DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ComedyShirokuma Café

REVIEWS

• 

  megafat

  80/100
  A comfy and adorable anime series.

  Sometimes you just want to watch something relaxing to unwind from the stress of the day or to just spend some time watching something nice that isn't too complicated or hard to follow. Something comfy. If that sounds nice, then this anime might just be for you. Shirokuma Cafe, or Polar Bear Cafe in English. It's a slice of life, but instead of the characters being human, most of them are animals.

  The show follows the daily life of a young and incredibly lazy panda named Panda. He is constantly told by his mother to get a job. One day, Panda wanders outside after his mother constantly telling his to quit being lazy, he stumbles across the titular cafe, run by the enigmatic Polar Bear, a soft-spoken polar bear. Along with Polar Bear is his friend, a sarcastic penguin named Penguin, and various other animals from the nearby zoo, along with a human girl named Sasako, who gets hired to work there soon after Panda first discovers the cafe. Soon, Panda stumbles into being hired by the nearby zoo, and he along with the friends he made at both the zoo and the cafe, soon find themselves going on all sorts of misadventures and they hang out with each other.

  Like I said earlier, the show has an easy going relaxing feel to it. The whole show gives off nothing but nice vibes. Most of the humor is slapstick and puns. The puns might not all work 100% in English, but the puns are pretty easy to figure out (and are explained to you depending on your subs). The art is simple and fitting of the shows tone. Everything looks lovely and appropriately adorable, and thankfully not too sickly sweet.

  All of the characters are simple, but they work off each other really well, and by the end of the show, they all feel like they're best friends who have known each other for a long time. Along with the amusing main characters are several secondary characters that pop up from time to time, and they all stand out. Ranging from a group of penguins who want to have their own trading cards to promote themselves, to a biker Grizzly Bear who owns his own bar, to a Llama who often has people confuse him for an alpaca and wishes people would admire and adore him.

  While the whole show is a whopping 50 episodes in length, don't let that been off-putting. There isn't any real in-depth on-going stories that you need to pay too much attention to. Yes, there might be re-occuring characters that might bring up an event or two when they pop up, but there's really nothing you would have to keep track of. Despite it's length, it does feel like it goes by fairly quickly.

  There isn't really a whole lot to say about Polar Bear Cafe. Not because there is anything to spoil, but because it's such a simple show that going in depth with it isn't really feasible. If you're the type of person who is just looking for something wholesome to watch while you're relaxing, then Polar Bear Cafe is for you.

  Continue on AniList
• 

  Godsen

  100/100
  A surprisingly relatable, funny and overall chill anime to make you forget life's hardships for a while

  Basic Plot/Format:

  If you ever watched something like Spongebob Squarepants, you will have an easier time understanding the premise,format and comedy of the show.

  The plot is really simple. There is a world where some animals can live and talk with humans and are considered equal, meaning they get paid for working, can get into shops/entertainment places on their own, can run businesses etc. One of those businesses is a cafe run by a polar bear, in which a lot of the other characters like to spend most of their free time and interact with each other.

  The main characters consist of Panda, Polar Bear, Penguin, Llama, Grizzly (those are their actual names) and Sasako, which is the only human in the main cast but there are a lot more of minor characters.

  The fact that they are animals has a big influence on how they act and their personality, but they still can draw paralells to human behavior which makes it really relatable. For example, Panda and Sloth are very lazy and goofy characters that have no energy to do most of the tasks life forces them to face, while the big bear characters (like Polar Bear and Grizzly) are way more strong and energetic. They really did their homework on the animal part, and there are a lot you can learn about animals from that show, if you find it fascinating. I am a person that is a bit nerdy about animals and documentaries and I couldnt find almost any mistakes the show made by how it presents those different animals.

  ---

  The format is basically a gag anime consisting of 25 minute episodes, which are split into 2 parts each episode. Each part is an episodic mini story which gets resolved in that episode, without a real overarching plot. Most of those stories take place inside or near the cafe and are primarily comedic skits.

  Despite not having an overarching plot, time continuation exists in that anime. That means for example that if they meet a character in episode 10, and he appears again in episode 20 they will have memories of it. Also, you don't get stuff like some other cartoons/shows like the characters ending up in hospital/prison at the end of an episode and being fine in the next one.

  ---

  Target Demographic:

  Objectively, Shirokuma Cafe has nothing too brutal or sexual that even a little kid can't watch so it gets a PG rating. Personally, I think it's a show that is best suited for a very young and a mature audience rather than a teenage one and I will explain why.

  This anime is a mix of lighthearted comedy, cuteness and educating people, so it can attract the young audience for that reason. The real reason I , as a huge fan of mature anime, love it is because most of the humor revolves around issues young adults frequently face. Those issues include stuff like weight gain, struggle to find a job or struggling at your job, relationship issues, pressure from your parents and/or society to not be 'lazy' etc. And with that I wanna go directrly to the characters.

  Example of cute moment for every age:

  

  Example of comedy about adult struggles:

  

  ---

  Characters:

  Each of the characters (and there are a lot of them) have their own personality that matches their species, but also have pretty relatable human characteristics/issues. The fact that they are so different to each other makes for a great dynamic in both their serious, wholesome of funny dialogue interactions. I will list some of the most notable ones here briefly:

  Panda:
  Probably the character with most screentime, despite the anime being called Polar Bear Cafe. Panda is naturally overweight, lazy and simple minded, often lost in his own thoughts. Those things make him struggle to find a sufficient job and really use his talents.

  Polar Bear:
  He is the one that is the dad figure of the whole group. He is calm and good natured, even though he is probably the strongest animal there. He saves them every time they get into trouble and comforts the other characters at his cafe. On the other hand, he is still a big prankster that loves puns and likes to mess with the other characters.

  Penguin:
  He is the most talkative and sarcastic one of the group and often the person that calls out Panda when he is being unreasonable or Polar Bear when he is joking all the time.His own issues include the struggle to confess to the girl he likes, and being super shy with people he isnt familiar with.

  Grizzly:
  Grizzly is the outgoing 'cool' friend. He doesnt frequent around the cafe all the time, because he is an owner of a bar. He is tough and gets easily irritated but ultimately does all the work cause he cares about his friends, even if its hard for him to show it. He has a long lasting friendship/rivalry with Polar Bear since they were kids.

  Sasako:
  The only human in the main cast. She works in the cafe and is in my personal opinion the most 'normal' and down to earth person frequenting the cafe, which makes for some funny interactions with the others. She is generally almost always in a good mood and has a captivating smile, and is good on making the other characters (and the viewer) happy too.

  ---

  Production:

  The animation quality of the anime is passable, or at least as good as it has to be for that type of anime. The anime has a lot of still frames which are mostly used for comedic effect, so it doesnt require the super fast moving animation of something like Jujutsu Kaisen or Demon Slayer. It's made by studio Pierrot, that made a lot of questionable anime after the 2010s but somehow it worked this time.

  As for the music, I'd say that I really like it.
  The background music is simple uplifting musical pieces that only compliment the dialogue but dont distract from it. The anime has a lot of endings which are sung by 12 different people, one for each character sung by their own voice actor.

  One can't forget to mention the sound effects used for comedic moments, which despite being simple, really make the show twice as funny for me.

  ---

  Cast:

  For a dialogue heavy anime without almost any action like Shirokuma Cafe, the cast matters a whole lot. I could have included that in 'Production' but the cast of this anime is so strong, that it deserves its own category.

  Penguin is voiced by the legendary Hiroshi Kamiya who also voiced characters like Levi (AoT), Yato(Noragami), Saiki(Saiki K), Araragi(Monogatari) using his funniest voice yet. We also have Jun Fukuyama (Lelouch, Koro Sensei, King) as Panda ,Takahiro Sakurai (Suzaku from Code Geass) as Polar Bear, Daisuke Ono (Sebastian, Jotaro, Erwin) as Llama. In some minor roles we also have Kana Hanazawa and Miyano Mamoru.

  I really think the cast is one of the reasons worked out so much for me.

  Example of the funny voice of Penguin and versatility of characters voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya:

  ---

  Overall Verdict/TL;DR:

  I know its not the type of anime most people think of when thinking of 'anime' having no action, death, fantasy elements and almost no romance. It's a show with funny comedy and great relatable moments about adult struggles. The show will be very much more enjoyable if you really love animals, but it's not a requirement.

  I really find it ironic that one of the most relatable and close to home shows I ever watched was a show with very few 'human' characters.

  I would advise that you probably take your time and don't 'binge' this anime, since its better enjoyed a few eps at a time .

  If you wanna check out some quotes from the show to get a taste of the humor, you can visit that post I made on Anilist about it.
  https://anilist.co/activity/122834678

  Personally, I don't really rate 'objectively' but rather by how much I enjoyed each anime. This is my favorite show and one of the few I can still enjoy even when I feel down or am super sick of watching anime so I can't give it something lower than 100/100, so keep that in mind

  If you read this far, thank you. I really appreciate it
  Continue on AniList

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