Antique Bakery discussion

[Busaiku]

Based on the award winning manga by Fumi Yoshinaga, Antique Bakery has begun!

ANN summary (of manga):
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.

Here are the ANN link (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=9501) and the official site (http://www.antique-anime.com/) links for more details.

[Busaiku]

This episode was pretty fun.

I feel the look of the show, while pretty different from the manga, fits the mood/setting well.
The music (especially the OP/ED, which are both the same song) also feels nice, and relaxing.

I got a lot of laughs from the episode.
From Yusuke's "gay of demonic charm" lines (and attitude, cause everyone's gay for Yu-chan), Keiichiro's reactions to all the events of the day, and Eiji's boxing coach's connections to ramen shops.

I did feel however, that the animation was choppy throughout.
Kind of irks me, but this isn't exactly the most high octane type of show.

Overall, it works well enough, and I do look forward to more.

[The Pirate Queen]

I somehow missed that they were animating this - neat! I have a love/hate relationship with Yoshinaga, but I'm still interested in checking this out eventually.

[Aiia]

I agree that the animation was a bit sloppy, but I can get past that I suppose. It did bother me though, that Tachibana looked like a "random, unidentifiable character who passes by in the background", designwise that is. The only time he really looked like himself was when he went sd by surprise. Ono looked like Ono though, and I hope the animaton will look better in later episodes. Loved the intro animation with the paper figures by the way!

I think I need to re-read the manga now. :)

[sir_integra]

I agree that the animation was a bit sloppy, but I can get past that I suppose. It did bother me though, that Tachibana looked like a "random, unidentifiable character who passes by in the background", designwise that is. The only time he really looked like himself was when he went sd by surprise. Ono looked like Ono though, and I hope the animaton will look better in later episodes. Loved the intro animation with the paper figures by the way!

I think I need to re-read the manga now. :)

I liked the op and ed animations also, especially that opening with the miniatures and cutouts. Everything in between was awful! For me, it wasn't so much sloppy as cheap. the Japanese just love mixing computer generated 3D background with 2D figure animation. Sometimes it works, and in this case, it doesn't.

I agree about Tachibana. Any resemblance to the manga character comes off only occasionally, and that's in the cast of the face.

This is one to watch for the seiyuu, not the visuals.

[Busaiku]

This is one to watch for the seiyuu, not the visuals.

It is a great cast indeed.

I do hope that maybe animation gets tuned up for future episodes and DVD releases, but I'm willing to live with what we've got.

Glancing over at the animation studios, Nippon Animation and Shirogumi, the other works don't seem quite as bad (in terms of animation).
Shirogumi did Tales of Agriculture three seasons ago, and it looked nice, though some of the middle episodes were kind of underwhelming.

In any case, I also have to express my love for the OP animation.

[doink-chan]

It seems to follow the manga well so far (from what I remember of it, I haven't reread it in a while), but I'll agree with others here on the animation. The 2D characters and the 3D backgrounds clashed even worse than the fully-rotoscoped and half-rotoscoped characters and red-tinted backgrounds in the Bakshi LoTR movie, but the OP sequence was cute with the cutout paper figures of the characters. I'll still watch more, though, as the story and characters make up for the doinky visuals.

[shannonleighd]

I liked the op and ed animations also, especially that opening with the miniatures and cutouts. Everything in between was awful! For me, it wasn't so much sloppy as cheap. the Japanese just love mixing computer generated 3D background with 2D figure animation. Sometimes it works, and in this case, it doesn't.

I agree about Tachibana. Any resemblance to the manga character comes off only occasionally, and that's in the cast of the face.

This is one to watch for the seiyuu, not the visuals.

This is almost exactly how I feel, word for word. I found the 3D parts to be distracting and the characters looked like they weren't part of the background during the 2D parts.

When the characters go SD in the manga I find it funny, but it somehow fell flat for me in the anime. It kind of came out of nowhere and didn't really fit with the mood that was set. With Tachibana, every now and then you'd see glimpses of Yoshinaga's style but most of the time he's pretty generic shoujo-y. But Ono does look good.

This being only a 12 episode series I'll probably watch the whole thing whether it gets better or not, but so far, I'm not impressed.

[something]

Episode 1:

- Well THAT was an incredibly hilarious opening. He was kidnapped and forced to eat cake? XD Then the super dramatic reading of the sponsor thanks screen. Awesome.
- Ahaah, Fujiwara Keiji is going to be perfect in this show. I can tell already.
- This show is fucking hilarious. Yuusuke is so fabulously gay that male bakers beat the crap out of each other over him everywhere he goes.
- Ouch, that's some wickedly ugly CG. What would possess them to do this? It just boggles my mind.
- Wow. Just wow. Yuusuke is awesome, and Keiichirou is terrified. I don't like the weird face he makes when he's surprised though.
- And it looks like the high school confession was a lot more harsh than it was made out to be at first. Wonder how that'll play out.

I found the episode funny as hell and I'd love to continue but it's almost like they animated the show and then said "and how do we guarantee that Something will be forced to drop it?" And thus was created some of the most godawful 3DCG I've yet sat through. I just don't get it... I'll give it another episode though, since it's not character CG, but "just" structure CG, and other passive objects. It's a damn lot of it though. If the comedy is funnier than the CG is bad, maybe I'll stick with it, but right now I'm really disappointed at the prospect of idiotic visual design choices potentially rendering another interesting looking show unwatchable. If anything is going to force me to give up the hobby, it'll be this stuff a few years down the line when they try to convert just about everything :relief:

[sir_integra]

Episode 1:

- Well THAT was an incredibly hilarious opening. He was kidnapped and forced to eat cake? XD Then the super dramatic reading of the sponsor thanks screen. Awesome.
Actually, cake is an important part of the story and you might want to think about why Tachibana wants to open a cake shop.

- Ahaah, Fujiwara Keiji is going to be perfect in this show. I can tell already.
I assume from the tone that you think this won't work. Let's wait an see - this is an unusual character.

- This show is fucking hilarious. Yuusuke is so fabulously gay that male bakers beat the crap out of each other over him everywhere he goes.
Yes, the "gay of demonic charm". And this charm doesn't work on Tachibana! This allows Ono to have a job. This is important!

- Ouch, that's some wickedly ugly CG. What would possess them to do this? It just boggles my mind.
Couldn't agree more. Considering what an honored an prized title this is, you'd think this would get a more traditional animation. the Japanese often make strange artistic decisions. It's not the money - they really think this looks great.

- Wow. Just wow. Yuusuke is awesome, and Keiichirou is terrified. I don't like the weird face he makes when he's surprised though.
Pretty much out of the manga.

- And it looks like the high school confession was a lot more harsh than it was made out to be at first. Wonder how that'll play out.

It has played out. At the end of ep 1, Ono is overjoyed that he can finally keep a job. Tachibana is immune to his charms.

Didn't read the manga, did you? I'm not trying to be snide about this either. I think some of your comments and questions might have been answered if you had. However, this might just be another flaw with the anime series. If it doesn't make sense to those who haven't read the manga, there is a problem. And the CG is just awful. Pulls you "out of the moment" too many times. Love that op though.

[something]

Actually, cake is an important part of the story and you might want to think about why Tachibana wants to open a cake shop.
Oh no doubt about that. You don't show a kidnapped kid being forced to eat cake and then making a bakery when he grows up without it being significant. And they sort of answered this in episode one - it sounds like he's doing it to get over his fear. Can't beat something unless you hit it head on. Something similar came up in his conversation with Yuusuke.

I assume from the tone that you think this won't work. Let's wait an see - this is an unusual character.
What? No, I love this guy, his voice IS perfect, I meant exactly what I wrote =P

It's not the money - they really think this looks great.
That's what absolutely terrifies me about the future of anime. Everything else is going amazingly well - I like almost every year of anime better than the last in terms of content - but this trend towards 3dcg horrifies me. In my opinion, full 3dcg is not anime. It's a fundamentally different shift than cel to digital painting, both of which I'm fine with. And so, little by little, shows are becoming less and less anime. Eventually I won't have a hobby left, regardless of whether or not I want to leave it :relief:

...But hopefully that's a ways off and I want to enjoy the dozens of good shows that come out every year now.

Didn't read the manga, did you? I'm not trying to be snide about this either. I think some of your comments and questions might have been answered if you had.
I (essentially) don't read manga. And good thing too, I don't want to know answers before I watch a show. A good show is good regardless of whether or not you know the source material (conversely a show that requires you know the manga/novel/game to enjoy it often isn't a very good show). Since I liked this episode so much (though not visually), it seems they're doing it right, so far anyway.

If it doesn't make sense to those who haven't read the manga, there is a problem.
For what it was, the episode made sense to me. I don't know, did my reply really give that strong a sense that I have no idea what I was watching? I actually thought it was a really straightforward story so far.

I don't know if we've been in many of the same GA discussion threads together, but it might help to know that I usually type as I watch. When you see me mention a scene and react to it, I've probably watched it (literally) 10 seconds before. It's probably paused in the background while I alt-tab over and stab away at notepad++, and I generally don't edit my initial questions/early incorrect assumptions before I post.

So read my posts with that in mind - I might be totally off about something at 4:30 into the episode that gets revealed to be different at 17:45 in, but that original reaction will still get posted. It's just a style of posting that developed organically for me as I started making posts about... hmmm, pretty much every episode of a currently airing series (and some more besides) I've watched in the past year and a half, maybe two years.

[Busaiku]

Keiji Fujiwara was such a great fit as Keiichiro.
His sarcastic and sometimes over-the-top tone is easily one of my favorites.

[sir_integra]

I don't know if we've been in many of the same GA discussion threads together, but it might help to know that I usually type as I watch. When you see me mention a scene and react to it, I've probably watched it (literally) 10 seconds before. It's probably paused in the background while I alt-tab over and stab away at notepad++, and I generally don't edit my initial questions/early incorrect assumptions before I post.

Ah, well things make sense now. Duly noted and my apologies.

[musouka]

- And it looks like the high school confession was a lot more harsh than it was made out to be at first. Wonder how that'll play out.

I think it probably would have been better if they had done that like how it was in the manga--harsh right off the bat. It would have made more sense why Ono would want "revenge" and also would have made it seem more like the ending it should have been when he couldn't even remember Tachibana. (Which is the best revenge possible, obviously)

[Fencedude]

I...I can't watch this show. I know its terribly hypocritical of me, but I just can't watch a show with no females.

It was amusing, and the SD moments were great but...its not something I can keep an interest in. (now, if you rule 63'd the cast but didn't change anything else, I'd think it was the most awesome show ever, but I'm shallow that way.)

Tachibana's SD moments were my favorite parts, personally. Also the CAKE IS SERIOUS FUCKING BUSINESS at the beginning.

[HitokiriShadow]

Eh, I can see this series isn't going to do much for me. It was occasionally amusing (and the cake nightmare was hilarious) but on the whole, it just didn't keep my interest. Oddly, the 2D/3D thing didn't bother me that much aside from a few instances of particularly obvious and annoying 3D, but I've seen worse and I've seen poorer artistic design choices this season already.



I...I can't watch this show. I know its terribly hypocritical of me, but I just can't watch a show with no females.

This is probably my biggest problem as well. It's not that I can't watch a series with no remotely significant females, but I don't think I can watch this type of series with no females in the main cast (though decent female presence is preferable regardless of the genre). For slice of life and drama, I need females because its much harder for me to care about guys and the ones in Antique Bakery are not among the exceptions. Humor may have made up for it, but there wasn't enough here for me.

[JINROH]

The CGI in it really bashes you over the head,and overwhelms the scenes.I tried to give it a chance but just cant go past episode 1.

[Busaiku]

Eiji joins the fray now.
Not before Keiichiro dons his "Garcon" look.
We also got some French thrown in there, and it really sounded awkward. I think this is the first time I've ever heard French in an anime though.

It's also great that Yusuke pretty much has Keiichiro bending to his ever whim.
But at least Keiichiro can still have his female customers!

Eiji sure does love his cakes though.
Too bad he saved the best for last, and missed out on it.

This episode was also fun.
Eiji's moments were great, and I love how Yusuke, the genius patissier, is such a huge influence over everything about the store.

[sir_integra]

It's also great that Yusuke pretty much has Keiichiro bending to his ever whim.

Interesting choice of words there.

CG doesn't seem to be as bad, but it's still there.

Ono is better looking in the anime than the manga. I find he's really rather homely in the manga, which was what made the "gay of demonic charm" even funnier.

Character designs are a bit better now that Tachibana looks more as we'd expect.

[something]

Episode 2:

- Keiichirou looks like he just aged 10 years. Actually, hell, when I saw that guy in the OP I figured it was a completely different character. Ooops. :sd:
- And his attempts to hure a cute young girl... foiled!!
- Oh god, they're kidding with this CG, right? It's all just a big in-joke I'm not getting, right? They can't seriously think this is a good idea, right? ::cries::
- LEGENDARY GAY! Awesome, they hire Eiji simply because he's not Yuusuke's type XD Unfortunately Eiji is somewhat annoying so far.
- Boxing vs cake! Serrrrrrrious business.
- Then more stuff. The end.

While I'm still amused, this may be one of the worst animated shows I've seen in the ~8 years I've been watching anime. The designs are washed out and got really inconsistent late in the ep, the CG backgrounds are an atrocity against art, the framerate is laughable. It's like watching paper cutouts drawn by a 15 year old and posted to their DeviantArt account pasted up against bad, bad, bad CG slop and called "animation".

And so... I don't know if I'll watch more. I really want to, but I there's a point where horrific visuals just make a good story not worth it. I think Antique Bakery is at that point. =/

[musouka]

(now, if you rule 63'd the cast but didn't change anything else, I'd think it was the most awesome show ever, but I'm shallow that way.)

Wouldn't work, though. Thinking about a female Chikage absolutely slaughters his moe factor. (And every lesbian in anime is a "lesbian of demonic charm")

[mrsparklenoodle]

- Nice paper cutout opening, and it seems like Tachibana has some kind of trauma related to being made to eat cake (I wouldn't like being forced to eat cake either, in fact I recently had a giant argument with my parents relating to them wanting me to eat a piece of cake).
- CGI backgrounds eh? Whatever, they're not too bad, admittedly I'm watching them on a somewhat pixellated source, so maybe they look worse in HQ.
- Tachibana's parents are pretty accepting I guess, and no doubt rich.
- Yuusuke: "I am the gay of demonic charm!", well as the pansexual of grumpy ambiguity who everyone thinks is dating their closest friend for no reason other that that they haz a pen0r and I has a vagina, I empathise. Everybody falls for Yuusuke, apparently, going so far as to commit suicide even, to be honest I find this a little objectionable "you didn't want to have sex with me and that's why I'm going to kill myself" is manipulative in the extreme, nonetheless the show is very funny so far, the SD reaction shots are hilarious and I'm totally getting into the love of cake. Poor Yuusuke, will zie figure out that Tachibana was a homophobic douche to hir in high school? "Die" "You're disgusting"... what horrible things to say.
- The boxer, Kenta has pretty skinny legs, zie actually looks a little less bulky than Yuusuke and Tachibana (though they are shorter than either of the other two leads, anyway they clearly don't want to quit, but it's for the best (I've never really been an advocate for boxing because the point is to punch someone until they loose conciousness, I'm pretty glad zie's quitting), it seems like zie can still see reasonably well, as zie managed to cut the cake and so on. Now zie's going to find employment somewhere other than a ramen shop.
- So the two main characters are going to a gay bar in a gay bar district, maybe Yuusuke's demonic charm will grow on Tachibana... of course Yuusuke has plenty of other individuals interested in hir. Seems like everyone's having a good time.
- Yuusuke gets all snuggly with some friendly seeming person and they head out the door with Tachibana behind... and then Yuusuke sexually assaults Tachibana, who says he was the douchebag in high school, but Yuusuke doesn't seem that bothered (I so would be), and they agree that with Tachibana's immunity to Yuusuke's charms, and their shared passion for cake, they can be the best power ranger team ever!... I mean run a good cake shop together, but Yuusuke will, of course, keep checking if Tachibana has changed hir thoughts on this one, as the demonic charm has never failed before.
- In a shockingly unpredictable turn of events that I never could have seen coming, Kenta goes past the bakery front! I guess we'll see what happens next week.
- Puzzle pieces! Nice touch, and the CGI actually looks quite good in the ending.

I've got a lot of shows I'm trying to watch (Hidamari Sketch & x365, Potemayo! Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei & Zoku, Birdy the Mighty Decode, Someday's Dreamers: The Summer's Sky, Natsume Yuujin Cho, Ryoko's Case File, Vampire Knight), but I want to follow this, and read the manga too.

[sir_integra]

Episode 2:
- Oh god, they're kidding with this CG, right? It's all just a big in-joke I'm not getting, right? They can't seriously think this is a good idea, right? ::cries::
Yes, they think it's artistic. That or they blew the budget on the voice actors.

this may be one of the worst animated shows..And so... I don't know if I'll watch more.
I've got to agree. I don't think I'll be watching anymore either.

[Fencedude]

Wouldn't work, though. Thinking about a female Chikage absolutely slaughters his moe factor. (And every lesbian in anime is a "lesbian of demonic charm")

Your moe != my moe

[musouka]

Your moe != my moe

Which has nothing to do with the fact that a female Chikage is like anti-moe. (Turn him into a girl and he ends up more like his daughter, sort of strange and "bu-zuh?" inducing)

Don't get me wrong. Sometimes gender switches can be awesome, but Antique Bakery just wouldn't work with "just" the genders switched any more than you probably want to see carcon copy Mai Hime characters with penises.

[Fencedude]

Your moe != my moe

Which has nothing to do with the fact that a female Chikage is like anti-moe. (Turn him into a girl and he ends up more like his daughter, sort of strange and "bu-zuh?" inducing)

Don't get me wrong. Sometimes gender switches can be awesome, but Antique Bakery just wouldn't work with "just" the genders switched any more than you probably want to see carcon copy Mai Hime characters with penises.

You seem to be missing my point.

[musouka]

You seem to be missing my point.

Fence, you haven't even seen Chikage. If there's a point, consider that one. :p

[Fencedude]

You seem to be missing my point.

Fence, you haven't even seen Chikage. If there's a point, consider that one. :p

*sigh*

Whatever.

[musouka]

*sigh*

Whatever.

Look, I know you're trying to say that moe varies from person to person. But the big part of Chikage's appeal is that he's a tall, good looking man who is an absolute airhead in the vein of some of the spacier Key females. It's that gap in expectation that makes him so much fun to watch--cool badass in sunglasses and then running out of the bakery (and hitting his head on the doorframe because he's too tall) because Ono hurt his feelings.

In my flippant way, what I was merely trying to say was there are some cases where the gender switch doesn't really work for the characters in question. I'm not getting on your case for not continuing it--why would I when *I'm* the sort of person that has trouble watching all female casts?--just that a lot of the charm and appeal of the "host club" bakery comes from the unique situation of a bakery run by men, which is more unusual in and of itself than a place staffed by women.

Sorry if I seemed like I was picking on you, though. I really wasn't trying to.

[Fencedude]

Look, I know you're trying to say that moe varies from person to person. But the big part of Chikage's appeal is that he's a tall, good looking man who is an absolute airhead in the vein of some of the spacier Key females. It's that gap in expectation that makes him so much fun to watch--cool badass in sunglasses and then running out of the bakery (and hitting his head on the doorframe because he's too tall) because Ono hurt his feelings.

In my flippant way, what I was merely trying to say was there are some cases where the gender switch doesn't really work for the characters in question. I'm not getting on your case for not continuing it--why would I when *I'm* the sort of person that has trouble watching all female casts?--just that a lot of the charm and appeal of the "host club" bakery comes from the unique situation of a bakery run by men, which is more unusual in and of itself than a place staffed by women.

Sorry if I seemed like I was picking on you, though. I really wasn't trying to.

You would, of course, have to adjust details for a genderswap, an all female bakery would not be particularly special, after all. I was speaking more of the basic concept as a whole, and why Japan seems incapable of making a show "like this" only with blatantly gay women instead of men.

[musouka]

You would, of course, have to adjust details for a genderswap, an all female bakery would not be particularly special, after all. I was speaking more of the basic concept as a whole, and why Japan seems incapable of making a show "like this" only with blatantly gay women instead of men.

Well, that's a horse of an entirely different color, and one I agree with. I would love, love, love a slice of life, down to earth yuri-flavored series that takes place outside of a high school setting for once.

I...guess there's always Nana? :p

[mike.motaku]

Wow. I went into this with no expectations and it's turning into quite a charming little show. I like the characters, the voice actors are fantastic and the art design, for me anyway, really gives it a distinctive, unique feel. I didn't find the cg work distracting at all. The OP and ED are really interestingly animated. The OP, especially, kind of reminded me of the Mini-Pato material from the 3rd Patlabor movie special edition.

I'll be following this one for sure. A nice change of pace.

[Busaiku]

Wow that was an absolute blast.
Pretty much non-stop laughs from the very beginning.

I was wondering how they'd handle Chikage's intro, and it worked spectacularly.
May just be me, but the animation also seemed much improved in this episode. I also liked the music in this episode, just seemed to work really well.

Well, we get to see Keiichiro's sales expertise, that wonderful charm of his :bowsmiley:.
Then we get into Chikage, the bumbling, but loveable, houseboy of Keiichiro's renowned house.
His desire to help Keiichiro brought him all the way out here, and his amusing antics join him.

But suddenly...he's Yusuke's type! :laugh:
And so we really get to see the demonic charm kick in.
Oh man, was that a great moment. Yusuke's seduction methods and the two prancing in the rain had me laughing hard.

And the charm works!
Chikage is totally into Yusuke now.
Yusuke wants to say no, but he just can't help but give in to those eyes. What will he do to keep his love going, but not get fired?

This was definitely a great episode. Easily the best of what's been shown so far, but that's to be expected.

[Kogepan703]

Finally got my computer working right to watch Antique Bakery since no one is doing avis...

I really like this series. The CG animation doesn't bother me. I think it works fine with the mangaka's art style, especially since she doesn't do much background art in her manga.

Episode 3 was hilarious with Chikage's naivety and klutziness. And Ono is one of my favorite characters ever. I like the flower cliche that swirls up behind him whenever he's being charming. And the feathers when he's being "demonic."

I also like Eiji's and Tachibana's bickering relationship.

This is just a fun, lighthearted comedy, and I'm so glad they animated it.

[ohtori_akio]

I was pleasantly surprised with this. Being gay myself, I did not have high expectations for it as gays tend to be portrayed fairly stereotypically in anime (aside from the awesome Utena and Sailor Moon). And male homosexuals usually have a tougher time in anime, but this was great!

Can't wait for episode 4 to air! This is actually my first anime I am watching as it airs, so I guess Antique Bakery popped my cherry! LOL

[angyegio]

ciaooooo

[ohtori_akio]

I just watched ep 4 and the seires keeps getting better and better. I thought that the drama would take away from the comedy but so far they gel really well. I have not read the manga but might pick it up now! Just to see how the story differs...

[Individual11]

How are people watching this? Has it been licensed and offered in digital delivery somewhere? Never enough BL anime IMO....

[ohtori_akio]

I'll admit I am being naughty and watching the fansubs of this... I will most likely get it if it's licensed though as I am really enjoying it.

[Kogepan703]

How are people watching this? Has it been licensed and offered in digital delivery somewhere? Never enough BL anime IMO....
Yeah, it's only available on fansubs right now. But this is a total buy from me if someone licenses it.