Bartholomew Kuma

Bartholomew Kuma (バーソロミュー・くま, Bāsoromyū Kuma) is a shichibukai who was first introduced attending the meeting in Mariejois with Donquixote Doflamingo. Little is known about him except that his former bounty was 296 million belli. "Kuma" means "bear" in Japanese, his animal theme.

Appearance
Kuma is a large man that is usually seen carrying a bible. His hat has bear ears and along with his pants, have bear pawprints all over them. His jacket contains a large white design that looks like a target crosshair and several bear pawprints line the bottom edge of it. His overall appearance looks like a bear. In the anime, Kuma's hair and jacket are black. His hat is gray and the bear pawprints on it are dark brown. The covering of his bible is also shown to be intricately colored.

According to the 2007 calendar, Kuma has a completely different color scheme, than the one presented in the anime, that was originally intended by Oda. Kuma's hair was originally intended to be brown while his jacket to be orange. His hat was intended to yellow with green bear paws. His bible is also shown to be intended to be golden in color.

Personality
Despite his imposing figure, Kuma is a very calm and quiet person as he rarely spoke during his meeting with the World Government. He also paid nearly no attention to Perona while she was threatening. However, it seems when he is looking for someone he has a rather focused mind.

Abilities and Powers
It is unknown if Kuma has a Devil Fruit power however he does seem to have an ability that makes many people vanish. A noteworthy thing is that Kuma had removed the glove on his right hand and had his Bible open before Perona vanished. Kuma asked Perona for somewhere she would like to go before he made she vanish, and also shown a superhuman speed very similar to Rokushiki, which could mean a teleport ability as Nami suggest.

History
According to Perona, Kuma was once a violent tyranical pirate,who was said to "flatted everything who crossed him".Because of an unknown reason,he was known as "violent man" Kuma.

Like Mihawk and Donquixote Doflamingo, he was present at the government summit of Mariejois, following Sir Crocodile's defeat in Arabasta. He has only spoken briefly.

Current Events (Spoilers)


Kuma is currently on Thriller Bark and says he's looking for Moria.

He then intervenes when Perona and her Wild Zombies are attempting to leave Thrillerbark. Perona recognizes Kuma and grows exceedingly annoyed with him. She attempts to fight Kuma for his shadow, though Perona vanishes for unknown reasons, presumably something Kuma did. Kuma spots Nami and asks her if Luffy has an older brother. Afterwards, he continues his search for Moria.

His powers are curently unseen,but he is said to have defeated several zombies "without a sweat".

He refered to Nami as "kitten thief",and calls her a Nakama of Luffy,thusly he must have seen the new wanted posters.

Anime and Manga Differences
In the manga, during the meeting in Mariejois, Kuma had a few lines while in the anime, he had none.

In the manga also, according to the 2007 calendar, Kuma was intended to have a different color scheme than the one he is presented with in the anime. This unfortunately was because no full colored version of Kuma was present when the first episode of him appearing was made.

Trivia

 * Due to his apparently reserved disposition and the fact that he is invariably seen with a large bible, Kuma is likely modeled after Bartholomew "Black Bart" Roberts, a gentleman pirate known for his religious obstinacy.