First Impression: Shirokuma Cafe

In my preview for the season, I included this show in the anishit list, thinking that it is nothing more than just another children oriented anime. Can you blame me though? It is an anime about animals. I usually have problem taking anime such as this seriously. But maybe this show is not meant to be taken seriously.

From the anime blogsphere's reaction so far, it somehow managed impressed them all. So here I am checking it out of obligation to myself and see whether they have bad taste or I passed judgement too fast.

And it is certainly the latter because though it was not extraordinary, it is certainly not shit.

Shirokuma Cafe, or also known as the Polar Bear's Cafe is indeed a story about some animals who lives among human. When I said live, I mean it. They talk and walk and have a home and a job just like us humans. As the name suggested, the story revolves around Polar Bear's cafe where these animals (some who works at the zoo literally as they are) and humans hang out together.

Panda and Polar Bear. Apparently public's fav OTP >_>

There are three prominent animals in this show: Polar Bear, the owner of the cafe who loves pun; Panda, his lazy ass young neighbor from next door and; Penguin who seems like the most loyal customer of the cafe and good friend of Polar Bear. I find myself more attracted to Polar Bear and Penguin's friendship. Or maybe I'm just biased towards Hiroshi Kamiya =3=

Speaking of seiyuu, I figured that there would be quite a few people who will watch this show for the seiyuu. Perhaps I am one of them retards. I don't have a clue that the characters are voiced by really good (and some are among my favorites) male seiyuu. Should I have given more attention about these details, I wouldn't have waited this long to check this show out. As I've said above, Penguin stood out the most for me because of his seiyuu. The same goes for Panda. They are both made of HHHHHNNNNNGH! It was a perfect match for both.

I have to congratulate the art and animation team from Studio Peirrot for the job well done. I know it must have not been easy to draw and animate expression on animals' faces but I think they managed to capture the emotions brilliantly without these animal losing their animalistic traits. They also have their human-like traits given the nature of the show but I am glad that they still managed to look cute and cuddly at the same time. I just wish they would have given equal effort at designing the human characters lol

When I first heard the OP, I immediately thought that it was sang by Big Bang, a K-Pop group that often sing Japanese songs. It certainly sounds like it could be one of their songs. It is catchy and I like it a lot already. As for the ED, it has that Jun-Fukuyama-being-moe feels to it. I REJECT!

But I am not letting that bad ED gets to me.

Because the humor of Shirokuma Cafe works for me. They don't force it down my throat in which they are pretty similar to the comedy of "Kill Me Baby" or "Daily Lives of High School Boys". Aside from that, this show don't have much to offer. Just like the two examples, it is just as pointless. Having said that, it doesn't mean that it is not enjoyable.

So ladies and gentlewomen, I stand corrected about this show.

art & animation 8/10
story 6/10
characters 7/10
sounds 9/10
enjoyment 7/10
overall 7.4/10

Posted in: comedy, daisuke ono, first impression, hiroshi kamiya, jun fukuyama, shirokuma cafe, Studio Peirrot, takahiro sakurai, yuuichi nakamura