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「クマさん、少女と出会う」 (Kumasan, Shoujo to Deau)
“Bear Meets Little Girl”
A bit of a wait for Kuma3 Bear (anime names truly are a thing to behold) to return for episode two—because pre-air coverage!—but here we are, back in the world of cute and cuddly. Oh, and actual isekai, since it’s that sort of show. Yes, it’s everything alternate world you know and hate love, now in one convenient bear package.
As discussed back in pre-air impressions, Kuma3 Bear is effectively slice-of-life ‘moesekai’: Yuna does the Overlord thing and winds up being moved into the game world, gets handed some ridiculously overpowered abilities (courtesy of bear outfit), and is left to her own devices. Or in other worlds, cute and wholesome. You can guess how this will go given the nature of this episode and the lighthearted adventuring format, but there’s always room to try and test the waters if the series so decides. After all, like Bofuri, adventuring doesn’t have to be limited to traditional fantasy preconceptions and can try introducing other elements (notably in theme or abilities). I don’t expect anything on this front personally considering how Yuna’s OP-ness is inherently linked to her bear outfit (unlike with Maple), but hey, one never knows.
The true sell here, however, will be the characters and Yuna at least won’t prove boring. While undeniably vanilla in origins and personality, Yuna’s skill, familiarity, and quick adaptation to her new circumstances is a nice change of pace from the usual isekai MC shenanigans, even if the final results are, well, pretty predictable. Couple it with some adorable cutie pies featured and primed to join the party, particularly wolf destroyer Fina, and you can bet this show won’t be missing a beat when it comes to laidback fun and games. Mind you probably not enough to actually make any noticeable waves in terms of top ten lists, but as a decent bit of midweek relaxation? Yeah, I’m liking what we have so far.
Kuma3 Bear may not be up to the rigors of full coverage (something something slice-of-life blogging difficulties), but considering its nature, I’m certainly going to be paying some attention this season to see where this pun machine of an isekai plans on heading.
I thought the animation was a little weak and flat looking compared to
the pre-air episode. I was okay with the geometric shapes outside, but
some inside shots included the geometric shapes which didn’t make sense
(like in her room at the inn).
Still a fun watch — looks like they rushed to get a bunch of things established
in the story line, but hopefully things will settle out as the series progresses.
What I mean is that the story has a fun premise that I don’t feel is coming through
in the Anime just yet..
Animation is middle of the road IMO, but as long as all future action scenes aren’t horrendous I think it’ll be alright in the end. These sorts of shows never need strong animation anyway given the material.
And yeah once things settle down and we get some decent weekly adventures I fully expect its strengths to shine.
I’m a little confused. She got isekai’ed this episode but in episode 1 we saw her logging out. Did I miss some details here and there?
No. Think of the “Pre-air” (episode 1) as a series trailer. For whatever
reason, the studio thought it was a good idea to do it this way.
Notice that in this episode she hasn’t yet got the skill to summon
the bears from her “gloves.” I only understand some of this because
I’ve looked at the manga.
I like the series concept, I hope it gets a little smoother in the story telling
in the future episodes…
Ah, many thanks for the explanation!
The first episode/pilot is basically not connected to the second episode story.
The isekai happens in the first 2 minutes of the second episode. (after the survey )
Just to confirm what mac65 and Teutates said, the first episode was more of a teaser with this one being the “proper” introduction. I expect they premiered it like this in order to avoid the usual exposition that have sunk some show premieres.
It would have been fine had they not interspersed scenes from the very beginning of the story throughout that episode to give the impression they were happening at the same time when the fight was actually about a month in the future.
KUMA PUNCH!