10 Second Anime - Kuma Miko - Episode 9

The Kumade villagers shoot a TV commercial.

Episode 9 - "Commercial"

Heh.

The Kumade village council has been hinting at needing a revitalization project for the whole season and Yoshio's plan finally happened. There's still shades of his miko idol project in the production, but he concentrated on keeping the sponsor happy.

There wasn't much to the plot except for all the opportunities to make jokes using the villagers' personalities.

It looked like Yoshio solicited ideas for the commercial from the attendees, but when he explains the details for the broadcast schedule, I believe his manipulative streak really showed through.

At least the cameraman kept the kids occupied through the proceedings. 

Yoshio had a schedule and even a director lined up, but he supposedly needed a theme for the commercial. I don't believe it for a second. I think he deftly manipulated the villagers into giving him what he already decided should be in the commercial.

Not just the local produce of sweet potatoes, apples and mushrooms, but Yoshio manipulated Hibiki into suggesting Machi as the miko star of the commercial.

I loved the addition of elderly Director Usui into the episode. The recurring thumbs up, "START-O!" and "CUT!" animations were great callback jokes.

I found it hilarious that Yoshio picked this guy because one: he was laid up in the hospital after collapsing from seeing Machi and Hibiki in their Shimomura fashion, and two: he had "aspired" to being a director in his youth. I saw this as Yoshio picking someone he could lead into his own agenda.

He was also the Director Usui Whisperer, turning his nervous tics and soft-spoken directions into actual communication.

"Hiiko" got manipulated into suggesting and helping Yoshio wrangle Machi into participating, but that didn't mean she had to make it easy for him.

Even with Yoshio's behind-the-scenes planning and manipulations, he still didn't have a way to pay for the production cost or advertising time. Seems like the first thing should be to get some executive producers, but it's not like Yoshio does this stuff all the time.

He took Hibiki's advice in asking the Clock Shop for money, but the main unanswered question is how Hibiki knew they had a buttload of money to spare on this project. I figure she heard it from the previous Kuma during one of her many stints in the punishment cave.

It all worked out, even with Yoshio having to deal with a director who thought he had much more creative control than he actually did and how the broadcast version turned into a clock shop commercial. The villagers didn't care about any of that! They were just happy to be on television. Yoshio showed some great creative talent in making the Tokuyama girl's lyrics match his mother's jingle music. The only bad thing was the tuxedo wearing Director Usui collapsing again from seeing his "vision" destroyed without his knowledge.

The only ones really miffed about how the commercial turned out were Hibiki and Machi, but once they saw that the other villagers liked it anyway, they couldn't stay mad.

This was really a standalone episode which incorporated the background scenes with Yoshio from the previous episodes, but it still brought all the character development together in a hilarious sequence of events. I'm looking forward to seeing whether this commercial actually brings new commerce to the village.