For Christmas 2016, she is given a santa costume complete with a large sack of presents. When damaged, she appears to be presenting a present to the player. A hole punched into the sack reveals that she has been carrying at least one fish in it as well as presents.
As "Kuma" also means "bear" and her catchphrase is "kuma", which she almost always appends to the end of her sentences, she is often depicted with bear-like qualities or dressed in a bear suit. Her Summer 2015 voice line references catching salmon in a river.
Kuma is most often paired with her younger sisters, especially Tama. Additionally, there's a joke about the "Kuma Fleet", which also includes Abukuma, Chikuma, Kumano, Mikuma and occasionally Noshiro. (see post #1543570)
Rather ironic for a nameship, Kuma was last of her class to be given her official second remodels on January 13, 2021: Kai-2 and Kai-2-Tei (D). Kai-2 has her wear a stylized serafuku consisting of a whitesailor shirt with a greensailor collar, a redneck ribbon, whitepleated shorts (which can be mistaken for a pleated skirt), and blackboots as well as upgraded machinery. Her Kai-2-Tei form changes the color scheme of her serafuku to an orange shirt with a black sailor collar and black shorts. This form also trades the ability to equip seaplanes and torpedoes with carrying midget submariness and daihatsu. She was sometimes grouped with Tenryuu and Shiratsuyu as having sisters who received second remodels before being remodeled themselves.
