Explaining it shortly, the anime took a more calm/relax and serious tone in adapting, while the manga took a more goofy and comedic tone.
While the novel certainly had both those qualities, the anime felt like it was adapting the novel as it is. It's a rather "too safe" as an adaptation. Not bad, but it had the potential to be great but couldn't quite get there because of how safe the adaptation is.
Well, moving on to the actual review.
The story is simple. Girl who has nothing, no friends, no family. But she has her cub.
That's the general idea of the anime. It wasn't super unique, but it's a great concept which was executed quite well.
Though I have major problems with the pacing. I like myself some slow pacing, but if it's like dragging out unimportant scenes, then I'd have problems with it.
The pacing suffers because the anime took a more slow pacing, showing the mc's daily road to take with her cub. That itself isn't an issue.
But if half of the episode is dedicated just for the viewers to look at CG cubs driving awkwardly, then it's just a waste of time.
Take Yuru Camp for example. It balances out the travel time of the girls, as well as their camping side. Most of the time that was spent while travelling, there was also something happening. So there wasn't any wasted space in the run time of the episodes.
Even in the super cub novel, there wasn't really a whole chapter dedicated to just driving in the roads. The novel was surprisingly fast paced as opposed to the anime.
The characters are good. They aren't outstanding cast or anything like that. Just consistently charming and great to watch. Although I have some gripes about the characters. But those issues are simply because of the bad pacing of the anime.
For example, in episode 1, the mc had drive her cub to the convenience store. But then her cub stops moving. What she do? Just standing around to stretch out the run time of the episode.
Heck, even in the novel and the manga, that problem was quickly tend to. She's a scholar student for a reason. She's a quick thinker and a smart girl.
But the anime did her dirty. She doesn't deserve that treatment.
The animation is decent. Sure, it had janky CG cubs, but that wasn't really a problem. The art is super cute and is probably one of the cutest artstyle that doesn't try to be cute that I've seen.
The music however is just amazing. The ost pops out even though they reused a lot of tracks for some scenes. But I forgive them because the ones they reuses are super great. The opening and ending are absolute bangers. I'm listening to it everyday and still didn't get bored. Just great stuff.
Overall, a decent adaptation. Sure, there's a lot of issues and problems in this anime. But I'd still recommend it. Especially if you like SOL and slow anime stuff in general.
P.S.: this anime made me wanna buy a Cub even though I can't even ride a bicycle normally lmao
(6.2/10)
