Arata Kouda is on his way home from school when he sees a strange penguin/alien-looking creature stealing coins from a vending machine. He is mildly surprised, but quickly makes friends with the eponymous Russian bird. His parents and older brother are a little less accepting, at least initially, of Kujima. In particular, Suguru, the older brother, is not very happy with an extra source of disturbance in the home. He prefers the house to be completely quiet so he can focus on his studies, which causes him to be at odds with Kujima. However, over the course of the episode, Kouda’s parents slowly warm up to the newcomer, and Kujima is very appreciate of the Japanese food he gets to enjoy. It might be just a matter of time until Kujima and Suguru become friends too.

Charming, wholesome, and maybe a little weird—that’s the vibe they’re going for at least, but unfortunately for me it’s only weird. Kujima’s design and voice continued to irk me throughout the entire episode, and by the end I was happy I didn’t have to watch any more of it. While it’s true that I’m not the biggest fan of anime about goofy talking animals in mundane settings, this one especially bothered me because of how unnecessarily weird it is. I can’t help but feel that the humanoid part of Kujima’s identity ruins it all, because I think there would be enough potentially interesting story content about Kujima as a Russian migrating bird without the extra weirdness. Not everyone will be bothered to the same extent about Kujima’s weirdness, but aside from Kujima, the other characters are not enough to draw me in either. If you like wholesome and relaxing anime, but want a little humanoid bird weirdness mixed in, then you might want to give this one a try. Personally, however, I’ve had enough of Kujima for at least a couple of years.

Kujima: Why Sing, When You Can Warble? is streaming on Crunchyroll.