Kureha

Doctor Kureha is the sole remaining doctor on Drum Island. Because of her eccentric treatment of patients (whom she will readily injure if they do not follow her orders), along with her reclusive nature, she is often called a "witch." However, she is a legitimate practitioner of medicine, and has kept herself healthy and fit at nearly 140 years old (a "young 99 and a half" in the dub version). She considers herself a beautiful virgin flower, dresses in a style more suited to women one-sixth her age, and 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") (bug juice in the English dub anime) she always keeps close at hand, though she may consider this part of the regimen that keeps up her (relative) youth.

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 appears again in chapter 440, wherein she saw Chopper's wanted poster (50 berries), and hoped the number was a mistake. She doesn't seem to care that Dalton is now the king, and treats him disrespectfully.

In a recent Japanese Fan Poll, Dr. Kureha is ranked the 34th most popular character in One Piece.

Attacks


 * Doctor Stop! - Her one and only official "attack" per se and only used on her patients. 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 mean 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.

Trivia
She is played by Masako Nozawa in the original Japanese version, and by Maddie Blaustein in the English dub, who, incidentally, also played Dr. K in the English dub of Cubix. 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".