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. His former bounty was 296 million belli and he was once feared as a pirate so vicious, that he earned the title of being called "Tyrant". "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 spots all over them. His jacket contains a large white design that looks like a target crosshair and several bear paw prints line the bottom edge of it. He is roughly the same size as Moria. His overall appearance looks like a bear. In the anime, Kuma's hair and jacket are black. His hat is gray and the spots 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 and his past reputation, Kuma is a very calm and quiet person. Though he obeys the World Government, Kuma appears to be a rather benevolent character who seems to have a rather pacifistic view, and appears to actually care for the state of world. When he met up with Moria, he offered help in the chance that Moria may be defeated despite not being given an order to do. When ordered to kill all the witnesses to Moria's defeat, he offered them alternatives for them to survive despite being told to leave no survivors. Kuma even fears that Blackbeard's acceptance into the Shichibukai ranks may be a bad thing despite it filling up the gap left by Crocodile. Kuma overall appears to be not totally blind to what is good and bad as commonly defined by the World Government, unlike others such as Rob Lucci or Akainu for instance.

When talking, Kuma usually uses target metaphors in his sentences such as "We now have the same target" or "You're right on target, I am Kuma".

Relationships
Unlike most of the other Shichibukai, Kuma is the only one who is truly obedient to the World Government. For this, the World Government values him and his abilities very much. According to Moria, Kuma is to be feared more than any other Shichibukai.

Kuma seems to know Dragon and the fact that Luffy is his son. Why he knows and what relationship he might have with Dragon is currently unknown.

Abilities and Powers
Kuma is a cyborg modified by Dr. Vegapunk. He is however unlike Franky. He has a body stronger than steel that is able to withstand most attacks, as noted by Sanji who instead felt pain himself after kicking Kuma's face. With his modifications, he is as of yet an incomplete weapon of the World Government and the Marines, called a "Pacifista". IN terms of fighting style, he fight using what appears to be similar to sumo-wrestling

Devil Fruit
Kuma ate the Nikyu Nikyu no Mi, making him a "Paw Paw Man". This Devil Fruit gives him the power to deflect anything.

Past History
According to Perona, Kuma was once a violent tyrannical pirate, who was said to "flatten everything who crossed him". Because of this, he was known as Kuma "the Tyrant".

Meeting at Mariejois
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.

Coming to Thriller Bark
With orders from the World Government to inform Gecko Moria of Crocodile's replacement, Kuma came to Thriller Bark. Arriving there, he asked some of Moria's Zombie minions, who were loading stuff onto the Thousand Sunny, where their master would be. He however was meet with some resistance from them and was forced to deal with them. His actions however weren't unnoticed as the zombies reported his doings to the person they were to ordered to follow, Perona. Perona however recognized Kuma and shook in fear at his sight.

Despite Kuma's reputation however, Perona got annoyed with him and attempted to fight the Shichibukai for his shadow. However asking her where she would like to go and removing a glove, he somehow made her vanish. The zombies around seeing this tried to attack him but were frightened off by his mere presence. Kuma then spotted Nami and asked her if Luffy has an older brother. After receiving her answer, he then somehow teleported away and continued his search for Moria.

Kuma then found Moria in the dance hall in the Mast Mansion of Thriller Bark. After some formalities, he told Moria of Crocodile's replacement, Marshall D. Teach. Though the gap in the Shichibukai ranks had been filled up, he told Moria that he felt somewhat uneasy of the situation. Kuma then told Moria that since the Straw Hats were most likely to come in Moria's vicinity, he should do something about them. He explained to Moria this since the World Government had grown greatly alert of the pirates since the events at Enies Lobby. Though he wasn't given a specific order, he offered to help Moria in dealing with the Straw Hats. Moria however angrily declined Kuma's help and told him to instead sit back and watch as Moria himself defeats the Straw Hats.

Current Events (Spoilers)
However despite Moria's boasting, Kuma witnessed Moria get beaten by Luffy. After the battle, Kuma then reported this to the World Government. Fearful that the rumors of Gecko's defeat will cause another global uproar like with Crocodile, they ordered Kuma to kill all witnesses on Thriller Bark including the Straw Hat Pirates. Accepting the order, he launched an attack on some of the members of the Thriller Bark Victim's Association before shifting his attention to Zoro. Kuma weakens Zoro, and uses his Devil Fruit ability to take down Franky and Sanji. He gives them an ultimatum: let him kill Luffy, and he lets them live. When they refuse him, Kuma calmly detonates the entire island.

Though this does not succeed in killing the Straw Hats, it knocks out all of them out. Just when he is about to finish an unconscious Luffy off, Zoro strikes him with a Shishi Sonson (Lion's song) and is able to damage him. The wound on Kuma's shoulder reveals that he is a Cyborg. He then reveals that he is different from Cyborg Franky. Kuma is an incomplete human weapon created by the World Government and Dr. Vegapunk, known as a Pacifista. Zoro offers to trade his life for Luffy's, seeing no other way. Kuma agrees and at that moment, Sanji decides to give his life up. Zoro promptly knocks him out. Kuma uses his Devil Fruit to project Luffy's pain onto Zoro. Kuma then teleports to the entrance to the ship. He is last seen musing about Dragon, having a good son with a loyal crew.

He was most recenty seen in Mariejoa with Fleet Admiral Sengoku and Vice Admiral Garp .Sengoku commented on what a failure it was to let the Strawhats get away, when he had direct orders from the Government and Kuma continued to pretend he wasn't able to capture them.

Major Battles

 * vs. Zoro

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.

Translation and Dub Issues
"Pacifista" is the Italian word for "Pacifist". In the FUNimation dub, when introduced, the text displaying "BIBLE" is edited out on Kuma's book, mostly due to religious controversy. A similar approach was done for the renaming of Jesus Burgess.

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.