You may know One Piece as the whacky pirate shounen that has been around for longer than its audience has been alive, but it is much more than that. It is also a shojo. Well, more or less.
Even if the story remains faithful to its shounen and adventure roots, from time to time a storyline or character appears to really lure in all walks of life into its audience. From loving plotlines with romance to dreamy and attractive characters (well, as attractive as a pixel can be at least), Eiichiro Oda truly learned the recipe for success. Perhaps one of the biggest nods to the Shojo world is none other than Cavendish, the dreamy captain of the Beautiful Pirates.
On that note, here’s everything you need to know about one of the characters that makes One Piece fans feel like a princess.
Who is Cavendish in One Piece?
If you don’t recognize Cavendish, then you’ve probably not reached the Dressrosa arc – and that means the rest of this article will end up just being spoilers, in which case – proceed cautiously. With that being said, a good description of Cavendish would likely be: the male version of Boa Hancock, but far less powerful. He is considered to be the most handsome male pirate at sea, and he is the captain of the Beautiful Pirates. Duh.
Physically, Cavendish is just everyone’s idea of a physically perfect man by Disney standards, capable of making both men and women faint with his presence. His blue eyes, charming personality, and flowy blond hair make him the epitome of a perfect textbook prince. It only makes sense considering he was formerly the prince of the Bourgeois Kingdom before he was exiled.
Personality-wise, Cavendish is very self-assured, arrogant, vain, and powerful, but he does have one hilarious fault: he has a split personality. As his main personality stays dormant, his secondary bloodthirsty lunatic personality known as Hakuba appears. At times, both personalities fight for control of his body, becoming a half-half hybrid of Hakuba and Cavendish.
As a matter of fact, most of his strength comes from his alter-ego Hakuba. He becomes a superhuman with super strength and speed, capable of slicing any enemy his way. While he isn’t (or ever was) stronger than Luffy and Sabo, he is still a very powerful and formidable foe at the Corrida Colosseum resulting from his extremely skillful swordsmanship.
We meet Cavendish rather unconventionally, as an antagonist fighting for the Fire-Fire fruit at the arena. Over time, however, Cavendish starts fighting alongside the Straw Hats and becomes the first pirate to pledge allegiance to Luffy, thus being appointed the very first captain of the first ship of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet.
As for Cavendish’s role in the One Piece live-action, he isn’t likely to appear anytime soon, but right in the very first episode, a bounty poster containing none other than Cavendish is visible – one of the many Easter eggs in the series.
