Polar Bear Café: Collector's Edition, Vol. 1

I'm a big fan of the anime that was inspired by this manga, but when I saw this hanging out on my bookstore's shelf, I hesitated. After all, I've seen all the anime episodes, how much different could the manga be? I fully expected the same gags from the show to be represented in the pages, but actually was pleasantly surprised.

The premise is the same – Polar Bear owns a cafe frequented by animals of all sizes, shapes, and species. There's a few regulars (Panda, Penguin), a part-time waitress, and Polar Bear's old friend Grizzly who round out the regular cast. We get little vignettes into their day spent at the cafe, or doing their own thing at the zoo, at the beach, or just at home.

The manga, being short form and not full-length stories, tells different stories than what's shown in the anime. There's enough recognizable beats to say “hey I remember that”, but some of them play out differently than expected, and others aren't in the anime at all. The manga even keeps the language puns Polar Bear is so fond of.

If you're a fan of the anime, if you're a fan of animal manga, if you're a fan of funny gag-based vignettes, give this a try.