Kumamiko - Girl meets Bear

Episode 10

Kumamiko is a fairly formulaic show. That's not always a bad thing, and the series has produced some strong episodes by making the most of that formula. That said, it can get stale when it jumps through the same hoops over and over again. Unfortunately, this week's episode, "Is That An Idol?" was more of the same.

Both of the main stories in "Is That An Idol?" mined material that we're well familiar with from previous sequences. The first half revolved around Machi's desire for a cell phone, which she wants because every other kid in the school has one. It doesn't matter if she doesn't really know how to use it or that their village has no signal. She wants to be cool, and she knows she'll need one to survive when she goes to high school in the city. First she borrows Natsu's phone, then she gets a shiny new red one from Yoshio after passing a very easy "city kid quiz." It takes her a lot of effort though, and that's where the joke felt a little too familiar.

I actually appreciated seeing Machi at school and her relationships with her peers. (To the extent she even has them; her village is so small that it's just her and a handful of elementary-school kids.) She's usually pretty isolated from other kids her age thanks to her role as a miko, so it felt like dropping in another more "normal" side of her life. Where the section fell flat was with the quiz, where Machi fails to tell a cell phone apart from other household items, like food containers. It was hard to buy that, after admiring every other kid's cell phone for ages, Machi wouldn't know what one looked like. The red one was identical to her friends', except for its color. At least Natsu is shocked too, thinking the quiz "insults her" before she proves that, no, it's right on her level. There is definitely humor in a wannabe city girl not knowing anything about modern technology or trends, but I think the joke has run its course on this show. Kumamiko needs to vary up its presentation at the very least.

The second half of the episode involves Machi as the new "village idol." Yoshio insists on her participation, even though it was a penalty for her failing the quiz (which she didn't). This involves an unfortunate gag where he tries to make her take her clothes off to change into the costume. Natsu's deadpan line about this appearing "compromising" when it isn't is a little amusing, but still, if there's one joke I'm even more frustrated by than "Machi doesn't get technology," it's jokes at the expense of Machi's boundaries. While Yoshio means well, Machi is still always uncomfortable, and the punchline is meant to be how similar the image is to an attempted molestation. This culminates in yet another familiar joke about Hibiki's unrequited crush on Yoshio.

The episode finally starts to pick up near the end, when Machi has her awkward performance. She sings a cute children's song about meeting a bear in the woods, wearing her bear costume from the village design competition (a nod to continuity I thought worked better than the others, since it's the cutest and most distinctive of those costume options). Machi is awkward and mumbles the words, while a small group of village guys gets so enthusiastic they end up drowning her out. At the end of the performance, a group of people from a rival village, Tamura, yell at the Kumade villagers for "promoting dangerous animals," and a goofy elder they call "Old Hag Tamura" proclaims that Kumade is cursed.

As usual, Kumamiko is at its best when it draws on the quirkiness of small town life, and these "competitions" between villages are a good example. The confrontation results in an argument, and Machi realizes that the two villages are basically the same, both tiny and cut-off from the world. As she says, it's "the hick-pot calling the hick-kettle black." The new gag and new characters help the latter half of this episode shine. That shouldn't be an accomplishment, but it helps after a very repetitive first half.

I also like the moment at the end where Machi asks the question we've all wondered, which is why she had to dress up as an idol in the first place. What was she promoting—the village? To whom? Their rivals from Tamura who hate them and always will? Her little meta comments here and Natsu's comments throughout the episode are nice. Still, this episode of Kumamiko feels like a major step back overall. I know this show can be original when it wants to be. With only two episodes left, I hope it has a few more tricks up its sleeve that we haven't already seen.

Rating: C+

Kuma Miko: Girl Meets Bear is currently streaming on Funimation.

Rose is a music Ph.D. student who loves overanalyzing anime soundtracks. Follow her on her media blog Rose's Turn, and on Twitter.