Rating:
7.5/10 by 10 users
Polar Bear Cafe (2012)
Pushed by his mother to stop lazing around the house, a Panda searches for a part-time job but has troubling finding one to accommodate his laziness. He soon stumbles upon the Shirokuma Cafe, run by a Polar Bear who is holding interviews for a part-time position with his faithful customer Penguin. Panda applies for the job but fails the interview, with the job instead going to a human girl named Sasako. However, the others soon point Panda towards a part-time job at a nearby zoo.
Writing:
- Aloha Higa
Release Date:
Thu, Apr 05, 2012
Country: JP
Language: Ja
Runtime: 12
Country: JP
Language: Ja
Runtime: 12
Jun Fukuyama
Panda (voice)
Takahiro Sakurai
Polar Bear (voice)
Hiroshi Kamiya
Penguin (voice)
Yuichi Nakamura
Grizzly (voice)
Daisuke Ono
Llama (voice)
Season 1:
Pushed by his mother to stop lazing around the house, a Panda searches for a part-time job but has troubling finding one to accommodate his laziness. He soon stumbles upon the Polar Bear Café, run by a Polar Bear who is holding interviews for a part-time position with his faithful customer Penguin.
Penguin point Panda towards a part-time job at a petting zoo, where he works with a full-time panda entertaining school children.
Panda, Penguin and Llama come up with ideas for if they ran their own café.
Everyone goes to a flower viewing party where Penguin gets very drunk and goes on about a penguin he likes.
Polar Bear and Penguin come to the zoo Panda works at, where they have trouble catching Panda when he's awake and visiting the other attractions.
Panda and the other animals discuss the problems they face doing their jobs.
After seeing everyone with smartphones, Panda convinces his mother to buy him one, only for him to soon break the panda cover it had. Polar Bear cheers Panda up by making him an origami panda cover, only for him to end breaking the actual phone.
Wanting to learn some driving techniques, Penguin joins Polar Bear and Panda on a drive.
As Panda has to fill in for the full-time panda for a week, he is forced to ride packed trains for work. He cheers up and becomes more energetic when he starts receiving flowers from a supposed fan named Rin-Rin, only to later learn it was the male flower shop owner, Rintaro Hayashi.
Polar Bear decides to do a parfait fair and tries to come up with some special parfaits to serve.
Following an incident at work, Panda feels he is overweight and decides to go on a diet.
Panda decides he needs to get in touch with his wild side, so Polar Bear takes him to meet his childhood friend, Grizzly, who runs a bar.
Feeling he could do with being more popular, Panda decides to give Handa a makeover, although it ends up turning into a day out with Handa paying for everything.
Having received his driving license, Penguin is tested by Polar Bear to try and achieve his 'dating license.'
Polar Bear is interviewed about his café by a magazine headed up by the editor who is a Shoebill.
Panda joins Polar Bear and Grizzly to catch some ingredients.
Rintaro gets excited when he gets to make a delivery to Panda's house and meet his family.
The others try to support Penguin as he tries to work up the courage to confess to Penko.
Thanks to Panda's interference, Handa is set up by his fellow employee, Kirino, to go on a mixer to meet some girls.
When one of the guys cancels, Panda and Polar Bear fill in for the guy's side. However, the girls become more interested in Panda than they are in Handa.
Penguin gets heartbroken when he assumes Penko is dating Tortoise.
Panda joins Polar Bear and Grizzly on a night out, visiting a batting center and a public bath.
Panda and the Full-time Panda attempt to distract themselves during a boring and rainy day at the zoo, much to Handa's chagrin.
Handa once again questions his love life once but finds some peace during his first visit to the Polar Bear's Café.
As the café prepares for a Tanabata party, everyone has trouble deciding what they should wish for.
Noticing Handa seems to have a crush on Sasako, Panda tries to help him work up his confidence.
As Panda laments having nothing to due whilst Polar Bear wishes he had more free time, Polar Bear takes Panda's place at the zoo pretending to be a panda, proving to be a hit.
Polar Bear, Panda and Penguin take a trip to the beach.
The backyard of the Polar Bear's Café needs weeding, but Penguin seems to be the only one taking things seriously.
Penguin finally works up the courage to confess to Penko, asking her out every day for a week. However, it turns out he inadvertently asked out seven identical girl penguins, leading to disaster when they all show up on the day.
As the café starts serving a shaved ice dessert called "Polar Bear", Grizzly gets the wrong idea and believes Polar Bear had been eaten by otters.
A salaryman from another town arrives at the Polar Bear's Café for the first time and is astounded by the various customers.
Polar Bear, Panda, Penguin and Grizzly go on a camping trip together, where Penguin and Grizzly find they have a lot in common whilst trying to keep Polar Bear and Panda in check.
A high school girl is asked by Rintarou to accompany him to the zoo, believing it to be a date, only to find he just wanted someone to talk about how cute Panda is.
The café decides to hold a night of telling ghost stories, much to an easily-frighted Handa's dismay.
Panda decides to run away from home when his mother decides to lump his birthday celebration with his siblings.
As Penguin joins the gang to the pool along with his nephew, he ends up having to deal with an easily irritated king penguin and the Penko sisters.
After becoming amazed by the taste of the Polar Bear's Café brand of black coffee, a man named Misaki decides to become the pupil of a tree kangaroo in order to learn how to roast coffee beans.
Panda imagines a dream life living on his own. After struggling to find a place that meets his expectations, Panda, along with Penguin, check out where the other animals live.
Polar Bear and Grizzly run a stand together at a summer festival, joined by a relative of Panda's, Lesser Panda. After selling everything, the gang enjoy the sights of the festival.
Panda is reassigned to one part of the zoo after another — even serving as a zookeeper.
Panda's sister Mei Mei goes on about her crush on Mr Handa. However, after seeing Handa and Ms Badger at a realty office, Panda believes that the two are getting married.
The trio of Pygoscelis penguins from the water park try to figure out how to sell their excess of penguin cards, eventually settling on creating a concentration game with them, which becomes a hit.
Penguin ends up having to date all the Penko sisters equally, but still has trouble telling them apart. Sasako suggests he give the sisters differently colored ribbons to better identify them, but it backfires when they decide to trade them with each other.
Mr Handa meets up with Polar Bear to ask his advice on how to ask Sasako out, but Polar Bear seems to be more interested in the food where the meeting takes place. Meanwhile, Sasako winds up serving several good-looking men who come into the café, which worries Panda and Penguin.
Panda Mama goes to buy walnuts and learns the trick of stuffing the bag full from Mama Red Squirrel, and then endures a lecture from King Penguin Mama on how to eat at an all-you-can-eat cake buffet. The group then decides to eat at Polar Bear's Café, where they end up taxing his sanity.
Panda decides he wants to become someone's apprentice but is rather picky about who his master is. He eventually settles on becoming Sloth's apprentice, but quits due to not being able match his levels of laziness.
Polar Bear abruptly tasks Sasako with being the emcee of a sport competition for animals (in which Handa is the only human participant), while Panda Mama and Mama Red Squirrel quarrel over how to prepare rice balls.
Penguin puts on an art exhibition, although none of the paintings are original and go unappreciated by the customers. After Polar Bear and Panda see the exhibit, they and Penguin discuss what hobbies they and other café regulars have.
As Polar Bear gets Grizzly to help out with a few things, he tells about how they first met.
As Full Time Panda takes on a side job, he starts to worry when he learns a temp Panda will be coming to the zoo, feeling he might be replaced. As Temp Panda arrives and acts rather sternly towards the other pandas, a ballot is held as to who should be the central panda.
At the Grizzly Bar, a Tiger, Wolf and Lion have a little reunion. As they lament how they've lost their youth, Polar Bear, who used to be a rap artist, gives them a surprise performance as a present.
The zoo animals from the Polar Bear's Cafe and the wild animals from Grizzly's bar face off against each other in a baseball match.
The Red Squirrels teach Misaki about how coffee changes taste depending on how much it has been roasted.
Polar Bear attempts to fill in for Panda but is questioned by the police. As way of apologise, Panda decides to give Polar Bear a day off by working at the cafe, though it's not as easy as he thinks.
RinRin is invited out drinking by Full Time Panda, who is curious as to why he considers Panda to be cute but not him.
Panda goes through various part time jobs, including a car dealership, a stock marketer and a lecturer, where he somehow manages to make the respective companies successful and even become a CEO.
Penguin has aspirations of flight so the others try various attempts to get him airborne.
Polar Bear, Panda and Penguin go trick or treating on Halloween, getting some curious treats from the homes they visit.
Tired of being passed over all the time, Llama suggests the zoo should hold a Llama Day. However, the animals struggle with coming up with ideas to make Llama more appealing.
As Penguin is put under the pressure to choose one of the Penko sisters, Llama helps him to differentiate between them, but this soon backfires.
Panda Mama goes with King Penguin Mama to a concert by porcupine pop group Yama Arashi.
Polar Bear takes the others to see the café's garden where all the ingredients are grown.
The sales penguins attempt to pitch their penguin trading card game to Handa so they can sell it in the zoo's shop, even suggesting they hold a penguin themed hero show to attract customers.
Panda becomes depressed as the penguin hero show appears to take customers away from the panda corner. Rin-Rin suggests to Panda that the zoo put on a photo contest to attract more customers. Meanwhile, Masaki has a go at roasting coffee, learning the meaning behind hand picking coffee beans. Despite some initial interest in the photo contest, the panda corner is still overshadowed by the penguin show, which Penguin also participates in. Thus Polar Bear suggests the Panda family put on their own performance, which proves to be a big hit.
Wolf ends up quitting his job at a bakery, so Tiger recruits him for his sweets shops. After Wolf hears about a position at a famous bakery from Panda-Mama, Tiger encourages Wolf to go for it, and he manages to get the job.
The gang hear from Llama that Penguin has been visiting the neighbouring town's Brown Bear Cafe. As Polar Bear decides to check it out, he learns Penguin has gained a crush on the waitress penguin there, deciding not to come to Polar Bear's Cafe until he works up the courage to ask her out.
Sloth starts working part-time at the cafe, though it doesn't prove easy with his speed.
Handa asks for Polar Bear and Lesser Panda's help in figuring out what to get Sasako for Christmas.
The pandas look for ways to hibernate at the zoo, but Handa calls them out on it. Grizzly takes Polar Bear shopping for a pillow to sleep on during hibernation.
When Grizzly does get to hibernate, he is rudely interrupted by Polar Bear, who takes him to the driving range. When Panda and Penguin turn up, Grizzly, cranky from lack of sleep, takes them all out to a hot pot bistro.
Panda wonders whether he'll get a present for Christmas — until Rin Rin shows up with a knitted pochette for Panda, which the latter accepts reluctantly.
Penguin, eager to show off his storytelling, tries in vain to find a party to appear at before deciding on Bar the Grizzly. Panda and Mei Mei argue over whose picture should be sent to Handa as a Christmas present, and Llama and Alpaca use their wool to create scarves and other garments.
Polar Bear ropes in everyone to do some spring cleaning around the cafe before Panda-Mama brings a salmon for everyone to have hotpot.
Polar Bear, Panda, Penguin, Sasako and Llama spend New Year's Eve together, where they reminisce about the past year. They are soon joined by the other animals to see the New Year in.
As the New Year rolls in, the Polar Bear's Cafe holds a hidden talent contest.
Penguin comes to visit Panda's home whilst the cafe is closed, which doesn't please Panda very much.
Polar Bear sets up a hammock in his garden and invites Panda and Penguin to laze around with him.
After Panda upsets Panda-Mama by eating her tulips, he tries and find something to replace them.
The café holds a Setsubun event, where everyone takes turns being the ogre.
Sasako and Llama reminisce about their elementary school days.
The gang try and help Polar Bear as he has trouble sleeping due to insomnia.
Polar Bear and Grizzly think back to their high school days, where Grizzly had a crush on a girl Grizzly named Tsukiko.
Fed up with Polar Bear's annoying puns, Grizzly and Penguin try to get everyone in town to beat Polar Bear at his own game.
Masaki is told how coffee can taste different depending on how it's prepared, and wonders if he can win over the Red Squirrels with advice from Polar Bear.
Affter a long day at work, Mr. Full-time Panda and Mr. Llama decide to have a few drinks. They later invite Rin Rin, who takes the drunk Panda and Llama to Grizzly's bar, where everyone there gets drunk into the morning.
Panda is shocked to learn that Full-Time Panda has been transferred to a zoo in Singapore. He agrees to work full time until another panda is hired, causing some worry amongst his friends.
When a Valentine's couple end up insulting Panda after two weeks of straight work, Penguin stands up against them. Panda soon cheers up after a new part-time panda is found and gives his thanks to Penguin.
Rin Rin and Mei Mei find they have some common interests and work together to think of a plan to get closer to Panda and Handa. However, Rin Rin ends up catching a fever, so Mei Mei decides to instead look after him.
Polar Bear and the others go to the frozen lakes to do some smelt fishing, though soon get distracted. After Grizzly helps to catch a whole bunch, Polar Bear sets up an igloo cafe to make use of their ingredients.
The younger penguins set up a display for Hina Matsuri, which goes a little awry when the cafe-goers make their own contributions. Grizzly is called in to help them set it up, only to realize that, besides Sasako, there are no girls around to celebrate it.
Polar Bear develops a fever and goes to the animal hospital for some medicine. Panda and Penguin decide to come over to look after him, only to end up catching fevers themselves.
The Pygoscelis Penguins are approached by a TV studio to do a televised version of South Pole Squad Penginger alongside Yama Arashi, with some of the other animals making cameos.
Polar Bear teaches Masaki how a coffee's richness differs based on how it is prepared. He later learns Tree Kangaroo will let him start roasting his own coffee beans.
Panda and the others end up joining Sloth on a long walk to the hot springs, wanting to get their on his own two feet.
The group become paper dolls as they converse in the real world.
Grizzly is visited by his mother, who embarrasses him a little when she starts serving home cooking in his bar. After trying it for himself, however, it soon turns out to be a big hit.
Llama, Sasako and the others visit their hometown to find a time capsule Llama buried five years ago. Upon arriving, however, they discover the tree he buried it under is in the middle of a private property.
Panda becomes curious about what Penguin does when he's not at the cafe.
Polar Bear becomes downhearted when Penguin expresses interest in moving house, though feels relieved once he hears he just intends to renew his apartment lease. Afterwards, everyone gathers around to have a cherry blossom viewing party, looking back on the year they've spent together.
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