Tuesday 19 May 2015

Antique Bakery

About once a year, thanks to their pretty amazing christmas sales, i buy a ton of anime from rightstuf.

Unfortunately to get free shipping i have to order A LOT.
far more then i'm normally comfortable with in a single order.
On the bright side that anime tends to last me the year as long as i don't marathon it.

On that note i started watching this yesterday. 
But back to my original point... sometimes i'm just shy of hitting the free shipping threshold so i'll pile in a few shows i haven't seen and know nothing about.

I really enjoy anime about baking, I don't know why... perhaps cause i enjoy baking myself? I don't know... i just have a soft spot for shows on this subject matter. Unfortunately 95% of the baking shows i have seen are geared towards a younger demographic.

So when i saw the art for antique bakery i had two thoughts.
"well it doesn't look like it's for kids..."
and
"all male cast with large hands... it's a Yaoi isn't it?"
So i looked it up and it was just Classified as Shoujo and Comedy so i figured... why not?

I was pleasently surprised.


The show is about a man who is opening up a cake shop and the Brilliant Patisserie who was just hired just so happens to be an old Classmate who confessed to him on graduation but was turned down because the owner is straight.
There is also a boxer with a sweet tooth who has to give up the sport since his retina has detatched... so he becomes the brilliant Patissier's assistant.
and the owners childhood friend who is pretty useless at everything but after falling in love with the Brialliant patisserie does his best to be useful in the shop.
oh and the owner opened the shop for pretty much the sole purpose of finding this guy who kidnapped him when he was 9.
so there is that.

 The best parts of the show are when it's the 4 of them running the shop. there is this whole crime drama subplot that gets thrown in at the end that felt a little rushed and it's fine but i much preferred the character interactions.

The way the owner deals with having turned someone else down in such a way where they contemplated ending their own life.
Or how sometimes shit happens and you have to give up something you have dedicated your entire life to.
Or having to deal with the fact that everyone hates you because you don't fit into what 'normal' men are supposed to do or like.
and uh... one for chikage... uh...
well... i guess he did father a child whom he doesn't live with and that could be a thing that happens... maybe... i dunno chikage kinda throw a wrench into my "the problems in this show are surprisingly realistic" spiel.

Either way those are the plots that were really well done and it would have been nice to see that furthered instead of "lets catch a crazy person who is feeding kids cake before killing them"

Also the animation is really interesting... all the backgrounds are CG but it looks pretty nice (awkward when used on people... decent when used only for BG)
The intro song is also probably the coolest i have ever seen.
i'm not entirely sure how they pulled it off... to me it looks like a model or something with a camera... btu it could be CG... but the textures and the ligth and the way light acts off things... hm... either way it's pretty cool... i love when shows do more then needed to convey the intro.

I am not surprised at all that the manga this was based on won awards... it was really cute and sweet and other then chikage it was subtle and realistic.
Is it a Yaoi? not at all.
It does have a little in the way of shonen-ai themes considering a character is gay and there is a relationship (kinda?) between him and Chikage. But it's more world building then the focus of the title. The oddest/silliest part of their arc is when they twirl around in the rain... and that is pretty much the first thing that happens when they meet.

However in the end the focus is on four 30 somethings getting together and running a cake shop despite their different perspectives. 
It's cute and well done and the ending is a bit... well it's not what you want to happen in a show with crime drama themes but i understand why they did it and it probably is more realitic... but stil lthe ending needed work.
but would i recommend it? yeah....
Assuming you like baking shows.... if you don't like those stay away...
Also their french is a little painful to listen to... which is funny when you consider how structurally similar french and japanese are... luckily there isn't too much of it.

But yeah... cute little 12 episode show...
now i have to pick between my last few remaining rigthstuf purchases..... or rewatch natsume yuujinchou cause... boy thats tempting.  

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