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megafat

  • Joined Jun 5, 2018
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Polar Bear Cafe

Jan 4, 2019

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.

8/10 story
8/10 animation
8/10 sound
8/10 characters
8/10 overall

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