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Kumamiko - Girl meets Bear
Episode 5

by Rose Bridges,

How would you rate episode 5 of
Kumamiko - Girl meets Bear ?
Community score: 3.8

Most of the time when I'm watching Kumamiko, I'm at a loss as to why I'm enjoying this show. I don't find it all that funny. Most of the humor is centered on cultural references I don't get or the characters making each other uncomfortable—a big humor turn-off for me. It also seems to be the predominant thing that's kept other people away from the show. Still, I keep enjoying it week after week, and I think I've finally put my finger on why.

Kumamiko works for me in its exploration of a quirky, small, rural town. Though the show's version of that is very "Japanese," full of the country's rich cultural traditions and baggage, there is a version of this sort of story across cultures that feels familiar. American versions often focus on small, traditional Southern towns. British comedies are also full of this, which is why they often work for me in spite of also containing cultural references I don't get. In this case, the foreignness enhances the experience; it makes it clear how much the little goings-on in this closed-off place, forgotten to the ages, will never be fully understood by an outsider like me. I grew up in the suburbs personally, which can have their own type of odd insularity. It's familiar and yet not at all, and either way, it feels like a window into a world few ever see. This is probably why my favorite part of the show is still the ending theme, which is built around jokes about how goofy and isolated these bumpkins are, but how they still have happy and fun times anyway.

The bear cave gag in the first half of the episode is a prime example of this. At first glance, it comes off as yet another case of Kumamiko deriving humor purely from a vulnerable person's discomfort—in this case, a child whose punishment for troublemaking is to spend the night with a wild Natsu. We quickly learn that Natsu is just putting on an act; the episode delays this seemingly obvious reveal with Machi's insistence that this is the "real Natsu," making us wonder if he's regressed to some natural "wild state." Afterwards, they go about discussing the practice like it's a routine occurrence, listing the many examples of kids who've gone through this treatment over the years and how much it did or didn't work. (Hibiki got it so many times that it quickly stopped having an effect, especially considering how tough she was already.) The joke is on the town itself for having such bizarre traditions, not on the kids for being scared by spending the night with a wild bear. Anyone would be. Why don't the residents of Machi's town realize this? Why do they think this is a good punishment? Simply because they're that closed off from the rest of the world.

If that's the place where Kumamiko works for me, its insistence on continuity humor doesn't so much. In last week's review, I praised this as a unique feature for Kumamiko among this type of anime comedy. but it increasingly feels like an excuse for Kumamiko to beat its jokes into the ground. I didn't really need a detailed exegesis of why Hibiki took Machi to Shimomura. Of course, this is a means to an end, leading to the (extremely obvious) revelation that Hibiki has a crush on Yoshio. This leads to a somewhat amusing sequence where Natsu tries to teach Machi to read between the lines, so she'll come to the conclusion herself about Hibiki's crush. It results in some predictable anime comedy (Machi "doesn't get it" to a ridiculous extreme), but it's always nice when Kumamiko returns to its core parental relationship between Natsu and Machi. Then the show goes back to being about Hibiki acting like a stereotypical tsundere and beating people up, and it loses me again.

I think this episode exemplifies Kumamiko's problem of being unsure what kind of show it wants to be: not quite a goofy moment-by-moment comedy or an ongoing personal dramedy. The "quirkiness of a small town" focus could allow it to be both though, and when Kumamiko has dug into that aspect, it's allowed for some small bits of character development and relationship growth. When it falls into repeating the tropes of other comedy anime, it falls flat and leaves viewers wondering what new things it can bring to the table at all. You don't need to be like all the other kids, Kumamiko. Just be yourself. Embrace the weirdness of your small-town setting and stop turning situations and characters into well-worn anime tropes.

Rating: B

Kuma Miko: Girl Meets Bear is currently streaming on Funimation.

Rose is a music Ph.D. student who loves overanalyzing anime soundtracks. Follow her on her media blog Rose's Turn, and on Twitter.


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