Tashigi is a Navy Captain and reports to Vice Admiral Smoker. Her goal is to collect all higher grade swords so they don’t “rot” with pirates or bounty hunters.
Contents
Appearance
Tashigi is a 5’7″ tall, slender young woman. She has dark blue hair and black eyes. She is very nearsighted, so she always wears purple glasses with rectangular lenses. Her standard outfit is composed of a red blouse with yellow dots, a purple jacket with a white fur collar, and pants of the same color. She always wields her sword Shigule two-handed in battle, and she puts her glasses on her head during duels so that she can fight better. Otherwise her sword hangs loosely on her belt. She usually appears together with Smoker. Her general appearance, such as her physique and face have changed greatly throughout history.
After the two-year time jump, her appearance has changed slightly. Her hair is now a little longer and she has put it up with a clip. Her clothes are now a purple shirt with a pink flower print, light blue jeans and pink boots. Due to her new rank, she now also wears an officer’s coat, but it is pink, not white, and has a white fur collar. However, she still wears her glasses. Furthermore, her body has become much more feminine in the two years.
Personality
Tashigi is clumsy and sometimes loses track and balance. Due to her severe nearsightedness, she sometimes mistakes a marine for her superior without her glasses. Furthermore, she seems very naive, since she divides people into good and evil. Even swords, of which she is a big fan, she initially judges only by their class and value. She is helped in this by a sword encyclopedia that she always carries with her. However, she doesn’t always immediately know about other facts, such as the curse that is placed on all Kitetsu swords.
Her big goal is to reclaim the precious swords from swordsmen who are pirates and bounty hunters, who she thinks are bad people. She would even give her life for that.
In general, she is a proud, helpful and just person. This was shown in Arbana, for example, when she let the Straw Hat Pirates go for saving the entire city from destruction.
Skills and Strength
As a naval officer, she has had regular training and specializes mainly in sword fighting. She is thus superior to ordinary pirates in one-on-one combat.
In her first appearance in Loguetown, she first showed herself to be naive and weak, but that changes when she learns that Roronoa Zoro is in town. It is there that one first notices what a strong will she has. After her failure against Zoro, it becomes clear that Tashigi also has her pride, as she was very offended when Zoro wouldn’t kill her after completely disarming her and pinning her to the ground. She vowed to do better.
Her greatest strength is her sword. It bears the name Shigule. Thanks to her training she can handle her sword very well, but she can’t compete with an opponent like Nico Robin or Zoro.
Another strength is coordinating, such as cornering smaller pirates through tactics and skill and catching them there. This is what makes her stand out in the eyes of Smoker, who nevertheless keeps telling her to concentrate more, as her clumsiness has often caused the navy to lose enemies.
After the time jump, Tashigi had significantly improved her sword skills and was thus able to deflect cannonballs with her sword before they exploded.
She can now also handle the armor haki, although according to Smoker she’s not very good at it yet, which is why she lost to Law, but it was enough in the fight against Mone. There it showed that she can also now handle Soru.
Present
The journey begins – meeting with Roronoa Zoro in Loguetown
Tashigi has already been stationed in Loguetown with the rank of sea cadet under the command of Captain Smoker when the Straw Hat Pirates reached Loguetown. Now she was involved in a fight with two pirates, Kose and Packi, who wanted to kidnap her in order to blackmail Smoker into releasing their captain. After winning the fight, she made the acquaintance of the first member of the Straw Hat Pirates, Zoro. Although it was already known that he had joined Luffy’s gang, she did not immediately recognize him. Zoro was stunned that Tashigi looked so strikingly similar to his childhood friend Kuina.This circumstance only occurs in the anime.
Therefore, when he picked up her glasses, which fell off her face after she tripped in a fight with the two pirates, he accidentally crushed them. To pay for the damage, Zoro had to work as a cleaner at the local naval base, but he was surprised by two soldiers and had to flee.
She didn’t meet him again in the aftermath until a short time later, at the store of the arms dealer Tanne, when Zoro went to get two new swords and she went to pick up her shigule from sharpening. Tashigi recognized Zoro’s Wado-Ichi-Monji at first sight, looked up its value in her catalog, and screwed up the deal for Tanne, who wanted to buy the sword from Zoro for a ridiculous price.
It was only some time later that she realized that she had helped the very person whose sword she wanted to claim and who was now fighting on the square in front of Gold Roger’s scaffold together with another pirate for his captain Monkey D. Luffy against Buggy’s pirate gang, whose captain wants to execute the young pirate. When the navy arrived, Tashigi stood in Zoro’s way. A duel ensued between the two, with Zoro also using only one sword. The fight was over quickly and Zoro emerged victorious. Tashigi, however, did not understand why Zoro had left her alive and believed that he had only spared her because he probably believed women were weaker. Zoro then explained that she looked like his deceased girlfriend. Shortly after, Zoro then ran off to catch up with his friends.
The search continues – Tashigi in Arabasta
The next time they were seen was in Arabasta. Smoker and Tashigi were finally going to arrest the Straw Hats in Arabasta after their defeat in Loguetown. They arrested Mr. 11 during their search and thus got some information about the Baroque Works. Tashigi himself, meanwhile, arrived at the Kashu. Right after the Straw Hats docked at Nanohana, they were first spotted and chased by Smoker and the Navy due to Luffy’s clumsiness. However, Luffy’s brother Firefist Portgas D. Ace stopped Smoker and helped the Straw Hats escape.
The next meeting was at Rainbase. Crocodile lured Luffy, his crew, and Smoker into an ambush where he sneakily flooded them with water. However, with the help of Mr. 3, who had also fallen into the trap, they were able to break free and escape through the mass of water, whereupon Zoro, on the orders of Luffy, saved Smoker from drowning. Now Smoker finally had the Straw Hat Pirates within his grasp, but he let them go due to the rescue operation he owed his life to. After this event, Smoker gave Tashigi full authority over the Arabasta mission so she could prove herself.
Tashigi later tried to stop Nico Robin in Arbana, who had kidnapped King Kobra, but she was easily beaten and humiliated by Robin. Tashigi and the Straw Hats also met a third time, again in Arbana, when Luffy and his crew saved the city from complete destruction. When the Navy found the crew scattered on the ground, Tashigi ordered them to leave. She rather relieved Crocodile of his duties and arrested him, rather than the Straw Hats. Smoker later found her decision just.
The wanted posters go round the world – After Enie’s Lobby
Their next appearance was when Smoker and Tashigi were at an unknown location on the Grand Line, examining the new wanted posters that had come out fresh after the incident in Enie’s lobby. It is learned here that Tashigi has been promoted. Smoker, who had just apprehended a pirate with 55 million berries, set his mind on finally apprehending the Straw Hats in the New World.
The battle against the Whitebeard gang
Due to being drafted into the Marine Ford, Smoker and Tashigi went there. They had to fight against the Whitebeard pirate gang along with the strongest individuals of the Navy and the Seven Samurai. When the battle against Whitebeard began and his allies fought against the Marine and Samurai, Smoker and Tashigi also mixed in heavily. They both realized that this was no normal battle, something special was going to mark this war. Tashigi had a brief altercation with Luffy during the battle, who defeated her with one punch.
After the war, she accompanied Smoker when he transferred to the New World to Naval Station G5.
Operation in the New World
After Luffy defeated Hody Jones on Fish-Man Island, all the prisoners escaped. In the process, some encountered Tashigi and Smoker, who had since been promoted. While Smoker had risen to the rank of vice admiral, Tashigi now held the rank of captain. They managed to eliminate all the pirates.
Punk Hazard
An intercepted radio message led the G5 marines to Punk Hazard. When they found a laboratory there, to their great surprise, Trafalgar Law, by now one of The Seven Warlords of the Seas, came out of it. The latter assured them that only he was on the island, but shortly afterwards some Straw Hats came out of the laboratory with a crowd of children. When these saw the marines, they fled. Law could not let the marines go, destroyed their ship, and took their Den-den Mushis. A fight ensued, with Tashigi attacking Law. She was no match for the Samurai of the Seas and was cut in half by his devilish powers. Tashigi was later reassembled by the rest of the marines and carried to safety while Law fought Smoker. While Smoker went down a loser and rushed to Tashigi’s aid, Law switched their hearts.
The officers were taken to safety in a cave by their subordinates. Smoker realized from the marks on the Den-den Mushis that the scientist Caesar Clown was behind the machinations on the island. After Smoker heard from Tashigi about child abduction cases that were being covered up, the Vice Admiral suspected that there must be a traitor in the G5 naval station. Later on, Smoker planned a diversion while some of the soldiers tried to steal Caesar’s ship. Tashigi fought in Smoker’s body, but had trouble with his devil powers. The plan seemed to succeed and some soldiers managed to capture Caesar’s ship. Shortly after, Luffy, Robin and Franky appeared, who wanted to kidnap Caesar. Smoker and Tashigi wanted to grab the Straw Hat, but were no match for him in their current condition, at which point Luffy said they should postpone the fight. After Caesar’s captured ship was destroyed by Smiley, Caesar Clown himself also appeared. He defeated not only Smoker and Tashigi, but also Luffy, Franky, and Robin. The scientist had them locked in a cage in his laboratory.
Alliance with the Straw Hats
A little later, the five woke up in Caesar’s cage along with Law. Smoker and Tashigi now realized that Vice Admiral Vergo was the traitor of the G5 naval base, who was actually working for Donquixote Pirates. Before the prisoners could die at the hands of Shinokuni, Law freed himself and the others. He also put Smoker and Tashigi’s hearts back into their proper bodies. Smoker, Luffy, and Law then teamed up to defeat Caesar and his men.
Using Law’s devil powers, they made it back to the lab. After the rest of the marines and pirates were able to enter the lab, Smoker ordered them to search for the kidnapped children. Smoker put Tashigi in charge of rescuing the children as well as her men while he searched for Vergo. Tashigi then instructed her subordinates to look over the Straw Hat Pirates and rescue the children first. The entrance to the labs filled with the dangerous Shinokuni gas a short time later.
Tashigi wanted to stay behind to make sure all her men made it safely into the next building, but they, against her will, threw her into Building B before the gate closed so at least she survived. Vergo emerged after that and slaughtered the remaining marines as well as Tashigi. Lying on the ground, tears came to her eyes that she couldn’t protect her soldiers. At that moment, Sanji appeared, claiming to have heard a woman’s tears, which is why he wanted to help. Tashigi and the rest of the soldiers ran into the next building as the poison gas was getting closer. Sanji joined them again and helped them escape the gas.
When they reached Biscuits Room, Tashigi interfered in the fight between Zoro and Mone, sending her men and Sanji ahead. Tashigi felt compelled to intervene as she felt Zoro wasn’t using his full power against women, which still offended her. Zoro eventually left the battlefield to her, but had to be rescued by Zoro, who ultimately dismembered Mone. As Mone picked herself up one last time, Tashigi finally defeated the snow woman. They later joined the rest of the Straw Hats and Marines, who had by now found and calmed all the children.
Later, the group made it to Building R, where they all escaped from the lab together. After the successful victory over Caesar, the G5 navy celebrated together with the Straw Hats. Later, Nami asked Tashigi to take care of the kidnapped children and bring them back to their parents. When it came time to say goodbye, the children wanted to say goodbye to the pirates, but were prevented from doing so by the marines. The latter told how bad pirates were and even threatened the children not to get involved with them. Tashigi demanded that her men stop doing this, as they had been rescued by them several times. The soldiers explained that they knew this, but with the insults only wanted to prevent themselves from starting to take the pirates to heart, which made Tashigi smile. Later, Tashigi left with a tanker of Caesar’s and some men to take the children back to their parents.
Visit to Doctor Vegapunk
Some time later, news that Luffy had triumphed over Donquixote Doflamingo also reached Smoker and Tashigi’s ship. The latter was glad that, thanks to Issho, the exact information about the events in Dress Rosa could not be concealed and distorted as it had been two years ago in Arabasta. Shortly after, the children of Punk Hazard came into Smoker’s room, who was still recovering from his injuries, and wanted some candy from Tashigi, their new big sister. The navy ship’s next destination was Doctor Vegapunk’s lab. However, the journey to get there was going to take a few more days.
Miscellaneous
- Tashigi’s name, like many of the female characters’ names, comes from Japanese bird names.
- In the SBS for volume 16, Oda points out that Kuina and Tashigi’s names were taken from birds that can’t fly (belong to the water rail genus)
- Tashigi’s physical appearance strongly resembled Zoro’s childhood friend Kuina up until the time jump
- Furthermore, Tashigi’s rank was initially mistranslated as Lieutenant when she was still a Sea Cadet in Chapter 96. She only receives her promotion to lieutenant after Crocodile’s fall.
- She has a catalog for the best swords in the world, which also lists Zoro’s swords, along with their value and specialties.
- In the SBS to volume 68, Oda drew Smoker, Tashigi, and Hina as children.
- According to the SBS to Volume 90, Tashigi’s hobbies are reading sword books and Kiri-e.
- Her favorite drink is hot coffee.
