History YMMV / ShirokumaCafe

** Mr. Handa works so hard at the zoo, and is loved by all the animals... but has absolutely no skill and no luck with romance.

** Polar Bear is ridiculously nice to Panda and the two call each other the familial terms "Polar Bear-kun (''Shirokuma-kun'')" and "Panda-kun, resulting in a predictably popular ship (if all the fanart on Pixiv is anything to go by). This is a bit of a RelationshipVoiceActor reference, as it wouldn't be the first time Creator/TakahiroSakurai (Polar Bear) and Creator/JunFukuyama (Panda) gets cast together in HoYay-friendly roles -- most notably Suzaku and Lelouch in ''Anime/CodeGeass''.

* UncannyValley: When Polar Bear and Panda switch jobs for the day, Panda dresses like Polar Bear by dying his black spots white and looks... odd. The fact this is the only scene in the entire show where you see his actual eyes (they look just like Polar Bear's), is rather unsettling.

* ViewerGenderConfusion: King Penguin from episode 19 is female and even referred to as "Miss King Penguin". However, [[LarynxDissonance her voice sounds masculine]] (she is voiced by a male voice actor along with a few other animal mothers) and it makes her seem male. It doesn't help that she has "King" in her name.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Grizzly isn't part of the main cast (Panda, Polar Bear, Penguin, and Sasako to a less extent), but he's at least very popular amongst western audiences.

** ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'', a 2015 cartoon, also has a panda/grizzly/polar bear trio. WBB's Ice Bear is also a quiet jack-of-all-trades similar to Shirokuma, but exaggerated to an extreme. This was [[http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/027/867/04d.png acknowledged]] by SC's creator. The episode "Coffee Cave" even had the bears suggest naming their cave "Polar Bear Cafe" only to shoot it down because it was already taken.

* EarWorm:
** With 12 different ending themes, it's dang near impossible to not get one stuck in your head.
** The three intros are of various musical styles but are all very catchy, notably the first opening with it's infectious line "Ma-ma-mahalo!".

* FridgeBrilliance:
** Shirokuma's fondness for puns and wordplay may explain his brief hip-hop career as MC 469MA as hip-hop is all about rhyming and wordplay.
** Panda is horrified that his little sister finds ''Handa'' (her 'prince') attractive. She points out that Handa's pandaesque physique accounts for that.
** When Lion refers to himself as a hunter, Tiger and Wolf call him out saying his mother always fed him. Male lions do not hunt, and instead this role is given to the females.
** Shirokuma replacing himself with Mama Red Squirrel during the baseball match, considering that the giraffes always caught his homerun attempts.
** Grizzly's mother claiming she's only seventeen years old, and the other animals' surprise at her looks for her age which follows, is realistic if you think of a wild grizzly's lifespan.
---> '''Panda Mama:''' What? You don't look it at all! You're older than me?
---> '''Grizzly's Mom:''' Well, [[LampshadeHanging I am a bear.]]
** Panda's [[LazyBum laziness]] and [[BigEater perpetual hunger]] make sense when you think that a bamboo diet is neither nutritious nor energetic and requires constant topping up. His mother is probably more energetic since she seems to have a more (realistically) varied diet...
** Mandrill's the oni at setsubun because Grizzly's hibernating.
** In a few episodes we see dozens of Pandas training with an older panda whom is called Grandpa Panda. This makes it easy to assume all the pandas are Panda's family, however it's never said how they're related to him, nor do we see them actually living there. It would make sense that Grandpa is a tai-chi master (who runs a school) and these Pandas are simply students (who may or may not be relatives regardless) who come from all over the city to train with him.
** At the start of the show, Rin Rin's obsession with Panda is played up to the point of him seeming like a crazy stalker, who spends every moment thinking about pandas, culminating in him unintentionally leading on and then freaking out a high school girl until she ran away. Later in the show, Rin Rin's obsession is toned down a lot and he's shown to have a number of non-Panda related hobbies, even spending a night at Grizzly's Bar with the other characters. In between these two extremes is an episode where Full-Time Panda, feeling unappreciated, takes him out and comes onto him ''hard'', much to his dismay. Even though it's never stated outright, it's likely that this awkward experience convinced Rin Rin that his behavior was unacceptable and that he needed to tone it down, which is why he's less obsessive in later episodes.

** ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'', a 2015 cartoon, also has a panda/grizzly/polar bear trio. WBB's Ice Bear is also a quiet jack-of-all-trades similar to Shirokuma, but exaggerated to an extreme. This was [[http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/027/867/04d.png acknowledged]] by SC's creator. A recent episode "Coffee Cave" even had the bears suggest naming their cave "Polar Bear Cafe" only to shoot it down because it was already taken.

* HarsherInHindsight: Episode 43's focus on Full-Time Panda's night out with Llama and friends makes all the more heartbreaking sense when you realize that Episode 44 is the revelation that Full-Time Panda has been [[spoiler:transferred to Singapore. It's one of his last nights in Japan so he spends a night out with his co-workers and friends.]]

** Penguin is prone to getting the "the friend no one likes" treatment from Panda largely to his jerkassness and is generally perceived as lame/not interesting.

** It's odd to think bears can have male-male attraction[[note]]female homosexuality has been recorded in wild bears, though[[/note]], but Grizzly and Polar Bear occasionally appear to be more than just friends due to their closeness. The ending of episode 42 is especially full of fuel for this.

** Also the three intros, notably the first.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: Grizzly seems to be this, at least for some western audiences.

** Shirokuma replacing himself with Mama red squirrel. Considering that the giraffes always caught his homerun attempts.
** [[Creator/KikukoInoue Grizzly's mother]] claiming she's only seventeen years old, and the other animals' surprise at her looks for her age which follows, is realistic if you think of a wild grizzly's lifespan.
----> '''Panda Mama:''' What? You don't look it at all! You're older than me?
----> '''Grizzly's Mom:''' Well, [[LampshadeHanging I am a bear.]]

** Mandrill was the oni at setsubun because Grizzly was hibernating.
** Episode 43's focus on Full-Time Panda's night out with Llama and friends makes all the more heartbreaking sense when you realize that Episode 44 is the revelation that Full-Time Panda has been [[spoiler:transferred to Singapore. It's one of his last nights in Japan so he spends a night out with his co-workers and friends.]]
** In a few episodes we see dozens of Pandas training with Grandpa Panda. Though it was never said how these Pandas are related to Panda, nor do we see them actually living there. It would make sense, that Grandpa is a Tai-Chi Master (Who runs a school) and these Pandas are simply students (Who may or may not be relatives regardless) who come from all over the city to train with him.

** [[MemeticMutation The Social Awkward Penguin]] got a species/genus makeover and is now an anime character[[note]]The meme and the original manga are contemporaneous in appearance, so they probably weren't inspired by each other[[/note]]
** ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'', a 2015 cartoon, also has a panda/grizzly/polar bear trio. WBB's Ice Bear is also a quiet jack-of-all-trades similar to Shirokuma, but exaggerated to an extreme. This was [[http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/027/867/04d.png Acknowledged]] by SC's creator. A recent episode "Coffee Cave" even had the bears suggest naming their cave "Polar Bear Cafe" only to shoot it down because it was already taken.

** It's odd to think bears can have HoYay[[note]]female homosexuality has been recorded in wild bears, though[[/note]], but Grizzly and Shirokuma occasionally strays into HoYay territory, the ending of episode 42 is especially full of fuel for this.
** Some feel the same way about Shirokuma and Penguin, especially after Shirokuma posed as Penguin's date.
** A one sided version between Rin Rin and Panda. So blatant that it's a blatant StalkerWithACrush case.
** Shirokuma is ridiculously nice to Panda, resulting in a predictably popular ship, if all the fanart on Pixiv is anything to go by. This is a bit of a RelationshipVoiceActor reference, as it wouldn't be the first time Creator/TakahiroSakurai (Shirokuma) and Creator/JunFukuyama (Panda) gets cast together in HoYay-friendly roles: most notably Suzaku and Lelouch in ''Anime/CodeGeass''.
** Wolf and Tiger's incredible bromance in Episode 34.
* TearJerker: Episode 44 seems to do all it can to be depressing, and [[{{Irony}}it just happens to be aired on Valentine's Day]].
* UncannyValley: When Polar Bear and Panda which jobs for the day (The first time Panda runs the cafe) Panda dresses like Polar Bear and dyes his black spots white. The fact this is the only scene in the entire show where you see his actual eyes (They look just like Polar Bear's), rather warrants this trope.
* ViewerGenderConfusion: King Penguin from episode 19 is female and even referred to as "Miss King Penguin". However, [[LarynxDissonance her voice sounds masculine]] and it makes her seem male. It doesn't help that she has "King" in her name.
* TheWoobie:
** One can feel a little bad for Llama sometimes. He rarely gets any attention at the zoo, with the adjacent giraffe exhibit getting all the visitors.
** Penguin, largely to Panda's jerkassness.
** Rin Rin, due to Panda finding him {{abhorrent|admirer}}.
** In episode 44, [[spoiler:Panda himself. Watching him breaking down SOBBING shortly after he learns that Full-Time Panda was transferred to Singapore is completely gut-wrenching. Afterwards, Mr. Handa asks him if it's okay if he could work three days until they find another Panda to work, and Panda decides to work a full seven days a week, driving himself to exhaustion.]]
** Mr. Handa works so hard at the zoo, and is loved by all the animals...but has absolutely no skill and no luck with romance.

* ShipTease:
** Sasako and Mr. Handa. She's the first to greet him in the cafe and notices him falling asleep in the cafe's patio. She also may have been the one to drape the blanket over him as he sleeps.
** In fact, if you look closely at the background when Sasako's ending theme plays, there is a man dressed in Mr. Handa's uniform with a broom that pops up at several points.
** Handa now has a full blown crush on her and is attempting to ask her out on a date.
** The new opening theme have them riding bikes together.
** The second half of episode 35 centers around him trying to come up with a gift for her.
** Episode 48 has Handa trying to get Sasako a gift for White Day. He gives her mandarin oranges to help her get better as she's ill.

** ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'', a 2015 cartoon, also has a panda/grizzly/polar bear trio. WBB's Ice Bear is also a quiet jack-of-all-trades similar to Shirokuma, but exaggerated to an extreme. This was [[http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/027/867/04d.png Acknowledged]] by SC's creator.

** Shirokuma is ridiculously nice to Panda, resulting in a predictably popular ship, if all the fanart on Pixiv is anything to go by. This is a bit of a RelationshipVoiceActor reference, as it wouldn't be the first time Creator/TakahiroSakurai (Shirokuma) and Creator/JunFukuyama (Panda) gets cast together in HoYay-friendly roles: most notably Suzaku and Lelouch in ''CodeGeass''.

* EarWorm: With 12 different ending themes, it's dang near impossible to not get one stuck in your head.

* HoYay: It's odd to think bears can have HoYay[[note]]female homosexuality has been recorded in wild bears, though[[/note]], but Grizzly and Shirokuma occasionally strays into HoYay territory, the ending of episode 42 is especially full of fuel for this.

* ShipTease: Sasako and Mr. Handa. She's the first to greet him in the cafe and notices him falling asleep in the cafe's patio. She also may have been the one to drape the blanket over him as he sleeps.

* TheWoobie: One can feel a little bad for Llama sometimes. He rarely gets any attention at the zoo, with the adjacent giraffe exhibit getting all the visitors.

* ViewerGenderConfusion: King Penguin from episode 19 is female and even referred to as "Miss King Penguin". However, [[LarynxDissonance her voice sounds masculine]] and it makes her seem male.
** It doesn't help that she has "King" in her name.

* HilariousInHindsight: [[MemeticMutation The Social Awkward Penguin]] got a species/genus makeover and is now an anime character[[note]]The meme and the original manga are contemporaneous in appearance, so they probably weren't inspired by each other[[/note]]

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: In "Mr. Grizzly Goes On an Adventure" an otter says that he and his friends ate a Polar Bear. (A Polar Bear themed dessert the cafe was promoting) Through multiple misunderstandings Mr. Grizzly is certain that the otter did in fact eat his friend, yet instead of reporting this to the police for murder, Grizzly just accepts that Shirokuma is dead then mopes for a while. That seems to imply that eating other sentient species isn't that serious a crime. Even more hinted with the Caiman who threatened to eat Panda, in public, with lots of witnesses around. Aside from Panda getting scared, and Grizzly yelling at him, it wasn't treated as a very big deal. In fact they just continued their conversation as if nothing happened at all. [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment Big Lipped Caiman Moment?]]

* FridgeBrilliance: Panda is horrified that his little sister finds ''Handa'' (her 'prince') attractive. She points out that Handa's pandaesque physique accounts for that.

** [[Creator/KikukoInoue Grizzly's mother]] claiming she's only seventeen years old, and the other animals' surprise at her looks for her age which follows, is realistic if you think of a wild grizzly's lifespan.

** In a few episodes we see dozens of Pandas training with Grandpa Panda. Though it was never said how these Pandas are related to Panda, nor do we see them actually living there. It would make sense, that Grandpa is a Tai-Chi Master (Who runs a school) and these Pandas are simply students who come from all over the city to train with him.

* MarySue: It's rare when Sasako shows any character traits other than being sickeningly sweet. In fact she is so perfect that in episode 45 she wore "Angry glasses" to display negative emotion, as people say she smiles even when she's angry.

* FurryConfusion: In "Panda's Problems" Anteater admits she hates eating ants, and would rather eat Pork Ramen. So it seems either pigs are not sentient to the point where they're acceptable to eat, or there is massive FridgeHorror implied.