No, I was not a cute loli shrine maiden. Yes, I did spend most of my time talking to a bear. His name was Teddy. We even went to the bathroom together. (So sorry about that time I dropped you in the toilet, Teddy…)

Community

Kuma Miko has made me realize something that’s missing from most anime. A community. Here is the entire social circle of your typical school anime main character:

• A couple of classmates.
• One or two teachers.
• Four or five clubmates.
• The immediate family (often limited to a single imouto, the parents are mysteriously absent).
• The immediate next-door neighbors (but not the family two doors down).

And that’s it. Do anime characters never get out? For comparison, here’s a subset of the people I interacted with regularly in high school: Continue reading Reliving my Childhood with Kuma Miko →