Girl meets bear.

This was easily one of my favorite anime of the season. See this post explaining some of the reasons why. Essentially, great portrayal of shyness, and I loved how there’s a strong presence of a community, something that tends to be lacking in anime.

A few more assorted thoughts:

• Pretty much all the characters are great. I especially liked Yoshio, who was such a great “responsible” adult / enemy.
• One of the best OPs and EDs I’ve seen in a long time.
• I love the style of the animation: the faces, all the bright colors, etc., even if there are some obvious quality issues like that hilariously bad bookstore scene in the last ep.
• Excellent jokes. I’ll admit that I especially liked the ones teasing Machi as a country hick, even if it was pretty mean.
• Actually, the entire show was quite mean. That’s probably why I liked it so much. Apparently, the ending changed from the manga, and people were up and arms about that. I will agree that the ending was extremely disturbing. However, I felt that was right in line with the rest of the show.

• Storytelling – A – Great sense of humor.
• Voice – A – Aesthetic sense coupled with absurdity and the harshness of reality.
• Characters –A – Strong characterizations, great sense of community on display.
• Attention Grab – A – Kept me engaged the entire time.
• Production – B – Nice animation style, although technically not the best.
• Overall – A-

Recommendations – Barakamon, Inari Konkon Koi Iroha, Gingitsune