How can the pandas compete against the penguin hero action show?!
What They Say:
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The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the introduction of the Penguin Heroes in the previous episode, it’s no surprise that they’re dominating when it comes to the zoo. The merchandising alone is certainly something to be impressed by with its potential, but there’s also just the pure fun of it with how they perform and show off. Amusingly, Penguin has his own opinions on how it can be improved but it’s kind of weird in how he wants certain kinds of things to be brought into it, like traditional humor or someone famous. You get the sense more and more that Penguin really is just a fuddy-duddy kind of penguin.
What all of this penguin time at the zoo is doing though is to make Panda feel that Panda Corner is more boring than them and it’s getting to him. The zoo is making out with increased attendance, but it’s not really spilling over to other areas of the zoo. A depressed panda isn’t a good panda, so seeing Panda like this definitely makes an impact as even RinRin is surprised by it. What Panda does get from him though is some ideas on how to spice up his place, which you know will just lead to too much trouble. Unfortunately, it takes a bit longer than it should to get there as there’s an extended Coffee Break segment with Masaki that truly does bore me to tears.
When we get back into the main show and see Panda trying to really up the service quotient for his performance, it gets pretty comical. Even Llama tries to do some of it but both parties are soundly ignored in favor of action hero penguins. And rightly so! They’re awesome! But the Panda’s really do try to juice things up as we get them putting on what’s essentially a soap opera episode performance. With the family members there to help out and the others with a bit of help from Polar Bear and Penguin, it hits so many weird twists and turns that you just have to laugh at the nearly surreal flavor of it all as it unfolds. It’s a soap opera written by pandas. What more really needs to be said?
In Summary:
With a pretty fun episode overall, Polar Bear Cafe gives us two big things. More of the penguin action force skits which is very well animated and choreographed and just a lot of good, silly fun. And we get to see the panda response to it at the zoo with what they want to do in order to get more popular. Both aspects of the show work really well and are definitely fun to watch, especially the bizarre way the panda soap opera plays out. Where the show loses, and fairly big for me, is when it does the coffee break segment. I know there are people that do enjoy it, but the whole thing just feels like a time waster that doesn’t engage me in the slightest, with either the animals or with Masaki. I’d rather have two minutes of Llama reading the phone book or just standing there wearing a scarf or cape.
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.
