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Shirokuma cafe is a delight comedy demonstrating the skills of several members of the creative team. Even the background music has moments that managed to impress me, without even being a musical style I listen to for pleasure.  The music, however, is not the star.

Shirokuma cafe’s strongest points is its writing. More specifically, Shirokuma does magnificent balancing acts with its humor. The majority of the cast pass around the boke and tsukkomi roles effortlessly while maintaining distinct personalities. Also, much of the humor results from a finely measured mixture of repetition and subversion. I smiled a bit wider every time this anime surprised me by either cutting a recurring gag short or taking another direction entirely. That said, there is one gag that repeats normally, and manages to get funnier each time, due in large part to the voice acting.

While writing is crucial for humor, voice acting and art cannot be overlooked in an anime. The voices are, on the whole, good but not particularly amazing, with the exception of Shirokuma, the polar bear. Arguably the least cartoony of the voices, Shirokuma’s voice manages to stand out for some reason that I cannot quite describe. On the artistic side this piece has a more calmness and subtlety than most shonen anime, but still has some bizzare viusal moments in its gags. Over all the art is good, but only in so far as it allows the writing to flourish.

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