It’s been so long since I’ve had cake; the berries are calling out to me. It looks so damn delicious.
For the ladies, and for the gents who watch shounen-ai (not many that I know of), I’ve decided to take up Antique Bakery. Here are my first impressions…
Plot Summary
Ripped off ANN, “Tachibana, grandson of a rich businessman and newbie in the world of managing; Ono Yuusuke, famous pastry chef and even more infamous “devilish homosexual”; Kanda Eiji, a retired young boxer with a thing for pastries; Kobayakawa Chikage, servant friend of Tachibana and current romantic interest of Ono, who is clumsy yet serious and stoic to a fault (most of the time). Together, these four men maintain a small yet elegant cafe known as “Antique”, where they and all their customers can come together to cherish one of the few but truly important things in life: cake.”
- What works: Cake. Cake is good.
- What fails: I laughed at the plot when I first read about it on ANN, and then I laughed at the plot when I watched the episode. Will it go anywhere? If it’s only about cake, chances are it won’t. Luckily, we are introduced to a deeper plot: the main character, Tachibana, was kidnapped when he was young. His kidnapper was never found, and the only detail that is given about his time in captivity is that his captor kept trying to make him eat cake. Cheesy.
Animation
- What works: Definitely has a weird unique style of animation. Personally, I’ve never seen anything like it before.
- What fails: MABUSHI. It’s way too bright, in certain scenes it hurts my eyes to just watch. Notice the strawberry in the photo above? It’s sparkling. Strawberries don’t sparkle. They might have a reflecting light here and there, but they don’t sparkle.
Character
I can’t say too much about this yet, because it’s only the first episode, but here goes:
- What works: This might sound weird, but it was funny seeing Ono try to kiss Tachibana forcibly. (Insert evil fujoshi laugh)
- What fails: Tachibana is straight and I have to keep pointing out to myself that this is a shounen-ai series. Eiji will enter next week’s scene, but it’s still ambiguous on what his sexual orientation is.
Sound
This includes Seiyuus.
- What works: The OP/ED are catchy. Interestingly enough, its the same song “Life Goes On” by Chemistry, although the ED takes it at a slower tempo, and the OP seems to be a remix. I find myself liking it. And the seiyuus seem to all fit the character images. For a Mamoru Miayno fan like me, its nice to hear him as Eiji.
- What fails: I found myself cracking up over the fact that when the angsty parts came on, a solo violin would be playing as BGM.
Overall
Not too bad for a first episode, but it isn’t going to be a favorite. I suppose I’m staying with this series because it amuses me. See you next week with more cakes! Irritatingly enough, it sucks having to look at such sparkling cakes and not be able to eat them.
Calamitous Intent 
Oooh can’t wait to watch this! For some reason I really like cooking/baking shows, even though (or maybe because) in RL I never cook anything (unless microwaving counts). I actually read the manga a while ago, and it was about 2/3 baking, 1/3 character/plot development. It didn’t have much of a linear or complicated plot, it was more like slice of life here are these guys that happen to be working together at the bakery, will they get along or give up on baking…etc.
Haha! Same with me, I never do cooking in RL. The only thing I’ve made by myself is cheese cake, and that wasn’t that good either…
Oh yeah. I totally flew over the fact that this is supposed to be slice of life. Thanks for reminding me!
Its been a while since I read the manga, but it was a nice slice of life.
If you want a cute shoujo bakery manga then read Shiawase Kissa Sanchoume.
I didn’t realize this was out already, I’ll have to check it out.
I love to bake in real life. I made chocolate eclairs for dessert last Friday and I’ll be baking cookies for work this week since someone is leaving.
They requested milk chocolate, walnut, oatmeal cookies. I’ll probably also do white choc, choc chip cookies.
Two batches is better since they disappear so fast at work.
Fall is my favourite time to bake though, maybe because its cold and so something fresh out of the oven seems even more delicious.
Mmm warm gingerbread men and pumpkin spiced cookies.
Dammit I’m making myself hungry.
Never read the Antique Bakery manga, but the Shiawase Kissa Sanchoume manga is cute. 😛
oh god. stop. you’re making me hungry. I want gingerbread and pumpkin spiced cookies!!
Oh its adorable isn’t it! Hopefully there will be an update for it soon. Aerandria are translating so many cute mangas.
I’m addicted to Midnight Secretary too, although that’s more naughty than cute!
Eep sorry, I didn’t mean to make you hungry! But they are definitely nice on a cold winters day.
Just stumbled by on this post, I know its a lil old but just to point out that the strawberries on the cake that you assume were sparkling are in fact glossed with liquid sugar. Therefore the large window to the left which was located in the kitchen was bright caused a unusual sparkle.
Cheers,
Ono
strawberries can spark when coated with sugar syrup, and it’s a common thing especially for desserts and cakie…