Kureha

Doctor Kureha (ドクター･くれは, Dokutā Kureha) is the sole remaining doctor on Drum Island. She is Chopper's mentor

Personality
Dr. Kureha has often been called a witch for several reasons. The first is her eccentric treatment of patients (whom she will readily injure if they do not follow her orders). The second is her spiteful method of checking for injury (deliberately prodding the ailing area, causing her patients pain and forcefully knocking them out via Chopper). The final reason is her reclusive nature. However, she is a legitimate (not to mention skilled) practitioner of medicine, and 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). Dr. Kureha dresses in a style more suited to women one-seventh her age, (navel ring, short shirt that shows her piercing, and purple coat). She cannot stand being called "old" or a "hag" (which usually ends up in her punching or kicking 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. Although, she may consider her drinking as part of the regimen that keeps up her (relative) youth. She is also quite strong. She is able to smash through solid brick walls and is capable of beating up fighters as experienced as Zoro in seconds.

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. The only problem is that her stopping methods often do more damage then the patient would have sustained had she let them go. (e.g. she stops Sanji by stomping his damaged spine, but in retrospect this saved him from the greater damage that could have happened if he fought the unforgiving Wapol)


 * She is shown chasing Luffy and Sanji, then later Chopper alone, throwing various weapons that all seem to have been collected out of nowhere.

History
Dr. Kureha had an odd relationship with Dr. Hiruluk, seeming to enjoy the camaraderie of a fellow "doctor", but dismissing most of his ideas as those of a quack. When she realized that Hiruluk was dying, she agreed (reluctantly) to his last request: to train Tony Tony Chopper in medicine. During the time since Hiruluk's death, she trained Chopper in everything she knew, and was fairly impressed by the young reindeer's skill (though she rarely, if ever, let on to this fact). Knowing that Chopper would do well to gain real-world experience, Kureha helped make up his mind (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 appears again in chapter 440, wherein she saw Chopper's wanted poster (50 Beli), and hoped the number was a mistake. She doesn't seem to care that Dalton is now the king, and treats him as disrespectfully as ever.

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 Japanese 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".
 * She is voiced by Julie Mayfield 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.