That's an interesting question. I like to compare the different frequency indices. I think it is safe to say that if anyone says it is common then it probably isn't rare. These indicators are based on figures compiled from sources, so a word that doesn't occur often in one area (say newspapers) may be much more frequent in another (say novels). So if some source is calling it common, it is presumably common in some area, not a rare word per se.
However, if anyone is calling them rare, they are presumably not super-common either - not among the core-words that are found just about anywhere, for example.
I don't know your level precisely. The fact that most of the words you don't know are counted as rare at least by one source would seem to indicate that you have a reasonable working vocabulary for someone beginning to work with native material (probably better than I had when I started).
To some extent you can apply judgement. What are the words about? Are they about things you would express reasonably often and expect to read about on other occasions?
Shirokuma himself goes in for elaborate puns which can involve rare-ish (or just not very useful) words. I wouldn't say Shirokuma Cafe overall is super-easy for a beginner (though it isn't super-hard either) and the show as a whole has at times a predilection for wordplay and relatively sophisticated verbal humor (for example Panda describing some action of Penguin's in a way that may be accurate but uses an expression that isn't a very flattering way of putting it).
It might be an idea to try a few different shows or other materials and see what feels good to you on a language level. If you are getting on well with Shirokuma Cafe, though you may want to stick with it. If you are finding it awkward, poke around a bit and see if something works better for you.
I think you will find your balance as you go along. You will get more sense of what words you are likely to need and which you can skip for now. The aim, of course is to maximize your input speed and capacity, so while you want every word in the end, you will be doing it as far as possible in a very (very) rough frequency order.
It is never an exact science, but you will get more comfortable with knowing what you want to pop into Anki and what you don't need right now and what you feel you can pick up without Anki.
However, if anyone is calling them rare, they are presumably not super-common either - not among the core-words that are found just about anywhere, for example.
I don't know your level precisely. The fact that most of the words you don't know are counted as rare at least by one source would seem to indicate that you have a reasonable working vocabulary for someone beginning to work with native material (probably better than I had when I started).
To some extent you can apply judgement. What are the words about? Are they about things you would express reasonably often and expect to read about on other occasions?
Shirokuma himself goes in for elaborate puns which can involve rare-ish (or just not very useful) words. I wouldn't say Shirokuma Cafe overall is super-easy for a beginner (though it isn't super-hard either) and the show as a whole has at times a predilection for wordplay and relatively sophisticated verbal humor (for example Panda describing some action of Penguin's in a way that may be accurate but uses an expression that isn't a very flattering way of putting it).
It might be an idea to try a few different shows or other materials and see what feels good to you on a language level. If you are getting on well with Shirokuma Cafe, though you may want to stick with it. If you are finding it awkward, poke around a bit and see if something works better for you.
I think you will find your balance as you go along. You will get more sense of what words you are likely to need and which you can skip for now. The aim, of course is to maximize your input speed and capacity, so while you want every word in the end, you will be doing it as far as possible in a very (very) rough frequency order.
It is never an exact science, but you will get more comfortable with knowing what you want to pop into Anki and what you don't need right now and what you feel you can pick up without Anki.