When Polar Bear gets sick, the mood of the day changes dramatically.
What They Say:
The baby penguins set up for the traditional doll festival. Polar Bear gets sick and it’s up to his friends to take care of him.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As we get closer and closer to the end of the series, there’s that sense of unease that permeates things as you know time with this cast of characters won’t go on for much longer. So you do start to hope to see more of those that made an impact over time on you or ones that were just too cute for words. While I’m hoping for more Grizzly sequences before the doors close on the show for a bit, I’m also glad to see that in this episode we get some with the baby penguins who are just beyond words. Having them arrive in the cafe for the Doll Festival with some cute boxes and a whole red/orange carpet event for it is just far too cute for words.
Running with this gag, we get all sorts of very fun moments as the gang was prepared for the Doll Festival in their own way and have gone and decorated a whole lot of figures, including a box of Penguin figures, in order to tweak Penguin just a little bit. The fun of it all definitely is adorable as we get so many different types of dolls, including Polar Bear who has done up little bushes and even sweet potatoes as dolls in order to flesh out the display. There’s some good puns to be had throughout this and the display continues to increase in complexity as it goes on, but the whole thing really just goes off the rails in a fit of laughter as the kimono comes off and it’s a contest to see who looks better in one; Sasako and Polar Bear.
The second half of the show takes an interesting turn of events as we get to see that Polar Bera has woken up with a bit of a cold and fever, which has him going to the doctors. The animal hospital is similar to a human one though with a more direct focus on the varied species, which has some humor as we see the little old doctor that takes care of him. With Polar Bear usually up and about in such a fun way, seeing him down and out really is different as he goes through the sweats and more. But it’s not enough to deter him from puns, though they do wear him out quicker. While there’s some good humor to be had across this story, there’s also some good tender moments as we see Panda and Penguin doing their best to take care of Polar Bear, though they end up in a bit of a bind themselves because of it.
In Summary:
Polar Bear Cafe has a pretty fun little episode here that does some amusing things but doesn’t go in a big way in any direction. The first half lets them all have fun with the Doll Festival idea and bringing in the baby penguins definitely helps. A lot of the focus will be on Sasako wearing the kimono of course, and the little bits with Handa and the baby penguins are very, very cute. The second half makes me wish we had more time spent at the animal hospital as I’d love to see more of what’s involved there and how it’s handled, but going to some bedside treatment at home for Polar Bear as done by a few of the others is just too adorable. There’s something to be said for the bond these guys have created and taking care of someone when they’re sick just reinforces it in a big way.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.