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One Piece
Episode 1131

by Grant Jones,

How would you rate episode 1131 of
One Piece (TV 1999) ?
Community score: 4.5

op1131.png
© Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha, Toei Animation

Episode 1131 of One Piece ever so slowly presses Kuma's sharpened backstory straight into our hearts - a masterfully done emotional assassination.

Kuma and Ginny are adorable and tragic in equal measure. Kuma's desire to alleviate the suffering of others above all else is his defining character trait. This trait acts as both his greatest strength and his greatest weakness. We see how Kuma takes care of the villagers, literally absorbing their pain and dispersing it by taking it upon himself. This underscores his noble, self-sacrificial spirit and plays right into his religious role as a pastor for his community. Ginny is torn because part of what she admires so much about Kuma is his desire to help others, but she knows he is pushing himself beyond his limits to do so. Ginny wants to protect Kuma in the same way that Kuma protects the villagers, but he is too stubborn and/or selfless to let her.

This tension also extends to their personal relationship. They have feelings for one another and already do everything together - why not get married? But Kuma resists because of his traumatic past, and this becomes a continuation of his self-sacrificial nature. Kuma values Ginny's safety more than his happiness (and her happiness, too). The dramatic irony, of course, is that we know how right he is to be afraid of terrible outcomes, but in the moment, it is hard not to see it from Ginny's perspective and see Kuma as being overly cautious or hard-headed.

All of this is brought to life quite expertly by the Toei team once again. The scene of Kuma draining the red paw of its pain while Ginny cries in another room is heart-wrenching, rendered in visual and cinematic excellence to sell the agony of the moment. It's this high quality that heightens the core material and makes me both excited and terrified of how the next few episodes will do to my poor heart.

Rating:

One Piece is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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