Kuma Bartholomew

Kuma Bartholomew (くま・バーソロミュー, Kuma Bāsoromyū) is a Warlord, formerly a Revolutionary with a bounty of 340,000,000 Berries. He was once feared as an extremely vicious pirate, earning himself the title, "Mountain Tyrant" (山暴君, Yama Bō-kun). He is also the very first completed, but a unusual type of cyborg called "Pacifista" developed by Dr. Vegapunk and has been codenamed as: PX-0 (ピーエックス・ゼロ, Pī-Ekkusu Zero).

He is a minor antagonist of the Long Ring Long Land Arc, and a major antagonist in the Navyford Arc, where he took part in the Battle of Navyford and sided with the Navy, along with most of the other Seven Warlords of the Sea.

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 * —Kuma Bartholomew.

Appearance

 * Voice Actor: Joel McDonald (English), Hideyuki Hori (Japanese), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (German), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (French), Not Known (Latin American Spanish)

Biography
One of the Seven Warlords of the Sea and an officer of the Revolutionary Army.

With the power of the Paramythia Curséd Fruit, Paw-Paw Fruit, he can repel everything he touches.

Among the Royal Seven Warlords, he was obedient to the World Government.

Once a pirate nicknamed the "Tyrant", he has been turned into a cybernetic living weapon by the government.

Appearance
Kuma is an enormous man, (22'7"), making him the tallest of all the Seven Warlords and is usually seen carrying a Bible. His animal theme is a bear.

The Young Past Days
In SBS Volume 63, Oda drew the Seven Warlords as children, Kuma had short hair and was missing his bear ears hat, glasses, and cybernetic enhancements he receives later on. He wore tattered clothing and wooden sandals carrying a heavy load of chopped firewood on his back while reading a book called "Ninokin". His depiction has similarities with Ninomiya Sontoku, a famous philosopher of the 19th century. Many statues portray him holding a book while he walks with a heavy load on his back.

Pre-Timeskip
His overall appearance resembles that of a bear, though there are a few key differences. His eyes are strangely covered by either a pair of glasses or clear-mirrored lenses. While initially he will give the impression of wearing glasses, it seems that, based on the Pacifistas that were destroyed, those are actually his own eyes.

His hat features a pair of rounded ears, and, along with the dark blue fabric of his pants, is covered in brown spots. His jacket contains a large white design reminiscent of a target cross-hair or a coda sign. There are also several white paw prints lining the bottom hem of his coat. He also has a long protruding chin. He bears the tattoo "PX-0" on the left side of the base of his throat.

Kuma's hair and jacket are black, and his hat is gray with black paw-like prints. The covering of his Bible is also shown to be intricately colored purple. In the Unlimited game series, Kuma's jacket is brown.

Post-Timeskip

 * Hair Color: Black
 * Skin Color: Brown-Tan
 * Eye Color: Not Known
 * Age: 45 (debut), 47 (after timeskip)
 * Birthday: February 9th
 * Height: 692 cm. (22'7")
 * Weight: Not Known

Personality
Despite his imposing figure and his past reputation, Kuma Bartholomew is a very calm and quiet person. In addition to his demeanor, he can also be seen as somewhat of a benevolent character, especially compared to the other Warlords. This assumption can be reached through some of his actions, specifically when he spared the lives of the Straw Hats and Fairy Tail on certain, but separate occasions.

When talking, Kuma customarily uses the word target in his sentences. He also tends to ask a person where they would like to go on a trip before he sends them away with his Curséd Fruit ability, often honoring the recipient's request, but will occasionally send them to a place of his own choosing regardless of whether or not he received a reply.

Although he obeys the commands of the World Government, Kuma disagrees with what his superiors deem "good" and "evil" in the world. Instead, Kuma strives to uphold his own ideals (described as Moral Justice) whenever possible. He even goes so far as to speculate that Blackbeard's acceptance into the Warlord ranks had been a very poor decision by the government, despite the fact that it filled the position left by Crocodile's defeat. However, Kuma's loyalty does not extend to the Navy. This can be seen when he declines to answer a direct question from Admirals Aokiji, Kizaru or Akainu during the Sabaody Archipelago Arc. Due to his refusal to assist the Navy without a direct order, Kuma did not hesitate to lie when it came to his victory over the Straw Hats at Sabaody Archipelago.

There are still several mysteries behind Kuma's character. The details behind his transformation into a "Pacifista" and what exactly it entails are still remaining unknown. He also whispered a message to Rayleigh Silvers during the battle at the Sabaody Archipelago, which the old pirate believes puts the other man at risk. It was revealed much later.

"I work for the Revolutionary Army. Since we have a connection, I want to help this group (Fairy Tail and Straw Hat Pirates) escape."
 * —Kuma's message to Rayleigh.

Kuma was shown to be a brilliant agent of deception, managing to successfully manipulate the World Government from discovering his true affiliation towards the Revolutionary Army for several years, managing to be appointed to the position of Warlord. Despite being perceived as the most dutiful of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, Kuma still held enough of his convictions to adamantly refuse to directly address Navy as high-ranked as Admiral Aokiji, Kizaru, or Akainu. He was generally calm and composed in any situation, and is subtle in his attaining of goals (such as not revealing to the Straw Hat Pirates and Fairy Tail the exact reasons for testing their power twice and then separating them across the world for future preparation). He also demonstrated great loyalty and honor to his cause in defending the "Thousand Sunny" from a continuous stream of assault over the course of two years, not moving to even recover from his injuries. His combat abilities are also demonstrated with expert use, Kuma using it for offense, defense and travel and often in quick succession of the previous action.

Friends/Allies

 * Revolutionary Army
 * Dragon D. Monkey
 * Ivankov Emporio
 * Straw Hat Pirates
 * Luffy D. Monkey
 * Zolo Roronoa
 * Sanji Vinsmoke
 * Fairy Tail
 * Team Natsu
 * Natsu Dragneel
 * Erza Scarlet
 * Gray Fullbuster

Neutral

 * Seven Warlords of the Sea
 * Doflamingo Don Quixote
 * Moria Gecko
 * Mihawk Dracule
 * Hancock Boa
 * Navy
 * Sengoku
 * Aokiji
 * Kizaru
 * Akainu
 * Sentomaru
 * World Government
 * Dr. Vegapunk
 * Whitebeard Pirates
 * Ace D. Portgaz

Enemies

 * Blackbeard Pirates
 * Blackbeard

Abilities and Powers
Even prior to his become of a Pacifista, Kuma is secretly a commander in the Revolutionary Army; as a result, he has control over the lower ranking members of the Revolutionary Army.

Kuma was shown to be brilliant at deception, managing to successfully trick the World Government about his true affiliation towards the Revolutionary Army for several years, as well as being elected to the position of one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Kuma Bartholomew is currently one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, a group which is one of The Three Great Powers. Kuma is easily one of the most powerful characters that have appeared in the series.

Kuma is one of the few people to have completely defeated the entire Straw Hat Pirates and Fairy Tail, and is also the only character introduced so far that has defeated the crew single-handedly, twice. However, the crew was extremely weak in the Tartaros Arc and they were in no shape to fight another battle, much less a Warlord (the crew and mages had just finished battling Tartaros, as well as a Pacifista while fending off a second, the Navy Admirals and Sentomaru). He did not want any of them dead, however, since he allowed them to escape, indicating he might have held back.

He is extremely fast, enough to seem as though he has disappeared in the eyes of the Straw Hats This is, however, unclear if it has something to do with the modifications from Dr. Vegapunk, or if it is part of his Cursed Fruit powers, or simply being his raw speed.

He has such a fierce reputation that even other powerful and famous pirates are unnerved by him as seen with the captain of the Kid Pirates, Kid Eustass, actually seemed heavily disturbed when he witnessed the arrival of a Pacifista cyborg (mistaking it for the real Kuma) on the Sabaody Archipelago, close to where his crew were, despite the fact that his bounty was higher than Kuma's former bounty, demonstrating how his strength is even greater than that implied by his frozen bounty in the eyes of others.

Geographical Knowledge
Through his actions he appears to have a great knowledge in geography, as with his powers he knows exactly where he is sending someone seemingly no matter where in the world he is. His knowledge degree is wide enough to perfectly locate even a moving sky island, although his cyborg modifications may have enhanced this ability. This also shown when he asks people where they would like to go before he "pushes" them.

Curséd Fruit

 * Main article: Paw-Paw Fruit

"If you were to go on a trip... where would you like to go?"
 * —Kuma before using his Curséd Fruit powers.

Kuma ate the Paw-Paw Fruit, a Paramythia-type Curséd Fruit gives him paw pads which give him the power to "push" anything, including the air around him, in paw-shaped bubbles; allowing him to not only defend himself from attacks but also to push objects at great speed, making him a "Paw Man". The fruit's powers also allow him to move at the same speed as the objects he pushes, possibly by using it to push himself, appearing instantaneously at a desired location regardless of distance, all the while he moves with no more than a slow walk. He can also extract pain from one and transfer it to or make it simply begone.

Kuma has made numerous people "vanish" by slapping them with one of his hands. It is later revealed that he pushes them away, sending them flying to another destination, which he can choose, even if the destination requires several days to reach.

Kuma has also shown the ability to "push" or deflect things that lack palpability such as people's pain and exhaustion. This is shown when Kuma took all of the pain that Luffy had suffered and left him feeling completely healthy, meaning that his abilities can be used to heal people and cure them. However, in this case, Kuma removed Luffy's pain because Zolo had agreed to accept it in his place. It is not clear what would happen if the pain, which took the form of a giant bubble, had not been transferred to Zolo.

Kuma fights in a style reminiscent of sumo-wrestling. He crouches low in a wide stance, even using the signature stomp, and attacks with open-palm strikes, using his special paws to launch powerful air bullets. Much in keeping with the sumo inspiration, Kuma spends almost all of his time with his feet planted, refusing to give his ground. He has also demonstrated the ability to block all physical attacks, even sword attacks, by pushing them away with these hands.

Kuma's abilities can also be used to create massively destructive attacks. This is displayed by one of his signature moves, "Ursa Shock", essentially a "bomb" made of highly compressed air created by pushing the air between his hands. This destructive power is enough to severely cripple a massive giant, in this case Oars Jr.

Techniques

 * Pad Cannon (パッド砲, Paddo Hō): Kuma repels the air around him, sending a devastating shockwave toward his opponent at the speed of light. The shock wave can travel directly through the body of the victim and continue into the distance, leaving paw imprints in its wake. Anyone and anything that is in the path of the blast receives serious damage. This attack was first seen when it was used on a Neptunian, the Master of the Waters.


 * Thrust Pad Cannon (つっぱりパッド砲, Tsuppari Paddo Hō): Kuma first plants both feet firmly on the ground by means of a sumo-style foot stomp. Then, throwing his palms forward multiple times, Kuma fires a vast number of "pressure shots" at the enemy. The way he pushes his palms forward and the stance he takes while performing this technique resemble those used commonly in sumo wrestling. Tsuppari is a thrusting open-handed strike about the upper chest and face, a technique in Sumo. This technique was first seen used against Zolo and Erza.


 * Ursa Shock (ウルスス･ショック, Urususu Shokku): Kuma gathers air with his palms and compresses it into a giant bubble which resembles a paw-print. Once the bubble is compact enough to fit within his hands, he releases the compressed air and sends it toward his opponent. The air quickly decompresses, causing a massive explosion in the form of a bear paw. The force of this blast was powerful enough to knock out most of Kuma's targets on Long Ring Long Land, as well as encompass the entire island and a sizable portion of the ocean. This was also able to cause massive damage to Oars Jr., a giant of abnormal size. He has shown the ability to control the direction of the attack. Unfortunately for him, this attack requires a fair amount of time to complete given to the amount of air needed and also leaves Kuma vulnerable to any attack given that he has to use both hands to form the attack. However, in Kuma's specific case that might not be such a big problem, due to his pacifista modification. "Ursa" is Latin for "Bear" and the scientific name of a genus of bears. The Viz translation is likely a reference to the constellation Ursa Major (also known as "The Great Bear").


 * Bear Claw (熊の手, Kuma no Te): Kuma lands from the ground from mid-air with great force. This sends a powerful shockwave that blows away the enemies around him. This technique was first used in Fairy One Piece Tail: Pirate Warriors 2.
 * Squish (ぷに, Puni): Kuma takes a defensive posture that uses his paw pads to repel and counter enemy attacks. Named in Fairy One Piece Tail: Burning Blood.

Pacifista Modifications

 * Main article: Pacifistas

Kuma is now a cyborg modified by Vegapunk. He is however, very different from other cyborgs, and displays strength and agility that are on a different scale.

As with the other Pacifista models, Kuma has a built-in electronic recognition device within his pupils, which enables him to accurately identify certain individuals (presumably anybody that is listed within the World Government's bounty system) and their bounty count from across a distance of several dozen meters.

Kuma has at least equivalent to possibly superior durability compared to other Pacifista; the average Pacifista model is capable of withstanding a combination assault from the pre-timeskip monster- trio. His body is able to withstand most attacks, including Sanji's kicks and even Zolo's "One Sword Style: Lion's Strike", a technique that was able to cut through steel. It only left a scratch on Kuma despite it being a surprise attack.

Even after two years of accumulated damage, lack of repair, and lack of sustenance intake, Kuma was still operational.

As a Pacifista, Kuma has the ability to shoot laser beams, which not only causes massive explosions upon detonation, but can also melt steel. This laser is apparently a replication of Kizaru's Glint-Glint Fruit powers and for Kuma, this launcher is only installed in his mouth. In the other Pacifista, the launcher is installed on their palms as well. Kuma has his paw pads instead of the laser holes on his hands; it is this aspect, along with the bible that only he holds, and his voice doesn't sound robotic, these distinguish him from the other Pacifista, and makes him superior to them.

Past
According to Perona, Kuma was once a violent, tyrannical large pirate, who was said to be "brutal beyond measure". Because of this, he was known as "Mountain Tyrant" Kuma. Whether this was true or not remains to be seen.

Revolutionary Army
Twelve years before the current storyline, he was on a crew with Dragon D. Monkey and Ivankov Emporio. He witnessed the immolation of Gray Terminal, assisting the survivors on board the revolutionaries' ship.

While this crew was a precursor to the Revolutionaries, it is unknown if Kuma remained with Dragon after he began his campaign against the World Government. In this time, though, he learned of Dragon's son, Luffy D. Monkey; considering that not even Ivankov knew of Luffy, Rex, and Dragon's relationship, this means that Kuma was either incredibly close to Dragon, or that he had been informed of their relationship by Sengoku, Garp or Akainu after he became a Warlord, since they were the only ones in the Navy to know that Dragon is Rex's older brother, as Rex is Luffy's father.

Seven Warlords of the Sea and the Pacifista Project
He later became a Warlord and allowed Dr. Vegapunk to modify him into the cyborg weapon "Pacifista". He apparently struck some sort of deal with the World Government to become a guinea pig for this human weapon project, despite his hatred towards them, but as of yet there has been no further details revealed regarding this clandestine agreement, the processes involved in the creation of Pacifista, or the relationship between Kuma and the mysterious Vegapunk.

Jaya Arc
Kuma was introduced during the meeting at Marie Jois. Like Doflamingo Don Quixote and later on Mihawk Dracule, he was present at the government summit at Marie Jois, following Crocodile's defeat in Alabasta. He only spoke briefly. Just then they are interrupted by another person, a silhouette of a man is seen greeting himself as an observer also, but stating he wishes to take part in the meeting. He is identified by one of the Navy as Raffit, a policeman who was renowned for his violent ways and exiled from the West Blue. He states he wishes to put forward his captain's name for nomination of the Seven Warlords. The name of "Teech" is put forward by Raffit. He is told that because he is an unknown pirate, he is of little value to them. But Raffit states they are working on that and to remember the name of the Blackbeard Pirates.

Canon

 * Kuma Bartholomew vs. a group of pirates
 * Kuma Bartholomew vs. Robin Nico
 * Kuma Bartholomew vs. Luffy D. Monkey, Natsu Dragneel, Zolo Roronoa, Erza Scarlet, Sanji Vinsmoke, and Gray Fullbuster
 * Kuma Bartholomew vs. PX-1 vs. Straw Hat Pirates and Fairy Tail
 * Seven Warlords of the Sea and the Navy vs. Whitebeard Pirates and their allies
 * Kuma Bartholomew, Doflamingo Don Quixote, and Moria Gecko vs. Little Oars Jr.
 * Kuma Bartholomew vs. Ivankov Emporio
 * Kuma Bartholomew, Hatchan, and Rosy Life Riders vs. every attacker of the Thousand Sunny

Non-Canon

 * Kuma Bartholomew vs. Sabo

Appearance
In the manga and Unlimited Cruise, Kuma's paw pads are black, like a bear's. However, in the anime, the paw pads are pink, like a cat's (which may play off a concept in Robin's head of Kuma's Curséd Fruit reminding her of a cat's pads).

Jaya Arc
During the meeting in Mariejois in the manga, Kuma had a few lines, but in the anime, he had none.

Long Ring Long Land Arc
In the manga originally, Kuma met the Straw Hat Pirates and Team Natsu at Tonjit's hut after the Davy Back Fight. In the anime, he met them much later at a different island and showed his powers helping some shipwrecked passengers as opposed to Tonjit.

Post-War Arc
In the manga, during the flashback where Dragon saves people from the fire in Grey Terminal, Kuma's clothing is not shown, just the common Revolutionary Army cloak and the ears that belong to his hat. In the anime, it is revealed that Kuma had the same clothing then that he does now.

Translation and Dub Issues

 * "Kuma” means "bear" in Japanese, which represents his character's animal theme.

Notes & Trivia

 * Kuma is the only known person to be affiliated with pirates, the Revolutionaries, the Navy, and the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
 * In the 5th fan poll, Kuma ranked 85th, making him the least popular of the Warlords both current and previous.
 * He is the first cyborg to appear in the series, though he wasn't revealed as one until the Thriller Bark Arc.
 * In Fairy One Piece Tail: Pirate Warriors 3, Kuma's Bible is referred as Book of Bears and appears as a rare coin. The Book of Bears coin can be obtained by getting Kuma's Crew Level to MAX (Level 5). It is one of the 4 rare coins needed to break Kuma's level limit.