I do think it’s a great shelf-worthy show, so good on you! 
Eeeeeh! It’s not using very complicated grammar or vocab as far as I can tell. In any case, there is no shame in using subs if you just want to watch along and have fun. 
Having no subs is always going to be a struggle early on - just getting used to parsing the language and listening. It’s a bit intense. But, you just have to keep at it, imo. There is no getting over that the first listening/no subs experiences are going to be a bit rough. But it gets easier the longer you do it - like watching a show - and just get more exposure and experience. That’s the only way to improve. And listening especially, is just about getting those hours of listening under your belt! 
Edit: Improving listening comprehension is very much about mileage 
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I’m on the contrary, I find Takagi-san a little bit more difficult than Shirokuma, though not with a wide margin. I guess it’s because in Shirokuma all the character speak quite slowly, whereas in Takagi-san they speak with speed almost as the same as natural Japanese conversation.
Anyway I probably will lurking around here, already watch until episode 15 before this club is created, definitely a great pick for a beginner, it’s funny and perfect to practice listening skill 
I also want to add that cure dolly already make a video explaining the first portion of the first episode. There are some explanation on some grammar points and onomatopoeia in case someone get lost.
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Oh, incidentally, I stumbled upon this piece of news by chance. Apparently the serialization of the manga stopped due to the magazine not asking for permission from the manga author for designs and script approvals for the anime adaptation.
Manga ‘Shirokuma Cafe’ Gets Suspended Due to Dispute over Its TV Anime
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She switched magazines to Coco Hana where she got a new serialization titled Polar Bear Café Today’s Special. They also published the older work under the name Polar Bear Café bis. I read through both series this year, that’s why I noted the difference above (it’s under the spoiler description).
The anime might be a little easier to follow than the manga, but the benefit of the manga is that each chapter is quite short. So those new to reading or watching native content can probably enjoy and learn from both of them.
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Completely random but I just remembered making this post in the Aquatic Life Appreciation Thread 🐳 🐠 🐙 with my thoughts clearly being about Shirokuma-kun (from December last year)! 
Real images/GIFs of Polar bears and cubs in the wild! 
The Mods have had a look at this, so please don’t bring it up. It claims differently, but you really need to have a license to host anime content. You can’t just claim it’s “educational”. That’s not how “fair use” works.
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Episode 1 thoughts:
This show is so cute and adorable. And the animals are all fun and goofy! XD
Just remember:
Don’t mess with Panda-mama! 
Panda-kun calling various job-ads is hilarious. He totes has no intention of working at all. XD
BTW: Not sure if you people noticed this, but Panda-mama
is voiced by seiyuu Toshiyuki Morikawa 
He’s fantastic as Panda-mama! <3
(You might now hm better as Sephiroth (Final Fantasy), Obi-Wan Kenobi (Star Wars), Enel, Hacchan (One Piece), Namikaze Minato (Naruto) and many more Asia Pacific Arts: School Days Like No Other: Interview with Morikawa Toshiyuki
Episode 2 thoughts:
The Hanami scene is lovely. Penguin-san getting tipsy and spilling his secrets adds to the fun. 
I love Penguin-san as a character. Hiroshi Kamiya is perfect for the role! XD
It’s basically impossible to connect Penguin-san and Levi from Attack on Titan O_O It’s just hard to believe that’s the same person!
Episode 3 thoughts:
Panda-kun insists Shirokuma-kun and Penguin-san visit him at the Zoo! I love the boke-tsukomi comedy in this series. Shirokuma-wanting to watch the polar bears diving. XD and so trying to get in un-noticed. Same with the seal-exhibit. There’s something about how he blatantly talks about wanting to eat the seals. Everything is so cute in this series - but that’s pretty brutal in its realism. Seals are the main food for polar bears, so I guess 
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Previously I’ve been able to find the subs for this series online via kitsunekko, although I’m unsure on the legal situation, I have seen others on the WK forums discussing and linking to them.
A few months ago I grabbed the subs for the first few episodes and tidied them up a little in a Google doc, which I printed out and went through the first ~20 minutes of the first episode writing down on the printout the readings used for all/most the Kanji, but I haven’t typed that up yet (it is sitting in front of me now, so wouldn’t be a lot of work to do so at some point).
@ekg Please LMK if you want me to modify / remove this comment, or if you’re happy for me to link / share.
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Well, to shed some light on the issue of subs - from what I know - essentially the official subs of a show are also copyrighted content though separate from the show usually. Fansubs are not (well, they are the copyright of the fansub group). So, basically fansubs are legal to download and add to video content you own legally. But, disseminating the official subs is also a kind of copyright infrigement, as far as I know.
Though, it’s really not up to me to decide on these things. The Mods are looking at this thread, and taking action when needed, so we’ll just have to comply with the forum quidelines as with all threads on this forum. especially the last bit " * Before you post, make sure that everything is legal. We don’t want anything illegal to be shared on the forum, like illegal manga, shows, learning resources, etc. Any illegal activities will not be tolerated."
I hope this answers your questions. I can’t say I know kitsunekko.
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FWIW it looks like Tofugu link to Kitsunekko from their blog
Well, good citizen, this time we’re adding in Japanese subtitles. Sometimes you’ll be able to turn on Japanese subtitles. Other times you’ll have to download them. There are various sites out there (Google it), but this is one of them.
EDIT: to clarify, I only found this link from Tofugu after first post.
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I guess, then it’s fine.
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Awesome, in that case the Japanese subtitles for Shirokuma cafe can be found on kitsunekko. I think my files are based on the Kamigami versions (further down page).
These subs are meant for machine consumption, at some point in the past I threw together a script to
process these into a slightly nicer format (stripping out all the timing info and guff) and put them into Google docs.
Shirokuma episode 1 subs (tidied)
Shirokuma episode 2 subs (tidied)
If people find these useful I still have the script to make more of them, although the script just outputs one line per line, the left/right justify is done by hand. No guarantees on accuracy of course.
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Ep 1
I love Panda-kun’s honesty during the interviews. Also, where can I get a job like that" 
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Panda-kun picking up work ad magazines at the コンビニ: which of these show jobs doesn’t require any work?
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About Panda Mama's 声優
Is also Yoshikage Kira!
Panda Mama just wants a quiet life~
[imagine I had the time to edit Panda Mama’s head on a dramatic pic of Kira]
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He’s extremely versatile! 
Also, best not forget that Panda-kun is voiced by Jun Fukuyama and Shirokuma-kun by Takahiro Sakurai - both big name actors as well. This show has got an amazing cast really!
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Currently up to episode 4, and enjoying it so far! Not sure who my favourite is yet though toomanycuteanimals
Noticed that Panda-kun’s house says “大熊猫” on it, and thought surely (giant) panda, in Japanese, isn’t giant bear-cat… right?
Turns out they are, but you’ll pretty much never see だいくまねこ outside of scientific stuff, so best to only use パンダ.
This made me curious about the others so here's a list of the animals and the obscure kanji names because I find this sort of thing pretty cool.
| ~ 動 物 ~ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | Common JP | Kanji | Furigana | |
| Alpaca | アルパカ | 羊駱駝 | ひつじらくだ | |
| Anteater | アリクイ | 蟻食い / 蟻喰 | ありくい | |
| Badger | アナグマ | 穴熊 | あなぐま | |
| Capybara | カピバラ | 鬼天竺鼠 | おにてんじくねずみ | |
| Coelacanth | シーラカンス | 腔棘魚 | こうとげぎょ | |
| Donkey | ロバ | 驢馬 | ろば | |
| Fox | キツネ | 狐 | きつね | |
| Giant Panda | パンダ | 大熊猫 | だいくまねこ | |
| Giant Tortoise | ゾウガメ | 象亀 | ぞうがめ | |
| Giraffe | キリン | 麒麟 | きりん | |
| Grizzly Bear | グリズリー | 灰色熊 | はいいろぐま | |
| Koala | コアラ | 袋熊 | ふくろぐま | |
| Lesser Panda | レッサーパンダ | 小熊貓 | こぐまねこ | |
| Lion | ライオン | 獅子 | しし | |
| Llama | ラマ | 駱馬 / 羊駝 | らくうま / ひつじだ | |
| Mandrill | マンドリル | 山魈 | やますだま | |
| Otter (Sea) | ラッコ | 海獺 | らっこ | |
| Penguin | ペンギン | 人鳥 / 企鵝 | じんちょう / きが | |
| Polar Bear | シロクマ | 白熊 | しろくま | |
| Porcupine | ヤマアラシ | 山荒 / 豪猪 | やまあらし | |
| Red Squirrel | キタリス | 北栗鼠 | きたりす | |
| Seal (Earless / True Seal) | アザラシ | 海豹 | あざらし | |
| Sloth | ナマケモノ | 樹懶 | なまけもの | |
| Tapir | バク | 獏 | ばく | |
| Tiger | トラ | 虎 | とら | |
| Tree Kangaroo | キノボリカンガルー | 背筋木登長尾驢 | せすじきどちょうびうさぎうま | |
| Walrus | セイウチ | 海象 | せいうち | |
| Wolf | オオカミ | 狼 | おおかみ | |
| Zebra | シマウマ | 縞馬 / 斑馬 | しまうま |
I’ll keep adding as they appear but I may miss some.
The kanji names are hardly used, butttttt, who knows you may end up in a kanji only zoo and can only escape if you can correctly identify what a 獏 is. I don’t know 
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I’m still a novice at interpreting Wikipedia in Japanese, but there seems to be some kanji associated with Llamas, though they get no hits on Jisho.
In any case, as you say, with a lot of animals you use kana and often katakana rather than kanji. I guess, they’re mostly seen in a science, biology context. 
Thanks for making this list! 
<3<3<3
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btw: Shirokuma-kun lost me when he started to give his “problems” to Penguin-san (episode 3? I think) Well, the first one was pretty straightforward (about T-intersections), the second on though: what was that about? 
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