Name: A slice-of-life comedy that doesn't doesn't utilize its magic/talking animal base anywhere near enough
Item: Kumamiko -Girl Meets Bear
Rating: 50
Author: Kalladry

Waifra

A slice-of-life comedy that doesn't doesn't utilize its magic/talking animal base anywhere near enough · Waifora

14-year-old Machi is a shrine maiden (miko) in a tiny village in the mountains where she lives with Natsu, a talking bear (kuma) she was raised with. Machi hopes to attend high school in the city, so Natsu attempts to prepare the shy, sheltered girl for the trials and tribulations of city life to varying amounts of success.

This was very different than most things I’ve been watching this year, being a slice-of-life comedy. It doesn’t take itself seriously, and it doesn’t delve much into character development, instead preferring to play with the comedic potential of characters as they are.

Machi and Natsu live in the village of Kumade, where according to a legend explained in episode one, bears and people live in harmony after an interspecies liaison hundreds of years before. Whether that’s true or not we don’t know, but Natsu can indeed speak, is known to the villagers, and keeps house with Machi (whose parents are nonexistent, and whose caretaker grandma remains offscreen). We don’t learn exactly when they met, but from flashbacks it was before both were about 5, and they have a sibling-like relationship.

Machi, for her part decides she really wants to attend high school in the city–two hours away. Natsu proposes various quizzes and tests to see if Machi can really “handle” city life, with varying results as the tests can be a bit out there, and/or Machi lacks knowledge of (and comfort with) a lot of contemporary Japanese society, from brands to dealing with store clerks to online shopping. Even simple electric appliances throw her off.

Most episodes revolve around either Machi doing something to learn about the modern world (and messing up), or her cousin Yoshio roping her and other villagers into some sort of PR attempt to promote the village, which is dwindling and prompting fears it could die out.
I liked Yoshio as a character for the most part, but while he wasn’t actually any more oblivious that any other character (a lot of jokes involved people misinterpreting others), Yoshio got beaten up a lot for it.

The series is only 12 episodes, which is probably for the best since the characters don’t change through the series. It’s interesting that such a unique base was chosen (tiny village, shrine maiden raised alongside a talking bear, possibly has mystic powers) and the story uses that to mainly follow comedy based on character idiosyncrasies.

Verdict

English dub? No

Visuals: Normal for a modern anime; not bad but nothing standout.

Worth watching? Sure, if you like light series with little commitment. It’s not deep, but sometimes you really do want something that takes little to no brainpower and isn’t going to cause complex emotions, y’know?

Of note, in the first episode 9-year-old village kids are being inducted into the knowledge of the village lore (and Natsu’s existence), there are jokes about what if Natsu and Machi did it; a recurring gag where Yoshio, being basically an older brother who helped raise Machi, tries to get her out of her clothes so she can try on costumes (and is oblivious why he gets punched), and a village woman who mutters “sexual harassment” basically any time someone makes a joke at her regardless of topic. (I think maybe the humor here is supposed to be that it’s not sexual harassment? Unsure.)