First Impressions – Shirokuma Cafe

The almost-perfect seiyuu cast coupled with cute animals, but is that it’s only selling point?~

Oh gosh this is probably the cutest thing we’re gonna get this season. Ever since our spring preview I have been so looking forward to watching moe animals running a café. xD Are you ready for some kawaii overload? (｡･ω･｡)ﾉ♡

This. I don’t think I fully understand this. All of this. How an anime about a polar bear running a cafe managed to get such a great seiyuu cast is beyond me, but maybe watching this will give me an answer…?

Time for some more slice of life anime with the premiere of Shirokuma Cafe! That tantalizing question as to how exactly a polar bear runs a cafe will finally be answered! I don’t know about you but, I’m pretty excited to find out~.

This darling episode begins with Panda, a…panda who’s hobbies/skills are zoning out while laying down, lazing about, and eating bamboo. His mother wants him to get a part-time job and start thinking of his future, but Panda just wants to relax. When buying bamboo snacks, he finds a job magazine and starts calling up ‘fancy’ jobs. Of course, having no experience, he gets none of them. As Panda takes a walk, he comes upon a butterfly that gets a string caught on it. Before he can pull it away, the butterfly flies away, leading him through a colorful scenery until they reach a cafe. There, Polar Bear makes his appearance by welcoming him to Polar Bear’s Cafe.

Through hearing Polar Bear’s talk with Mr. Penguin about finding a part-timer, Panda gets an interview at the cafe The next day, five animal hopefuls, including panda, go through their interviews in front of Polar Bear and Mr. Penguin, but each animals’ talents are completely useless for cafe work. Polar Bear thinks he hasn’t found anyone, until a young women comes in with a sloth. She is quickly offered an interview despite just suddenly walking in…

Still without a job, Panda gets help from Penguin, who points out a job at the zoo. There he gets a part-time job as a ‘panda’, working alongside a full-time ‘panda. Preschoolers come on his first day and the two give as much fanservice as they can to the young kids. Panda gives so much that he actually passes out! After waking up just in time for closing, he heads to the cafe, where his other co-workers at the zoo are at. There Panda discovers Polar Bear has finally added bamboo and bamboo grass, after asking for it for so long~.

NO, GUYS, SERIOUSLY…PANDA IS SO ADORABLE AND LAZY~

 

Dawww that was so cute. Panda was an adorable main character! Introducing your typical lazy teenage shounen… but in panda form. Polar bear plays the role of the magnanimous café owner who loves all his customers and has to deal with all this, um, utter weirdness all day long. This anime is really the epitome of weirdness. I liked how ridiculous it was in the sense that everyone was talking to the animals so naturally like nothing on earth was wrong LOL. How often do you see a panda walking down the street?! Like oh yeah it’s perfectly normal to be offering a panda a part-time job of BEING A PANDA. Is this what we can envision our future to be like? Please slow down, evolution, my brain can’t handle this so suddenly xD

Actually, when I first heard about the plot I was thinking that the style would be cuter, or more chibi, but it turned out to be more mature! Probably ‘coz it’s jyosei, but I think I might’ve enjoyed it better if it was cuter? I cannot match the voices of Junjun and Kamiyan to the character designs of the animals! It doesn’t really fit for me, but it’s not bad to the point that it’s unbearable. Moving on, the music was surprising! I wasn’t expecting such an epic OP – yes the entire thing was autotuned, but it was so catchy and jumpy! I could dance to this song! The lyrics are even well-fitted with the song (despite some cheesy Engrish), I am impressed. And of course, who could deny that the ED was super kawaii? Junjun never fails to give us some ear candy~

I’m still not sure whether I can see myself finishing the entire series. I do think that it is really cute, but truthfully I might not be able to survive through weeks and weeks of seeing slice of life in animal-style. Overall, I did enjoy this first episode and I’m glad I caught it! How about you? Are you, as the OP goes, one of “the lucky boys and girls that have found this café”?  o(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)o

W-why is that theme song so catchy?! Why is their use of kaomoji in the OP lyrics so cute? HOW THE CRAP DID THAT TURTLE MANAGE TO CLIMB ON THAT TABLE?! DID THAT SLOTH EVER GET PERMISSION TO LIVE IN THE BACKYARD щ(゜ロ゜щ)?!?!?! …I admit, I was more hung up on the little things like how the bears managed to hold onto the glasses, why no one reacted to talking animals and whether owning a pet would be considered cruel in this world (…think about it) or not more than caring if Panda got a job.  Are there non-talking animals? Is there some sort of social ranking between animals that talk and ones that can’t? And if so, wouldn’t that just be considered racism? Obviously, I’ve been over thinking the small things and not caring about the plot. …Mostly because I didn’t really care about the plot. I didn’t really find the jokes funny in the first place and then I didn’t find them funny when they were repeated 4 or 5 times later in the episode.

It’s funny because the Panda is a NEET at heart （・∀・）. I’ve heard Jun do some extremely shota voices before, but this has to be the shota-est of them all (pretend that shota-est is actually a real term). If the storyline wasn’t that interesting, at least the voice cast was. That is some of the most moe voice acting I’ve ever heard ever. Did he inhale helium before he read out his lines? How does Jun get his voice so high pitched? Is that level of moe even legal? Why is Kamiyan so perfect at everything he does? Why isn’t Sakurai in every single anime ever? Yes, the voice casting was superb. I can’t get over it.

So yeah, the voice casting was good, the actual storyline/plot/gags bored me and I thought the OP/ED were pretty good. As for the animation, I admit to not really paying attention, but I didn’t notice anything that off about it. The parts where I was paying attention were pretty good. So yeah, everything except the plot were great… Not that I’m saying it’s bad, but it just wasn’t my speed. I’ll probably give this a couple episodes to see if the jokes actually get funny or not ヽ(´ー`)ﾉ.

…WHY DOES PANDA SEEM SO MUCH LIKE ME CURRENTLY? Except, I actually feel bad for not having a job, and I’m really not that lazy. ANYWAY, Panda is so adorable, especially with that cute panda shoulder bag! Jun’s high pitched voice just makes Panda ever so lovable, despite his incredibly lazy attitude that nags at my inner hard worker self. In fact, his extreme laziness nagged me so much I clapped for joy when he actually got a job and enjoyed it, somewhat. I loved the ironic idea of Panda working at the zoo…as a panda, HA! For some reason, I thought Polar Bear was going to be a woman. I guess I figured since this was based off a josei manga that Polar Bear would be a woman…Looks like I need to pay more attention to the seiyuu list. I also thought that EVERYONE in the anime would be an animal, but there’s humans too! I guess only a few select animals can talk and walk around normally? Either way, it’s pretty lulzy and the animals keep the show’s atmosphere fun.

So the plot was…pretty bland; enjoyable, but unmistakably boring. The repeated jokes were also bland, and them being repeated just ran an already dry rag even drier. However, I did like the atmosphere of the show! It was very fun, light, spring-y, and quite cafe-esque. It’s probably why I still feel myself tied to this show as I’m a complete sucker for the cafe thing. Hopefully this is just another one of those shows that you have to give time to get the laugh-out-loud comedy ball rolling (like Kimi to Boku *cough*). I haven’t given up hope! Let’s just see what these next few episodes have in store for us~.

Preview:

Not entirely sure what the next episode will be about, but hey, at least we got some more fun conversations from our three main characters! Until next week then~!!