Meet Panda’s older brother.

——

It’s taken a few episodes, but we’ve finally made some slight progress on the potential Handa x Sasako pairing. Too bad we had to wait until the tail end of episode 20 for it.

The more notable second half is your usual festival episode, which focuses on Polar Bear Cafe and Grizzly Bar’s food stand collaboration selling okonomiyaki and yakisoba. The main gang, plus Panda’s older brother, also named Panda — a red panda from the original panda family — were there to help and, aside from the expected mishaps from Panda, were able to work together and quickly sell out. This gave them time to enjoy the rest of festival, and the viewers were treated to some fun moments, which included some from the aforementioned Handa and Sasako.

The first half, which involved Panda and Penguin going around town looking for a place for Panda to “move into,” was less interesting. Essentially, Panda wants to live on his own so he could be more lazy — you know, Panda reasons. Along with visiting vacant places around town that suited Panda’s taste, they for some reason also end up visiting the places of other animals, as well as barging into the apartment of an unsuspecting Handa. Riveting stuff.

Panda’s wearing pretty thin on me, to be honest. He’s tolerable when he’s doing his naive cute shtick, but his spoiled and lazy act is losing its luster. Also, a segment dedicated to just Panda and Penguin didn’t work as well as I hoped. Although, envisioning Penguin as someone who waits on Panda’s every wish in Panda’s ideal world is pretty amusing.

Luckily, the second half saved a pretty wasteful first half. While random, I really liked the introduction of Panda #2, who was also pretty cute in his own right. Showing the gang working together and actually being successful at it was a breath of fresh air. They really should do more segments like that. Finally, any focus on Handa x Sasako is always a win. Sasako was especially beautiful this episode. :)

GO Rating: 3/5

Take a deep breath, Handa. It’s time for you to make your move.