Regardless if you like her or not, I think it's fair to say that Boa Hancock is a pretty popular character in One Piece. She quickly comes to my mind whenever I think of likable and strong characters. I think what drew me to her personally was how strong she is.
As a female character.
I feel like I don't see that too often, so when I do see it; it makes me pretty happy and makes the anime all the more enjoyable.
There's no deadweight and at that point, every character is being utilized; there's no wasted potential.
It's also partly why One Piece is one of my favorite anime.
I feel like it does everything pretty well for the most part, including utilizing the women.
Naruto could certainly learn a thing or two as they did Sakura pretty dirty.
And it doesn't help that the Naruto fanbase comes off as a little hypocritical. Characters like Sakura are thrashed, while characters that did far worse are celebrated and praised; it makes no sense to me and I will never understand it.
Anyway, Boa Hancock is a good example of what I expect of a female character. The backstory is there, and so are the development and strength.
Boa's Backstory
So Boa has quite the past. At just twelve years old, she and her sisters were captives. They were sold to the World Nobles and the World Nobles are basically what make up the world government. For some reason, she and her sisters were fed devil fruits and this is how Boa obtained the Mero Mero no Mi fruit. I mean if I was a captive, I wouldn't really care about what I ate, as long as I was eating something. So it makes sense on why Boa ate it without question, but it doesn't really make sense why the World Nobles gave it to her.
Even if it was for entertainment purposes.
Especially when it's something that can potentially make her stronger and a bit more difficult to deal with.
But I guess it didn't matter thanks to Seastone.
Anyway, they remained that way for four years.
They were held captive for four years.
That's a long time.
In their fourth year, they were freed by Fisher Tiger.
He originally went there to free fish men captives but found it in his heart to not discriminate and freed who he could.
And because of what Boa went through, she naturally grew up to distrust everyone - which I don't blame her. If I was in that situation, it'd be a hard thing for me to bounce back from as well. Not to mention that wherever she went, she'd have their mark branded onto her body.
She'd carry that weight around forever and have a constant reminder of what happened to her and her sisters.
After their escape, they didn't really have anywhere to go and ended up crossing paths with Elder Nyon, Silvers Rayleigh, and Shakuyaku and ended up back home. Even though she was free and no longer a captive, Boa became hard and cold.
Even when she became empress of the Kuja.
Again, I can't blame her. She had a reason for turning out the way she did. She went through a pretty traumatic event at such a young age. Similar to Gohan, she didn't have a childhood. Except in her case, her innocence was ruined. I don't think I'd go as far as to say that Gohan's innocence was ruined because it wasn't and he didn't go through the same hell that Boa and her sisters went through, but he didn't grow up normal.
It's a pure testament to her potential and power that she became an empress at 18 and even captured the attention of the marines and the World Government. Boa later joined the Seven Warlords of the Sea and the Seven Warlords are selected to ally with the World Government.
Now Boa only did this to protect her fellow Kuja which I think says a lot, especially with how much she despises them.
Boa's Development
So when Boa first made her appearance, I didn't like her at all. I thought she was cruel and I'd probably go as far as to call her jaded. She seemed to only care about herself. Boa went from a character I didn't care to see on screen to a character that I look forward to seeing. I think meeting Luffy was a pivotal change in her development because Boa thought very little of men until she met Luffy.
Luffy wasn't swayed by her appearance or lusted after her.
Luffy also wasn't selfish like Boa expected him to be.
She put him through every test she could think of and Luffy passed with flying colors.
Falling in love with Luffy is probably one of the best things that could happen to her. I think falling in love helped open her heart up a good bit; it helped her develop.
And even proved useful - especially at Impel Down.
As she's the one that snuck Luffy in so that he could free Ace.
The Boa we were first introduced to wouldn't have done anything like that.
I know some people may be iffy when it comes to love interests and while it can be a bit much or overbearing in some cases, I think this is a case where a love interest isn't too much. The only case where I can think of where a love interest is too much is with Gray and Juiva from Fairy Tail. I don't mind Juvia's reason for falling in love with Gray, but I feel like that is all they've reduced her to lately.
And that's a problem for me.
In Boa's case, it's a bit refreshing.
Because she's more than her love interest.
Boa's Strength
Boa's backstory as well as her strength is what reeled me in so much. As well as her fighting style. She's someone you wouldn't want to cross. She's dangerous in long-range combat and you probably won't get far from her thanks to her Pistol Kiss. What I find impressive about her is that she's even said to be one of the very few people in the world that can use all three types of Haki (Armament Haki, Conqueror's Haki, Observation Haki).
A bit of trivia I learned about Boa is that actually has the second-highest bounty for a female character and is also the only female besides Big Mom to have billion berries bounties.
Boa is near perfection. From her background to her development and insane strength, she basically covers all fronts. Is there anyone out there that doesn't like Boa Hancock? If so, why? Let me know! I'm curious.