Sometimes Netflix’s limitless streaming options make it nearly impossible to pick a show. When literally every series, film, documentary, and stand-up comedy tries to grab your eyeballs, how do you zero in on the one? The stop-motion animated series Rilakkuma and Kaoru, which released two months ago, was sleeping in my Netflix account till I dragged it out of its cocoon. I was unaware of its gentle warmth and ridiculously humorous layers all these weeks.
Rilakkuma is a brown bear, and, Kaoru is a woman, who’s perhaps in her late twenties. Along with these two, the show also has Korilakkuma, a white bear, and, Kiiroitori, a yellow chick. All four of them live under the same roof. And unlike Netflix’s other popular show, BoJack Horseman, the animals don’t speak like humans here. They, however, communicate with their facial gestures and grunts.
This Japanese offering is an absurd series where the animals are considered pets by everybody else, but Kaoru sees them more as roommates. Since she’s single and has no friends she can rely upon, these animals are like her younger siblings. The anime genre has always been a few steps ahead in terms of storytelling. And even Japanese fiction writers, from Haruki Murakami to Hiromi Kawakami, have perfected the art of mixing the sentiments of the off-beat with the grains of topical issues.
In Kawakami’s short story, “God Bless You, 2011,” there’s a talking bear. If you think talking animals aren’t that special since we’ve grown up on a steady diet of Cartoon Network shows, featuring bunnies and birds with superhuman abilities, you should take a look at the subjects that these recently released series cover. BoJack Horseman deals with loneliness, rejection, and the dreary effects that befall a has-been TV star. And Rilakkuma and Kaoru, which borrows similar themes, unfolds in today’s world where a young woman feels useless as she hasn’t yet found love. She compares herself to her colleague who seems to be happier than her. She also, slowly, realizes that her friends have moved on in life. They have other things to give their time to, like husbands, or boyfriends, children, and work.
Even with such heavy themes, each of the thirteen episodes, in Rilakkuma and Kaoru, ends with a positive message. For example, all of Kaoru’s frustrations and disappointments in the first episode is summed up in a line as, “Every flower blooms in a different period.” Through such morals, the show’s creator, Aki Kondo, gives the viewers some hope – a cloud with a silver lining, if you will. If Kaoru doesn’t get what she wants today, maybe she’ll get it tomorrow.
Now, let me get back to the weird and funny things that Kaoru’s friends indulge in. Kiiroitori, like Monica from the American sitcom Friends, is obsessed with cleanliness. So, the bird is always seen running around with a little mop. When Kaoru leaves for office in the mornings, the three cute creatures turn the house upside down, but they also know how to look after themselves. They can make pancakes on their own and even go to the park that’s in their neighborhood. They befriend a teenager, too, who lives in the floor below them and shower him with all the love and attention.
Though the series mainly revolves around Kaoru’s human desires and sorrows, it makes room for tiny stories, from the perspectives of the roommates, to be told. When Kaoru tells them that it has become expensive to take care of them, Korilakkuma and Kiiroitori go out and find part-time work. They earn real money and show Kaoru that they are capable of adding income to the family. Rilakkuma, however, isn’t just cut out for menial jobs. He’s too big and lazy to put his full body to use.
Rilakkuma and Kaoru is a delightful show in more ways than you can imagine. Dwarf Studio took two years to come up with the final product, and, I have zero complaints, for this is a Japanese wonder that I will, probably, take forever to get over.