10 Second Anime - Kuma Miko - Episode 8

Yoshio convinces Machi to promote their village's produce at a nearby supermarket.

Episode 8 - "ON THE FLOOR"

Heh.

Yoshio is quite the benign manipulator. He played Natsu's and Machi's personality quirks to get Natsu to help convince Machi to promote the charms of their remote village. Of course, Yoshio has an ulterior motive.

Machi and Natsu spend an awful lot of time together, so it's nice to see more of what they do besides Machi being lazy and eating snacks at the shrine. We get the 4-Panel Omake at the end of each episode for all the nuances of lazy snacking Machi.

One of those omake made reference to Natsu losing his touch at catching fish. This episode showed that in more detail. He's spending too much time on his tablet and not enough time with his paws in a river.

One thing I got out of the cold food cuisine that's part of Japan's Summer menu, which I would not have thought about unless I was watching how lazy Machi can be and how much effort she puts into cutting firewood to boil rice, is that cold rice and cold noodle dishes was a way to avoid working in hot weather.

Even if it's a way to spend more time lazing around and trying not to sweat, traditional cold rice dishes are tasty! High five!

Another mention of this Fuchi lady making hot pepper miso.

I want to try hot pepper miso...

Of course, Natsu has to show his modern and worldly sensibilities by making an Italian version of cold rice. I liked how ignorant Machi was of the Italian herbs even when they were grown right in their village. It's one thing to concentrate on the traditional ingredients, but it's willful ignorance not to even know what is happening in the village in present times.

Yoshio stopped by and had to stop himself from admitting he liked Natsu's Italian cold rice better. You could see the hurt feelings developing within Machi with how easily Yoshio identified the ingredients when she didn't even know what basil was.

But Yoshio needs Machi for his Miko Idol Project...

How cunning! Playing off Natsu's not so secret love of Kuma Miko Dress Number 2 to get him to help convince Machi to go to large towns to help sell Kumade's mushrooms.

Machi has some low cunning in picking up on Yoshio's hidden agenda, but she can't resist his tactics.

Machi really likes the idea of going to these large town like Sendai and Tokyo, but her social anxiety is really bad. I see Yoshio's plan in having her take baby steps towards getting used to talking to strangers and performing in public.

Too bad the manager of that store didn't like Kuma Miko Dress Number 2 as much Natsu did.

Hibiki in Pachinko Parlor clothes is nice too.

Ha! The old people thought "delinquent" Hibiki was picking on Machi. Poor girl.

I thought it interesting that part of Machi's fantasy in just staying in the village instead of going away for school included Natsu catching fish when we saw in the beginning of the episode that he was no good at it anymore. A lot of what makes up nostalgia is wishing for things to be the way they were.

In the end, Machi found her voice and old people responded to her pity sales tactics. There was some improvement on sociability. But Yoshio came by to check in and showed her how much further she has to go. Funny jacket, loud voice, goofy smile and boom! Yoshio definitely has skills in public relations and apparently has no shame whatsoever.

I keep talking about Yoshio's Miko Idol Project, which is only based on his making up that costume for Machi to try on in Episode 3, but I don't know for sure if that's what he's planning. But it's funnier to view his actions through that lens and I totally won't be surprised if the story turns that way. That's just good comedy and a proper reading the current pop culture.