I want to make an announcement you might want to hear - watch Rilakkuma and Kaoru.

I had an interest in watching this series beforehand as I have friends who love Rilakkuma merchandise. But after watching the whole 1st season, the whole show speaks to working young adults who have to manage all kinds of emotions to get through life.

The heroine of the show, Kaoru, is an office lady whose life appears to be going nowhere. She’s serious to a huge degree, depressed about not having a man in her life, and her current job offers little-to-no chance of promotion. The closest friends in her life are the famed bears, Rilakkuma and Korilakkuma, and pet bird Kiiroitori. All 4 of them live together in a vintage apartment building and they go through experiences that help each of them grow.

Each episode title hints to a general theme of the episode. While it’s fun to see Rilakkuma and his personal friends get into trouble, it’s enlightening to see the perspective of a young single Japanese woman living in a metro city far away from family.

When Kaoru experiences a moment where she’s reminded of her seemingly low status in society, she begins to dwell on it to a huge degree. This was shown multiple times, but the biggest scene of her depression was during a flashback sequence to her days prior to meeting Rilakkuma. The scene had Kaoru fall down what she describes as a black hole.

She goes through moments from her closest friends from college all ditching her at a cherry blossom gathering to her coworkers gossiping about her seriousness to becoming an online shopping addict just to get the attention of a male delivery worker she’s infatuated with. Kaoru tries to ponder the meaning of her own life as she tries to find her purpose.

It’s one thing to enjoy being alone, but it’s another thing to have a sense of loneliness. A lot of people confuse solitude and loneliness when they’re different. Solitude is when you choose to be alone and enjoy it while loneliness is a subjective feeling that you’re alone. Like many young adults, Kaoru feels some loneliness from not being able to connect well with her peers.

Although the series was charming and made me laugh, I couldn’t help but feel like crying while watching. I was doing some research on the development of Rilakkuma and I found a Japan Times feature on the character. The article talked about how the plot of the series was developed. The director, Masahito Kobayashi, was determined to talk about the experiences of women living in Japan. He also added some details about the setting of the series. I’m going to share this passage from the JT article.

“He (Kobayashi) also strived for geographical authenticity, creating a detailed city called Ogigaya — a mash-up of Tokyo’s Ogikubo and Asagaya neighborhoods — to serve as the setting for the series.

“I had a detailed idea of what this city would be like and what daily life in that city was like,” he (Kobayashi) says. “That is, of course, life is not just about smiles and being happy. I wanted to show the duality that exists. Even in the design of the city, it kind of represents the tension between regular life and an office town.”

The result is a visually stunning animation focusing on personal dramas that is a natural fit alongside easy-breezy Netflix offerings such as “Terrace House” and “Tidying Up With Marie Kondo.”

What sets “Rilakkuma and Kaoru” apart from these productions, however, is the simple frustration that life in a big city can produce.”

That last line hits hard and the tension is real. I live in a big city (New York) and I can’t help but feel frustrated at everything about it. I don’t like how fast-paced and expensive everything is. A lot of people here just want to win at all costs. At the same time, I like living here since there’s a lot of fun things happening and I do find some of the scenery in NY to be unusually endearing. I don’t want to romanticize small towns, but like Kaoru, I can’t help but wish for the intimacy that people living in small towns have at times.

I also began to see why Rilakkuma is so beloved all over the world. His laid-back nature is something so many of us are missing today. He reminds me of my father a bit. Maybe’s that why I got a bit teary from watching. My dad is sometimes lazy, but he would always tell me not to worry so much about things. He would tell me to relax - something Rilakkuma would encourage me to do. My mom reminds me of Kiiroitori as she’s kind of serious and gets on my dad’s case sometimes.

Now I think about it, my whole family (including my younger sister) are basically Rilakkuma (dad), Korilakkuma (sister), and Kiiroitori (mom). I’m bawling now.

We have such a hard time talking to people with depression. It’s difficult to know where to start, but I feel that from watching Rilakkuma and Kaoru, we can tell them that they won’t always feel that way. Kaoru’s spirits, despite them being down in a big way, seem to level out as she continued to move forward. She had support that knew how to cheer her up - a kind of support that hasn’t left her at all.

Modern life is both a blessing and a curse. Rilakkuma and Kaoru aren’t the full solution to that paradox, but I feel that both characters show what it means to get through life’s up and downs and that’s by helping one another out when stress happens. One somewhat heavy episode involved a ghost girl who shows up at Kaoru’s place uninvited and talks about the circumstances behind her death. She felt stuck over a high school love that moved on from her after she died. After she realized she needed warmth from another person/being (i.e. Rilakkuma), she was able to move on with peace with help that was willing to listen.

I’m still amazed at how this cute series speaks volumes about the troubles of young adults. It’s also inspiring to see Rilakkuma’s “lazy” nature be used as a vehicle for growth. Rilakkuma and Kaoru is a relaxing way to see how characters with seemingly negative attributes can be the ones who are the most positive after all.

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