Aya Endo -- Mizuiro (みずいろ)

I made my semi-annual binge purchases of CDs the other day via CD Japan (thank you very much) and one of the discs happens to be the soundtrack to one of my beloved anime "Shirokuma Cafe"（しろくまカフェ...Polar Bear Cafe）from 2012-2013. As some of the viewers may be aware, I've written up a number of articles on the various opening and ending themes for the show which seemed to have had the policy of promoting an ending theme of the month as sung by each seiyuu from the cast.

Ending theme No. 3 which was featured in June 2012 was notable for me in that it wasn't a super quirky or barnstorming epic such as the tour de force effort of all of the seiyuu doing their covers of the song "Shirokuma Cafe". As befitting Aya Endo's（遠藤綾）calm and sweet (well, at least, most of the time) character of Sasako（笹子）, her "Mizuiro" (Water Colours) is also just as calm and sweet and very comfy. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any evidence of that particular ending credit sequence on YouTube, but it featured a supposedly live-action Sasako riding through the town on her bicycle while she sang the nice mix of folk, pop and Latin.

As with all of the ending themes for "Shirokuma Cafe", "Mizuiro" was written and composed by the virtuoso Saki（紗希）. And Endo has a pretty nice set of pipes. I read that she had gotten married recently and although I don't know if she has entered motherhood quite yet, I would think that she would be able to sing some fine lullabies to her kids with that voice. Alas, the ending themes are not included on the soundtrack I got but perhaps someday I will make that investment to get those as well.

Takahiro Sakurai/Jun Fukuyama/Hiroshi Kamiya/Aya Endo/Kana Hanazawa -- Shirokuma Cafe （しろくまカフェ）

I've just about finished my second round of watching the heartful and humourous "Shirokuma Cafe" (Polar Bear Cafe), and it's become quite a classic in my eyes with seiyuu apparently playing zany characters against type, Shirokuma's running gag of punning everyone to distraction, and the multiple ending theme songs sung by just about the entire cast.

Over the past few years since the ending of the series, though, I've seen one song on YouTube also sung by each voice actor in character that never popped up on the series at all. Given the simple and appropriate title of "Shirokuma Cafe", it's a light and funky tune written and composed by the lady behind all those ending themes, Saki（紗希）,  that could have been a great promotion jingle for the actual coffeehouse itself if Shirokuma had ever decided to advertise beyond the pages of a magazine. That one line of "...happuru, pippuru, poppu na apple pie!"（はっぷる、ぴっぷる、ぽっぷなアップルパイ！） should have gotten Saki an extra bonus in her paycheque.

Each of the seiyuu give their own personality quirks to the song. Takahiro Sakurai（櫻井孝宏）as the quietly droll (and perhaps insane) Shirokuma happily trolls his listeners with his way-over-the-top delivery. Methinks Shirokuma may have been drinking something other than coffee under the counter before he hit the mike. I'm sure it took the edge off.

Then, there is Jun Fukuyama（福山潤）as cute Panda. Panda's version apparently had the cutey go Jim Nabors on me and go deep in the voice. Frankly, I think he sings like Jun Fukuyama.

Hiroshi Kamiya（神谷浩史）as Penguin isn't quite as nuts as Shirokuma but he also has his own snappy take on "Shirokuma Cafe". He sounds quite happy, too, since aside from his dream of being a rakugo comedian, he has also wanted to be the finest karaoke singer in town. I've been reading some surprised/delighted responses on YouTube for Kamiya's rendition since apparently the seiyuu is usually known for taking far more badass roles.

Aya Endo's（遠藤綾）Sasako sings her "Shirokuma Cafe" much like how she is in the cafe: straight, sweet and adorable. There are no wackadoodle sidesteps in her performance.

If I included every character's rendition of the song, this article would probably ring alarms in the Blogger hierarchy. And yet, I feel compelled to put in Mei Mei's supremely cheerful take to wrap things up here. I'm not sure if Kana Hanazawa's（花澤香菜）sister panda became the breakout character of the series but her orgasmic excitement at any thought concerning her love of Handa-san the zookeeper has most likely left a permanent impression in the fans' minds....and a ringing in the ears. No coffee for her!

It's a bit of a pity that "Shirokuma Cafe" the song didn't make it into "Shirokuma Cafe" the show, but hopefully there is an album out there which has the various seiyuus' versions.