Interest

Kumamiko Creator Remarks on 'Cruel' Comment in Final Episode Script

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for the ending of Kuma Miko: Girl Meets Bear.

The final episode of Kuma Miko: Girl Meets Bear aired on June 19, but it has met with a largely negative reception from its viewers. The artist of the original manga, Masume Yoshimoto, appears to concur, judging by a post on his Tumblr account. It has since been removed but screenshots of the post are still circulating.

About the Anime

I saw the finale of the Kumamiko anime
Congratulations to the anime staff on their hard work
I feel that they had many difficulties

I personally deeply felt the power of animation
Thank you very much for persevering until the end

I declined to check the script
They're pros, so I left it up to them
So I'm not qualified to say this

But if you'll hear my thoughts as a fan of the original work
I think that
What Yoshio said sure was cruel

In the episode, Yoshio compares Machi's appearance at an idol contest in Sendai as the representative of her village with the offering of her ancestor as a human sacrifice in the folktale told at the beginning of the series.

Dissatisfaction with Kumamiko's ending centers around the abandonment of Machi's character development with the active support of Natsu and Yoshio. In a possibly related development, Pierre Sugiura, one of the anime's writers, deleted his Twitter account and removed Kumamiko from his Facebook resume. It was also deleted from his filmography on Wikipedia by an IP address from Aichi Prefecture — where Sugiura is from.

ANN reviewer, Rose Bridges, is also generally disappointed by the ending of Kumamiko.

Thanks to Zach McClure for the tip!

Sources: Yaraon!, The Huffington Post, Biglobe News and My Game News Flash; Image from My Game News Flash