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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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
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.
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?
羊駝 seems to be used for Alpacas too, and 駱馬 looks like it could be more specifically Llama. But I’m not super sure. It’s kinda difficult finding these out as the kanji names are usually also the Chinese names so googling just comes up with Chinese results.
I can’t even remember what he was talking about after the T-junction part (that bit lost me for awhile) so I have no clue
They are! it’s good listening practice though! And you always pick up on a couple of new words from them. ^^ (this is the third time I had to look up Gecko やもり - hopefully I’ll learn it this time?)
I started in on episode 4 today, a bit ahead of the schedule I know, but I needed my dosage of cute and funny animals.
Ep 4 Thoughts.
Summary
The first bit is about smartphones. It’s hard to remember the time before they got popular, but yeah, the conversations about why you should get one went something like this so there’s some fun nostalgia about this for sure.
And it’s pretty hilarious how the animals use the phones. Penguin-san not being able to do pinch control with this wings and Llama-san controlling the phone with his tongue! And of course Panda-kun, who clearly has little need of a phone but wants one anyway.
The second part of the episode is about Penguin-san who’s trying to get this driver’s license.
[spoiler]He plans on inviting Penko-san to a romantic drive, but gotta get that license first. ^[1] <3
Shirokuma-kun is ready to help teach Penguin-san the basics so they meet up the next day with Panda-kun for a drive!
I was wondering about one of the puns for oyatsu → kotatsu → katatsu showing shirokuma-kun on a ladder ready to cut off a branch on an orange tree. I wonder if this is from 片つけ as in tidying up, finishing up something…because pruning = 剪定 せんてい and thinning out, pruning = 間引き まびき. Anyone else got another suggestion for what Katatsu means? I’m stumped on this one.
Anyway, there’s some hilarious scenes as Shirokuma-kun “teach” driving to Peguin-san. Especially the drive-through scene.
Then they get to paralell parking. Panda-kun misremebers what it’s called so says わらしべ長者 I think "straw millionaire ???
The legend of the Straw Millionaire is a Japanese folk tale about a poor man who becomes wealthy through a series of successive trades, starting with a single piece of straw. The story was likely written during the Heian period and was later collected into Konjaku Monogatarishū and Uji Shūi Monogatari. The legend has become a common anecdote in Japanese popular culture.
I could be wrong though. In any case parallel parking in Japanese is 縦列駐車 じゅうれつちゅうしゃ I guess a pretty good word to know. ^^;
Something about there being several manufacturing methods for wheat flour?? Is my guess for the first part. Then Shirokuma-starts sprouting acronyms and I’m lost!
When I saw this bit I thought he meant 「か ー 断つ」 so cutting off “something” with か referring to that “something” I didn’t understand - the tree or orange or such. I’m not sure what か might represent here, the closest I could find is 果, which can mean fruit and has a reading of か but I’m not sure if it can be used on it’s own like that? Every instance of it that I know has 果 with another kanji… I guess all this just makes it more confusing
I’m guessing you’re closest with 片つけ.
If you want to read the story you can find it >HERE<
Is this just me promoting hukumusume at every chance I get because I stumbled upon it in my daily reading challenge? Yes.
It’s a kid’s website but it’s seriously good, it’s like a goldmine of links to all sorts of useful information about Japanese folklore and tales.
I’ve been trying to work out if her name was a play on anything - thank you!!
Honestly this part is just way too fast for me to keep up, I can usually get his first pun, but by the time I’ve worked it out he’s already on the 5th
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."
<3<3<3
It’s hard to remember the time before they got popular, but yeah, the conversations about why you should get one went something like this so there’s some fun nostalgia about this for sure. 
Penguin-san not being able to do pinch control with this wings and Llama-san controlling the phone with his tongue! 
