Binchou-tan Ep.1

Episode title: 春のお目ざめびん (Haru no Omezame-bin: Spring Awakening Bin)

Hmmm..... don't know how to classify this. It's kind of an ultra relaxed slice-of life show of a strange, cute girl. There's no dialog as the only person in this episode is Binchou-tan, a little girl living alone in the mountains who seems at one with nature and her surroundings. She wears a "binchou-tan" (a quality Japanese charcoal) on her head. The music is pastoral, the pace is slow and easy going, and there is some narration from time to time to give explanations of Binchou-tan.

The opening song "Iroha" is sung by CooRie, and the animation shows various others cutesy characters whom I assume will be Binchou-tan's friends.

The first episode (about 12 minutes total) shows a typical day for Bincho-tan: she wakes, she does some chores, she goes out (with animals following her), she rides a duck, freezes when she gets startled by a passing snake, gathers wild mountain plants to supplement her dinner, prepares dinner, takes a nap, eats, then goes to sleep.

The narrations tell us this: she'll freeze if she gets scared; she doesn't hate snakes, but she still gets scared. She doesn't have parents. She lives in the mountains alone, but she's not lonely. It's certainly not convenient living in the mountains, but she's surrounded by the bounty of nature. She lives each day to the fullest.

The next episode's title seems to show that she gets a job (or finds some kind of work to do).

Pics (click to enlarge):
(From the opening animation):
Binchou-tan
Chiku-tan
Kusugi-tan (she seems to play the piano)
Ren-tan (she's seems surrounded by spirits)
Oroe
Binchou-tan and friends
From the episode itself
Binchou-tan dresses herself... it seems she likes one side of her obi (belt) bow to be bigger than the other
Either this is one giant duck or she's really tiny
Binchou-tan takes a nap before dinner
From next week's preview