Kureha

Doctor Kureha (ドクター･くれは, Dokutā Kureha) is a 139 year old doctor on Drum Island, she is being nicknamed as a "witch". She is Chopper's mentor.

Appearance
Dr. Kureha dresses in a style more suited to women one-seventh her age. This includes a navel ring, short shirt that shows her mid-riff, a purple coat and hipster pants. She hates being called "old" or a "hag" and her response is generally to punch or kick the offender across the room. Kureha seems to have a drinking habit, judging by the bottle of umeshu (梅酒, "plum sake") she always keeps close at hand. She may consider her drinking as part of the regimen that keeps up her relative youth.

Personality
Dr. Kureha has often been called a witch for several reasons. The first is her eccentric treatment of patients whom she will violently threaten if they do not follow her orders. The second is her forceful method of checking for injury for example deliberately prodding the ailing area, causing her patients pain and then having Chopper knock them out as a form of anesthetic. The next is her age, a 'too young' 139. The final reason is her reclusive nature.

She is, however, a legitimate and extremely skilled practitioner of medicine. She has kept herself as healthy and fit as a woman in her prime despite being nearly 140 years old. She considers herself a beautiful virgin flower (In the dub, she calls herself old, ugly, and scary in a joking manner). She is also quite strong. She is able to smash through solid brick walls, and even claimed that she could assist in the battle against Wapol's group. Kureha is also sometimes referred to as being a pirate because she takes what ever she wants as payment for her medical treatments. She apparently likes pickled plums, as stated by Dalton.

Powers and Abilities
Attacks


 * Doctor Stop! -Whenever she sees a patient about to do something she believes might compromise her medical treatments or interrupt their recovery process she 'stops' them by any means necessary whether it is to pin them down with her body or stomp them down into the ground. While her methods appear to be brutal, she actually stops the patient from sustaining far worse injury than if she had let them go. For example, stomping on Sanji's damaged spine to immobilize him was a safer option than letting him fight which would have strained his injury to a point that may have prevented him from walking ever again.


 * She is shown chasing Luffy and Sanji, then later Chopper, throwing various weapons that were previously used for decoration on the wall, possibly as part of a collection, out of nowhere.

History
Dr. Kureha had an odd relationship with Dr. Hiluluk, seeming to enjoy the camaraderie of a fellow "doctor", but dismissing most of his ideas as those of a quack. When she realizes that Hiruluk is dying, she agrees (reluctantly) to his last requests: to make his life's work come to fruition and to train Tony Tony Chopper in medicine. During the time since Hiruluk's death, she trains Chopper in medicine, claiming she taught Chopper "everything she knew", and was fairly impressed by the young reindeer's skill. She only once complimented Choppers skill in a filler episode, after Chopper cured her of a life threatening illness without any of Kureha's medical advice.

Knowing that Chopper would do well to gain real-world experience, Kureha encouraged Chopper (by forbidding him from it) to leave the island with the Straw Hat Pirates. Standing on the ramparts of Drum Castle, she gave her wayward student a tearful send-off of gigantic proportions, setting off the "cure" that Dr. Hiruluk envisioned for the island: pink sakura snowflakes falling from the sky to warm the island's frosted heart. She apparently did not have her navel ring at this time. She also knows about The Will Of D.

She appears again later in the story riding a Lapahn. She is called by Dalton to look at the new wanted posters of the Straw Hat Pirates. She makes note of Chopper's wanted poster of 50 beri. While Dalton suggests that the value is a mistake, Kureha states that she is simply happy to have seen his face. She doesn't appear to mind that Dalton has become the new king of Drum Island. The two now appear to be friends.

Translation and Dub Issues
In the 4Kids dub, the bottle of umeshu Dr. Kureha drinks from is changed to "bug juice loaded with sugar". She was also changed from being 139 years old to "a young 99 and a half year-old".

Trivia

 * In a recent Japanese Fan Poll, Dr. Kureha is ranked the 34th most popular character in One Piece.
 * In the original Japanese dub, she's played by Masako Nozawa, who also plays the role of Son Goku in the original dub of the Dragon Ball series.
 * She is played by the late Maddie Blaustein in the 4Kids dub, who, incidentally, also played Dr. K in 4Kids' original property Cubix: Robots for Everyone. Possibly as a reference to this, Chopper's nickname for Kureha is "Dr. K" in the English dub, as opposed to the Japanese counterpart's nickname, "Doctorine" (which is used in the FUNimation dub).
 * Kureha has her own Laughter Style, she starts her laughs with "Hee" (i.e. Heeheeheehee!), reinforcing her similarity to a witch. However in the anime, her laugh sounds exactly like the eerie laughter of Kitaro from the 2008 horror remake of the classic anime "Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro" called "Hakaba Kitaro". Masako Nozawa voices both Dr. Kureha and Kitaro as well as Kitaro from the 1968 and 1971 versions of "Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro" anime.