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Old 04-18-2016, 06:01 PM   #1
Talon87
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Kuma Miko


Kuma Miko is the story of a shrine maiden from the sticks who dreams of living the city life. A tribe of talking bears lives in the area, and she is the latest shrine maiden in a long lineage of maidens charged with bridging the gap between the human and bear worlds.

Kuma Miko is billed as a comedy seinen series, meaning it's for men in their 30s to 50s to laugh at and have a good time with. Would I say that's accurate? Pretty accurate. I've had a blast with the show so far, only two episodes in, although I don't know that I'd place an age range on it. More like ... "this show will appeal to your inner father." The girl is adorable, cute, funny, and just all around great surrogate daughter material. Hey wait a second ...

That's right: this show is Gingitsune's spiritual sister. They're different enough from one another to not be confused for each other, and yet both have to do with a cute shrine maiden and an animal with human characteristics bridging the gap between two worlds, both have the animal being an older male, both have the two main characters having been inseparable since the shrine maiden's childhood, and both start us off where the girl is in her early-mid teens and is ready to start a new life for herself. If you haven't seen Gingitsune before and are enjoying Kuma Miko, then I suggest you check out our Gingitsune thread here. They're not 100% the same, but they have too much in common to be ignored.

Kuma Miko is also being billed by the Internet at large as being a somewhat raunchy, pervy show. Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii don't think that's really accurate at all. Judge for yourself whether I'm right or not, but I feel like the Internet took the one lewd story from Episode 01 (not even a scene proper! just a story!) and ran with it. So far I've felt this show to be extremely family friendly, maybe even moreso than Gingitsune, except for that one scene. And the disappointment I'm finding on websites from people who are let down that the show hasn't been as raunchy "fun" as Episode 01 was seems to prove to me that I'm right and that this isn't nor was it ever intended to be a show for folks looking for perverse comedy. Though you'll find plenty of comedy here. It's pretty great.
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Old 04-18-2016, 06:02 PM   #2
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Old 04-18-2016, 06:02 PM   #3
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Post in which to edit in people's posts from the Suggestions Box thread (too lazy to do it right now)
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Old 04-18-2016, 07:16 PM   #4
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Is this like a more adult version of Polar Bear Café?
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Old 04-18-2016, 07:38 PM   #5
Talon87
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Originally Posted by Jerichi View Post
Is this like a more adult version of Polar Bear Café?
Not exactly ... though Natsu does have some similarities to Polar Bear in personality. This show is more about a duo (Machi and Natsu), and it has a much smaller cast, and the humor is different ...

It's really a lot like Gingitsune. They're different too, but to use life forms as an analogy, I'd say if Kuma Miko's a human, then Gingitsune's a chimpanzee, PBC's a lizard, Kannagi's a newt, and Monster's not even in Animalia.

The show so far has been a lot of saccharine comedy. It's very adorable but in a "aren't girls so adorable" sense, not in a "aren't kittens so adorable" sense. It's 100% a show with moe appeal. But while less educational than Gingitsune, it's still ever so slightly educational. Episode 03, for example, brings up that Machi's unique shrine maiden outfit combines the traditional dress from southern Honshuu with the Ainu dress from the north. (Surprising to me, the episode even teaches Japanese viewers that Ainu weren't just in Hokkaido. Umm ... yeah. I thought everyone knew that!)

It's ... its like if K-On! or Kannagi melded with Gingitsune. The setting is Gingitsune, the protagonist is Kannagi, and the moe is K-On!

Long way of answering that I wouldn't really compare it with PBC. That series was much more sedate, appealed to a much broader audience, and was about lots of characters.
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Old 04-18-2016, 07:56 PM   #6
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The lewd story was kind of out of nowhere. Up until that point, the story did feel a lot like Polar Bear Cafe. Then it went Seitokai Yakuindomo.
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Old 04-18-2016, 08:47 PM   #7
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I didn't feel that way at all, but maybe only because everyone and his mother said the show (Episode 01) gets surprisingly raunchy in its second half. The real deal was very tame and entirely played for laughs.

Oh, I forgot to mention: we need to look it up later, but when I watched Episode 01 and heard the 9-year old girl speak, I am like 99% certain that's Makoto from Gingitsune. It's like, they knew the projects are really similar. They just had to have her voice a bit character! I will be very surprised if I am wrong.
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Old 04-18-2016, 10:06 PM   #8
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I heard the 9-year old yell "SEKKUSU HARASUMENTO" and realized she was voiced by a 24-year old*.

*she could be thirty for all I know
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Old 04-24-2016, 11:46 AM   #9
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The first half of episode 3 was awesome. Second half featured something that I think harem protagonists should do more often.
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Old 04-26-2016, 04:11 PM   #10
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Just finished Episode 04. The first half wasn't as strong as previous weeks have been, and the second half was in a different league of boring. It's probably more entertaining to Japanese people who grew up knowing what a Shimomura is and what the stereotypes are about it, but even with the episode kinda explaining everything as it went I still thought this part was really dull and pointless.

Spoiler: show
Pretty confused by how Hibiki's been written. On the one hand, she isn't the millionth repeat of more common depictions of rough-'n'-tumble girls, so I guess yay for novelty. But on the other hand, I just can't understand her. Like, at all. I feel like she's a mishmash of cut-out squares of paper of personality, instead of being one three-dimensional cube or sphere. She's the only character in the show who is like this for me. Everyone else had been fine. But Hibiki's been introduced and I just ... I can't predict what she will say or do next because there doesn't seem to be any pattern to her behavior.
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Old 05-02-2016, 04:56 PM   #11
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Episode 05: the exploration of "tsundere" episode.

Spoiler: show
Hard to believe Machi or Yoshio could be so dense, but without it you have little to no humor here. Also hard to believe that this delinquent would have the hots for such a goodie-goodie government employee like Yoshio, but hey, "opposites attract."

I liked the bike helmet, how she kept it on because she was too embarrassed to show her face.

I like that bit by bit we're getting village backstory and lore. Natsu's predecessor, Gonzaburo, is mentioned again.

Liked the end with Hibiki grabbing/holding Machi like that. Extreme. ^^; haha

The animation in this show is always top notch. And you can tell the animators really love drawing Machi. So many photograph-worthy moments.

When Natsu begins to act like a tsundere to try and teach Machi how to read between the lines, I swear he's quoting Kugimiya Rie verbatim.

The show's very cute but is getting very little done. Some would see it as a huge waste of time, others not. I guess I'd call the time spent with it ... "therapeutic"? It's similar to K-On! in that sense.
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Old 05-05-2016, 01:24 PM   #12
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Hahaha, Machi is a huge pig! She put away that whole freaking cake like it was nothing! Oink oink!

Oink oink! Snort.

Wahahahaha!

Yoshio's an odd duckling to me. He acts in a really familiar way to me...which I can only interpret as myself. I don't think I've seen a character act so eerily close to home as Yoshio has.

...

This anime is full of leg-service. Which is the best fanservice when you're a perv like me, but also speaks about why people are can't stop sexualizing it. It's not 100% pure - there are some "tee hee!" ulterior intentions behind a lot of shots.

...

I've spent some time trying to discern Natsu's bear species. I've come to the conclusion he's most likely a giant panda.
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Old 05-09-2016, 11:02 PM   #13
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Episode 06 was filled with lots of adorable imagery and moments. Lots of "aww"s directed both Machi's and Natsu's way. The show definitely knows how to tug at its target demographic's heartstrings.

I don't really have too much to say about this episode without regurgitating the plot. I guess one thing I can think of to comment on ...

Spoiler: show
I was pleasantly surprised by Machi's colossal failure. I feel like the author, in writing the outcome this way, has both shown us just how severe Machi's city ineptitude is and at the same time succeeded in giving us the satisfaction of a realistic plot, however little plot this series has. Like ... it simply wouldn't be realistic for a country girl to adapt that easily to city life, not when she's not only as insulated as we know Machi to be but when she's also as cripplingly shy as we know her to be from the Hibiki episodes. Machi doesn't come across as the shy type usually, but that's because she's interacting with people she's known her entire life. Plop her into the city and suddenly she's super self-conscious and self-critical and all sorts of anxious and yeah. I'm not saying that I predicted the outcome nor that I predicted such an extreme degree of the outcome. I'm just saying that, when provided the outcome, I was pleased with what I got. It made sense. It worked. It wasn't the easy way out.
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Old 05-14-2016, 08:30 AM   #14
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Yikes, Talon is right about Hibiki. Her behaviour is pretty un-predictable and I'm actually afraid of her cause of that.

AND MAN, this show can feel like Dagashi Kashi at times.

Weird eyes...



Product placement (or propaganda)...



...

Unrelated, everyone was making ratings in Episode 03 so I thought it was odd we didn't chime in!

WHICH DO YOU LIKE BEST




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Old 05-14-2016, 08:32 AM   #15
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Oh, 3, easily. 3 > 1 > 4 > 2.
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Old 05-14-2016, 08:48 AM   #16
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Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
Oh, 3, easily. 3 > 1 > 4 > 2.
This.

In other news I need to catch up on this so badly.
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Old 06-29-2016, 04:24 PM   #17
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Doppel's hinted that this series had a controversial ending. I was only through Episode 07 when he posted, but I've since caught up all the way through Episode 11, the second-to-last episode. Weighing in real quick, I can say that nothing worthy of controversy (at least not within the anime community) has happened so far.

Spoiler: show
The series was pretty directionless from around Episode 03 to Episode 09. It then "found itself" circa Episode 09 or 10, having decided to take the angle of Machi becoming an idol in order to promote Kumade Village. Machi was against it for a number of reasons, but ended up being persuaded to go along with Yoshio's plan. The latest episode sees her crippling anxiety taking hold over her as she flees from the stage in embarrassment after having goofed on a couple of things. It's not yet clear whether she'll end up becoming a pop idol or not -- the next episode could just as easily take things in the one direction as it could the other.

Regardless, there's been nothing along the lines of Usagi Drop's finale, if that's what Doppel had been insinuating. Will have to see what the final episode has in store for us.
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Old 06-29-2016, 05:35 PM   #18
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Alright, I just finished 12. Wasn't really sure what your spoken-of big deal was, but reading your post in full now and having seen the episode I can weigh in.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Doppleganger View Post
I've heard some nasty things about the manga, as viewed through the lens of an anime watcher.

Box'd to contain the cruelty (ending spoilers):

Spoiler: show

The crux of the commentary is that the manga, while allegedly light-hearted, does so by ruthlessly bullying and making fun of Machi. This might not sound like much, but to draw a comparison it's similar to Sengoku Rance with its rampant raping and pillaging used a comedy point. Rance makes rape hilarious and fun, even though, you know, in the real world it's pretty terrible.

The anime dramatizes the scenes in the manga in a way that downplays the comedy and emphasizes the social anxiety aspect, and this comes to a boiling point in the final episode where Machi is quite literally mindbroken, losing all will to try and grow up/mature and becoming the country bumpkin stereotype she feared she would become for all time.

Here's the scene, which allegedly comes after a traumatizing idol show staged by Yoshio that ends up as the straw that broke the camel's back.

She's mentally regressed all the way back to a 5-year old farmgirl. Brutal.
The episode is fine right up until after:

Spoiler: show
Machi's performance ends. Right up until then, the episode is fine. I even liked it for tying things back together with the legend of the sacrificial miko.

But then Machi hallucinates that the crowd is booing her off stage. (They are in fact giving her a roaring standing ovation.) And she resolves to never visit the city again. She also abandons her dream of going to high school in the city.

While this grants Natsu's selfish wish, there are two problems. First, it's perverse to turn Machi out like this. Second, it's clear that Natsu knows his wish is selfish and he really wants for Machi's dreams to come true.

Until the post-performance, everything is shaping up nicely. Natsu and Yoshio exchange knowing words about how Machi has grown up and it's time for Natsu to let her leave the nest. Machi has unknowingly made the first of her new friends outside Kumade Village. (The Akita idol whom she crashed into and Non Non the idol from somewhere starting with H.) The public is enamored by her appeal.

But then the writers strangely call it all off. In having Machi hallucinate once more, they dash her dreams in favor of keeping her a perpetual country bumpkin. Worse yet, they almost seem to regress her mental state a few years, as if to say that she's locked in to pre-high school forever.

It's not realistic. People grow up. People change. It's silly at best, sickening at worst, to lock her in to perpetual inaka childhood like this.

But unlike the Internet(?), I didn't get enraged on seeing this. I figured the following:
  1. The idol arc was made for TV. Explains why the series suddenly developed a plot arc towards the end after many episodes of pure comic fluff.
  2. The way the idol arc ends, it has to in order to line things back up with the manga.
  3. Machi's childishness, it's just one of her typical hyper-childlike states of being she has from time to time. It's nothing new. It's not permanent either. It's not like she's actually mentally regressed into a 5-year old.
But I could be wrong about one or more things. I know I would be pretty put off too if both 1 and 2 were false.

At the end of the day, Kuma Miko was at best a 6/10 and more like a 5/10 with gorgeous animation. (Seriously, what the hell with that animation.) So I can't get too upset even if the Internet's interpretation of the ending is completely right. It wouldn't be a great show getting ruined. It'd be an only okay show getting ruined.

Putting it differently, if you were to delete the second half of Episode 12 I still don't think you'd see very many DVDs or Blu-Rays sold. Hard to imagine this being many people's must-own TV series.
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Old 07-07-2016, 10:46 PM   #19
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The soup...gets thicker.
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Old 07-07-2016, 11:04 PM   #20
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The soup...gets thicker.
The author agreed it was a bad ending. Then he deleted his comment. Then he issued a new comment in which he praised the studio. But in that same comment he also absolved himself of the ending (by taking credit for the first half of the ending, which is the best part).

The author will get the last laugh. The anime can only improve sales of his manga, even if only modestly, whereas the bad ending will tank DVD sales.

I still feel like it's all being blown out of proportion. Yes, the ending was jarring and frustrating. No, it didn't ruin the franchise. Like I said before, a, you needed something like that -- any form of rollback -- to return her to her pre-thelastfourepisodes self if you wanted to leave the door open for a Season 2; and b, it can easily, easily be written to be as transient as many of her other juvenile episodes. There's no reason for the hardcore fans to panic so badly, as though the series were irreparably ruined. They could easily do a Season 2, not that they ever will now, that glosses right over the final two to four episodes.
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Old 07-11-2016, 04:22 PM   #21
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I guess with nothing going on lately, people feel the need to blow something out of proportion. I think the animators just tried to make the ending moments as moe as they could. They probably didn't think of how dark it seemed.

From start to finish, Kuma Miko was an okay show with some fun moments here and there. I hoped it would have something to offer along with that animation budget. I guess the animators felt that since Gochuumon did so well, they could super moefy another show and do well. Kuma Miko gets a 5 from me.

I'm still trying to figure out why every time I see a manga image of Machi, she looks emotionless. She's not like that in the manga (atleast from what I glanced of it), so I don't know.
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