Name: Kuma Bear Anime: A spoiler-free review from a big fan of the source material
Item: Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear
Rating: 60
Author: Pelouch

Waifra

Kuma Bear Anime: A spoiler-free review from a big fan of the source material · Waifora

What a train wreck. Here's my take at a
somewhat comprehensive review of this anime from an unofficial member of the Bear fan club.

Coming from a high of reading both the ln(light novel) and the manga I decided to check the anime out and... I didn't have too high expectations and it still managed to disappoint me, some of it was because it wasn't very good and some of it was because it didn't live up to what I would have liked to see as a fan. I think Sergei(the manga artist) hyping the anime up in the manga didn't help, taking him at face value the anime is based on the ln and not the manga, which I find pretty much impossible to believe, according to him he was also consulted for character designs which can probably be found in the trash of EMT Squared Studios...

I should clarify that the manga and the ln are almost carbon copies of each other when it comes to the story, except the manga is a little bit more streamlined. The anime is quite different.

I'll get the problem with the first episode out of the way first. I'll also put it under a spoiler since it's a big tangent, but anyone can read it safely

Spoiler, click to view

The first episode which timeline wise is the forth is a complete mess, it makes you think Yuna(mc) is playing the game with the bear onesie already on when in fact she's not, she's being introduced both in the real world and in the Isekai world at the same time but these two have nothing to do with each other, not only that the events of this episode will be later referenced and skipped over when they would be relevant, all for the sake of... What? A flashy first episode? Neither the manga or ln do this so I don't get it, this is a blunder that falls squarely in production and editing teams, in fact it would be trivial to edit it so it all makes sense so even the start is disheartening but this is only the beginning.

Story
We follow Yuna as she gets isekai'd with OP bear themed equipment courtesy of God as she, in a slice of life way, wrecks havoc in this world by helping people.

That's the story in a nutshell, it's supposed to be extremely laid back with quite a bit of character development, but this is not the case in the anime, the anime for some reason wants to tell as much of the story as fast as possible so we adopt a breakneck pace from the word go shoving a lot of good scenes from the source, important plot points, characters and character development aside... Except it wants to sell it's cake and eat it too by having not one but two chapters of meandering filler... I wouldn't complain about filler in a laid back slice of life, but why are you going through the main story so fast if you're going to subject me to filler??? Could we not allot that time to the real story? I want to enjoy Kumanano's work not unnamed script guy's.

How much of the story do they make 10 anime chapters cover: 4 light novel volumes or 80 manga chapters. Brutal

Characters
Yuna: The star of the show, my favorite character, and the number one reason I disliked the anime, Anime Yuna is quite different from Manga Yuna and she's a far cry from LN Yuna, not even close, like I said the pacing hinders character development and this affects Yuna the most, however I believe the showrunners wanted Anime Yuna to be different because she has some extra scenes that make her out to be more mature than she should be, Kumanano has a remarkable dedication to embarrassing her because she's always wearing a bear onesie all the time, she has a complex because she's 15 years old but is still underdeveloped so she doesn't think she's attractive in any way, she's also supposed to be very childish but also a very good and intelligent person that lacks a bit of common sense, I like her and it works. Anime Yuna on the other hand is a cardboard cut out of the levelheaded reliable MC, this sometimes causes dissonance because the childish lines from the source material leak through, it's terrible. #notmyYuna

Fina: the second most important character she's the first friend Yuna makes in this new world, a little girl she decides to take under her wing and it's the insider pov for said world. Obviously the anime just steamrolls over her character development and in a twist of fate they actually have her and Yuna act in the exact opposite way they will eventually act in the future(in the ln), it's difficult to explain without spoilers but I found it funny.

Noa: the only character who got better in the anime? She's a (bear) friend Yuna and Fina make, the president of the Bear fan club, she's the daughter of the local noble and her scenes are unintentionally funny, in the anime she's part of the slice of life experience not much else.

Tiermina and Shuri: Fina's mom and sister, I feel compelled to mention them because in the source Tiermina is very important while Shuri is a non entity(for a very long time) while in the anime is the reverse, mostly thanks to filler.

The other characters are fine, they overhauled Gentz to take the spotlight from Yuna in a handful of scenes which I think was a mistake, the Crimonia and Royal Capital characters are serviceable while the Mileela (port town) characters aside from Atla are even below that.

Art
The artwork, landscaping and the look of the overworld are all generic, the towns are way too colorful and while they are supposed to have a medieval fantasy look they instead look like modern towns... Part of the charm of the story is the sheer ridiculousness of a girl in a bear onesie doing her thing in a medieval looking world like the one from the manga, when everything looks clean and modern like the anime it loses appeal.

Like I mentioned a while ago they probably threw Sergei's designs in the trash because a lot of (named)characters look bland, ideally we would use 029(the ln artist) designs when available, then Sergei, then generic mob generator, but the studio skipped the first two steps, the animation itself has a ton of very noticeable flaws, Sanya's hawk flies without flapping it's wings, every horse is cg animated, Yuna action sequences are sometimes low poly when she's moderately far and that one worm that's a huge plot point looks like it belongs in a fan made animation, no offense.

The animation does have highlights though, I think they blew most of their budget in Yuna which if I was in charge would have done so as well, but sometimes it's inexplicably pointless stuff such as Yuna eating pudding that looks higher quality than the rest of the episode, another highlight is the treatment Noa gets by the animators... I don't know what's with her but she does a lot of funny movements, maybe an unintentional highlight but I take what I can get.

Sound
I suppose it's a subjective thing but I disagree with the VA choice for Yuna, she did a fine job but I expected/wanted someone with a younger sounding voice, other than that no complaints, the VAs did a good job and the songs are good.

Closing thoughts
I wished a different studio picked up this project, I'm fearful for what season two is gonna bring, yet at the same time I'm grateful there's a second season at all, the anime does a few things that I liked like having Yuna finally accept Yuura's invitation to her home and having Yuna tease Rulina at the goblin cave, that stuff was gold, but for every win it racks up like 50 loses so like I said at the beginning it's a train wreck... A loveable one getting carried by the source material but in the end it's not as good as I realistically hope it would and could be.