Rilakkuma and Kaoru: Cherry Blossom

April 24, 2019 10:45 PM - Season 1, Episode 1

Kaoru is dejected when her friends' busy lives prevent them from attending their annual Hanami. Rilakkuma can't make pancakes without burning them.

It is a show with a salarywoman, a very large bear, a smaller bear, and an energetic chicken friend! Very similar to me and Koala and Koalette.

In this episode, the human (Kaoru) straightens up Rilakkuma's 'bedhead' (a wrinkled ear) with a pump of anti-static spray :3 Despite not having thumbs, the bears manage to comb their hair, pick up objects, and make pancakes.

There is some minor plot with the human and her friends all being too busy to keep up their annual tradition, and for a while I worried that the bears were figments of her imagination, but nahhhh, giant bear roommates are totally real.

posted by batter_my_heart (9 comments total)

This is a weird one. I put this on for my 2 year old and she was entranced, but I was perplexed. The stuff with the bears seemed like your standard toddler show, but then Kaoru has her subplot at her job and with her friends, and it felt more like a CW show. Still, I think the 2 pieces fit well together, and it's infinitely superior to Boss Baby.
posted by cottoncandybeard at 6:42 AM on April 25, 2019 [2 favorites]

Now I'm intrigued. We've had some good success with international kids shows (Puffin Rock!) and some weird ones (Jingle Kids?!?), so this is a show that young kids might like, and we'd enjoy too? I love watching "slice of life" anime that shows neighborhoods and people interacting with each other in Japan.
posted by Hermeowne Grangepurr at 8:21 AM on April 25, 2019

Small child and teenage child both gave it a very very solid review. I found the animation of the humans slightly uncanny valley and couldn't make it through her scenes.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 7:15 PM on April 25, 2019

Hahaha I like it a lot as an adult human, though I admit to skipping her drinking alone / awkward office / awkward life scenes.

The bears are so expressive :3

Do I have to make a new post for every episode? They're like 12 minutes each and there's not really such a thing as spoilers.
posted by batter_my_heart at 7:37 PM on April 25, 2019

So I watched all of the episodes, and it was a really cute show. I'd probably skip episodes 4 and 5 for younger viewers, for implied sexual content (speedos) and a horror movie sendup. All of the festival scenes and kimono dressing scenes brought back memories of our visit to tokyo during the cherry blossoms- including the takoyaki seller! Overall Kaoru's arc felt like a sadder/unresolved Aggretsuko story.

It was kind of a weird mashup between working girl angst and cute bears, though!
posted by Hermeowne Grangepurr at 1:01 PM on April 26, 2019

I'm on my third run-through of this show. Something about cute cartoon-ish characters in a semi-realistic environment is 100% my aesthetic.
posted by Think_Long at 1:46 PM on April 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

cottoncandybeard's comment definitely intrigues me. Would be fair to compared this to Hilda (not in terms of content, so much, but in the sense that it seems kind of ageless and works as a show for both children and adults)?
posted by asnider at 3:03 PM on May 2, 2019

I watched 2 episodes and found them quite perplexing. I'm far more acquainted with Rilakkuma, Korilakkuma and Kiiroitori as characters, rather than Kaoru who hitherto was just a minor detail in Rilakkuma's backstory. Here I was expecting Rilakkuma to be the star of the show, but he's now relegated to a grunty (albeit adorable) prop in Kaoru's world. It's like watching an alternate version of Toy Story where Andy's the protagonist instead of Woody and Buzz!
posted by hellopanda at 10:48 AM on May 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

hellopanda, what Rilakkuma-centric media would you recommend? I am almost done watching the series.
posted by batter_my_heart at 5:14 AM on May 22, 2019