Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear Punch! – 01

「帰ってきたクマさん」 (Kaettekita Kuma-san)
“Bear Comes Home”

It may not technically be the season of isekai – but isekai is still here and determined to make waves. As we await the true alternate world heavy hitters later this week, things kick off with a return of Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear and the, shall we say, bearable array of slice of life shenanigans and adventuring wholesomeness. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, and yet it’s still bloody difficult finding a reason to tune out from the festivities.

Considering this is KKK Bear’s second kick at the anime can, it should bear no surprise (yes, the puns will keep coming until morale improves) that next to no time was wasted on first season summaries. Much as main girl Yuna (Kawase Maki) rapidly espoused at the start NEET girl gets the isekai golden ticket, winds up in fantasyland, and gets the differentiator of bear suit, bear companions, and ridiculously over the top bear-flavoured abilities to separate her from the pack. You need more than that? Give the first season a whirl, though considering KKK Bear’s overall nature shouldn’t be all too hard getting into the groove here. After all, this one wears its comfy adventure time aspirations on its sleeve. Or bear, one of the two.

The one thing to be said about this opener, however, is that we did get a pretty good refresher for KKK Bear’s various characters. Besides Yuna and her life’s objective of eating anything and everything tasty, there’s the little helper in Fina who basically functions as cute younger sister, Shuri who does the same (only cuter), and the plethora of nobility and royalty with the likes of Cliff, Noire, and Ellelaura who provide the various excuses for Yuna to do things week in and week out. This episode for example basically was that with bee trees and piecture books providing all the impetus needed to reintroduce faces, have some laughs, and let KKK Bear’s (admittedly quite cute) artwork steal the show. Again, nothing particularly stupendous or amazing, especially when remembered it’ll be a full season of this, but arguably hard finding better material to kick back and relax to after a hard day’s work. What can I say, I’m a sucker for adorable.

Overall KKK Bear won’t be offering any serious changes or shake ups compared to its first season, but provided you like comfy fantasy adventuring with a touch of quirky ursine honey, it’ll be hard finding a better way to relax on a Monday. And considering we’re in a season jam packed with hype-worthy shows, I dare say that’s all which is really needed.

ED Sequence

ED: 「キミトノミライ」 (Kimi to no Mirai) by Azumi Waki

Preview