Toshiyuki Morikawa -- Kimama ni Panda Mama（気ままにパンダママ）

 

Well, good heavens, it's been almost five years since I last posted up anything to do with the beloved anime "Shirokuma Café"（しろくまカフェ）. I believe my last article on the various ending themes was Katsuyuki Konishi's（小西克幸）"ZOOtto, ne"（ZOOっと、ね♪） in character as Jougin Panda（常勤パンダ...Full-Time Panda）. That was a pretty slice of Grand Ole Opry-friendly country music right there.

There were plenty of other panda bears as side characters on "Shirokuma Café" but one who also garnered a slightly higher status alongside Jougin Panda was Panda Mama（パンダママ）, main character Panda-kun's（パンダくん）mother. Her main claim to fame on the show was as a patient parent always doing her best cleaning the house but even that patience can be sorely tested by her lazy son, and when Panda-kun finally snaps that patience, out comes the vacuum as more than a mere household appliance.

Played by veteran seiyuu Toshiyuki Morikawa（.森川智之）, Panda Mama gets her own ending theme which was featured throughout October 2012, "Kimama ni Panda Mama" (The Indulgent Panda Mama) as written and composed by Saki（紗希）. Although it's not quite as down-home as "ZOOtto, ne", it still comes across as a very friendly slab of country jazz with those strings. I'd say that it even has a bit of that Disney musical in the arrangement, too.