One Piece Preview Sets Up Kuma’s Revolutionary Turn

One Piece is now in the midst of a special flashback arc exploring Bartholomew Kuma’s past for the first time, and the preview for the next episode of the anime is teasing his turn into a Revolutionary Army fighter. One Piece: Egghead Arc returned for the highly anticipated Part 2 of its run earlier this Spring after six months of a hiatus, and the anime resumed all of the chaos around Dr. Vegapunk’s future island laboratory. But surprisingly, the series has taken a detour from the present day to highlight Kuma’s past with his daughter, the Worst Generation member Jewelry Bonney.

One Piece‘s latest string of episodes kicked off this look into their shared past with the reveal that Kuma has lived a heartbreaking life. Born into a clan that’s gone extinct due to the danger they pose to the government, Kuma finally found some peace as he and fellow escaped slave Ginny have made a new home on a quiet island. But the preview for One Piece Episode 1131 teases that happiness doesn’t last for long as Kuma is forced to fight to protect people. Check it out in the video above.

How to Watch One Piece Episode 1131

One Piece Episode 1131 is titled “A Fleeting Moment of Happiness – Kumachi and Ginny,” and will be making its debut on Sunday, June 1st in Japan. The episode will be streaming with Crunchyroll when it hits (and will be releasing with Netflix about a week after), and the episode preview teases it as such, “Escaping the yoke of slavery, Kuma and Ginny spend their days fueled with laughter. However, the ruthless king tramples on the happiness of his people! For the sake of freedom, Kuma and Ginny are determined to fight the government. Will their hope be able to change the world?!”

One Piece Episode 1131 teases that while Kuma and Ginny are able to spend some time living a peaceful life together, it’s not long before chaos finds the two of them once more. It’s simply heartbreaking to see how much he’s gone through, and somehow it’s even more cruel to find that he found happiness again and it’s going to be stripped away. It’s likely why he eventually becomes a major figure of the Revolutionary Army as we see him making a decision to fight in this preview as well.

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What’s Next for Kuma’s Origin?

One Piece is really only getting started with its deeper dive into Kuma’s past. There are still several gaps that need to be filled such as who Ginny ends up being, and more of Kuma’s adult life before he gets turned into a Pacifista. Kuma’s flashback began with a heartbreaking start as he was taken into slavery as a child, and his parents were killed shortly after. It meant that he was alone for a long time before meeting Ivankov and Ginny, who helped him to escape.

It’s clear that although he was able to escape from slavery, Kuma’s troubles had only just begun. With still much more about his past needing to be revealed, and more connections to the present day needing to be explained, it’s now just a matter of seeing just how this all goes back to Bonney at the center of it all. It will all mean something to the rest of the arc, and One Piece is going to show off even more of its past as it explains things.