Shirokuma Cafe

Situated near the local zoo and owned by the charismatic polar bear Shirokuma, Shirokuma Cafe is a popular spot for animals and humans alike, allowing them to sit back and relax after a hard day of work. Whether it's a cold beverage or the latest item on his menu, Shirokuma finds joy in being able to serve his customers, often striking up conversations about various subjects.

Together with the sarcastic Penguin and the clumsy Panda, they form an odd trio who get themselves caught up in all sorts of misadventures with their other friends such as Grizzly, a bar owner, and Sasako, a human who works at the cafe. From dealing with unrequited love, outdoor camping trips, karaoke sessions, and even the secret to brewing delicious coffee, there's always something bound to be happening in Shirokuma Cafe!

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Shirokuma Main

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Panda Main

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Penguin Main

Kamiya, Hiroshi Japanese

Grizzly Supporting

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Llama Supporting

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Sasako Supporting

Endou, Aya Japanese

Namakemono Supporting

Taniyama, Kishou Japanese

Full-time Panda Supporting

Konishi, Katsuyuki Japanese

Alpaca Supporting

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Panda Mama Supporting

Morikawa, Toshiyuki Japanese

Iizumi, Tomokazu Producer

Shiraishi, Makoto Producer

Matsui, Shouji Producer

Fukui, Youhei Assistant Producer

Reviews

Jan 27, 2025

justinharsey

Recommended

If you're looking some something light-hearted & comedic, this might be what you're looking for. This series follows the daily lives of an andromorphic polar bear that runs a cafe that is frequently visited by both humans and other talking animals, including a panda & penguin. There's honestly no real plot going throughout. It's like 'Seinfield' in the sense of it's a show about nothing, minus more mature themes. It's just a feel-good series that fits the primary cafe setting. Though as for some jokes, there's a race between a sloth & a tortoise and a penguin harem nightmare.

One of the most interesting things is ... its endings. Instead of using animation, the 10 endings tend to be live-action either in stop-motion or live action sequences. My personal favorite is the last one. The ending tag also has the main cast as standing paper dolls off in various locations.

What's most interesting about this series is its cancellation. Apparently the mangaka's notes were not getting to the staff and she was not happy with how communications were going. She threatened to cancel the series because of this. This was due to the editor failing to do his job between her and the production. (Odds are he didn't keep his job long after that.) The mangaka didn't hold any ill-harm towards the staff and thought they did a good job, but the series did cease its run both in manga form and the anime as well. It's quite a shame.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Sep 9, 2023

Seregosa

Mixed Feelings

To me, this wasn't really worth watching, not even as background noise. Yet, I can't bring myself to hate it, it's just so incredibly unremarkable. It's not funny, it's not exciting, it's not interesting, it's not annoying, it's not irritating, it's just dreadfully monotone. Everyone talking in slow motion, nothing even remotely creative happening, the low-quality animation...

It has literally nothing whatsoever to offer to my tastes. It's supposed to be a relaxing comedy or something along those lines, but I personally simply do not understand how the jokes are supposed to be funny. I can see where the jokes are told, but every single one ... falls flat to the super slow paced, monotone story and voices. Nothing happens, even compared to other slice of life stories, this one is so incredibly uneventful, filled with cheesy and unimaginative jokes at best.

I can't bring myself to recommend this to anyone, but at the same time I believe some people out there will enjoy this complete lack of pace and it's so damn unoffensive, or rather just unremarkable in every way, that I won't give it a lower score than this. It's bad, but I managed to power through it as background noise.

What makes me most surprised is how they could possibly make 50 episodes of this. Maybe they just went on with it since it was relatively easy work with all the super stiff animals and often simple animals, they barely even move even compared to other anime and a lot of them look the same.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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Apr 4, 2023

Deducted_Duck

Not Recommended

Preliminary (25/50 eps)

I would never watch it if not for learning vocab and grammar.
The show has lots of high frequncy words so it is worth mining if it is your first anime.
After Clannad it was like a 10/10 anime but after 25 episodes (10 of which watched twice) I understood that we go nowhere.

It is good for learning language, but apart from that it is... it is not bad. It's just. I can't even rate it and don't remember anything beside characters' main features. Panda eats bamboo, Shirokuma does feeble jokes, Anteater intimidates.

If you learn language, go for it! Mine your first thousand! Mature 500 cards! ... If not, and you are like me always thirsty for at least some story and character depth, don't waste time.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Manga 'Shirokuma Cafe' Gets Suspended Due to Dispute over Its TV Anime

Mangaka Higa Aloha has announced in her official Twitter account that the serialization of "Shirokuma Café" on Monthly Flowers magazine has gone int...read more

May 29, 2012 6:17 PM by dtshyk | Discuss (43 comments)

	Poll: Shirokuma Cafe Episode 15 Discussion Barion-Zara - Jul 12, 2012	34 replies	by marta_valse »» Feb 18, 8:26 AM
	Poll: Shirokuma Cafe Episode 14 Discussion Sango_chan_desu - Jul 5, 2012	17 replies	by marta_valse »» Feb 17, 2:09 AM
	Poll: Shirokuma Cafe Episode 13 Discussion belatkuro - Jun 28, 2012	28 replies	by marta_valse »» Feb 15, 6:37 AM
	Poll: Shirokuma Cafe Episode 12 Discussion Marow - Jun 21, 2012	29 replies	by marta_valse »» Feb 13, 11:52 PM
	Poll: Shirokuma Cafe Episode 11 Discussion greenmush - Jun 14, 2012	32 replies	by marta_valse »» Feb 10, 1:57 AM

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