Nothing says fun like a gaggle of Penguins at an indoor pool.
What They Say:
No episode summary provided.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
While we’ve had a lot of focus on Penguin and his pursuit of Miss Penko, it hasn’t gone too far beyond that. Well, other than showing that there are something like nine of them. What we get at the start of this episode as a few of the gang head to a swim park for the day is that Penguin has brought his little nephew with him. And that’s dangerous because it’s just a far too adorable emperor penguin. But there’s a lot of problems between emperor penguins and king penguins over how they’re viewed at the zoo and that just makes for an awkward encounter. Where it gets even worse is when Penko 8 introduces her very, very ugly son that Panda even say slooks like a mop. But the two younglings manage to get together well because of their differences.
Where things go off the rails is when all the other Penko’s show up as well after that. With all their varied names, it’s hard to really grasp onto them and it’s impossible to figure out who is who. So the fun comes in just watching how everyone plays at the pool and the silliness of it all. The show gives us some good bits as they play and frolic in the water, especially since Polar Bear is such an appealing guy and Panda has his moments as well since the cute girls are all obviously attracted to their cuteness. The penguins have their moments as well, but with Penguin getting frustrated on so many levels and others getting involved as well since they all have such difficult real world histories with each other, it invariably leads to more problems of a comical nature.
The second half goes in a completely different direction as we’re introduced to a Tree Kangaro, a very particular one that has a connection to Polar Bear. What happens is that a man named Masaki has come to learn about making coffee and discovers that the beans are all roasted by a master, i.e. Tree Kangaroo, and that has Polar Bear introducing them and showing us what it’s like there. Taking Masaki on as a potential pupil is at the crux of it and it’s interesting to see such a natural way of doing all of this. Masaki is fun to watch as the Red Squirrels teach him the basics and really don’t take much guff from him, though things do ease over the course of it. Masaki isn’t exactly a compelling character, but the situation as a whole works well and definitely makes you grin.
In Summary:
Polar Bear Cafe spends its two halves doing very different things and each has their positives to it. While the second half didn’t win me over heavily, it has some very good bits to it with the whole coffee bean roasting angle and how Masaki and the Red Squirrels get along. The first half is what made me the most happy though as it explored the various problems that penguins have with each other over the years with how they were named by humans as they were discovered. It’s created some comical rivalries to be sure and tensions between them all that come out in sharp but highly comical bits. Add in all the fun at the pool and how others get involved from time to time and there’s plenty to grin and laugh with.
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.
