Bartholomew Kuma & Positive Masculinity: One Piece’s Ideal Man
Is this Eiichiro Oda’s Tragic Guide to Being a Good Man?
*Spoilers if you’re not up to date with the One Piece manga*
“What the world needs now is liberated men who have the qualities Silverstein cites, men who are ‘empathetic and strong, autonomous and connected, responsible to self, to family and friends, to society, and capable of understanding how those responsibilities are, ultimately, inseparable.’” ~ bell hooks, The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love
Best believe I’m putting yet another bell hooks quote in an anime piece, you all know what I’m about by now.
So, with the rise of the manosphere, Black men’s rights activists, a loud minority of “Divestors”, and a raging epidemic of the most boring f*cking men picking up podcast microphones, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting about masculinity — both in general and how it relates to myself and the men I know. I’ve thought about how growing up in a matriarchal home with a largely female support network shaped the ways in which I view and perform masculinity, how it shaped how I deal with emotions, how it affected my relationships with women, and how this will, in turn, affect how I intend to nurture the young men who have been born into my life.
Also, crucially, because I’m a f*ckin nerd, I’ve taken into consideration how the media that I consume jives with common barometers of masculinity and what it means to be a good man — something I’m still learning about as I approach my 30s. I’ve thought about my favourite shows, movies, podcasts, musical acts, and books. But what I’ve found most interesting to ponder during my little thought experiment is my favourite manga: One Piece.
Quick rundown for those of you who don’t know, (welcome, watch Rye Lane, read All About Love, Kier Starmer’s a wet wipe, etc) One Piece, depending on who you ask, is either a silly pirate manga or it’s a deceptively dark dystopian fantasy epic covering themes that include *deep breath* authoritarianism, genocide, slavery, racism, access to healthcare, freedom, corruption, classism, elitism, social cleansing, ethnic cleansing, colonization, justice, militarism, media bias, self-love, generational trauma, etc etc. Personally, I think it’s both.
Overall, One Piece’s depiction of what it means to be a good man is a particularly interesting one. The very first chapter of the manga is a speedrun in how Luffy becomes the man he is now. His mentor, Red-Haired Shanks, who is one of the most powerful characters in the series and the best swordsman in the world (again, depends on who you ask but try not to) admonishes Luffy for hurting himself to prove that he’s a man; he deliberately loses a fight he easily could have won, choosing to only engage in physical domination (the bad kind ya sicko) to protect those he cares about; and sacrifices a limb to protect Luffy. There’s also a particularly beautiful moment in a much later chapter where Shanks monologues about how important it is for a man to cry and accept his failures as things to learn and grow from.
So you might think, “Well there it is, that’s the ideal man in One Piece, man this article was pretty short for one of Jake’s”.
Well, no.
Because while Shanks at least appears to be a good man, he’s also a pirate, and while pirates like Luffy are capable of doing great good, they’re also capable of doing great evil. It could be argued that a life of piracy in the One Piece world is an inherently selfish & hedonistic one, and that those who choose this life are neglecting the greater good.
Luffy is the perfect example, choosing to liberate islands from oppressive leaders and taking on an authoritarian, genocidal world government, but only choosing to do so when he or the people he comes to care about are directly affected by them. What makes Luffy such an interesting and complex (yes, Luffy is a complex character, ignore Boruto Twitter, they’re starving) character is that he will also happily do incredibly immoral and selfish things like freeing the world’s worst prisoners to save his own brother who (and I really need to stress this) was imprisoned on entirely legitimate grounds (some would excuse the dire consequences of Luffy’s actions in Impel Down as being unintentional, but I would direct you to the part where these consequences are explicitly pointed out to him and he simply does not give a sh*t).
All this to say that, in my view, Oda’s representation of the ideal man can’t really be a pirate, they’re too selfish and will ultimately be rendered obsolete at the end of the series. Nor can it be a marine, even the most well-intentioned of them are made painfully aware that they’re serving a corrupt government. They’re the liberals and the centrists of the One Piece world who can only think about operating inside or on the fringes of an unjust system rather than tearing it down completely for the greater good.
No, the ideal man of One Piece is actually a revolutionary.
Bartholomew Kuma, This Is Your Awful, Awful Life
If you’re familiar with the work of Eiichiro Oda, you’ll know that among other things, one of the biggest feathers in his cap is his ability to write insanely engaging backstories, they serve to detail how the injustice of the One Piece world has shaped our characters into who they are today, often through intense trauma. Backstories can range from a character watching their entire island be wiped out by the world government to another character falling down the stairs; super tragic sh*t like that which serves to add incredible levels of depth to both the characters (major and minor) and the world.
Prior to his backstory, Bartholomew Kuma’s journey through the minds of One Piece fans has been a fascinating one. He was introduced to us as a terrifying tyrant and one of the seven warlords of the seas (pirates who are granted immunity from the world government as long as they don’t ruffle any important feathers); he goes from a recurring antagonist who terrorizes the Straw Hat Pirates, almost kills Zoro, and delivers one of the most crushing defeats you’ll ever see to Luffy and his crew in Saobody, to a mindless cyborg whose body and likeness are used to create government-sanctioned killing machines. Despite all of this, however, there was always the sense that there was more to this character.
As we’re drip-fed more information about Kuma’s character throughout the series, we learn of his importance as a core member of the Revolutionary Army and ally of Luffy’s father, we learn that Kuma is the father of one of Luffy’s “rivals” Jewellery Bonney, and we learn how he has both protected and spared the lives of Luffy and his crew on numerous occasions. It isn’t until his backstory, beginning at the end of chapter 1095, that we learn the full context of Kuma’s life; his birth into slavery due to his race; the source of his unique powers; how he meets the love of his life, Ginny; her tragic death and the birth of her daughter, Bonney; Kuma’s relationship with Bonney; his work with the revolutionaries; and his ultimate sacrifice to the world government to save her from disease.
What’s particularly fascinating about this backstory is that throughout its entirety, there’s one prevailing impression we’re left with, chapter after chapter: Bartholomew Kuma is a good man.
Perhaps even… the goodest man…
While many enjoy this backstory for its beautiful character work, how it ties into One Piece lore (one of the most extensive in pretty much any story ever), and how it solves so many mysteries and provides a few more; what I’ve really enjoyed about Kuma’s backstory is how it provides the perfect speedrun of what Oda believes a truly good man to be and what he sees as a positive brand of masculinity.
So let’s get into what these qualities are:
A Good Man is Kind, Humble, and Cares for the Vulnerable
One of the main characteristics that stands out about Kuma is just how good-natured he is. From childhood, Kuma is respectful to everyone he speaks to, he is constantly shown caring for those less fortunate than him, and he is constantly willing to go to extraordinary lengths for the wellbeing of others (including people who have nothing to do with him). This characteristic is clear in every action Kuma takes but is especially apparent when he chooses to become a pastor and care for the poor and elderly of his home village.
A Good Man is Honourable and Loyal
Arguably the trait that is most valued in One Piece and Shonen manga in general is loyalty, that’s why the greatest crime a character can commit is showing no regard for your friends and loved ones (unless you’re Sasuke Uchiha). Kuma is fiercely loyal to all those he cares for, always checking in on those who need him in his village, and becoming a trusted partner to Monkey D. Dragon, a man so distrustful and cautious that he doesn’t even risk making himself known to his own son; Bartholomew Kuma is a man who is trustworthy and reliable.
A Good Man Endeavours To Listen To, Care For, and Respect Women
While shonen manga is known for its fairly lackluster depictions of women, Eiichiro Oda — despite having a love of perverted gags and generous female proportions that can be off-putting to some — actually has a fairly decent track record on writing layered, 3-dimensional female characters who are integral to the plot while having their own agency. This trend is even more apparent in the role that women play in Kuma’s backstory, it’s shown in how he respects, cares for, pampers, and shows love to Bonney and Ginny; how he accepts the help of Conney, the wise queen dowager of Kuma’s kingdom, or even the brief interaction he has with Ginny’s replacement in the revolutionary army, Betty, giving her his blessing to take Ginny’s place and citing the need for strong female leadership in the organization. Women play a key role in Kuma’s life, and it’s clear that he’d be nowhere without them and knows it.
I would also add that Kuma works with, befriends, aids, and respects Emporio Ivankov, the ruler of Kamabakka Kingdom and a member of One Piece’s LGBTQ+ community. Kuma trusts Ivonakov and their kingdom enough to entrust a key member of Luffy’s crew to their care.
A Good Man Loves and Cares for His Children
Probably the thing that tugs at the heartstrings the most is how Kuma’s backstory depicts fatherhood. Due to their emphasis on freedom and pursuing a man’s dreams, many Shonen series including One Piece are full of men who tend to be less than perfect fathers, often being seen to neglect, abuse (under the guise of making them stronger), and straight-up abandon their children. Kuma is simply built different.
When Kuma discovers the newborn Bonney next to the body of his deceased love, he takes responsibility for her without a moment’s hesitation, vowing to love her as his own. What we see then is a masterclass in shonen parenting; we see Kuma taking advice from the village elders on how to feed Bonney and how to accommodate the perfect sleeping arrangements for her; we see him gently admonish her for disobeying him before immediately reaffirming his love for her; we see him listen to her expression of insecurity and encourage her to love her perceived imperfection; he constantly dotes over her and dances with her; he encourages her intellectual curiosity and imagination; he constantly seeks to spend quality time with her; and when she gets sick, he travels the entire world looking to cure her, ultimately making a deal with the devil to do it.
Throughout the entirety of Kuma’s flashback, one thing is made incredibly clear, this man loves his daughter and wants her to know that there is value in her existence (a kindness I wish had been extended towards himself). This is even sweeter when you consider the common fan theory that Kuma’s love for Bonney is inspired by Oda’s love for his own daughter, showing us once again that Kuma’s behaviour is the ideal here.
A Good Man is Selfless
This man is a damn saint. Throughout his backstory, we constantly see Kuma putting the well-being of others over himself. Whether it’s small gestures like giving Ginny his food despite being bigger than her and needing more (the literal opposite of what Luffy wants for his life), or his many large sacrifices like using his power to take the pain of the sick and elderly into himself, Kuma is a very selfless man. One of his last acts is a testament to this with him sacrificing his free will to save Bonney and later enduring two years of countless attacks to protect the Straw Hat’s ship in their absence, Kuma’s selflessness is almost unparalleled within the One Piece universe.
A Good Man is Clever, Studious and Culturally-Curious
While there is an air of naivety to Kuma, it also can’t be denied that he’s highly intelligent, well-spoken, and intellectually curious. During his time away from Bonney, Kuma marvels at the cultures that he’s able to learn about as he travels the world and writes her beautiful letters describing them. The ways in which Kuma is able to tow the line between remaining faithful to the government, but also refusing to let them have their way shows incredible levels of planning and forethought as well as a mental quickness and ability to think on his feet, and we see as a child with his head buried in a book.
A Good Man Allows Himself to Cry
One of my favourite things about the art in One Piece is, oddly enough, the crying. In a manga as bombastic as this one where many wear their hearts and dreams on their sleeve, it’s not uncommon to see characters shedding a tear now and then, but what’s striking about Oda’s depictions of these emotional moments is just how undignified and often off-putting they are. Often when male characters in fiction are depicted crying, it will be with a few quiet tears or a teary-eyed scream filled with angst and rage (this isn’t necessarily bad, Naruto’s silent moment of mourning Jiraiya is one of my favourite panels in that manga), with One Piece however, the men in this series are often reduced to whiney, blubbering messes, and it’s awesome. Get ready for waaay too many examples.
Oda goes all out on the crying, and while it can occasionally be done for laughs and you will find some “stop crying and fight” sentiment here and there, their tears are often to be taken deadly seriously as a symbol of their love, their loss, their resolve, or just the pure strength of their emotion.
Kuma is no exception here, we see him cry because he’s happy, we see him cry because he’s sad, we see him cry because he’s hurt, we see him cry because he’s grateful, and we see him cry because he’s proud of his daughter. What’s even greater about all of this is that he expresses these emotions openly in front of others, especially those whom he trusts, with no pride or shame, he is an emotionally expressive man, and this is part of what endears us to him.
As a child born into slavery, Kuma is threatened with death for the crime of crying due to his suffering, we also see that he was taught by his father to feign happiness with his mistreatment (this brand of toxic positivity becomes a recurring issue for how Kuma treats himself, but more on that later), so for an adult Kuma to be so emotionally open and to see him encourage the same in his daughter is beyond heart-warming.
A Good Man Learns the Importance of Saying “I Love You”
In a flashback full of traumatic tragedies, easily the saddest we see is the moment that Kuma loses the love of his life, Ginny to illness. What makes this loss even more tragic is the fact that his anxiety and lack of self-worth stop him from expressing his love for Ginny and marrying her (we’ll get to this), and his hastiness to be with Ginny in her final moments causes him to miss her last words: “I love you. Always have, always will.”
This is why it’s notable to me just how much Kuma openly declares his love for Bonney after Ginny’s death. This man takes every single opportunity to make sure that his daughter knows that she is loved, through open declarations, through acts, through openly praising her, and, when he has to go away, through the letters he writes. Kuma communicates his love and appreciation for Bonney openly and clearly, so it’s not a surprise that she loves him so much. While it is very common in action-based fiction for male characters to express love through indirect action, stoic sacrifice, or subtle gestures, Kuma is unique in that he will not hesitate to both state and perform his love for his daughter so that there is zero ambiguity left in her mind as to how he feels about her.
A Good Man Is Gentle But Uses His Strength When Necessary
Ironically, the thing that doomed Kuma to a life of slavery is one of his greatest assets. Being born into the nearly-extinct Buccaneer race, Kuma possesses an unusually large frame, as well as increased strength and endurance, he also possesses a devil fruit so powerful that he’s able to wipe out Luffy and his crew with ease and is feared all over the world.
Despite all this, however, Kuma describes himself as a pacifist, he has an extremely gentle and tender way of interacting with people, is incredibly soft-spoken, and expresses a general distaste for violence. While we as One Piece fans have come to love characters like Luffy and Zoro who mostly avoid unnecessary violence but still relish any opportunity for a good fight, Kuma is presented as a much different prospect, a man who can fight but simply doesn’t always enjoy it.
A Good Man Is a Revolutionary (Who Hates Fascists and Inequality)
In a manga as cartoonish as One Piece, you’d be forgiven for being surprised when many of its fans discuss the political themes within the series. Left-wing Twitch streamer and one of the few debate bros I kinda like Hasan Piker recently made waves by declaring that One Piece is a socialist, anti-fascist manga (he’s not wrong), and multiple TikToks and Tweets have gone viral explaining why Luffy would be pro-Palestine (again, correct). However, if you still have doubts about any of the things you’ve just read, consider this exchange.
Here we have Kuma — the embodiment of altruism and kindness, one of the most gentle spirits in the series — openly expressing his admiration for an armed militia who are often found inciting oppressed people to violently overthrow their authoritarian rulers, with the ultimate goal to bring down the corrupt global elite. Even as a child, we see him stand up to a world noble and reject the inequality that they embody.
What does it say that Kuma, Oda’s ideal man, happily joins the ranks of the Fidel Castro of One Piece? What does it say that when confronted with his evil king’s plan to socially cleanse the lower classes in his kingdom, Kuma is forced to respond in a violent rage, ultimately killing to protect the weak and even causing Bonney to comment on how rare it is to see Kuma in that way?
It’s also very important that Kuma describes Dragon as a “hero”, a monicker that Luffy himself openly rejects due to his own selfish nature. Therein lies the difference between Kuma and Luffy, Kuma joins an army dedicated to seeking out the oppressed and liberating them wherever he can find them, whereas Luffy travels from island to island largely to serve the dreams of himself and his crew, and will often only liberate a people if they are shown to him or if he takes a liking to them. This is not a bad thing, but it’s a key difference, Luffy is a pirate, and Bartholomew Kuma is a revolutionary and a hero.
A Good Man Has Faith
As someone who grew up in a Christian household, I was very interested to see that Kuma is a pastor who runs his own church. However, perhaps controversially, what I find fascinating about Kuma’s brand of faith (not necessarily his religion) is that we don’t see him preach; instead, rather than words, Kuma expresses his faith through actions. Most of the time we see Kuma working in his capacity as a pastor, it’s through tending to the poor and sick, providing a community for the downtrodden, and generally spreading kindness and love wherever he can. Kuma sees his role as a faith leader as one that means taking on responsibility for the well-being of his community, even sometimes at the cost of his own (pretty damn different from a lot of the more famous pastors we see today).
The god that Kuma believes in is Nika, the god of the sun who is the embodiment of laughter, freedom, and liberation (he’s also kind of Luffy?). It’s the faith in Nika that has provided comfort and joy to many oppressed and enslaved people in One Piece, giving them hope that they will one day be free to laugh in the light of the sun.
Crucially, Kuma’s faith also allows him to see the bigger picture and invest in future generations. It’s this mixture of faith, humility and love that motivates him to invest so much in the futures of both Bonney and Luffy as he believes that they will liberate the world.
One quality that One Piece and many Shonen manga in general hold above all else is the ability to believe in something against all odds, the ability to hold on to hope and optimism, and to hold on to your faith when it’s tested. Whether that faith is in yourself, your friends, or in the rare case of Kuma, a god of liberation, it’s important to be open to believing in something and having the conviction to share that belief with others, even if it seems ridiculous.
And finally…
A Good Man is Flawed (But He Apologises & Listens to Criticism)
Self-love implies the care, respect, and responsibility for and the knowledge of the self. Without loving one’s self one cannot love others. ~ M Scott Peck, Road Less Traveled
With all this talk of Kuma being Oda’s ideal man and the perfect distillation of positive masculinity in One Piece, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Oda writes Kuma as a perfect character who can do no wrong.
However, to me, this is not the case.
There are a few notable character flaws and fallacies that plague Kuma and make his incredibly hard life significantly harder. Kuma’s struggles with self-love and his low self-esteem are evident throughout his life, he is often over-critical of himself and therefore perfectly willing to accept abuse without complaint. This is more than understandable, he was born into slavery, treated as a possession, and his very biological nature means he is expected to take more punishment than most; however, it’s his belief that he is not worthy of love and his anxiety caused by the trauma and suffering brought upon his mother that causes Kuma to deprive Ginny of the affirmation of love that she seeks from him.
It’s important to note that throughout their relationship, Ginny is constantly encouraging Kuma to be kinder to himself; admonishing him for being overly self-critical, showing concern when he literally takes on the pain of others, stopping people from taking advantage of his kindness, and ultimately asking him to listen to her final declaration of love rather than try to save her, a request he hastily ignores.
Kuma’s belief that he can take everyone’s pain on to himself and that he is not worthy of having someone do that to him hurts and upsets Ginny and ultimately defines what should have been her goodbye to him. He is the living embodiment of the phrase “Compassion Without Boundaries is Self-Harm”.
Kuma’s lack of self-worth dating back to his abuse as a slave is not often seen as something to be celebrated, it’s seen as bittersweet when he sacrifices himself for others due to the lack of value he puts on his own life, other characters are often saddened by how little he thinks of himself.
Kuma’s martyrdom and carelessness with his own body cause him to push his body too far, it causes him to deprive Ginny of the agency she deserves, it causes him to lie to Bonney (forcing her to put herself in even more danger to find him), and ultimately causes him to naively make a deal with the devil, allowing the world government to make clones of him that they use to impart their will on the world. Kuma’s determination to take the burden onto himself unintentionally heaps misery upon his daughter and causes a mess that only she and the sun god himself can now fix.
It’s the moments in which he denies himself the opportunity to be selfish, to express negative emotions, and to show himself care due to a sense of martyrdom that Kuma exhibits a particular brand of toxic positivity. While this is obviously a flaw, it only serves to make Kuma more endearing to us, as we get to see him make mistakes. His imperfections are what make him such a compelling and 3-dimensional character.
So if we accept Kuma as the goodest man in all of One Piece, as the pinnacle of positive masculinity in Oda’s mind, I guess the question that remains is this:
What does it mean that Oda has presented us with his ideal man, yet still has chosen to put him through some of the most intense sufferings we’ve seen in the series?
It could be taken as a showcase for the unforgiving nature of the One Piece world under its current authoritarian regime, that the best of men can be swallowed up by the evilness of the world; maybe it’s Oda’s way of telling us that Kuma’s most striking attribute — the ability to take punishment with a smile and take every burden onto himself with no regard for his own desires — might seem admirable but is ultimately thankless and often ends in admiration but also tragedy; or perhaps it’s that Oda believes that the true test of a man is how he deals with continued adversity.
My interpretation of it might be a bit of a cop-out. For me, the message of Kuma’s story is that being a good man — a man who cries, loves, fights for the less fortunate, and holds on to their belief in freedom from oppression - might not always be rewarding in our current world, but that’s what makes good men so good. They’re good without want of reward, and although a good man may not be able to see the benefits of the good they put out into the world, the world is still much better off for it, and that’s reward enough.
I think this is the reason that revolutionaries are revolutionaries, and pirates are pirates. Perhaps Oda wants us to find the balance between being good, but also being a bit selfish every now and then, thinking about our own desires and following our own dreams so long as they’re not at the expense of others.
And who knows?
The story of Bartholomew Kuma is still in the process of concluding, as Kuma joins forces with old friends and the next generation to bring down a world noble; maybe he’ll get a happy ending after all. Lord knows he deserves it.
