Contains Minor Spoilers
Story
The story of Polar Bear Café is really simple as it just follows the daily escapades of a café run by a Polar Bear’s regulars. There is no overarching plot and the stories are broken up into two 12-minute segments like a lot of western animated shows. This show is clean. No toilet humour, no lowbrow humour, no sexual innuendo. The humour comes from the terrible puns Polar Bear gives in every episode, the goofy situations characters find themselves in, some slapstick and their banter and conversation. Comedy is incredibly subjective so someone might find this hilarious while somebody else might only chuckle in between certain scenes. I found the comedy to be very hit-and-miss. When the humour works, it’s hilarious, but a lot of times the jokes fall flat. It gets repetitive. There are only so many times you can take intentionally bad puns. However the individual episodic stories are varied so if you didn’t like the first half, you’ll probably end up liking the second.
Art
I have to say the art looks fantastic. It’s really bright and fits the silliness of the show, like something out of a children’s book. The majority of the cast consists of animals and they’re drawn perfectly, resembling their real-life counterparts. The humans in the show look pretty plain. It seems more detail was put into the design of the animals than the people. Expect greatly exaggerated actions and facial features that provide for a lot of the slapstick.
Sound
The seiyuus of Polar Bear Café do a great job with the characters. I always thought that a Panda would sound like he does in this show if he could actually speak. I love the first OP. It’s catchy and upbeat and I listen to it every time. The ED’s change more times that I can count but there hasn’t been any that I particularly liked and I usually skip them. I watched the second and third OP’s and they’re catchy and fit the show, but it wasn’t up to the standard of the first.
Characters
The characters of Polar Bear Café are probably the anime’s standout and saviour. They’re funny, stupid, likeable and all have great chemistry. The way the regulars interact in the café seems like genuine conversation that friends have every day. The three leads are by far the best of the bunch. You have the oblivious Panda, the deadpan Polar Bear and the irritable and love sick Mr. Penguin. They play off each other well and their personality clashes always manage to put a smile on my face.
Enjoyment
Like I mentioned, the show is very hit-and-miss. The clean humour can get repetitive and lacks bite, but the individual sitcom-like stories and the three leads always manage to be entertaining. I don’t think I would have enjoyed this show so much if Panda, Mr. Penguin and Polar Bear weren’t in it.
It’s very silly and goofy and not something I would recommend watching as a marathon, but if you give it a chance it might end up as something you’ll love.
7/10
