Another week, another tragic moment in the life of Bartholomew Kuma. I have now come to the conclusion that Kuma’s backstory is the saddest flashback in One Piece’s history, and nothing will ever come close to it. It has been more than three episodes since his story began, and the One Piece character can’t seem to catch a break.
First, it was his parents’ suffering that brought him pain. Then, he took on the pain of the people of his villages. Following that, he suffered through the loss of the love of his life, Ginny, and now he is going through another tragic moment as his daughter gets diagnosed with an incurable disease.
While this twist of Bonney getting the disease that killed her mother certainly broke my heart, it did reveal a big secret about her. The secret was connected to the origin of her name, which reflects Eiichiro Oda’s genius in foreshadowing elements within the One Piece story.
One Piece is stretching the emotional tone, but it is still working
When Kuma’s backstory first started, I was a little doubtful about Toei Animation’s ability to maintain consistency with the emotional depth of his portrayal. However, I can safely say that the One Piece anime is doing its best in constantly keeping the sad tone of the narrative, without making it boring. An excellent illustration of this was seen in Episode 1132, where Kuma’s function as a father figure had to confront the trauma in the series, giving the plot a fresh perspective on his depressing history.
What made me happy was the fact that Kuma’s feelings have never been ignored for a second, and every episode has made sure that he remains at the center of it all. This episode also did the same thing as it began by portraying how sad Kuma is after losing Bonney to the Celestial Dragons, who forced her to become a wife. He explores this pain through fighting for the Revolutionary Army and saving others from the brutality of the Celestial Devils.
While he does manage to see Ginny once again, it was a little too late, as she sadly passed away because of the Sapphire Scale disease that she caught. However, she left a gift for the love of his life in the form of a small child who looked just like her. Kuma promised Ginny that he would take care of her, and thus began the journey of Kuma and Bonney, the father-daughter dynamic that every One Piece fan was waiting to see.
Since the beginning of Kuma’s journey in One Piece, I have rarely witnessed him taking a vacation from the pain he has experienced, and his happy relationship with Bonney during the first few years was a part of it. However, I sensed that something sad and heartbreaking was about to happen because of the predictability of the story. And sure enough, Eiichiro Oda decided to add another aspect of trauma by giving Bonney the same Sapphire Scale disease as her mother.
Eiichiro Oda is a legend for foreshadowing Bonney’s name
After I watched the entire One Piece episode 1132, I was reminiscing about the contents of the plot that was portrayed, and that’s when it hit me. Oda named Bonney after the Sapphire Scale disease that she gets diagnosed with. The Jewelry part of her name comes from the jewel-like stones that grew on her skin. The episode gave a slight hint of Bonney being bothered because of her disease, but Kuma, being the best father, managed to turn it around and explained to her that it actually makes her beautiful.
The ability to hide the sadness behind such innocence is something that One Piece has been delivering since the beginning. But in Kuma’s case, it hits even more because it gets bundled with all the pain and trauma he has been handling since a child. I know there is a lot more pain left in Kuma’s life, and he is going to go through even more disheartening moments, but now the story has reached a point where everything feels predictable.
Oda has been following the same pattern of giving Kuma a little ray of sunshine and then changing it completely with a world-shattering trauma experience. The only thing that, according to me, is holding it all together is the storytelling, and thus, Toei needs to ace it every single time until Kuma’s flashback ends in One Piece. Otherwise, it will ruin everything that has been built up about his past up to this point.
Rating: 8/10
One Piece is currently available to watch on Crunchyroll.
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