jimbei would summon his whale-shark comrades to help him to pass through it, as he did when leaving Amazon Lily. This indicates that the whale sharks are capable of outmaneuvering the Sea Kings, something that the former Warlord admits is troublesome for himself.