Kumamiko: Girl Meets Bear – 02

This show has the best eye-catches…

The Two Day’s of Machi’s Perilous Quest for Name Brand Thermal Underwear.

Oh will it explode if I….

They go back and forth all time…

We start of this episode going back to the shared past of she and her bear. Back in the day, Machi didn’t take separation from him very well, breaking down at the mere though of him hibernating. But Natsu is nothing if not indulgent, so he curtailed that very natural part of bear life for her. This is juxtaposed with the girl’s current situation. That being Machi’s insistence on leaving the small village she grew up in to attend high school in a more populous area, and Nantsu putting his paw down on the idea. Being the kami of the shrine carries with it authority and responsibility, after all. I guess the buck stops with him, especially when everyone else is very eager to pass it on to him anyway. Whatever the bear says, fine by us…..

The absurd bike is dead…

Machi, however, will not be denied. This doesn’t mean that Natsu has to give in so easy, though, so it’s back to giving her tests and such. This time it’s a fetch quest. Machi must go to the next town and shop at a unique location for a unique item; a series of activities she admits she’s never done all of at once before. But before she’s off she has to get anxious about and out-guess herself at every turn. You keep saying, stop and take stock, OK. There’s nothing wrong in admitting you don’t know the details. But then, adults are idiots when it comes to proving what they know despite not knowing anything. So,  naturally, she wants to prove herself grown up and ready to take on the task. By going solo. She can handle all this herself.

Drinking, fishing and shopping. The endless world of adults

Which is where the best part of all the work comes in. From having to wait a day because the only bridge rots and washes away, to acquiring Yoshio’s absurd bike, to crashing said bike (small mercies), to meeting up with the man himself and borrowing a ride, to putting up with a drunken old fart. But none of it stopped her dead, it only delayed the inevitable. That was the best part of the humor, none of it really gag related, but instead the writing and direction relies on it’s own natural pace and it’s own graces. I love that shot of her in the woods. Resigned to defeat with that idiotic bike chair. I’m glad she didn’t stay…

The tag. The Tag. THE TAG!!!!!!!

Smug Miko

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I loved how Natsu was upset in the end. This was a complete surprise to him, only maybe it shouldn’t have been? Perhaps he really isn’t ready to allow her to leave the nest, so he’s never going to show her the ropes. Just try to make her come to the proper realization. Of course this is going to fill Machi’s head with flim-flam, and he’ll not be able to talk her off it if, later or ever. It’s funny, but at the same time it’s a basic human trait, that we subscribe to our own horsehockey, provided none of it killed us the idea isn’t stupid if it works, the path isn’t perilous if you are safe by the end, etc.  He couldn’t account for that, and honestly, in raising kids, you can’t all the time…they aren’t the puppets we think they are. They have their own head, their own ideas. That’s life…and it’s the surprise that counts.

The other eye-catch. 

About skylion

All around nerd that enjoys just about any anime genre. I love history, politics, public policy, the sciences, literature, arts...pretty much anything can make me geeky...except sports. Follow me @theskylion