What They Say:
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The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Polar Bear Cafe has done some sweet and some sad episodes over its run, but the show really did a number on its fans in the previous episode. Seeing Panda go through the pain of losing a friend who had transferred to another zoo, this one being in Singapore, gave us some new insight into the character While we knew that Panda is definitely filled with feelings and emotions, it’s mostly been about food and sleep and not much more. So seeing him really having to deal with things and to run through the emotions was really nicely done, as hard as it was to watch at times. But that’s been done and dealt with and now the show has to advance the Panda storyline just a bit more.
And who better to handle that than Rin Rin and Mei Mei? Panda has actually done something smart in asking Handa to make sure that Rin Rin stays away for a bit since he’s coping with the loss of his friend, which definitely hurt Rin Rin’s feelings. He’s still sneaking some views of him though and ends up running into Mei Mei there. The two are such a pair when you realize their fascinations are similar in a way, with her being all into Handa, and watching them essentially fangirl together for a bit is just highly amusing. While they oogle and get all goofy over those they like, we see how Handa and Panda are just being silly themselves, such as thinking about how they want to spend their upcoming day off doing things. Between that and the way Rin Rin and Mei Mei act together, there’s lots of cute silliness here, especially when Mei Mei starts taking care of him while he’s sick.
The second half drags Grizzly out of his hibernation once again as Polar Bear has brought him and a few others out to the snowy cold for a bit of fun. Ice fishing is pretty fun and Penguin thinks he can do it better the natural way, but I love that nobody wants to eat what he might catch that way. The story has some cute bits along the way and some of the fun that is the quiet of ice fishing as even Panda starts to fall asleep while doing it. But it’s so welcome in how it’s a calm yet fun bit of storytelling that you just have to enjoy watching this group together, especially since Sasako came along as well. The group dynamic is what makes things fun and seeing them go the distance in the final few minutes with a frozen version of the cafe is hilarious, especially with what Grizzly brings to the table.
In Summary:
Polar Bear Cafe shifted gears heavily in the previous episode and pivoting back after that can be difficult. Thankfully, the show doesn’t completely discount what happened before as we see how Panda is dealing with the loss of Full Time Panda and getting on with his life. Doing things from an outside point of view and shifting more to those characters made them stand out more and helped to transition things well. The second half was just a whole lot of fun as several of the gang go smelt fishing and there’s lots of little silly moments and comments and even a version of the cafe coming into existence that just looks like a lot of (very cold) fun. The show has some good things going on here and helps to chart the new course forward now that the big drama is done and over 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.
