OH SNAP FIRE IN THE HOLE

As far as Japanese stereotypes about American men, yes, that seems to be the baseline when it comes to depicting them. Same thing in the few depictions of African-Americans (specifically black Americans, not native Africans or Caribbean natives, etc.) in anime. They're all big, buff military guys that can bench-press a bus and are direct to a fault. They also love guns to the point of absurdity. However, there's a good reason this stereotype gets trotted out again and again and that's the U.S. military presence in Okinawa, Hokkaido and so on. It's really expensive for the average American of any color to go to Japan unless it's for work, so the Japanese as a whole don't really get to see a wide cross-section of diverse Americans in real life, rather than what little diversity exists in the token minority characters in imported American TV shows. They see the beefy military types and like it or not, that's what sticks in the brain... especially when some of those military types act stupidly in public or worse, commit a crime. Personally, I like Bard as well. I especially like the Circus arc, where the normally-inept house servants reveal exactly WHY they were chosen. Bard might love snuggling with a Gatling gun and fail spectacularly as a chef, but he's got some battle-honed smarts as well as practical, ruthlessness side and he uses both when it truly counts. I really like this illustration - it captures that gleeful look Bard gets when he's doing his favorite thing in the world (see the comment about guns above.)