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One Piece’s anime doesn’t fail to create impactful, emotional moments while following the true essence of the story. Kuma’s backstory is easily one of the saddest parts of the show, but it also has heartwarming moments with his daughter, Bonney. Kuma raised Bonney all by himself, and the anime will soon delve deeper into their relationship. His backstory begins in Episode 1129, where a short sequence features Bonney’s memories of doing the Nika dance with her father. She grew up listening to the story about a warrior who liberates people with a smile on his face. The Buccaneer race idolized Nika, the Warrior of Liberation, and believed he would return again.
Even in his final breath, Kuma’s father continued to believe in the legend passed down among the Buccaneers for centuries. For many people, Nika isn’t just a warrior or a God, he is the ray of hope. In the anime, as Bonney faces a threat to her life, her first thought is about the legendary warrior her father talked about. Luffy, being Nika, the embodiment of freedom, has a lot of significance, and fans love the symbolism. The scene where Kuma and Bonney do the Nika dance is drawn in a sketch-like art style, and it immediately caught everyone’s eye. The scene was so heartwarming that fans started a trend where fathers dance to the OST with their children. This is by far the most wholesome trend in One Piece, but haters will hate anything.
[RELATED: “If They Read It, They Will Cry”: Renowned One Piece Animator Still Hasn’t Read the Series’ Best Backstory]
One Piece’s Latest Trend Is Being Called Corny and Cringe
Several accounts shared these TikTok videos, and some of them even went viral. While most fans loved the videos, some comments outright disliked them, while others tried to deflect the reference. @infamou21846226 wrote, “You all gotta be the most corny fanbase in Shonen.”
“‘People from around the world are doing the Nika dance.’ Like hell if the episode reached all the globe,” replied @MohamedGam32959.
@td0985921 commented, but others soon debunked them, “It’s called glide step, bruh. It has various variations, some of them have been a TikTok trend like 2 years ago, and some of them went to YouTube in 2016, it’s getting tired of One Piece reference after Jojo reference.”
Of course, it’s also worth noting that One Piece’s massive popularity also means not everyone has to like it or everything about it. Even among the dedicated fanbase, there’s a considerable number of fans who still don’t like the Gear 5 transformation. When the transformation debuted, a certain part of the fanbase didn’t like its goofiness, which sparked a lot of controversy. That also means Nika, the form that Luffy takes in Gear 5, wouldn’t be everyone’s favorite either, even if it’s a crucial part of the story.
Kuma’s backstory is currently ongoing in the anime and will continue to break our hearts with the tragedy for the next few episodes. We are close to getting the answers about Kuma’s actions in the pre-time skip era, as well as the reason he volunteered to become a mindless weapon.
You can stream the latest episodes as their air brand new on Crunchyroll, Sundays at 8:45 AM PT/11:45 AM ET.
