History Manga / ShirokumaCafe

* HairTriggerTemper: King Penguin. People keeping on mistaking her kind for emperor penguins and Panda's sheer cluelessness (or stupidity) when trying to console her doesn't help. Bonus points for being voiced by HotBlooded specialist NobuyukiHiyama.

* BadGuyBar: Bar The Grizzly certainly looks like a BadGuyBar at a glance, typically attracting carnivore animal customers. Averted when he and the customers themselves turn out to be nice guys.

** A variety of animals that don't count as part of society - three dogs that can't talk, fish are eaten regularly, and it didn't seem like water buffalo in the garden episode can talk either.

* NeverSmileAtACrocodile: The first nasty character to appear is a Black Caiman, in a BadGuyBar. Averted in his later appearances, however.

* RealMenCanCook: A variation of this is played with animals that are apex predators. Although this trope is still in effect as most of the [[SupremeChef]]s in the show are males.

* RealMenCanCook: A variation of this is played with animals that are apex predators.

* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: Penguin accidentally makes a dramatic love confession to Panda while under the influence of alcohol, hallucinating him to be Penko, a female penguin he has a long-standing crush on.

** At the summer festival at the midway shooting gallery there is a [[UsefulNotes/NintendoWii Wee]], [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 Polystation 3]] and the car dealership Panda gets a job at is called [[{{Volvo}} Volvi]].

* BoyBand: Yama Arashi, whose members are porcupines. They are spoof off of real-life boy band Music/{{Arashi}}.

* TheBusCameBack: [[Full-Time Panda gets transferred to Singapore, but comes back to Japan for vacation and visits the cafe in the last episode.]]

* {{Fangirl}}: Mama Panda and Mama King Penguin are fans of Yama Arashi, going to their concerts and being overwhelmed when the members express their gratitude to them for the food they're given while holding their hands. Mei Mei is also a fangirl for ''Handa'', squealing and flailing whenever she's admiring him and always asking her brother for photos of him.

** Subverted when Sasako creates three parfaits in the image of Polar Bear, Panda, and Penguin as test samples for a future menu special. When two curious patrons offer to taste them, they demolish the desserts with such frightening enthusiasm that Polar Bear changes his mind and offers a lunch sampler special instead.
** The theme song describes several foods: "Let's drink Mocha latte Ole Tea, and add pancakes and ice-cream to that, let's drink strawberry and mango shakes." "And try a bamboo diet!"

** In the third episode when asked if Polar Bear had a problem, he says he always wanted to become an idol, but was too busy with his studies to do so. This causes Penguin to say, "There you go, lying again..." He at one point was a famous hip-hop performer, though whether Penguin is aware of that career, or simply thought the idea that Polar Bear would actually want to be one is ludicrous, is unknown.
** Panda brings up Yama Arashi in a conversation with Full-Time Panda long before they actually appeared.

* FourLegsGoodTwoLegsBetter: Zig-zagged. The animals who usually walk on all fours (namely bears, big cats, canines, and mustelids) are bipedal. However Llama, Tortoise, Sloth and few others still walk on four legs. Possibly justified as Llama's legs would be too thin to support his weight if he did walk upright, Tortoise's shell weighs him down too much to even attempt, and Sloth simply doesn't have the energy to support himself on two legs (although his ImagineSpot of him walking to the hot springs does show him walking on two legs).

* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Penguin's nephew and King Penguin's son are very innocent and sweet, and despite the mild corruptness of some characters it does not affect them in any ways.

* NeverSmileAtACrocodile: The first nasty character to appear is a Black Caiman, in a BadGuyBar. Subverted in his later appearances, however.

* OddFriendship: Penguin and Grizzy strike one up during the camping trip in episode 17. Despite having nothing meaningful in common, they bond over how Polar Bear and Panda drive them ''nuts''.

* SeldomSeenSpecies: Appropriately for an animal series that's showed its work, several uncommon animals also appear.

** As an animal series, a lot of effort put into the characters' designs, traits etc is evident. For example, rhe penguin classification in Episode 19 is spot on, even using the genus names Pygoscelis (for Adelie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo) and Aptenodytes (for King and Emperor). They also describe how the species from genus Pygoscelis got their names.

** Sasako, despite only being the part-time worker, is shown to be talented with food as Polar Bear loves her gyoza and two female customers thoroughly enjoy the parfaits she makes for them.

** Tiger is an owner of a successful bakery and so is good at baking.

** Panda (Jun Fukuyama) hums the show's ending theme, Bamboo Scramble (sung by Jun Fukuyama).

* TokenHuman: As the series focuses on animals, only some humans frequently appear and are the only significant humans in some settings.

'''''Shirokuma Cafe''''' (''Polar Bear's Cafe'') is a SliceOfLife manga that received an anime adaptation premiering in the spring of 2012.

* BadGuyBar: Grizzly's Bar certainly looks like a BadGuyBar at a glance, typically attracting carnivore animal customers. Averted when he and the customers themselves turn out to be nice guys.
* BadGuysPlayPool: A pool table is seen in Grizzly's Bar, with Lion and Tiger seen playing a game. Averted however with Lion and Tiger are being good guys.
* BaseballEpisode: Episode 27's Part A and B focuses on a friendly baseball game between Shirokuma Cafe and Grizzly's Bar.
* BeachEpisode: The second half of episode 14 has Panda, Shirokuma and Penguin going to the beach.
* BearsAreBadNews: Averted. Shirokuma and Panda are nice and friendly, and even the badass and temperamental Grizzly is a genuinely kind guy.
* BearyFriendly: Shirokuma, Panda and even the hot-headed Grizzly are all nice guys who wouldn't hurt a fly.
* BearyFunny: Shirokuma is the owner of the titular cafe and is a PungeonMaster. Panda is a rather lazy {{cloudcuckoolander}} who is a regular patron. Grizzly, while a serious character, is also dragged into in many of the running gags that involves Shirokuma annoying Grizzly and waking him up from hibernation just to ask pointless questions.

* BlindDate: Panda sets Mr. Handa up on a group blind date due to his lack of luck with girls, much to his protests. HilarityEnsues when Panda, Penguin, and Shirokuma tag along.

** Penguin tries to take a picture of Shirokuma with his cell phone and gets distracted at the beginning of "Smartphones". The episode "Driving" closes with him succeeding.
** The first episode mentions that the reason that Sloth visited the cafe is that he wants to live in Shirokuma's yard. Episode 32 confirms that he in fact, does live in Shirokuma's yard.

** Shirokuma seems to love waking up Grizzly during his hibernation in order to ask him trivial things.

* CaptainObvious: Lampshaded by Shirokuma when he first hearings about Brown Bear's Cafe, asking "Brown Bear runs Brown Bear's Cafe?" He gets pointed out for his hypocrisy as he is also the owner of Shirokuma Cafe.
* CarnivoreConfusion: Where the line draws between animals who are part of society and animals who are domesticated and can be eaten is usually fuzzy. The general rule seems to be that animals that are seen as food or pets in the real world are just food or pets in the Shirokuma Cafe world as well. Examples include:
** Shirokuma and Penguin visiting the zoo's seal exhibit, which forbids polar bears because they are the seal's natural predators. Shirokuma winds up scaring one of the seals away, even if he assured that he won't eat it.
** Episode 25, where Cub!Shirokuma suggested making bear paw stew (as a joke) to Grizzly.
** Grizzly legitimately believing that Shirokuma got eaten by otters due to a misunderstanding (the otters were actually eating a new dessert shaped as a polar bear called the "shirokuma").
** Hamburger restaurants are seen, and in the manga Shirokuma cooks a roast chicken.

** Grizzly and Shirokuma have been friends since they were cubs. Of course, this doesn't stop Grizzly from yelling at Shirokuma at every chance, especially when flashbacks show that he received the brunt of Shirokuma's antics in their childhood.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Early in the manga it's shown that a kangaroo works at Shirokuma Cafe. She mentions wanting some help in the garden and then, outside of a brief cameo many pages later, is never seen again. [[note]] The one kangaroo was turned into three kangaroos (who don't even wear the uniform) much later in the anime. The anime also makes the garden seem much farther away from the cafe than it originally is in the manga, which makes it a bit less strange as to why they're never around.[[/note]]

* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: In revenge for Shirokuma's constant use of puns, the animals, Handa, and Sasako band together to say nothing but puns back to him. Shirokuma ends up running away each time. It turns out every friend/acquaintance that Shirokuma runs into, throws puns at him, causing him to [[NotSoStoic start freaking out]]. The others end up finding this genuinely fun, however.

* DrivesLikeCrazy: Implied with Penguin, as he appears to be easily distracted during driving lessons and has failed his driver's test several times. Polar Bear attempts to teach him, but his advice is largely useless. He eventually does get his driver's license, but Shirokuma and Panda make him twitchy when he's driving.
* EpicFail: Penguin and Panda visit Shirokuma when he's sick and try to tend to him. After demonstrating that they're incapable of helping him in any way, they end up catching his cold.

* ExactWords: Masaki wants to meet Shirokuma's coffee supplier. Shirokuma replies that it's a little far, and it turns out that it's a tree house behind the cafe. He did say it was a little far.

** Shirokuma sets up a food stall at the summer festival and the cafe celebrates Tanabata with a massive bamboo tree.

** Polar Bear gets in on the act when Handa asks him for romantic advice and Shirokuma proceeds to text all the animals for their opinions.

* HammerSpace: Where does Shirokuma get his miscellaneous pun props?
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Grizzly and Shirokuma have been close friends since they were cubs.

* LionsAndTigersAndHumansOhMy: Lampshaded when Polar Bear and Penguin go to the zoo and Polar Bear wants to... go see the resident polar bear diving into a pool. Further lampshaded when a sign outside the exhibit forbids polar bears from entering since it's 'confusing.'

** Brought up again with Mr. Necktie in the second half of episode 16. The episode follows how he reacts to the unfamiliar coexistence of humans and animals, given that he is new to the town because of work. In particular, he experiences Shirokuma's cafe and Grizzly's bar.

* LocalHangout: The cafe, obviously. Its close location to the zoo means that all the animals tend to hang out there.
** Bar The Grizzly, while not as frequent, the characters do tend to hang out there quite often.
* ManlyTears: Grizzly in episode 16. Wolf in episode 34.

** Happens to Panda in Episode 12 after telling Handa that he'd be more enthusiasthic at work if he had a girlfriend, prompting this exchange:

'''Full-Time Panda:'''[''sweatdrops''] [[LampshadeHanging Your conversation is drifting]], Panda.
** Occurs again to Panda in Episode 19, when he tries (and fails) to cheer up Mama King Penguin:

* MoodWhiplash: Some episodes have a more serious tone or do not go for the usual slapstick comedy. However, [[FourIsDeath episode 44]] amps this [[UpToEleven up to eleven]]. If you didn't cry watching this episode, you're heartless.

** Llama unintentionally destroys what was shaping up to be a lovely moment between Handa and Sasako.
** Panda and the rest of the gang unintentionally did this too during the Summer Festival.
* MusicalNod[=/=]ThemeTuneCameo:
** Panda (Jun Fukuyama) humming the show's ending theme, Bamboo Scramble (sung by Jun Fukuyama).
** Penguin drunkenly sings along to the opening theme at a karaoke bar.
*** He does it again in episode 50. Only he's not drunk.
** Shirokuma sings the first line to Sasako's ending song while cycling.
** Handa hums part of Sasako's ending song at the end of episode 48. It's a nice touch considering it follows one of their interactions.
* {{Nephewism}}: Penguin's nephew from episode 19.

* NightmareFuel: Invoked InUniverse with the cafe's ghost story night. However, most of the animal ones are not scary, scaring only Handa because he hates scary stories. Then Sasako's (mostly) unheard ghost story terrifies ''everyone'' in the Cafe with a serious case of the heebie-jeebies. Handa is rendered catatonic with terror.

--> '''Penguin''': [[LampshadeHanging Too close, too close. Way too close]]
* OddFriendship: Penguin and Grizzy strike one up during the camping trip in episode 17. Despite having nothing meaningful in common, they bond over how Shirokuma and Panda drive them ''nuts''.

* OnceAnEpisode: Waking up Grizzly from hibernation for a trivial matter seems to have become this.

** Shirokuma circles around the drive-through window of a local burger joint and freaks out the poor cashier four times before placing an order.
** Also the sloth leaving the group to go to the convenience store and it cuts to the show bumpers three times before moving on.
* PantheraAwesome: Lion and Tiger.
* PaperThinDisguise: Subverted. Panda's "Shirokuma" disguise doesn't fool the cafe patrons for a second.
** Shirokuma's panda paint job also fools nobody because he's ''huge''. It also gets him in trouble with a local police officer for identity fraud.
* PlayfulOtter: One of them frequently visits the cafe.
** Otters become a plot point in episode 16, where Grizzly thought a group of them ate Shirokuma, when they actually ate a dessert shaped like a polar bear.

* PowerTrio: Shirokuma, Panda, Penguin. Although Penguin and Shirokuma's roles will alternate depending on the situation and Panda is TheDitz.
* PragmaticAdaptation: Neither the manga nor the anime have a real overarching story, so none of the changes are important, but the manga is fairly different from the anime. Characters in the anime are introduced in a completely different order and situation than their manga counterparts. The anime has several stories not present in the manga, and for the stories the two mediums do share, there are always changes in the characters' personalities and dialogues.
** One of the bigger changes is the still continuing Penko subplot. Penko does not exist in the manga in any form, and Penguin's love life is never an issue.
* PrecociousCrush: Mei-Mei, Panda's sister, has one... on ''Handa''.
* {{Pun}}: A staple of the show's humor.
* PungeonMaster: Shirokuma is a frequent practitioner of ''dajare'', a Japanese form of humor that revolves around puns based on the pronunciation (rather than the [[AlternateCharacterReading reading]]) of words.
** [[{{LampshadeHanging}} Lampshaded]] when Shirokuma is driving and he notices a bagel in his car. He proceeds to riff some puns, but then comments that it's not as fun because Penguin and Panda both fell asleep and didn't notice.

** When Panda tries to do the same, nobody pays attention, and then it turns out he is inner-monologuing.
** Subverted in "Penguin's Confession" when Shirokuma starts to make a pun, Penguin cuts him off and skedaddles out of the cafe. [[{{Beat}} Two seconds later]], he comes back in and Sasako fills in a pun for Shirokuma.

** HurricaneOfPuns: This comes back to bite Shirokuma in the ass, as everyone is so tired of his puns, that they start doing it back to ''him.'' He gets so flustered that he apologizes for it but everyone acknowledges it's part of his personality.
** One time when Panda says he's going to be a Roller. Shirokuma does several puns, one of which is dealer. Which in a twist to the running gag, Panda admits for once Shirokuma is correct. Though Panda meant a Car Dealer, while Shirokuma meant a Casino Dealer.
* PutOnABus:[[spoiler:Full-Time Panda is transferred to a zoo in Singapore, and Panda takes it very poorly.]]
** [[spoiler: TheBusCameBack: He comes back to Japan for vacation and visits the cafe.]]

* RunningGag:
** Panda's fear of his mother's vacuum cleaner.
** Shirokuma's puns.
** Penguin buying far too much bread at Penko's bakery as an excuse to hang around her...and then trying to dump it off at Shirokuma Cafe.
** Penguin trying to get people to listen to his rakugo (comedic storytelling).
*** Though in the final episodes he seemed to have ditched that in favour of Ventriloquism.

** Shirokuma interrupting Grizzly's hibernation for mundane reasons. Then Grizzly tries to pre-empt him.

** Sloth or Tortoise's slowness. One of them (Or both at the same time) arriving at or finishing up an event long after it's finished.
** Panda and Full-Time sitting around talking or doing mundane things when they're supposed to be performing for the Zoo patrons, which Handa complains to them about.
** In the paper doll segments at the very end, Polar Bear always teases about what the next episode is going to about.
----> The next episode is going to be the final episode (He says this in the first episode)
----> The next episode will be voiced in Portuguese
* SatelliteLoveInterest: When Panda asks [[spoiler:the 7 Penko's]] what they like about Penguin, they all realize there ''isn't'' anything they like about him. He gets dumped on the spot.
* SeldomSeenSpecies:

* SeriousBusiness: Apparently buying all-you-can-get walnuts and dining in all-you-can-eat cake restaurants are so, according to Mama Red Squirrel and Mama King Penguin.
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Shirokuma on occasion. This irritates Penguin when Shirokuma starts speaking in technical jargon.
* {{Sexophone}}: Played when Mei-Mei meets Handa for the first time.
** Also in "Rin-Rin and the High School Girl" in which the girl trips and Rin-Rin catches her.

* ShipperOnDeck: All the animals for Handa and Sasako.
* ShoutOut:
** To ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'', of [[http://i.imgur.com/sqE2L.jpg all things.]]

** He also starts walking around in an outfit similar to [[StarWars Darth Vader]].
** Shirokuma does an...''interesting'' impression of [[Film/BreakfastAtTiffanys Holly Golightly]] while promoting the cafe's latest dessert.
** In episode 18, Shirokuma tells a horror story that [[Anime/{{Doraemon}} he changed color due to a mouse chewing on his ear and he feared mice because of it]].

** In "Love Love Driving Tactics", at the start of the drive Panda seems to be playing a PSP like device. The panel on the back with the ring makes it glaringly obvious.

** In episode 38 Panda is reading a Manga of a Sherlock Holmes expy.
** In Episode 49, "Mr. Llama's Time Capsule" As they're sitting down on a stoop eating cream buns, Sasako gets up looking around.

* ShownTheirWork: The penguin classification in Episode 19, even using the genus names Pygoscelis (for Adelie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo) and Aptenodytes (for King and Emperor). They also described how the species from genus Pygoscelis got their names.
** Most of the animal stuff in general.
** The squirrels teaching Masaki all about coffee.

* {{Squee}}: The ladies on the group blind date as well as the karaoke bar waitress, upon seeing Panda sitting on the floor of their karaoke room and pulling out bamboo to eat.
** Panda is shown to relish being adored, but then he gets annoyed when Shirokuma steals the spotlight from him, as demonstrated during the beach adventure.
** Mei-Mei's reaction to Handa in general.
* SpeciesSurname: All the animals are simply referred to by what they are (Llama, Sloth, etc.).
** Inverted with Masaki, a human patron. Shirokuma jokes that he calls him "Human" while everyone else refers to him by name.
** Averted with Mei-Mei and Tsukiko.
** This could possibly be justified, that the name Panda, may be to Pandas, as John Smith is to humans. So Full-Time Panda, and Temp-Panda, may also just be called "Panda" in their respective families, and are given different titles at work to make it easier.
* SpitTake: Performed by Kirino in Episode 10 after hearing Handa tell their dates what panda ''poop'' smells likes.[[note]]Apparently, lemons.[[/note]]
** Grizzly gets one too in Episode 49, when his mother calls for him using his EmbarrassingNickname for ''all'' of the cafe to hear. [[note]]She calls him Guri-chan, or Little Grizz translated.[[/note]]
* TheStoic: Shirokuma, though he also has NotSoStoic moments.
* StunnedSilence: When Panda finds out Rin-Rin (his secret fan) is [[spoiler: the local ''male'' florist]], he's rendered into a horrified silence.
** Sloth and Tortoise show up to the cafe play baseball...at sunset, hours after the game is over. Everyone is literally staring at them.
* SugarBowl: The world this show takes place in, is a world where humans and anthropomorphic animals live in harmony as equals, no prejudice between them, drinking and smoking are shown but never in a way that they look sleazy, no villains are present (Unless you count that creepy Caimen, but even he was toned down), everyone is friends with one another (Even if they won't admit it) the third intro really hammers this trope in.
* SurprisinglyGoodEnglish: The British-sounding explorer in Handa's explanation of pandas.
* SupremeChef: Shirokuma, naturally. Sasako is also pretty talented with food as Shirokuma loves her pot stickers (gyoza) and two female customers thoroughly enjoy the parfaits she made.
** However, Sasako and Panda found Shirokuma's pancakes to be too salty because he added salmon to it.
** Grizzly is no slouch, either. Although this is to be expected as he did grow up with Shirokuma and he operates his own bar.
** Grizzly's Mother apparently is a master at making soup, since everyone at Bar The Grizzly loved it to death, despite not even being on the menu (which Grizzly complained about).
** Tiger qualifies as well, being the owner of a successful bakery.
* SwappedRoles: Shirokuma and Panda try out each others jobs for a day. The results are mixed, to say the least.

* SweatDrop: Sasako, Handa, and Penguin get instant ones as soon as Shirokuma or Panda say something outrageous.
** Panda whenever he has to deal with Rin Rin.
* TerribleIntervieweesMontage: Shirokuma is in need of an employee to help him run the cafe and the animals that he interviews all fail at answering his questions. He ends up hiring Sasako after she comes into the cafe carrying Sloth on a branch.
* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: Things, actually. Panda Mama, Ms. King Penguin, Mama Red Squirrel, and a fourth woman in episode 23 basically camp out in the cafe, and demand free coffee refills.
** Poor Red Panda has to deal with them when they also invite Sasako along.
** Penguin when he visits Panda's house for New Year's.
* TokenHuman: Although there are plenty of humans in the setting, Sasako and Handa are the two main human characters as Sasako is the cafe's sole human employee and Mr. Handa is Panda's zookeeper. They inevitably get dragged into the shenanigans.

** Kirino the second zookeeper is Handa's subordinate.
** Masaki, Tree Kangaroo's apprentice. At one point Shirokuma wonders if he should just call him 'human'.

* TooMuchInformation: In Episode 10's group date, Handa tries to impress the girls with his knowledge of pandas...and their poop.

* UglyCute: InUniverse: King Penguin's son, who she defends as being "adorably ugly".
* WeirdnessMagnet: The Cafe is a low level one. Mostly oddments and inexplicable anomalies. (Where ''do'' those [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog%C5%AB dogu]] and Jomon potteries come from?)

* XMeetsY: ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' with {{Funny Animal}}s.

The show follows the daily exploits of a lazy, young panda named Panda. Constantly told by his mother to get a job, he one day stumbles into the titular cafe, run by the enigmatic Shirokuma, a soft-spoken polar bear. Joining them are Shirokuma's friend, a sarcastic penguin named Penguin, various animals from the nearby zoo, and Shirokuma's sole employee, a human girl named Sasako.

* {{Adorkable}}: Handa is very much so.
* AffectionateNickname: Grizzly's mom calls him Guri-chan[[note]]Translated as Lil' Grizz[[/note]], despite the fact he's an ''[[EmbarrassingNickname adult]]'' now.
* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Mama Grizzly, from his perspective.
* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: [[spoiler: Penguin accidentally makes one to Panda while under the influence of alcohol, hallucinating him to be a female penguin he has a long-standing crush on.]]
* Music/AlsoSprachZarathustra: Penguin proudly announces his obtaining of a driver's license while this plays in the background, his emotions so intense that he floats and sparkles in time with the music.
* AnimalStereotypes: One episode had the zoo animals discussing this, and how uncomfortable they are with it.
** Overlaps with BadassDecay whenever Lion, Wolf and Tiger talk about their carnivore-ness.

* BackForTheFinale: Almost all of the secondary characters return in the anime's final episode.

* BadGuyBar: Grizzly's Bar certainly has the airs of a BadGuyBar.
** BadGuysPlayPool: And there's a pool table there, with a lion and a tiger seen playing a game (Though much later Lion and Tiger are revealed to be pretty good guys.)
* BaseballEpisode: Episode 27
* BeachEpisode: The second half of episode 14.

* BearyFriendly
* BearyFunny

** Speaking of Grizzly, he is also shown riding a "Haree Pavdoson" motorcycle.
* BlindDate: Panda sets Mr. Handa up on a group blind date, much to his protests. HilarityEnsues when Panda, Penguin, and Shirokuma tag along.

* BoyBand[=/=]IdolSinger: Yama Arashi, whose members are porcupines.

** Penguin tries to take a picture of Shirokuma with his cell phone and gets distracted at the beginning of "Smartphones" and the episode "Driving" closes with him succeeding.

* ButtMonkey: Handa, Penguin and Llama.

*** Though it's half "Playful trolling" and half "I miss hanging out with my best friend"

* CantHoldHisLiquor: Poor Penguin.
** Panda as well. One sip of an Irish Coffee knocks him on his ass.
*** Justified that he seems to be around 11-14 years old.
* CaptainObvious: "Brown Bear runs Brown Bear's cafe?"
* CarnivoreConfusion:
** Played with. Shirokuma and Penguin visit the zoo's seal exhibit, which forbids polar bears because they are the seal's natural predators. Shirokuma winds up scaring one of the seals away, even if he assured that he won't eat it.
** In Episode 25, Cub!Shirokuma suggested making bear paw stew (as a joke).
** There's also hamburger restaurants, and in the manga Shirokuma cooks a roast chicken. Between the anime and manga, there's been at least 3 dogs that can't talk, fish are eaten regularly, and it didn't seem like water buffalo in the garden episode could talk either (althoug. The general rule seems to be that animals that are seen as food or pets in the real world are just food or pets in the Shirokuma Cafe world as well.

* CheerfulChild: Penguin's nephew and King Penguin's son.
* ChildhoodFriends: Grizzly and Shirokuma have been friends since they were cubs. Of course, this doesn't stop Grizzly from yelling at Shirokuma at every chance, especially when flashbacks show that he received the brunt of Shirokuma's antics in their childhood.

* [[{{ChinesePeople}} Chinese Pandas]]: When we do see them at home, Panda and his family are (expectedly) stereotypically Chinese. Especially his Grandfather who does nothing but practice Tai-Chi in every single scene that he's in.
* ChristmasEpisode: Episode 37 features the Christmas holiday in both parts. (With background foreshadowing in episodes 35 and 36)
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Early in the manga it's shown that a kangaroo works at Shirokuma Cafe. She mentions wanting some help in the garden and then, outside of a brief cameo many pages later, is never seen again. [[note]] The one kangaroo was turned into three kangaroos (who don't even wear the uniform) much later in the anime. The anime also made the garden seem much farther away from the cafe than it originally was, which made it a bit less strange as to why they're never around.[[/note]]
* CivilizedAnimal: Most of the animal characters, pretty much. They tend to zig-zag to PartiallyCivilizedAnimal, however.

* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: In revenge for Shirokuma's constant use of puns, the animals, Handa, and Sasako band together to say nothing but puns back to him. Shirokuma ends up running away each time. It turns out every friend/acquaintance that Shirokuma runs into, throws puns at him, causing him to [[NotSoStoic start freaking out]]
* CoolButInefficient: Panda with Smartphones. He really really wants one because they're "Cool" but doesn't give a crap about using it for anything. He just wanted an excuse to use a Panda themed protective cover.
---> '''Panda:''' The Smartphone was the accessory...
* CoolCar: The transforming flying car from the first intro. Which is never seen in the actual show.

* CreditsJukebox: A new ending every 4-5 episodes. Three openings so far, spaced farther out.
* CutenessOverload: No matter how uncomfortable Mr Necktie gets at the Cafe, this keeps him interested.
** Rin-rin with Pandas. Especially at the second Cherry Blossom viewing, he was surrounded by Panda's entire family, Full-time Panda's entire family, and Handa (Whom he literally thought was a Panda for a few seconds) he outright admitted his life's wish was fulfilled.
* ADayInTheLimelight:

** Grizzly gets one when he mistakenly believes Shirokuma is dead.
** Mama Panda, Mama Squirrel and Mama King Penguin in episode 23.
** Wolf and Tiger in episode 34.

** Llama and Full-Time Panda get drunk together.
** In episode 28, Full-Time Panda gets a entire episode dealing with his jealousy of Panda being cuter and getting all the attention. Full-Time was desperate enough to even beg Rin-Rin to obsess over him as well.
* ADogNamedDog: Most of the characters. The only time characters ''aren't'' named after their species is when there are multiples of that species (and even then they usually end up with {{Generic Name}}s like Panda Mama and Full-Time Panda) or if they're human (and even then, Polar Bear does playfully refer to Masaki as "Human").
* DeathGlare: When Penguin accidentally blurts out that [[spoiler: he can't tell all the "Penko's" apart]] during episode 22, he receives a death glare from ''all seven'' of them. Rather impressive, considering you can't usually see their eyes.

* DrivesLikeCrazy: Implied with Penguin, as he appears to be easily distracted during driving lessons and has failed his driver's test several times. Shirokuma attempts to teach him, but his advice is largely useless. He eventually does get his driver's license, but Shirokuma and Panda make him twitchy when he's driving.

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: Mandrill. Also, the gorilla at Grizzly's bar (who may or may not be the same one from the BaseballEpisode).
* EverythingIsBetterWithPenguins: Unless you're Penguin himself.

* FaceOfAThug: King Penguin's son is your typical, playful baby penguin... who happens to look like a vicious ball of black fuzz, with a perpetual DeathGlare.
** Mandrill too, apparently being made far too often to play the role of oni at Setsubun.
* {{Fangirl}}: Mama Panda and Mama King Penguin are fans of Yama Arashi. Mei Mei is a fangirl for ''Handa''.
* FastForwardGag: During Panda's ImagineSpot about opening his own cafe.

* FlatWhat: Shirokuma after Masaki declares he wants to learn how to roast coffee from Tree Kangaroo, who does not accept apprentices. Complete with [[http://i.imgur.com/macKl.png gobsmacked]] [[http://i.imgur.com/HPi9b.png expression]] when Panda wants in on the attention and says he wants to as well.

** Since the show takes place in a cafe, this is expected, especially with Shirokuma's desserts and other things he's made.
** Subverted when Sasako creates three parfaits in the image of Shirokuma, Panda, and Penguin as test samples for a future menu special. When two curious patrons offer to taste them, they demolish the desserts with such frightening enthusiasm that Shirokuma changes his mind and offers a lunch sampler special instead.
** The show likes to spend several seconds on the food as well as the ingredients.
** The theme has this (Example Translated): "Let's drink Mocha latte Ole Tea, and add pancakes and ice-cream to that, let's drink strawberry and mango shakes"
*** "And try a bamboo diet!"
* {{Foreshadowing}}: In the third episode when asked if Polar Bear had a problem, he says he always wanted to become an idol. But was too busy with his studies to do so, causing Penguin to say "There you go, lying again..." [[spoiler: he at one point was a famous hip-hop performer, though whether Penguin is aware of that career, or simply thought the idea that Polar Bear would actually want to be one is ludicrous, is unknown]]
** Panda brings up Yama Arashi in a conversation with Full-Time long before they actually appeared.
* ForTheEvulz: In the South Pole Squad Penguinger TV special. the Evil Emperor (Played by Penguin) kidnaps Yama Arashi and forces the entire world to listen to his comedic storytelling. When asked why he did it, he says a few reasons, the first being, "Why? Because I'm evil!"
* FourLegsGoodTwoLegsBetter: Zig-zagged. The animals who usually walk on all fours (namely bears, big cats, canines, and mustelids) are bipedal. However Llama, Tortoise, Sloth and few others still walk on four legs. [[FridgeLogic Though justified that Llama's legs would be too thin to support his weight if he did walk upright, Tortoise's shell weighs him down too much to even attempt, and Sloth simply doesn't have the energy to support himself on two legs]]
* GenderBender: Mr. Raccoon from Sasako and Llama's flashbacks, had been for some unknown reason, rewritten as Ms. Raccoon in a later episode. [[{{Retcon}} Though seeing as Sasako instantly recognizes her as Ms. Raccoon]] rules out any sex change operation WMG.
* GenreSavvy: Penguin instinctively senses he's better off ''not'' knowing the details about what happens in the shadowed portion of the Cafe's backyard. Especially when asking about it causes Shirokuma's visage to darken and his voice to distort.
** It isn't until the second last episode that the characters ask "What is Penguins job anyway?" [[note]] since he never brings it up, yet can afford a SmartPhone, rent and Cafe Mochas every single day, yet apparently spends all day at the cafe regardless [[/note]] and "How does he climb onto that stool?"
* GilliganCut: Played with. Shirokuma seems to enjoy TemptingFate in order to invoke one. [[spoiler: Sometimes it works, as in the case of Rin-Rin tracking down Panda's home.]]
* TheGhost: During the first cherry blossom festival, Penguin while drunk, thinks Panda and Llama are people named Mr. Yoshizaki. and Mr. Nogura. Whoever these people are and whatever connection they have to Penguin is unknown as they are never mentioned again, nor ever seen. Though Penguin being drunk could have made them up.
* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: Tree Kangaroo smokes, though he would be placed under the "Wise or Fatherly" exception in kid shows.

** Shirokuma gets in on the act when Handa asks him for romantic advice and Shirokuma proceeds to text all the animals for their opinions.

* HairDecs: Mei Mei has a pair that makes her ears look like odango.
** And as seen in a flashback, Grizzly's high school crush Tsukiko wears ribbons around her ears.
* HairTriggerTemper: King Penguin. People keeping on mistaking her kind for emperor penguins and Panda's sheer cluelessness (or stupidity) when trying to console her don't help. Bonus points for being voiced by HotBlooded specialist NobuyukiHiyama.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: Grizzly and Shirokuma since they were cubs.
* HiddenDepths: Penguin enjoys painting as a hobby, Sloth likes ballroom dancing and has a ''Ph.D''. (Even if it's a doctorate in hanging out in a tree all day.)
** Panda when feeling guilty for Shirokuma to be questioned by the police, gives Shirokuma a daylong vacation and runs the store in his place. One watching would assume "Hahaha he's going to EpicFail and run it into the ground!" but actually Panda does a really good job, because he actually gave a crap about work for once.
* HypocriticalHumor:
** Penguin criticizes Panda for only stocking things he likes in his hypothetical cafe. Then, when Penguin imagines what his own hypothetical cafe would look like, he does exactly the same thing.
** Sasako thinks it's romantic to have someone persistently ask you out, until Panda and Shirokuma asked what if it happened to her. Then she pauses and admits it's not as romantic.
** Polar Bear states how unoriginal it is for Brown Bear to call his Cafe "Brown Bear's Cafe"

* ImageSong[=/=]DoItYourselfThemeTune: The ending themes.
** "Bamboo☆Scramble" ([[Creator/JunFukuyama Panda]])
** "Grizzly-san no G★ROCK" [[note]]English title: "Mr. Grizzly's G★ROCK"[[/note]] ([[Creator/YuuichiNakamura Grizzly]])
** "Mizuiro" [[note]]English title: "Light Blue"[[/note]] ([[Creator/AyaEndo Sasako]])
** "[=ZOOtto=] ne" [[note]]English title: "Always", played as a pun on "zoo"[[/note]] ([[Creator/KatsuyukiKonishi Full-Time Panda]])
** "Michinoku Shiiku Blues" [[note]]English title:"Michinoku Raising Blues"[[/note]] ([[Creator/WataruHatano Handa]])
** "Zokkon! Penko-san" [[note]]English title: "With All My Heart! Ms. Penko"[[/note]] ([[Creator/HiroshiKamiya Penguin]])
** "Kimama ni Panda-Mama" [[note]]English title: "The Indulgent Panda-Mama"[[/note]] ([[Creator/ToshiyukiMorikawa Panda Mama]])
** "Llama-san no Llama Mambo" [[note]]English title: "Mr. Llama's Llama Mambo"[[/note]] ([[Creator/DaisukeOno Llama]])
** "Largo" ([[Creator/KisshoTaniyama Sloth]])
** "Bamboo Rendezvous" ([[Creator/KanaHanazawa Mei-Mei]])
** "Pandaholic!" (Rin-Rin)
** "My Dear" ([[Creator/TakahiroSakurai Polar Bear]])
* ImagineSpot
* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Penguin's nephew and King Penguin's son.

** Shirokuma claims he's drying kelp on the floor of his house as an excuse to keep Panda and Penguin from coming over to his house.

* InLoveWithLove: Penguin when he's crushing on Penko. He's in love with her despite knowing nothing about her except that she works at a bakery. He doesn't even know her real name, admitting at one point that Penko is something he made up. [[spoiler:He also doesn't know that "she" is actually seven identical penguins who all work at the same bakery on different days.]]

* InterspeciesFriendship

** A one-sided version with Panda's littler sister crushing heavily on ''Handa''. Then Shirokuma jokes about them marrying and Panda's imagination runs with it.
** Panda sees a real estate agent mistakes Handa and a female badger as a newlywed couple. Panda's imagination really runs with it and mistakenly lets the zoo believe it's true.
*** The fact the agent was serious, that seems to imply that "real" inter-species couples may actually exist in that world.
** In another episode, Penguin mistakenly thought Penko was in love with Tortoise.
* JackOfAllTrades: Shirokuma is talented with pretty much any task, whether it be running a cafe, cooking, surfing, catching a baseball, golf, playing the Ukulele, making sandcastle sculptures, when he filled in for Panda at the zoo, he was even a better Panda than Panda was. Seeing him "Fail at something" rarely ever happens.
** The same can also be said for Grizzly.

* KangaroosRepresentAustralia: Tree Kangaroo works behind the cafe roasting coffee beans and delivers them to the cafe.

* LampshadeHanging: In episode 40 both Panda and Penguin bring up the fact that neither of each-other's eyes are visible.
* LargeHam: Grizzly, Anteater, and the penguins (except Penguin, aka Emperor Penguin).
* LionsAndTigersAndHumansOhMy: Lampshaded when Shirokuma and Penguin go to the zoo and Shirokuma wants to...go see the resident polar bear diving into a pool. Further lampshaded when a sign outside the exhibit forbids polar bears from entering since it's 'confusing.'

The anime was simulcasted and can be watched, subbed, on [[http://www.crunchyroll.com/polar-bear-cafe/: Crunchyroll]].

* ADayInTheLimelight:
** Rin-rin is the focus of two separate episodes, both based on his obsessive panda fandom.
** Grizzly gets one when he mistakenly believes Shirokuma is dead.
** Mama Panda, Mama Squirrel and Mama King Penguin in episode 23.
** Wolf and Tiger in episode 34.
** Llama and Sasako spend an episode reminiscing about their hometown.
** Llama and Full-Time Panda get drunk together.
** In episode 28, Full-Time Panda gets a entire episode dealing with his jealousy of Panda being cuter and getting all the attention. Full-Time was desperate enough to even beg Rin-Rin to obsess over him as well.
* ADogNamedDog: Most of the characters. The only time characters ''aren't'' named after their species is when there are multiples of that species (and even then they usually end up with {{Generic Name}}s like Panda Mama and Full-Time Panda) or if they're human (and even then, Polar Bear does playfully refer to Masaki as "Human").

* BoyBand / IdolSinger: Yama Arashi, whose members are porcupines.

* NuttySquirrel: Subverted with the coffee bean assorting red squirrels from episode 19. They take their work very seriously and Mama Red Squirrel gets very serious when it comes to matters of food and nuts.

''Shirokuma Cafe'' (''Polar Bear's Cafe'') is a SliceOfLife manga that received an anime adaptation premiering in the spring of 2012.

** Speaking of Grizzly, he is also shown riding a "Haree Pavidson" motorcycle.

* ADogNamedDog: Most of the characters.

** "[=ZOOtto=] ne" [[note]]English title: "Always"[[/note]] ([[Creator/KatsuyukiKonishi Full-Time Panda]])

** Rin-Rin (especially the scene when admitting his affections for Panda) goes extremely deep into "Creepy Stalker" territory.

** To ''RevolutionaryGirlUtena'', of [[http://i.imgur.com/sqE2L.jpg all things.]]

** One of the visitors to Penguin's art show is probably meant to be OsamuTezuka.

** Handa shoo's Panda out of his house twice by claiming he needs to clean his bathroom.

* BlandNameProduct: There is a whiskey menu on the wall in Grizzly's bar. It lists such fine brands as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Macallan Macillin]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballantine%27s Bollantones]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnnie_Walker Johnnie Runner]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Horse_%28whisky%29 Black House]], and All-Dipper.
** At the summer festival at the midway shooting gallery there is a [[UsefulNotes/NintendoWii Wee]], [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 Polystation 3]] and the car dealership Panda gets a job at is called [[{{Volvo}} Volvi]]

* XMeetsY: {{Series/Cheers}} with {{Funny Animal}}s.