Kumamiko: Girl Meets Bear

So what is the deal with Kuma Miko: Girl Meets Bear? There are some lovely and differing opinions on FilmBooster from which I am getting completely conflicting information, which is a great reason to check out this anime series yourself and make up your mind. As far as I am concerned, I am pretty much sure. The truth is once again somewhere in the middle for me, though. Andrew_Deer wrote in his review on FilmBooster about how funny it is; unfortunately, the truth is that I, for one, did not find it that amusing. The first episode was pretty funny, and the line from the one boy who asked if Machi had "been with the bear" was quite amusing, although that was probably the last time I felt entertained by it. Since then, I only laughed at the occasional joke, even though they were more or less always about the same thing. This anime series is based on a girl from the mountains and her issues with the modern world. However, that conflict does not turn out to be that interesting or imaginative, in my opinion. Honestly, such a conflict between the young samurai Kennosuke Tokisada Ouma, the deuteragonist featured in Kuromukuro, and the modern world are much better and more amusing, which is only a side issue in that anime series. So in terms of humor, Kuma Miko: Girl Meets Bear? does not score too highly with me. Then there are the individual characters and the supposed pedophile subtext. In my opinion, the bear is more of a caretaker, father, and friend, and I did not feel any other type of relationship was going on. I certainly did not think there were any sexual overtones, except maybe the scene where Miko (Machi Amayadori) is picking out a new dress, and the bear is gushing over one of the chosen outfits. The bear, Natsu Kumai, does not strike me as much of a Pedobear, and it is not the community's fault that others have created a lot of rather perverted images of him and Machi (though that is to be expected). So if anyone is expecting a zoophilia anime series, they are more or less out of luck and should focus their attention more on shows like "Monster Musume". Another prominent character is Yoshio Amayadori, who is usually the creator of all the nonsensical and supposedly crazy situations Miko gets into. Speaking for myself, I can say that I find Yoshio an extremely unpleasant character, and I would be hard-pressed to find a bigger c*ck in this anime series. Somehow I could not understand why they take him seriously, and I would almost go so far as to say that there are many more moments where I wondered if his interest in little Machi was purely platonic than the whole bear thing. I did not mind the soundtrack, and the animation is below-average, even though that was probably OK for this show. In the end, this show is pretty boring, and there is only a slight whiff of "pedo" but mostly not from the bear. 3.5/10. (04/10/2016)