English Dub Review: Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear “Bear, Opens Shop”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The king presents pudding to his subjects at his birthday celebration. Yuna grumbles that she had to make over 200 servings, admitting it’s not easy to say no to a king. But Princess Flora enjoying the dessert boosts her mood a bit.

After the intro, Fina narrates that they’re simply enjoying their time in Royal Capital. The Bear House that Yuna created for the stay is always “very lively” with a steady stream of visitors, including the King himself.

Fina is delighted by the royal visitors, but wants to do some site seeing before they head back to Crimonia. They head off to the market to get some souvenirs, attracting stares as usual. They pick up some sweets for the kids at the orphanage, along with a cucumber/eggplant hybrid.

Fina asks Yuna why she doesn’t want to open a restaurant. She explains she doesn’t mind cooking for fun, but owning  a business would be a huge hassle, and would keep her from adventuring.

They return to the bakery they stopped at the very first day, only to find it’s closed. The owner, Morin, explains she was unable to pay back their debts.

After a brief taste test of their skills with her recipes, Yuna offers to hire Morin and her daughter Karin to work at her new restaurant.

She heads back to Crimonia to buy a building, and ropes Tirumina into managing the new joint. She enlists the orphans as additional help, and they get the bear themed restaurant into tip-top shape.

Mylene stops by to get a name for the restaurant to register it with the merchant’s guild. She also brings some adorable bear suit uniforms.

Yuna names the restaurant The Bear Haven. She and her crew open it to a huge crowd of customers on their very first day.

Everyone is delighted. Except for Yuna, who seems to be suffering from the success.

Our take:

It was pretty much inevitable.

Yuna’s been fending off suggestions to open a restaurant for the past few episodes, but in this one she’s finally going through with it.

In classic Yuna style, she’s foisting most of the work off on other people. But to her credit, she does help them out financially. Which, much like in the real world, is certainly the biggest roadblock for most endeavors.

We’re treated to multiple montages this episode. Yuna and Fina hosting friends, jaunting around town, and saying goodbye to the Royal Capital crew are each backed by cheerful flute music. Later, the “clean up” of the mansion-turned-restaurant gets the same treatment.

There’s basically no action. And you’d think with all the montages, this episode could easily be written off as one of the more boring fillers. But the camaraderie that the restaurant creates, both from it’s official employees and those in Yuna’s social circle willing to step in to help out is truly heartwarming.

If you’ve ever worked in food service, you know what kind of bonds can be forged in the flames of a crazy rush. This brought back some memories of various kitchen crews for me personally. I don’t miss that line of work (tip your servers, folks!), but there’s also a kind of warmth there that’s lacking in other jobs.

It’s nice to see it portrayed in a positive manner. So many other shows (animated and live action) lean hard into the intensity and grittiness of restaurant life. But cheerful and kind of chill suits this series better, and is a much needed reprieve from that approach.

It’s also interesting to see how Yuna’s various efforts are starting to build on each other. Slaying the Black Viper allowed her to supply the orphanage with eggs, having so many eggs allowed her to make pudding and pizza, her impressive recipes led to the restaurant, which now employs the orphans.

The episode’s final montage, inspired by Yuna’s reflection of the game world being “a precious place”, reiterates these past adventures visually. It makes for a compelling argument for investing in one’s community. Even if it’s a bit simplistic on how straightforward that work is (it is a game world, after all.)

On the voice acting side of things, it’s great to hear from Mylene (voiced by Ashe Thurman, or as Fire Force fans know them, Young Joker) and Helen (the ever popular Mallorie Rodak) with their viral advertising-via-rumor campaign. I have yet to track down Morin and Karin’s talents, but I know I’ll find them someday!

The Bear Haven may be rowdy and packed with customers, but this episode overall is like a warm hug.