Polar Bear Cafe First Impressions

Polar Bear Cafe (Spring 2012)

Polar Bear runs a cafe, where his regulars include Penguin, Panda, and a host of other animals. They share problems and tell jokes.


First Impression: It's a lot like Cheers, but instead of a bar, it's a cafe run by a Polar bear. Also instead of being interesting, To be honest, I'm not sure what the target audience for this show is, if not young kids. There are a lot of rhyming jokes and retorts by Polar Bear and Co. that seem to be of the Sesame Street variety.

Many of their sketches become predictable after a while too because the punch lines are always the same, i.e. Panda wants bamboo ...

I don't usually anti-recommend anime, but in this case, I would recommend a pass to most prospective viewers. And it's not because I harbor any feelings of negativity towards Polar Bear Cafe (because I will watch anime I hate), but quite on the contrary, Polar Bear Cafe illicits no response from me whatsoever. It's just very bland and lacks any depth beyond animals making bamboo and sushi jokes.