Kureha

Dr. Kureha (Dr.くれは, Dokutā Kureha) is a 139 year old doctor on Drum Island, nicknamed as 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, a belly skin, 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.

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 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. 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 nearly 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.

Powers and Abilities
Dr. Kureha possess great abilities as a doctor, as shown by her great health even though she is 139 years old. She also possess a unknown level of superhuman strength, as she can crush stone walls with ease.

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 wall decoration, possibly as part of a collection, from 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 was the first person in the current storyline to mention The Will of the D.

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 doesn't 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.

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".

Anime and manga diffrences
In the manga she has a very dark shade of grey haircolor instead of light white/yellow.

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 139 years old, Oda said she is still superhuman (in the sense that she goes beyond other people) so she will be okay.
 * In a recent Japanese Fan Poll, Dr. Kureha is ranked the 54th most popular character in One Piece.
 * In the original Japanese version, she's played by Masako Nozawa, who also plays the role of Son Goku in the original version 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.