Watch Rilakkuma and Kaoru on Netflix, a surprisingly bleak slice of life stop motion animation about working class life in Japan. Yes, we thought it was cute too, up until Kaoru swiftly gets a pay cut in the first ep and is abandoned by her friends. Via Gizmodo:
No one ever stops to ask why Kaoru’s roommates-slash-pets are plush animals that only communicate in adorable little chirps—nor do we learn of some grand origin story of how they came to be, although a later flashback episode covers how Kaoru first met them. Rilakkuma, Korilakkuma, and Kiiroitori just are, and the world of Rilakkuma and Kaoru is fine with that. It’s a classically cozy fantasy—a hazy mix of the absurd and the mundane. The closest thing to an existential threat on Rilakkuma and Kaoru isn’t a mad alien with a love of costume jewelry that can decimate life with the snap of a finger, but the fact that Kaoru’s apartment building is being demolished, and the gang needs to move out and find a new place that’s within her budget.