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Kumamiko - Girl meets Bear
Episodes 1-3

by Rose Bridges,

How would you rate episode 1 of
Kumamiko - Girl meets Bear ?
Community score: 3.4

How would you rate episode 2 of
Kumamiko - Girl meets Bear ?
Community score: 3.6

How would you rate episode 3 of
Kumamiko - Girl meets Bear ?
Community score: 3.6

Kuma Miko: Girl Meets Bear is easy enough to summarize: Machi is a miko (or shrine maiden) in a remote village in northern Honshu. It's so remote, in fact, that it's retained some truly bizarre traditions, like talking bears. One such bear, Natsu, lives with Machi and helps out at her shrine. He acts as her guardian, keeping her motivated for her duties. Suddenly, Machi announces her intention to go to high school in the big city. Natsu doesn't want her to leave and knows she's not ready, so he sets out to prove this to her by testing her city knowledge—and reminding her of what's so nice back home.

That summary makes Kumamiko sound like a sweet anime for kids. It's an understandable assumption, but very wrong. From the first episode, Kumamiko indulges in some very adult humor. The second half of the premiere is preoccupied with jokes about how the bears came to talk—specifically, by engaging in cunnilingus and procreation with human women. That's definitely not what anyone expected. Now everyone is traumatized by the implication that Natsu might have an illicit relationship with Machi. He doesn't, according to her, but the image can't help but stick in the viewers' traumatized—or amused?—minds ever after.

It's easy to wonder how Kumamiko will get beyond that kind of first impression. Will it be a one-joke show, dependent on crude sexual insinuations about the miko's relationship with her bear protector? Episode 2 sets that to rest by digging into the show's other big joke: Machi is a bumpkin. Natsu's latest test is a mission to track down a certain garment at UNIQLO. Machi doesn't know about the store and thinks the "Heattech" is some sort of gadget. While Kumamiko's premise sounds steeped in Japanese folklore, its humor style isn't usually as culture-specific. The UNIQLO joke would likely be unfamiliar for most Americans, outside of the small handful of major cities where they've opened stores. (I used to live in one that had UNIQLO ads on the subway.) When you're just as confused as Machi about what UNIQLO or Heattech are, the joke isn't as sharp as her confusion over a subway gate. For a Western-friendly equivalent, think of her visiting an Ikea and having to figure out that "Billy" is a bookcase.

Luckily, episode 3 further diversifies Kumamiko's humor profile. The first half focuses on kagura, a traditional kind of ritualistic dancing. Machi isn't too keen on fulfilling her miko duties without Natsu's urging, so he is puzzled when she jumps into this one. He finds her dancing in a very un-traditional style to a peppy exercise CD, which is an amusing moment on its own. It gets better when Natsu coaxes her out into the trance-like dancing she is supposed to do, especially since this is supposed to please the nature gods, and they're already unhappy if the bad weather following her dance is any indication. So Natsu uses Machi's starry-eyed vision of the city to his advantage: he reminds her that hip Tokyo residents are very into "trance," the type of dancing they do at nightclubs. This results in one of the funniest scenes in Kumamiko so far, with Natsu as the DJ at a dance club where Machi responds with frenzied dancing.

The second half of the episode is more predictable, but still amusing. Yoshio, Machi's cousin, convinces her to do a fashion show of "summer miko outfits" as part of a design contest for the village's old people. I could see the first joke of this sequence coming from a mile away: the costumes will be skimpy, and Machi will be horrified by it. Luckily, the sexy costume (a jazzed-up uniform) only takes up a small amount of runtime, and she tries out four different outfits for the judges. The greatest focus is on the second, a cutesy pink costume with bear ears and a bear tail (like the bear-girls in Yuri Kuma Arashi), which leaves Natsu full of strong, but confused emotions. He is first angered by it, but wants to keep discussing it for some reason. The third, a cute sundress with a straw hat and sunflowers, gets the enthusiastic reception of Machi's mother, because she designed it. She keeps reminding the others about it as they fixate on the other costumes. It doesn't matter though, because Machi doesn't like any of them. She shows a surprising side here, a dedication to her job that we didn't see earlier in her frustration that none of these costumes reflect the designs of their Ainu ancestors. Funimation's subtitles do a good job of explaining the Ainu to unfamiliar American viewers, ensuring that unlike the UNIQLO joke, this will not be lost in translation.

Kumamiko reminds me a little of Gugure! Kokkuri-san from last year. It's also about a young girl and her cutesy animal guardians, with a surprisingly crude sense of humor. The characters are also based on Japanese folk traditions that will be unfamiliar to most American viewers. However, Kumamiko has a much lower barrier of entry than Gugure! Kokkuri-san. Its humor style feels much less distinctly "Japanese," even if it has more explicit cultural references. What's there is easy for Americans to look up and understand. Its sexual jokes are also less creepy, likely because the show seems to acknowledge its uncomfortable content up front with character reactions. While that doesn't mean every viewer will find Kumamiko funny or even enjoy it at all, it does broaden the audience at least somewhat.

For me, Kumamiko is a sharp and unique little comedy. It has a bright, engaging art style, making it easy to get lost in its cute little world. It also has one of the best ending sequences of the season. At the very least, it's hard to forget, an anime like nothing else out there.

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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