First Date: Antique Bakery
- Title: Antique Bakery
- Studio: Synergy SP
- Genre: Slice-of-Life/Shoujo
Ratings (out of 5):
- Story: ♥♥♥
- Animation: ♥♥½
- Characters: ♥♥♥♥
- OP/ED Themes: ♥♥½
- Overall: ♥♥♥ (Aren’t you a little…gothier than I remembered?)
Thoughts:
Let me start out this by noting, officially, for the record, once again: Antique Bakery is NOT A YAOI. It’s not. I promise. Fumi Yoshinaga has done a handful of non-BL titles. Like Flower of Life. And the as-yet-unlicensed Oooku, which is a period drama. AND ANTIQUE BAKERY.
There is, however, a gay character: the above, Ono, who is a world-class patissiere. Unfortunately, his “demonic” gay charms make it such that if he’s attracted to another man– straight or gay –that man will eventually fall for him. And Ono’s a slut, which results in all sorts of men getting all possessive and jealous and violent with each other over him…which results in him getting fired or quitting all of his baking gigs.
Enter Tachibana. Tachibana was kidnapped as a child and held by a man who forced him to eat cakes every day. He grew up, became a businessman, and then quit to start his own bakery, perhaps somewhat obsessed with his childhood tormentor. So, Tachibana interviews Ono to be his patissiere…but it turns out they’ve met before.
It DOES sound like a yaoi setup, doesn’t it? But it’s not! So if that’s what you’re looking for, you’ll be disappointed. And if that’s what’s scaring you off…don’t let it. Yoshinaga is a master at character building, and the anime looks to be following her lead, building things slowly– only half of the main cast even gets introduced in the first episode, really.
I do have a little bone to pick. The visuals and the music are dark and kind of gothy– I think they’re trying to be over the top, but there haven’t really been enough goofy moments to counter-balance it, especially since they opened with Tachibana’s creepy kidnapper.
Overall I think it’s going pretty well. I was worried, since Syngergy SP absolutely destroyed Kamichama Karin with QUALITY! animation, but it looks pretty good, albeit somewhat washed out, color-wise…but then, Yoshinaga’s color art for the series is also pretty pale, so I guess that’s just a choice.
All in all, definitely continuing with it, and hoping for more of the zany moments in the next episode.
Tags: antique bakery, first-dates, summer 08
July 11th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Stockholm syndrome with cake?
July 11th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
I think it’s just strange that the backgrounds are all 3D and the characters are manga-esque 2D. =/ I’m hoping it’ll pick up pace once Eiji and Chikage come onto the scene. I loved those two so much in the manga (though Chikage ended up getting the majority of the character-love). I tried to convince my brother that it wasn’t a yaoi and that he should watch it; he won’t watch it ’cause he thinks I’m lying. ;_;
July 11th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
@yami0204: Send him over here, I’ll vouch for you! I’ve been saying this for ages.
July 11th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
A gay baker with a “demonic charm” - thats enough for me to hate this show. Lets add the “my kidnapper fed me with caek thats why i have to open a bakery” thing and we get one of the worst anime this season (next to lets say Koihime Musou - damn that show is a fail, wheres my eroge?!). This show is 2 max 2.5 out of 5 for me, tho i understand why some people might like it.
And good point - its NOT a yoai, its a shojo with a little yaoi twist.
July 11th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
@ Zenzen: Aw c’mon don’t be hatin’ the gay bakers.
July 11th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Wah? Why only 2.5/5 stars for the OP? I thought it was really creative and cute with the cardboard stop-motion animated characters in the dollhouse!
July 11th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
I actually liked the animation. I think the emphasis on gay was a bit over the top (but nothing explicit) in the first episode but I’m hoping it will mellow down in the next ones. It seems rather unbelievable.
July 11th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
The manga got excellent reviews when it was released in the US, which is why I’m giving it a try. Yeah, the animation styles, are an odd mix, but one ep isn’t enough to condemn a show for that. I want to see how it goes.
July 12th, 2008 at 8:21 am
“Overall I think it’s going pretty well. I was worried, since Syngergy SP absolutely destroyed Kamichama Karin with QUALITY! animation”
Excuse me, but it was Satelight (Macross Frontier, Geneshaft) the studio that animated Kamichama Karin, not Synergy SP (Hayate no Gotoku!).
Antique Bakery’s animation is being handled by three different animation companies: Nippon Animation, Shirogumi and Synergy SP, as you can notice in the opening credits.
July 12th, 2008 at 8:28 am
@ReikaLover: You’re absolutely right. No wonder I was so impressed! I wonder when I got that mixed up.
July 12th, 2008 at 8:30 am
@SusieQ: Remember, 2.5 hearts is an “average” grade, not a bad one. I loved the animation for both, but the songs themselves were pretty meh. (Music counts too!)
July 12th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Having watched the first episode…. I don’t think this is a show for me. At all.
July 13th, 2008 at 12:52 am
That’s OK gia, it happens xD. I don’t know why but the opening theme is stucked in my head, I keep playing it over and over :roll:, and the ending theme (which is another version of the opening theme) is yelling angst all over the place, but is nice xDD.
July 17th, 2008 at 9:09 am
[...] Ai”, cela devrait vous convenir. Quoique, apparemment, ce ne serait pas du Shounen Ai ni du yaoi. Bref étant inculte dans ce domaine, je ne m’étendrai pas dessus. Sinon, pour celles et [...]
July 19th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
[...] @ A Geek By Any Other Name has assured me that this series is not yaoi and it becomes very apparent in this episode…if [...]
July 27th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
I think this is AMAZING! its cute… there maybe some weird parts, but despite that! its fantastic!