Kuma Miko

*This review contains minor spoilers*

Kuma Miko is a very cute anime. I quite enjoyed watching so far, but there are some reasons I couldn't feel but disappointment. And I'm just writing about this so people who feel the same towards the situation on this anime can already know about it.

Art is amazing, trully outstanding. High quality animation, for real. I really loved the traits, the expressions, the background scenario, everything. I didn't had anything to criticize here, also because this special way to draw characters and animals are kinda my favorite ever.

Sound is great, the endings and openings are cute as well, relaxing songs, pretty ... voices dubbing. Just the way I also happen to love.

The problem begins with some parts of the story and some specific characters. And I can't talk about it without showing some minor spoilers. But don't worry, it won't exactly change anything on the plot itself. Here is where I NEED to be very straight about it. I rather be critical then fall into blind fandom.

The story is mainly around a cute young girl, named Machi, trying to go to a school in a town near her village. Ok, nothing wrong until here. But then, we have a first strange impression on the very first episode: Yoshio (the city tourist guide) starts telling a group of nine years old kids [saying they could already hear an uncensored story, wtf?] about the village and how talking bears appeared there from a bear that had sex with a... priestess? Eeeeeeerm... Starting to get bizarre, right? But yeah... I tried very hard to ignore it, but then it got worse.

After this, the plot falls often into lolicon. Blatantly. There's an unbearable number of scenes where old men in the village are seen talking openly about the beauty and the body parts of a fourteen year old girl, in a sexual and fucking disgusting way. But there were a particular scene when the protagonist's cousin (Yoshio again) falls purposely upon her half-naked body, holding her wrists tightly, forcing her to respond in a totally cringy scene why a bear could see her naked like that and he, a grown fucking man, couldn't. Needless to say, I was deeply disgusted (again) and outraged by that, because is something made to sound funny. What's funny about it, really? Made me sick... It's was sexual harassment, but made in a way to look cute and funny, and "critical" (he claims equality over seeing a child naked? Are you guys FOR REAL?). It doesn't matter if he is from the family, that just make things even worse.

Machi is a 14 year-old girl but looks confusingly younger, and again, that makes everything look worse. Also, Natsu, the bear, always have these long flashbacks with a quite gross and pedophilia-like scene. Yeah, I know, he is an animal and it's supposed to be cute and pure, but it is not.

To end with it: I made some effort to keep watching and it had it's funny momments, although I find the show decently enjoyable at best. But I definitely couldn't close my eyes to the problems I said before. Knowing how Japan handles pedophilia and lolicon, I felt sincerely uncomfortable.

I love slice of life, it's my favorite genre of all times. If Kuma Miko didn't had this problems, it would be one of my favorites for sure... Such a pity...

So, if you can't tolerate pedo jokes, child sexualization and this kind of stuff, be aware or be away.

EDIT with spoilers about the ending of the story:

It ended so much fucking worse than I thought It would. Irritating and SO frustrating. Yoshio is definetely the worse character I've ever seen, a stupid moron that places a huge burden on a little girl even though she does not want to, even if she panics and becomes traumatized. Natsu is a selfish friend that manipulates her mind until she gives up the one dream she had of being able to study in a bigger school. The poor girl had no will respected and were always discouraged until she let go of it only to fulfill other people wishes. Dis-gus-ting. This show pisses me off A LOT. I take back the "could be my favorite" part. This anime has too many flaws on the plot to be considered good or even fair.

Terrible ending and scumbag characters ruin an otherwise average slice of life series.

Story: It's about a cute village miko who wants to experience city life. Unfortunately, she has crippling social anxiety which prevents her from interacting with strangers. Fair enough. That's an alright premise to go with. 6/10

Art & Sound: The art was good. The visuals were colourful and the choice of shamanistic BGM was unorthodox but fitting with the show. The studio did some good work in terms of audio and visuals. You can appreciate their high production values and the work they placed in the show. 7/10

Character: Machi's social anxiety gets increasingly worse ... as the show progresses. Social anxiety does that to you, and she needs help and loving support to overcome it. My bone to pick is with the supporting cast who aggravate it further with their insensitivity and selfishness.

Her cousin is a static scumbag to the end and accelerates her regression by continuously forcing her to become the village idol despite her protests. The bear (Her sole remaining pillar of support) eventually also regresses from a parental figure who gives her tough love to become increasingly clingy, emotionally manipulative and wanting to maintain Machi's social anxiety and the status quo (I get that this regression is anime exclusive but it still leaves a bad taste in the mouth). 1/10

Overall: This show's dark humour is mostly derived from Machi's ignorance of technology, social anxiety and the many ways her panic attacks sabotage otherwise normal everyday situations. It's a mix of funny and cringe until a certain threshold. Some reach their threshold after a few episodes. Others reach it at the last episode (I reached it at the last episode).

I'm giving it a 3/10 just out of sympathy for the studio people who tried their best to make it work. Otherwise, it's a plain 1/10 based on the characters alone.

Sigh... I hate to be doing this, but I gave this anime one of my lowest scores ever. In all honesty, I didn't hate this anime entirely, it was very cute and sometimes amusing, but unfortunately disappointment and general fucked-upness ruined this anime. Warning further ahead is spoilers, but I suggest you read on because it'll spare you the pain.

In the final episode, After Machi has run away from the Idol contest, she eventually picks up the courage to compete in this competition, Quite a brave act from someone with country-bumpkin complex (where she believes everyone thinks she's nothing but a dumb country bumpkin, when ... in actuality she really isn't). After she finished her dance, she is greeted by a crowd of cheers, but she believes them to be throwing rocks at her, etc. When she goes home, Natsu and Yoshio are sitting watching the TV. Machi says she no longer wants to go to the city, which makes Natsu so happy because he selfishly wants her to stay with him. So, instead of her friends clearing up the whole misunderstanding, they just let her believe it happened. This essentially ruined the entire message I think this anime was trying to send. Her complete fuck-up at the contest earlier was all because Natsu prayed that Machi would never leave the village again. An entirely selfish decision, that he didn't even bother rectifying.

Some of the other things this anime does are pretty messed up. Machi attempts to go to a store in Sendai, which takes all her courage. When she goes to the store she was sent to, she believes it is a witches store, and the person with her doesn't attempt to ease her into it but instead keeps pushing her. She goes full fear more, breaks down and runs away. This anime exploits this a lot, often for the sake of a cheap laugh.

There is a scene where Machi is trying to hand out samples of her villages food in a supermarket and is trying her darn hardest to speak up. Sometimes she does. An old woman comes up to her and tells her not to give up, and so do some other senior citizens.

Mostly, In the end, this anime was ruined by the writer being horrible. The message of conquering your fears? Oh screw that, let's be a horrible person. Thank you, Kuma Miko, for giving laughs, but also screw you for being horrible. The message of this anime at the end was, "Live under the total crushing weight of your fears, never attempt to conquer anything!"

Here I am and cannot believe I have to do this.

What could have been an uplifting story about a girl overcoming her fears ended up in a message that basically sums up to "It's okay to let someone's psyche break as long as you're happy."

The ending has been recounted by other reviewers here already, but basically, it ends with Machi seemingly having regressed in mental age, due to the trauma induced by the warped perception of her surroundings caused by her serious inferiority complex. This girl needs professional psychological help, not an idol contest.

And it's just infuriating how the three main characters around her ... act. Natsu, the bear, is happily living with the now mentally damaged girl, probably because she acts and plays with him like she was a 5 year old and showers him with attention.

Yoshio, who has some seriously troublesome conceptions about how it's okay to sacrifice a little girl (in this case to the idol industry) for the sake of promoting his hometown and is so self-centered, that it's plainly not funny anymore.

Hibiki, the one you'd hope would step in, since she seems to be the only one with a somewhat working brain and consciousness, doesn't follow through, mainly because of her infatuation with Yoshio, judging by the last scenes.

All in all, what was a kinda nice show for most of the time has been completely ruined by the ending. The dialog between Machi and Natsu towards the end ( "You don't have to think about anything anymore." etc.) reminds me more of a bad end in a psycho-thriller VN than of a slice of life show. And that's probably what it is: a bad end.

Honestly once they start getting into the idol stuff just stop. It starts off as this promising anime about a young miko girl, Machi, with ambitions to go to the city for high school. In this process she has to try to improve her social anxiety and her lack of knowledge of life outside the country.

*spoilers*

Machi gets better for the first half of the anime or so but then her cousin Yoshio who is in charge of village revitalization starts a project for her without her permission to make her an idol to bring popularity to the city. She's pressured into doing idol stuff ... even though it's causing her great anxiety her village community, her bear lifelong friend Natsu and Yoshio keep pushing her. She is just excessively taken advantage of at the end of the series. In the end her social anxiety causes her to give up on her dreams of going to school in the city to live with Natsu who she completely depends upon at this point and cannot live without. Natsu is super happy she is dependent on him and loves her ignorance in the end.

They let her believe her social anxiety that people hated her in her performances even though they loved her. As if her mental illness is some cute character flaw.

(And yes, it is social anxiety. I have social anxiety and I liked the series very much at the beginning because I relate to Machi).

Completely disappointing. Do not watch past when they start doing the whole Miko outfit contest.

A (at first) slightly above average and original slice of life cute girls show with good (some would say questionable) fan Service throughout.

The animation is good where it matters. Machi's expressions are lively and dynamic, backed by an equally good Voice Performance by Natsumi Hoika.

Supporting Characters are serviceable and the charm of the show comes comes entirely from Machi's personality, who despite being shy, a social mess and constantly being taken advantage of, stays strong willed. - Resulting in a unique show that makes you simultaneously root for and laugh at the the main character.
The Comedy is well executed, though not everyone will find ... the constant exploitation of the main character and sexual harassment as comic relief funny; for those few who can laugh at such jokes and enjoy cute girls shows i would have wholeheartedly recommended this show if it weren't for the ending... a completely out of place poorly portrayed gut-punch that just leaves a sour hopeless taste in your mouth. A bad enough ending to warrant writing your first MAL review...

It's just pathetic.. and totally horrible

Once you just watch this series could possibly ticks you off very badly not because it's a slice of life theme which is much more focuses to a little girl as miko and a talking bear. That's it? No no no you may been wandering about the
changes of Machi through every episode right?

Her anxiety just got even worst, which unrelated to others that she's seeking help but they aren't few people can trust her. It's just felt wrong to see her like that.

All those gimmick makes me throw off, especially the ending, Director what happened? You make the series ... just left like that? A country bumpkin became isolated by going into the city. Gosh pls no this is not what I wanted.

Moving on, to the jokes here. Seriously those PEDOJOKES just needs to stop, It's deliberately sarcasm bad humor. How crappy for you to understand the whole plot of this show anyway. Meaningless as if the main thing here is all about Machi's anxiety gone completely different every episode.

Never heard this got dark until the last scenario. Despite by getting traumatized to face reality, her most precious day just end with a complete blunt.

Overall 4 - 1 = 3

(This review has been adapted from my blog/reddit thread. Spoilers ahead!)

The Arctic Circle. Pine-tree forests. Amidst bamboo shoots. On snack boxes at the grocery store. Within my favorite video game of all time (and who my name is based on).

Bears are everywhere. Okay, maybe not everywhere, but they are in enough places that the majority of people know a bear when they see one. However, nobody has ever met a talking bear. At least, I haven’t.

Thankfully, that’s what Kuma Miko treats us with. Not-so-thankfully, the anime mistreats its audience, its own characters, and even itself.

STORY

Kuma Miko stars Machi and Natsu. Machi is a cute girl ... who also happens to be her small village’s “miko.” Natsu is Machi’s closest friend and talking “kuma” (i.e., bear). Hence the title, Kuma Miko. One day, Machi decides that she wants to go to high school in the city, wishing for a life away from the country. And thus the anime begins.

Many of the events therein involve Machi learning about the various technologies or lifestyles that she so often admires. One episode has her trying (and failing) to use a rice cooker instead of a brick oven. Another episode has her visiting a “fancy” clothes shop, trading in her normal miko garb for a pretty dress. Another episode still has her enthralled by the amazing device known as the “cell phone.”

To the anime’s credit, this contrasting country bumpkin and cityscape motif runs through all parts of the show, demonstrating at least focus on the premise and consistency in its dealings.

Unfortunately, Kuma Miko encounters a staircase littered with problems.

The first step is the forceful events themselves. Rather strangely, the people of the village (often Yoshio) usually make Machi go through whatever trouble or instance they need taken care of. From being an idol to taking part in a commercial, Machi almost always reluctantly agrees to help out.

It comes off as weird for two reasons. One, she’s just a kid. Placing so much burden and expectation on her when nobody else seems to receive the same treatment is odd. Two, nobody questions it. Hardly anybody asks her how she really feels, with some characters goading her into taking part. Natsu, surprisingly, is the guiltiest of this behavior.

Such forcing leads up to the next step: the anime’s prominent social-anxiety angle. To be fair, the angle works given Machi’s location, childhood, and naïveté. In other words, her being unable to handle these situations makes perfect sense. And, to be even more fair, her crippling fear can be comedic. Her trying her hardest to sell samples at the supermarket as though she were a martyr or abandoned street urchin is perhaps the anime’s most clever moment.

Yet her personal conflict does not lead to further inspection on the topic. She usually runs away, nearly passes out, or simply cannot function in the moment, ending further discussion on the idea. Again, the problem is not that she reacts in this manner but that the anime very rarely doesn’t do anything else with it. No exploration of this theme or a different take on it exists, causing similar events to unfold across the season.

At the highest step sits the bizarre penchant for sexual content. In almost every episode, Machi finds herself in a promiscuous situation. Her in a bathing suit. Sometimes she is either being straddled by or having her clothes ripped off by Yoshio. The different villagers ogling her as she shows off various outfits of various lewdness.

It’s not just including it, though. This anime is, more or less, about a young teenage girl. Indeed, the anime constantly reinforces this notion when it talks about her wearing a child badge at the mall or when most of the flashbacks show her has a toddler or kid.

Kuma Miko even seems to actively encourage the behavior. A little girl shouting “Don’t touch me!” or an older woman yelling out “Sexual harassment!” can be funny, but, when the show is pushing its sexualized content in-between, the irony becomes eyebrow-raising.

Worse still, it doesn’t have a place in the show. Maybe an argument could have existed given the city motif. I.e., city life is more “sexualized” when compared to country life. But the show never takes that angle, and the characters closest to it – Natsu, Hibiki, and Yoshio – are never sexualized in any regard. (The show even makes Natsu’s neutering a joke and Hibiki’s crassness her focal point; Yoshio is just a dense, dumb dude.)

Altogether, Kuma Miko becomes, like the down escalator Machi tried to run up, a never-ending set of recycled steps. It’s consistent, but forcing her into a (sexual or otherwise) predicament, inducing her social anxiety, and leaving the idea largely unexplored causes the narrative to never get anywhere.

ANIMATION

While Kuma Miko’s story contains many problems, the actual animation and the art are much better off.

Animation-wise, the show can show a surprising amount of movement. Machi chopping wood to use for cooking. Natsu sprinting down an expressway. Hibiki riding around on her motorcycle. Even subtler moments exist: Machi’s eyes glistening with tears as she cutely holds onto Natsu’s paw, Natsu doing his best to use a tiny key with his pointy claws, and so on.

The location sticks mostly to Machi and Natsu’s home, meaning location variety gives way to the same shrine room and outer forest. A popular mall, a local restaurant, and even parts of the city are visited, but the backgrounds still do not come off as interesting.

Instead, Kuma Miko focuses more on its softer presentation and Machi’s reactions. Some of the backgrounds, especially that forest, are light in their coloring and water color in their depiction. And Machi, while leaning on her deadpan face more often than not, reacts to the situations in different ways: scared, confused, shocked, and so on. Such faces lead to more detail and therefore more comedy.

The show also does well in depicting social anxiety. Blanketing the background in dark, menacing colors while spooky masks fly about Machi give the audience a sense of the fear she so regularly feels. The contrasting, softer visuals help to highlight her anxiety that much more.

As for the character designs, they are more hit than miss.

Machi’s design, Natsu’s design, and Hibiki’s design hit. Machi changes outfits throughout the season, but it’s her miko garb – with headband, robe, and intricate patterns – that both goes along with that “foreign to technology” motif and her cuteness. Natsu does not wear clothes, but his orange fur and simple face make him a warm, fuzzy friend one just wants to hug. And Hibiki’s messy blond hair, eviler eyes, and biker jacket fit her tomboy persona well.

Yoshio is the only miss. His short hair, red tie, and blue-jeans-with-belt do give him an air of professionalism, but his goofball face makes it hard to take him at all seriously. (Granted, this description may have been the point.)

(And a shout-out to the ED visuals for looking like they could exist in the Paper Mario video-game series. They definitely added to the overall sense of fun that the piece conveys.)

CHARACTERS

The biggest misstep in Kuma Miko (as most may already guess) is in its character department. More specifically, the show’s handling of Machi’s character is perplexing to say the least (and more will be said later on…)

For much of the anime, Machi is the focus. And rightly so. She’s the miko of the village let alone the main protagonist of this slice-of-life experience. Her time in the boonies, while filled with frolicking fun and days of relaxation, has left her wanting. Wanting a life filled not with boring hills but with expansive malls.

Consequently, Machi’s goal becomes transitioning into that lifestyle. From answering questions about train stations to learning about Italian cooking, she slowly but surely gains the knowledge “required” for her to become the city girl she has always dreamed of being.

“Slowly” cannot be emphasized enough. It almost never seems as if she gains anything from the different situations. But it is there. She almost always pushes back initially, believing that she cannot perform the action asked of her. But, sooner or later, she tries her hand at yet the next event.

It’s at this point that her social anxiety becomes apparent. When she is not around Natsu or people she is familiar with, she finds herself surrounded by a mass of shadow and scariness. People hurling both words and rocks in her direction. All in her head, of course, but it still traumatizes her nonetheless.

Despite feeling terrified in these situations, she slowly gains ground. As the conclusion starts to draw near, she speaks loudly in a supermarket, she sings on stage, and she trains hard for the upcoming idol competition. It’s not a ton of growth, but, for a girl whose only friend was a talking bear because she could not speak with humans, she had clearly come a long way.

Then the ending happens.

After Machi musters up the last of her courage to go on stage, she successfully dances, pleasing the crowd with her tranquil and sincere miko dance. Yet her social anxiety, once again, forces her to flee in fear.

The show doesn’t stop there, though. For when she gets back home, she declares that she no longer wants to pursue her dream of going to high school in the city.

The show doesn’t even stop there. Because the final exchange between her and Natsu suggests that she is even worse off than she had been before the season started.

In other words, not only does the anime kill any development that she had earned, but also the anime regresses her person – and then some – to an inexcusable point. Arguably speaking, it is one of the biggest instances of backpedaling a character has ever been given. If not ever, at least in recent memory.

It’s all made worse by the people that surround Machi. Yoshio is supposed to be her cousin, and he’s described as really dense. Just calling him “dense,” however, is too nice. He’s a weirdo.

He constantly tries to manipulate the poor girl, showing up and essentially blackmailing her with different items so she is somewhat forced to help him save the village. His uncomfortably personal actions towards Machi are completely unnecessary.

His final words on it being okay that she acts as a sacrifice for the village demonstrate how weird this weirdo is.

Surprisingly, Natsu is not much better. He has been with Machi ever since he was a cub, and, based on the relationship they share, he is more or less her father. But he has never actually had to do much in the way of protecting or fatherhood.

In fact, as the anime goes on, he joins in on getting Machi into her various ordeals. Yes, he’s doing it with the best of intentions, to get her to grow and learn, but he, more than anybody else, is supposed to understand her. Because, in a way, he is her spirit animal.

But he never appears to connect with the girl who he has literally grown up with. He would rather see her dressed up in a skimpy “bear” outfit or have the bridge she’s travelling over collapse if it meant that Machi could stay by his side that much longer.

Even Hibiki is guilty of not supporting Machi. At least, in the beginning. She’s introduced as a punk who slams Machi’s head into a wooden post and knees her in the back. Her physical abuse is not relegated to Machi alone, but, when Hibiki is one of the only other female characters in the show, one would think that she would at least have a nicer relationship with the middle schooler to some degree.

At the minimum, she is the only person who tries to defend Machi, wanting to let her decide if turmoil is worth it. Meaning, in some sense, Hibiki develops from a rude, brutish person into a somewhat-thoughtful woman.

Even so, when she’s shown admiring the resident weirdo rather than worrying about Machi’s current state, it’s difficult to say (as it is with the others) that her head is in the right place.

SOUND

While the opening track for Kuma Miko can sometimes sound all over the place, the not-really-singing-but-talking parts come off as innocent and playful, fitting the anime well enough. The vocalist may not have the range required, but the happy tone and dainty feel of the OP make it at least a passable offering from the show.

The ending track, in comparison, is just so much fun. The clapping, drums, and singing by both Machi and Natsu, as well as the lyrics about Wi-Fi and convenience stores, give it personality. The later “kuma” and “miko” chanting followed by the catchy final stretch, while not technically true (Machi does not really experience “happy days”…), end the ED on a lighthearted note.

The original soundtrack contains a lot of variance. Whistling tunes, cultural tracks, and violin pieces help to make the show feel not only “foreign” in its material (going along with the “foreign” feel of the city life) but also grounded in the slice-of-life escapades Machi goes through. Nothing stellar but fine tracks nonetheless.

Although the best “track” is the old man’s “singing.” His onomatopoeia during the transition between the A and B parts of the episodes, as well as his “Kuma Miko” line when the episodes ended, were silly to include yet fun to “sing” along with.

As for the voice-acting performances, nobody except for Natsumi Hioka as Machi deserves a shout-out. In her first-ever main role in an anime, she delivers cuteness, fright, and happiness (depending on the situation) throughout the whole season.

ENJOYMENT

Back when this one was airing, I had seen the threads about the backlash to the ending. About something so crazy happening that it caused the actual author of the material to publicly apologize and even delete some of his or her own social media.

I didn’t know what went down because I wanted to find out for myself before diving into those threads. Meaning, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t anticipating something drastic.

To be honest, I was preparing myself for something horrible, something dark and twisted. Because I couldn’t fathom what possibly could cause such a collective, community uproar.

So when I finished the episode, I went into those threads to understand where people were coming from. Many were extremely upset. Many were fair in their judgement by including the overall package. Many were simply there out of curiosity.

After finishing the show and reading many thoughts, I have reached my own.

I don’t view the ending as shocking. In fact, I watched the final episode from a different source to make sure that they didn’t switch it out for something else (because that was a rumor I had read would be happening for the Blu-Ray release).

Yes, part of that comes from expecting the anime to do something drastic. But it also comes from the desensitizing. She had always been a kid, and she always had social anxiety, so her becoming more of a kid and avoiding her worries altogether almost made sense. Almost.

There’s a perfect word to describe this one’s ending, a word that (from what I have read) people would agree with:mean. It’s mean of them to treat the conclusion to Machi’s character with utter disrespect. It’s mean of them to regress (and then some) the gradual growth she had built. It’s mean of them to go against the spirit of the show: The idea that being confined by certain limitations, be they physical or mental, does not indicate one cannot overcome said limitations.

I’m not even talking about the season leading up to the end. Those moments at least made Machi, however slightly, stronger as a person. I am talking purely about the ending. The ending is not abhorrent. Not vomit-inducing. It’s not even disappointing.

It’s mean.

And that is a shame because the show could be entertaining when it wanted. Machi was a cute character and a funny one, too, with her deadpan responses and overjoyed smiles (when they were there). Hibiki elbowing Yoshio in the stomach with enough force to maim his internals had me laughing. And Natsu was cute as a baby bear.

The off-putting sexual content and the lack of an emotional connection don’t help. But, even putting those aside, it can be difficult to like someone or something that is just plain mean.

Kuma Miko sadly digs its own grave. The unbecoming narrative, the unsupportive side cast, and the unfair meanness of the ending leave one wondering what could have been. And no amount of talking bears can change its demise.

SUMMARY

Story: Terrible, while the contrasting country and city motif gives rise to some comedy and consistency, the forceful nature of the events, the unexplored social anxiety, and the bizarre penchant for sexual material make for a less-than-tasteful narrative

Animation: Fine, okay artistic direction, nice actual animation, and okay character designs

Characters: Terrible, Machi’s “development” is uncalled for, with the supposed supporting characters failing to support her

Sound: Fine, okay OP, good ED, okay OST, and okay VA performances

Enjoyment: Bad, while the anime could be funny and cute at times, the meanness of the ending is very hard to overlook

Final Score: 2/10

Secretly a psychological horror anime (and not in a good way)

Kuma Miko has good music funny jokes, good music, and...a terrible moral lesson?

This anime does its best to make you root for its main character, Machi, in achieving her dream, however, as the story progresses, many side characters succumb to selfishness and begin to actively impose their will over Machi, leaving the final moments of the show in almost a bizarro world where the viewer may end up questioning the creators intentions in creating this show.

If you are interested in this show, it may be better to watch compliations of its high points on youtube, ... as its slice-of-life format lends its jokes little need for context in the bigger picture. This anime is one that will hurt any viewer who gets invested as time goes on with its malicious content. Avoid.

The premise of Kuma Miko seems straightforward enough: a coming-of-age story about Machi leaving the village to get tackle her crippling social anxiety and become a city girl where she feels she belongs. It's decent enough in concept and her chemistry with her talking bear friend, Natsu, is a cute father-daughter kinda dynamic.

But there are two things that ultimately killed the show for me over time:

1. The over-sexualization of Machi. Way too many times, the show has her getting dolled up for idol shows, being fantasized having sex with a bear, or peeked at, groped and tackled in the worst way I have ever seen ... any "comedic" sex gag pull it off. They focus a lot of time objectifying a 13-year-old girl as opposed to building her as a character. Really frustrating.

2. The ending. I won't go into details to avoid spoilers for anyone reading, but MAN do they drop the ball with her character by episode 12. They took everything her character had developed over the show and just threw it out the window.

Overall, I'd say it's not worth the watch. Other shows tell the coming-of-age story of a girl breaking from her shell ten million times better, and I would recommend any of them well over this series.

En este anime podemos ver el como una adolescente cuyo anhelo es ir a una escuela en la ciudad es obligada por todo un pueblo a pasar una gran cantidad de situaciones que solamente sirven para agravar aun mas su problema de comunicación social, en estas situaciones podemos encontrar desde hacerla vestir atuendos claramente sexualizados, el engañarla para atender un puesto de servicio donde es intimidada por el encargado, el como una mujer con claramente ineptitud social la agrede físicamente y ningún adulto presente hace algo por evitarlo...

Siendo sincero las escenas de la protagonista con el oso son bastante agradables, el ver como este intenta ... ayudarla a mejorar en su uso de herramientas o comunicación, su relación es de las mejores que he visto, lamentablemente, este anime no parece pretender criticar estas situaciones, al hacerlas parecer una comedia o algo de lo que reír solamente hace parecer como un momento común y sin importancia.