Warning: Contains spoilers for One Piece.

This article contains a brief discussion of sexual assault.

The One Piece anime has been firing on all cylinders ever since it returned from its hiatus. The animation has been consistently great at every turn, but more than that, it’s simply been great to see the story continue to unfold, as the Egghead arc is easily one of One Piece’s best arcs to date for how far it pushes the story at every turn.

Seeing the Egghead arc’s best moments in animation has been the best part of One Piece’s return from hiatus, and it’s about to get to arguably the most hotly-anticipated moment of all. Following a short break where a recap special centered around Bonney and Kuma aired, One Piece episode #1129 will be the start of Kuma’s backstory, and if it’s anything like the manga, then One Piece is about to tell one of its saddest stories in years. Kuma’s backstory is a tale unlike any other, and it’s plenty worth getting excited about.

Why Kuma’s Backstory Is The Saddest Backstory In All Of One Piece

What Makes Kuma's Backstory So Special

One Piece has often been regarded as the saddest of all of them, and it’s easy to see why. The anime has already highlighted how he used to be a slave, but it goes much further than that, as Kuma spends his formative years being tortured by the Celestial Dragons and dealing with his parents being killed, with his father dying right in front of him just for being too loud. Kuma’s backstory in One Piece is nothing but a tragedy, and the fact that much of it comes from the first chapter says a lot.

Even after gaining his freedom, things arguably just get worse for Kuma. Not only was Kuma’s best friend, Ginny, made into a sex slave of the Celestial Dragons until she died, but when her daughter, Bonney, was stricken with a terminal illness, the only cure offered to her came at the price of Kuma giving up his humanity to become a weapon of the World Government. In the end, the only happy part of Kuma’s life was that he saved Bonney with his sacrifice, and the way everyone who witnessed his final moments was in tears perfectly sold that.

One Piece’s Anime Might Be Making Kuma’s Backstory Even Darker

Why Kuma's Backstory Will Be Even Worse In The Anime

Kuma’s backstory was already hard to sit through in the manga, and the anime is poised to make it even worse. Based on the preview for episode #1129, the anime will be expanding on Kuma’s backstory with new scenes, so everything about One Piece’s direction is poised to make Kuma’s already heartwrenching backstory even worse than it already was. It’s become increasingly common for One Piece’s filler content to be used for effectively expanding on the anime, and Kuma’s backstory is poised to be no different.

All of that, of course, will only serve to make Kuma’s backstory even better. Not only will additional scenes hopefully add further context to everything he goes through to further sell the tragedy of it all, but if the same gorgeous animation that’s been a constant in One Piece for years is present for Kuma’s backstory, then it will make every emotional moment old and new hit that much harder for how beautifully they’re expressed. Kuma’s backstory has the potential to be the best arc in the One Piece anime, and hopefully, it more than lives up to the hype.

One Piece’s Incoming Flashback Is Why The Egghead Arc Is So Great

The Real Reason Why The Egghead Arc Is So Great

Above all else, the reason why Kuma’s backstory is so great is that it highlights the core of what makes the Egghead arc so special. Kuma’s story, at its core, is the story of a man constantly suffering as he tries to do good and what Bonney, the person he gave everything up for, does with that knowledge, so Kuma’s flashback is truly great for establishing the emotional weight of the Egghead arc’s story. All of that was executed perfectly in the One Piece manga, and hopefully, the anime will be more of the same.

One Piece releases new episodes Sundays on Crunchyroll.