Kuma Miko

http://i.imgur.com/pbgjr30.jpg

Summary from MAL:
What does a bear know about life in the big city? For Machi Amayadori's sake, hopefully a lot! The young shrine maiden has spent her whole life in the rural mountains with Natsu, her talking guardian bear. Now, at fourteen, she wants to take a chance and attend high school in the big city. Can Natsu really prepare her for city life? Or will his wacky trials be too much for even Machi to bear?


Episode 5 is out.

I found the first episode a little boring, but after seeing all released ones, this show has grown on me. Machi is really cute, and Natsu is just so cool. The comedy can get hilarious at times. The introduction of Hibiki was a nice spice to the show. I've always liked Yankee girls in anime when they aren't "truly" trashy.

This has been surprisingly entertaining. I like how the bear is just doing his thing and commenting like a middle aged man while nobody pays him any more mind. Miko girl is cute in her wordly ignorance.

Yeah, Natsu's comments and calm are the best. He's also the smartest person thing in the show.

One of the best surprises in the show was in the previous episode when it turned out Machi actually is using the new suits.

Machi's ignorance is beyond realistic, but it works well in this show. I suppose she needs to be that way to be able to work with a talking bear.

Speaking of which, which miko outfit did you like best?

I'm partial to the 4th option. I love 'em loli shoulders and waki peeks.

Number two wins the reaction, but I was partial to number one, stylistically.

On one of the rare occasions that shinta and I completely agree, the 4th one (and the original of course) are the best ones.

@shinta: fix the lead image in this thread please. It is broken.

The third costume and the idol piece win hands down.

I feel uneasy watching this show. The sexual jokes are such that I'm basically watching a whole village taking advantage of Machi sexually.

It's delivered in a light-hearted manner that's brushed off, but that's actually part of the problem.

It's still enjoyable enough to watch, but I do see this being kinda wrong when I think about it.

You and your SJW genes.

@Ryll - It's broken? It looks okay to me right now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shinta|hikari

@Ryll - It's broken? It looks okay to me right now.

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All I see is a line of text urging to click to see the image.

I've fixed it now. This is what it looked like before:

http://i.imgur.com/clseGgk.jpg

I was actually asked to log into the old forum address when I clicked that image. If Shinta is using the older address, that might have something to do with it.

There's a new address??

And damn my avatar looks awesome even in a screencap.

Machi will probably become my next victim. I hope as109 does one of her.

www.gotwoot.org is the new address. The old server kept crashing so Comp migrated us over. We haven't been able to keep the old address so both sites are in sync for now.

That's my understanding.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Buffalobiian

www.gotwoot.org is the new address. The old server kept crashing so Comp migrated us over. We haven't been able to keep the old address so both sites are in sync for now.

That's my understanding.

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Yeah, I've had to fix about 3 or 4 threads this way recently... wasn't aware that was the issue.

Episode 6 - HS



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Could be my favourite episode so far, perhaps it will be my favourite of the whole show. Exaggerations were really going over the top, plus it was very nice to see others suffer for a change as well, not only Machi (although she suffered the most naturally).

One funny thing was that during the using an escalator in the wrong direction scene, somehow my brain overwrote the noname dude with Servant X Service's Hasebe. It was excellent. If I had been the director of this anime, I'd have totally cast Hasebe's VA for the role, even if for copyright reasons the looks couldn't have been identical.

I found all the crying and the blame game almost unbearable. The light hearted episodes better come again.

Excluding the crying, the rest of it was great. I loved the escalator scene. Machi is like the dream girl of lolicons worldwide.

Episode 08 - HS



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It's quite fascinating how they managed to make such a huge ordeal out of that simple food sample serving. As the eps go by, Machi's dream of being able to live in a city is only becoming more and more unlikely. She even realises it herself, despite the fact she still gets thrilled about the idea of visiting a big city. But it's only the idea she loves. It's quite strange how she's so ignorant considering Natsu isn't, despite being a bear who obviously can't visit any human settlements. He can only use the media and his own wits. Those should be available to Machi as well.

They've got the "I've never had to use it, why do I need it now?" mentality, while the progressive thought could be "This is now available (internet etc), what can I possibly do with it?"

I personally balance both for the sake of economy, efficiency, and eccentricity.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shinta|hikari

I personally balance both for the sake of economy, efficiency, and eccentricity.

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And there you have it: Machi boiling rice in a teflon pot over woodfire.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Buffalobiian

And there you have it: Machi boiling rice in a teflon pot over woodfire.

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And there you have it: Machi eating teflon contaminated rice.

No wonder she's so bad at city trivia. Nothing sticks.

Episode 9:








I think this short sequence, including the subtitles, summarizes the appeal of this show:
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g3...psynhuojok.gif

Especially the "Rub your face against the slimy mushroom" bit. And wakiness.

Yoshio would be easily cheap, sleazy, and amoral enough to work for a big corporation or national politics instead of that tiny village.

But of course it's good for the show there's someone in the village tricking Machi into doing things she would rather not do.

This episode highlighted exactly why Director's Cuts are made.

It hurts to have someone butcher your work. Poor Usui.

Episode 11 - HS



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The village has ruined Machi on purpose. It's exceptionally cruel of Yoshio to try to make Machi do this after the long years of building this trauma inside of her. Realistically speaking there's no way she would have never visited a bigger town or city by her age unless it was the plan to begin with. I guess a plan to retain her pure miko personality. Too bad the media corrupted her, making her desire city life. But then again, Yoshio is as stupid as a rubber boot (no offense to rubber boots), so it's understandable he can't get it.

They screwed up with the costume. If they chose the waki-exposing ones, she'd have won the moment she fell and raised her arms.

Episode 12 Final - HS



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What a tragic ending. No matter how you looked at it, something broke in Machi's mind during her performance. Her behavior after they got back to the village suggested her mental state had regressed several years, that is, she's back to being a young kid, not a teenager anymore. She should be getting professional psychiatric help, but instead the village is taking advantage of it and using that condition to keep her as a more obedient miko.

Now I understand why I read from a couple of sources that the ending left many people unsatisfied. I was about to enter this show in the season top three after watching the last ep, but no way I'm going to do it after seeing this gruesome ending.