Kureha

Dr. Kureha (Dr.くれは) is a 141 year old doctor on Drum Island. Some people call her a "witch". She is Tony Tony Chopper's mentor.

Appearance


Dr. Kureha dresses in a style more suited to women one-seventh her age. This includes a navel ring, short flower-print shirt with exposed midriff, a purple blazer and hipster pants. She may consider her drinking as part of the regimen that keeps up her relative youth.

Dr. Kureha has a strange body. Whenever someone looks at her from the neck down they become extremely interested because of the fact that her body appears so young, yet they become shocked because of her old appearance. She frequently asks others if they want the secret to her youth, but nobody takes her up on the offer in the series.

After the time skip, she does not look different from two years before, except now she wears a shirt that symbolizes Chopper, with a symbol that looks like his hat behind a big white X.

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' 141. The final reason is her reclusive nature. She hates being called "old" or a "hag" and her response is generally to punch or kick the offender across the room, and often begins conversations by asking if whoever she's speaking to wants to know the secret of her youth (Although not surprisingly, nobody wishes to know). Kureha seems to have a drinking habit, judging by the bottle of umeshu (梅酒, "plum sake") she always keeps close at hand.

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 over 140 years old. She considers herself a beautiful virgin flower. She is also quite strong, 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.

Despite her cold demeanor, she does have a loving side to her personality, as she considers Chopper a son and was gravely depressed when Dr. Hiluluk died.

Abilities and Powers
Dr. Kureha possesses incredible abilities as a doctor, as shown by her great health even though she is 141 years old, and she taught all her skills to Chopper. She managed to cure Nami when she was bitten by the ancient tick, Kestia, which was thought to be extinct, and as such, the cure would be difficult to find. She is also one of the few doctors around the world authorized to use the highly restricted drug, NHC10.

Outside of her medical expertise, she possesses a certain level of superhuman strength, resistance and speed. She was shown to crush stone walls with ease. She had great resistance against the cold, as she is often seen walking through extremely cold climate of Drum Island with very loose clothing. She was also able to chase Luffy and Sanji, then later Chopper, throwing various weapons that were previously used for wall decoration, possibly as part of a collection, from out of nowhere.

Attacks

 * Doctor Stop! (ドクターストップ): 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.

Past
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 Hiluluk 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 Hiluluk'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.

Drum Island Arc
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. Hiluluk 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 was the first person in the current storyline to mention The Will of the D and also the first to refer to Gol D. Roger by his real name, instead of Gold Roger.

Post-Enies Lobby Arc
She appears again later in the story using a Lapahn to pull her sleigh. 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 does not appear to mind that Dalton has become the new king of Drum Island, even offering him a room in "her" castle. The two now appear to be friends.

Two Years Later


Two years later, Kureha is seen with the Isshi-20, which has now increased to 100. Her castle seems to have become the island's medical center with her as the head-doctor. Their new doctor flag is made up of the "X" on Chopper's hat with Hiluluk's top-hat inside it; Kureha is also wearing a shirt with this symbol on it.

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 (at the time) to "a young 99 and a half year-old". As opposed to her nickname "Doctorine" in the Japanese version, the 4kids dub changes this to "Dr. K", a possible reference to 4Kids' other series Cubix: Robots for Everyone, which also features a character named Dr. K voiced by Maddie Blaustein.

Anime and manga diffrences

 * In the manga she has a very dark shade of grey haircolor instead of light white/yellow.
 * In the anime she encounters a freezing Zoro on her way back to the castle, who she refuses to give him a ride in her sleigh for calling her an old lady.

Trivia

 * In an SBS in Volume 56, a reader asks Oda if Dr. Kureha will be alright on the next year as Oda discussed that in One Piece world, a normal human can only live up to 140 years, though she is already 141 years old, Oda said she is still superhuman (in the sense that she goes beyond other people) so she will be okay.
 * In one Japanese Fan Poll, Dr. Kureha is ranked the 54th most popular character in One Piece.
 * 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 "GeGeGe no Kitaro" called "Hakaba Kitaro". Masako Nozawa voices both Dr. Kureha and Kitaro from the 1968 and 1971 versions of the anime as well as the 2008 remake.

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