Antique Bakery (anime TV series)

The image on the left is what one side of the box looks like - the original looks much nicer. I did terrible (but kind of cool) things in GIMP  to get this image.

Synopsis:

When Tachibana was a little boy, he was kidnapped. Although he was found and reunited with his family, with no apparent physical harm having been done to him, the experience affected him and his relationships with others for years afterward. All he could remember about his kidnapper was that the man liked cake and fed it to him every day. After he was found, Tachibana could no longer stand the taste of cake.

Years later, Tachibana suddenly quits his job in order to open a classy Western  bakery. His parents take it in a stride, and his father even finds him a genius pastry chef. That pastry chef turns out to be Ono, who, when they were both seniors in high school, confessed to Tachibana that he loved him. Tachibana told Ono that he disgusted him and should go die. The experience so upset Ono that he forgot what Tachibana looked like and went on to become the Gay of Demonic Charm - if he finds himself attracted to someone, that person, whether he is gay or straight, ends up pursuing him, something which has resulted in him being fired from numerous bakeries. Once Ono remembers who Tachibana is, he says he's relieved that he's finally found a bakery where his Demonic Charm won't work. In actuality, though, Tachibana and Ono still have some issues to work out.

Tachibana and Ono are joined by Eiji, an ex-boxer who adores sweets. Ono takes Eiji on as his apprentice, and Tachibana acts as the bakery's salesperson, beautifully and deliciously describing the bakery's pastries and cakes despite never having tasted most of them. The bakery's number increases by one more when Tachibana's childhood friend, Chikage, arrives. Although Chikage is generally useless, Tachibana prefers him in the shop to sitting in his car like a stalker.

The show deals with these four characters' relationships with each other, as well as their individual pasts and development.

Commentary:

Back when I was first reading the manga this anime is based on, I learned about the anime and was tempted to watch a fansubbed version of it. I never did, and then, when the anime was finally licensed, I wished I had, because I wasn't sure I would like it. I wasn't sure how four volumes of story was going to manage to fit into 12 episodes, and I hadn't entirely liked some of the screenshots I had seen. However, I'm a sucker for a sale, and when Right Stuf had a sale on Nozomi titles I went ahead and preordered the series.

Overall, I'm glad I own it, although I now wish I also owned the manga. I think the anime is fairly good, but I remember the manga being quite a bit better.

Antique Bakery (manga, vol. 4) by Fumi Yoshinaga

Sadly, this is the final volume of Antique Bakery. I really enjoyed this series and will have to see about hunting down the anime (although I'm not a huge fan of what I've seen of the color scheme, which appears very pastel).

Sorry about the long post, but I couldn't help it. This is a great volume, and there's a lot packed into it.

Synopsis:

As usual, Tachibana wakes up from a bad dream about the time when he was abducted as a child. All he can remember is that his abductor forced him to eat cake every day and that he stabbed the man in the thighs. He thinks the man who took him probably said something to him, but he can't remember what it was, and that really bothers him. Thankfully, Chikage is still staying with Tachibana - Chikage's kind, but not very bright, and so manages to keep Tachibana's mood from getting too dark.

This volume follows the usual pattern of having a few scenes involving characters who will probably later be shown to be much more important (in this case, very important). An elderly lady has just returned home (or whatever - I'm not sure if this is her home or the man's home or a part of her store) from the Antique Bakery. She gives the cake to a silent, bearded elderly man who gives her some money for it, although she tells him that he doesn't need to. As she puts on makeup and otherwise pretties herself up, she talks to the man, telling him that she's thinking of closing her own shop up and moving to Sendai, where her brother and his wife live. She asks the man if he'd like to come with her, but he's not listening - he's offering cake to an invisible Atsushi, his son, who's been dead for 20 years. The woman is sympathetic but gets upset when the man slaps her hand away and continues to pretend as though she's not there while he coos over his invisible son. When she pushes the fact that his son is dead in the man's face, he acts as though he will stab her. Crying now, the woman begs him to go away with her. For some reason, the man stops, puts the knife away, and quietly leaves the shop/house/whatever, much to the woman's surprise.

Meanwhile, back at the bakery, Kanda's cakes have become pretty popular. Deko compliments both him and Ono on their cakes (climbing happily onto Ono's back, much to his horror) and even says she thinks she might one day want to bake cakes like the two of them. Although Deko frightens Ono (he's much better with women than he used to be, but Deko would be a bit much for a lot of people), Kanda thinks she's really cute. In fact, he asks Ono, "how old does a girl have to be to get married?" while gushing over Deko (who is, by the way, 10 years old, although she looks much older).

All of this is interrupted by a surprise visit to the bakery by Nagako, one of Ono's sisters. She's come to tell him that she's getting married and would like him to come to her wedding. He hasn't seen her or any of his family in years, and he thinks she might not want a gay family member at her wedding, but that doesn't bother her. Nagako had always thought that Ono had left and not come back because he knew that their father was having an affair with another woman and didn't want to be around his messed-up family anymore. The news shocks Ono a little - he knew their mother had been having an affair (something his sister still doesn't know), but he hadn't realized about their father (or so I'm assuming). He recovers quickly, though, and agrees to attend her wedding. The first chapter ends with Chikage and Tachibana seeing a news story about a kidnapped 9-year-old. Also, the woman from earlier is still waiting in her house/shop for the man.

In the next chapter, Kanda is upset when Tachibana and Ono tell him they've signed him up for French lessons. Kanda has never liked studying, but Ono thinks this is a good next step, since he eventually expects Kanda to spend some time in France in order to study authentic French cuisine. Tachibana, who's paying for the classes, is a little worried that Kanda isn't actually going to them or paying attention when he does. When Tachibana comes across Kanda beating up a random thug one night, his worries increase. Kanda's bad mood gets worse when he gets back to the shop after class one night to discover Tachibana helping Ono with the cakes and pastries - and doing well enough to earn Ono's praise.

Eventually, Ono puts a stop to Kanda's thug-beating activities and sits him down for a talk. All of Kanda's bottled-up insecurities come pouring out. Boxing made Kanda feel good because all he had to do was win in order to feel useful and wanted. He's been abandoned before, though, and he's terrified that Ono is preparing to abandon him too. He doesn't think there's anything about him that makes him vital to Ono - he's not Ono's type (I couldn't help but wonder if he'd have slept with Ono if he were Ono's type, just so he could feel more necessary), and, although Ono praises his work at the bakery, he praised Tachibana too. Ono calms Kanda down and boosts his confidence by assuring him that he is very talented and has been a valuable and eager apprentice. This chapter, like the first, ends with Tachibana and Chikage seeing a news report about the 9-year-old boy - unfortunately, he has been found dead.

The next chapter begins with a flashback to Tachibana in class studying law, thinking about how the statute of limitations for his kidnapping has expired - there is no way that the law will ever bring his abductor to justice. Now, in the present, he's trying to deal with his parents, who are telling him that his grandmother would like him to meet a certain young woman (a sneaky way of trying to arrange a marriage for him) - although Tachibana makes it clear he doesn't want to meet the woman, his parents understand and it's a pretty relaxed exchange. Meanwhile, Kanda is doing fabulously well in his French class and is now on friendly terms with his teacher. Ono has gone to visit his favorite gay bar after a long absence and, to his horror, meets the guy he broke up with in volume 2. He's terrified that his ex is still upset with him, but the man has actually settled down nicely with a new lover. Ono, now in something of a reflective mood, finds himself to be a little jealous of their happy, comfortable relationship. In another reminder of the more serious stuff going on just under the surface, Chikage and Deko see yet another news report, this one about the discovery of the body of a 10-year-old who had disappeared.

The story finally turns to the police who have been investigating these murders. Because of the similarities in the cases, they believe the same person was responsible for all of it. Akutagawa, the cake and pastry gourmet and former cop, is consulted because of his knowledge of fine cakes and pastries (the kids had been fed cake of some kind), and he is able to pinpoint the Antique Bakery as the only bakery that sells the kind of cake one of the children ate. Akutagawa and the cops visit Tachibana in order to discuss putting the store under surveillance and to apologize for the way his own kidnapping was handled (Akutagawa and one of the cops were both involved in investigating Tachibana's kidnapping). It's at this point that it's made absolutely clear that Tachibana planned every detail of the store to make it perfect for something like this.

Remember how I chided myself for trying to relate everything to the kidnapping during my post for volume 2? Oh, I laugh. Here is what Tachibana thinks as he considers the police's request to put the store under surveillance: the store is small, so that he can keep an eye on the entire interior, its hours are as late as possible, so that anyone and everyone can visit it, and its cakes and pastries are delicious enough to draw customers from all over. Yes, Tachibana naturally agrees to the police's requests, and yes, it really is all about the kidnapping, or at least it started out that way.

Two cops keep a watch over the store (one of them has a sweet tooth and can't help but drool over the bakery's offerings). Aside from Miss Urushihara's husband (from volume 2 again, with Miss Urushihara first appearing in volume 1), no one suspicious-looking comes by. A drunk guy comes by and harasses Chikage a bit, but he cools down after Chikage spends some time trying to find his supposedly missing contact lens (a scene I found very odd, one which apparently is moving to everyone who sees it but Tachibana - perhaps it was moving to them because he tried so hard, even though his eyesight is so bad?).

Before the store closes for the night, a woman comes by - Tachibana's last girlfriend, the one who he proposed to after she was fired. She's now engaged to be married to Honma of all people, and she wants to know if Tachibana is going to hold a grudge against his old friend for hooking up with one of his former girlfriends (Honma had gone to her to try to talk her back into being with the heartbroken Tachibana again, but ended up falling in love with her). Tachibana, resigned, says it's all fine and that the bakery would love to cater their wedding reception.

After she leaves, happy, Tachibana, on autopilot, helps out a female customer who seems to be feeling a little clumsy and faint. He drives her home, but, before he can leave, he sees little things that make him suspicious. There are bruises on her throat and she seems afraid. Heedless of her demands that he leave, he enters her home (not taking his shoes off, thereby tracking dirt into her home) and marches in, at one point even dragging her behind him as she hangs onto one of his legs, until a little boy rushes out of a room and into his arms. The woman's 24-year-old son had kept the boy captive and had intended to kill him after feeding him the bakery's cake. Haruka, of the Tammy and Haruka duo in volume 3, reports this on TV - yay for her, her first big break.

Tachibana seems to be feeling a bit off about the whole thing. He knows that the boy probably won't ever really be fine, although he's alive. He thought he might be in trouble with the police for barging into the woman's home, but they have no intention of punishing him for that. The 24-year-old gave the police a long story about how his father used to give him cake and how his mother sometimes got the wrong ones (he sometimes hurt her for that, which explains the bruises on her throat). All the employees at the bakery rushed back after the found out what Tachibana had done, all of them wanting to know if the guy was caught and if the boy was still alive - all of them know about Tachibana's past, but that isn't spoken of.

At the bakery, things are changing. Kanda leaves to go to France for a few days to spend some time with his French teacher and her family, who own a bread shop that is also sometimes a cake shop. It'll only be a matter of time before Kanda will want to strike off on his own, so, although Kanda will be coming back, this is still a bit of poignant moment. Also, Chikage is moving out of Tachibana's place - he's decided that Tachibana is doing fine on his own now and doesn't need him to be around all the time. Tachibana, who still has nightmares, feels differently, but Chikage doesn't move far away, and he'll be coming back to the bakery just as soon as he gets himself settled in his new place.

The man from earlier, the one who almost stabbed the woman who brought him cake, is selling his home and will apparently be moving to Sendai. Before he goes, he visits the Antique Bakery to pick up a cake, which I'm guessing will be for the woman (maybe an apology?). It's at this time that readers are shown the past that Tachibana can't remember. This man was Tachibana's abductor. Young Tachibana, scared and wanting to get back to his family, stabbed him in the thighs but was then horrified at the thought that he might have killed a man. His abductor, who had been yelling at him that he wouldn't forgive him for being so terrible after he had been treated so well, tells him to go, that he was never his son to begin with. His words before young Tachibana leaves, the words present-day Tachibana struggles so hard to remember are, "Leave...and forget all this!!" In the present day, this man, who now walks with a limp, visits the Antique Bakery and buys a cake from Tachibana, and, although there's something about him that tickles Tachibana's memory, he doesn't connect this man with the man from his past. Then Honma arrives, and the moment is lost forever.

Although Tachibana is a bit upset that Honma has the happy relationship he's been seeking for so many years, he and Honma part on friendly terms. Once they're alone, Ono asks for some time off to go to his sister's wedding, some high school girls mistake Ono and Tachibana for a gay couple, and Tachibana and Ono have a moment in which they remember graduation day, when Tachibana was so hurtful towards Ono. Ono's words to Tachibana, that he's grateful to be working at this bakery because it's the first time he's felt glad he became a patissier, seem to me to be something like him granting Tachibana forgiveness.

In the end, Tachibana still has nightmares, still can't get over his past, and still can't remember what he's forgotten, but he can appreciate a nice day and his job at the bakery.

Commentary:

Goodness, that was a long synopsis, and I mixed more commentary into than I should have, now that I'm trying to have that sort of thing in its own discrete section. However, it's the last volume, and there's just so much I want to write. Just reading through the synopsis gives me shivers. I really enjoyed this series and, at some point, I need to buy it all. This is one that I can see myself wanting to reread.

One of the things I liked about this ending is that it wasn't really an ending. Usually this sort of thing drives me crazy, but, in this case, it worked. The characters in this series had their goofy and strange moments, but they still felt like people, and the events and troubles in people's lives don't always get wrapped up all nice and neat. Yoshinaga took care of the important things (showing readers the ways the characters have developed, finally showing readers what happened to Tachibana, etc.), but it's still easy to imagine everyone living their lives after the series is over.

I loved the flashbacks to Tachibana and Ono in highschool. When I read the first volume, I though Tachibana was a jerk for what he said to Ono back then, but the flashbacks in this final volume really make it clear that things were much more complicated than they appeared. I had always wondered how Yoshinaga would wrap things up between Ono and Tachibana. I think I was expecting something a bit less subtle than what Yoshinaga actually did, but I kind of like how things turned out. That bit at the end of the volume, with what might be forgiveness, is so sweet. Ending the scene on a funny note, by having Ono purposefully get those high school girls to think he and Tachibana are a gay couple by putting his arm around Tachibana at just the right moment, was great. Tachibana's expression is priceless.

The revelation about Tachibana's past is heartbreaking. His horror that wakes him up at night is not over what was done to him, but over his fear that he killed a man. He wasn't a bad kid, and he was upset that he stabbed the man who abducted him. In the end, I suppose it was a kind of love that allowed the man to tell him to go and forget what happened - he took Tachibana in order to have him act as a replacement for his son, and then he let Tachibana go because he wasn't his son and he didn't want him to be upset over the stabbing any more. Tachibana doesn't remember him, but part of me thinks the man remembers Tachibana. Or maybe he doesn't, and it was like two siblings, separated by adoption, passing in the street. Either way, just thinking about it...well, I don't think I can name too many manga volumes or series that pack quite the emotional punch this one does.

Kanda - again, heartbreaking. Who knew he was hiding so many insecurities? He can be scary, but when he was crying to Ono he was like a child. I'm glad that he became more secure and willingly asked to go to France on his own. Ono is probably the only one I don't think had a heartbreaking ending. He's mending things with his family through his sister's wedding, but it doesn't feel like things are finally fixed with him - he's definitely a character I can imagine living and growing after the series is over. Maybe that scene at the gay bar is a sign that he's eventually going to settle down, too. I wonder with who? Chikage? It'd kind of be perfect if he ended up with Tachibana, except Tachibana's not gay.

Since I've mentioned Tachibana again...Tachibana discovering the kidnapper was kind of odd - he must've just gone in the woman's house on a hunch, because the bruise wasn't really much of a sign of what was going on in there. For all he knew, she had an abusive husband or something. Tachibana going in was like an unstoppable force - it was a bit chilling, him tracking dirt in, dragging the woman behind him, remembering his own parents after he was brought back to them. The end, with the 24-year-old was anti-climactic - the guy didn't look like much of a killer. I suppose, though, that the anti-climactic feeling could have been intentional, a way of making the reader feel what Tachibana was probably feeling.

Oh, and speaking of chilling moments, the moment when the police are asking Tachibana to let them surveil his shop is also chilling, because it's finally made clear just how much thought Tachibana put into turning his shop into a trap for his abductor. I think that this scene was something of a shock to Tachibana because, although this was his original intention for the shop, it has since become so much more to him - it was a bit of a shock for him to get a reminder of what he originally wanted to do with it. It had to give the other employees chills too, knowing what they knew about his past.

Overall, I love this series and will miss it. I loved the humor (Kanda's crush on Deko, though funny, was a bit icky, but there are so many other parts that are just plain good), the drama, the characters, the pastries, and the artwork. It was a better and more interesting series than I think I expected when I started it.

This list of read-alikes and watch-alikes isn't great - in fact, it's pretty lazy - but every single volume before this one has given me trouble, and this one is no exception. I basically just put together a list using suggestions I made for the previous volume. Yes, very lazy.

Read-alikes and Watch-alikes:

• Yakitate!! Japan (manga) by Takashi Hashiguchi - Azuma Kazuma's goal is to make Ja-pan - every country except Japan seems to have its own national bread, and Azuma wants to correct this by making bread that would fit in with Japanese cuisine and be loved as much as rice. In pursuit of this goal, Azuma finds work at a branch of Pantasia, a famous bread-making chain. Bread-making isn't a sport, but you wouldn't always know it from reading Yakitate!! Japan - in this wacky manga, people bake the craziest things (which usually have some sort of basis in real-life breads), competing rabidly against one another. The feel of this manga is nothing like Antique Bakery - although this manga is also humorous, its humor is wackier than Antique Bakery's, and it doesn't have that same undercurrent of seriousness. However, readers who'd like another manga featuring mouthwatering foods might want to try this.
• Honey and Clover (manga) by Chika Umino - (This popular manga has spawned both anime and live action shows, none of which I've listed here - check out Anime News Network if you'd like to know a little more about them.) This "slice of life" manga focuses primarily on a group of art college students - their friendships, dramas, and loves. Those who liked Antique Bakery's mix of humor and seriousness, character-driven story, and focus on relationships may enjoy this manga.
  
• Bartender (manga) by Araki Joh (story) and Kenji Nagatomo (art); Bartender (anime TV series) - Ryu Sasakura is a genius bartender who makes the most incredible cocktails anyone has ever tasted. Customers of all kinds come to his bar, and Ryu uses his talents to help each one with their worries and problems. This is another character-driven "slice of life" story. In addition, those who enjoyed Antique Bakery's lovely and well-described pastries and cakes may enjoy Bartender's various drinks. (It is very bad of me to include this in the list, because neither the anime nor the manga are available in the US yet. But, oh, I wish - I've read some very nice blog posts about the anime.)
• Fruits Basket (anime TV series); Fruits Basket (manga) by Natsuki Takaya - Tohru had been living with her grandfather after her mother died, but circumstances and Tohru's own desire not to be a burden meant that she ended up living alone in a tent for a while. However, she gets taken in by the Sohma family, who are hiding a secret - certain members of the family turn into animals in the Chinese zodiac when they're weak or hugged by a member of the opposite sex. Both the manga and anime are good - the anime follows the manga pretty closely (except for a few things, and the last episode), but it ends well before the manga does. Like Antique Bakery, this series has a fairly "calm" feel to it overall - also like Antique Bakery, it occasionally hits you with some jaw-dropping revelations that make it clear there's more to the characters than their light, fluffy surfaces let on.

Antique Bakery (manga, vol. 3) by Fumi Yoshinaga

The Antique Bakery takes part in a promotional fair at a department store. The event is being covered by two female TV reporters, Haruka and Tammy, whose claim to fame is their sexiness and large breasts - Tammy isn't really fazed by this, but Haruka can't wait for the day when she'll get to be a real reporter, covering serious news (she would also settle for marriage). Haruka immediately sets her sights on Ono and is very disappointed when she finds out he's gay.

The plan for the fair was to have Tachibana tending to the customers while Ono made desserts in the back. Unfortunately, due to a sty in his eye, Tachibana has to go help Kanda at the bakery while Chikage handles the customers at the fair - and it doesn't help matters that Ono's work area will be in full view of the many women attending the fair (remember, Ono's afraid of women). Ono gets through it by assuming his ultra-sexy gay guy persona and pretending that all the customers are just pretty guys in drag. He coaches Chikage through handling the customers, and between the two of them they charm everyone. Meanwhile, Kanda has to figure out how to bake one of the bakery's popular items, something he accomplishes with the help of Tachibana's pastry memory. During a lull, Kanda finally asks Tachibana if he opened the bakery in the hope of trying to catch his kidnapper. It's a question Tachibana can't answer. In the end, everyone manages to survive the two days of the fair.

In the next part of the volume, Ono's former pastry-making teacher, Jean-Baptiste Hevens, shows up and tries to convince him to leave the Antique Bakery and work for him instead. Ono is tempted, because the pay would be really good, but he ends up deciding to stay in order to continue teaching Kanda. He doesn't know how to break the news to Jean-Baptiste - he's already started sleeping with the guy again (they were lovers back in his apprenticeship days in Paris), and, in addition, Jean-Baptiste has a temper (he used to alternate between being abusive and loving during their time as a couple).

The others at the Antique Bakery are thrilled when they hear that Ono plans to stay (Tachibana was so desperate to keep him that he basically offered to sleep with him if he'd stay), but, when Ono is late one morning, Tachibana and Chikage discover that Jean-Baptiste beat Ono and planned to break his hand after Ono told him he wasn't coming to Paris. Chikage is furious, but Ono and Tachibana convince him not to hurt Jean-Baptiste. They go to the bakery, and then Kanda is furious and wants to hunt Jean-Baptiste down. Ono offers to take him to the hotel in Japan where he's currently working, but not so that he can beat Jean-Baptiste up - rather, he believes that trying the man's incredible pastries will convince him not to beat him up and also be a good learning experience. In the end, Tachibana gives both Kanda and Ono a bonus, and Ono takes Kanda to the hotel to try Jean-Baptiste's pastries, which Kanda enjoys immensely.

Tammy, the reporter from the first part of the volume, is getting married, and the Antique Bakery is handling the catering. Interspersed throughout this portion are flashbacks featuring Tachibana during his birthday, only a month after he was found, and Tachibana and his girlfriends from high school to just before he decided to open the Antique Bakery. The catering job goes smoothly - Kanda's first pastry idea is well-received, and Ono manages to interact with the many female guests so well that Tachibana starts to worry he might become a "bi of demonic charm." The flashbacks of Tachibana's past aren't quite so nice.

At his first birthday since coming back home after the kidnapping, Tachibana seems like a happy kid, but his mother can sense that he's trying a little too hard to appear cheerful and in private he throws up the birthday cake she made for him. Tachibana acts ecstatic about every single one of his girlfriends (it surprised me, but it looks like each one was a monogamous relationship, at least on his part), but each one of those girlfriends ends up dumping him and telling him it's because they can tell he's trying too hard and they don't really feel loved. In fact, the reason why Tachibana treated Ono so badly in high school was because Ono had incredibly bad timing and confessed his love right after Tachibana's girlfriend dumped him. Near the end of this portion of the volume, Tachibana has recently been dumped again and is drunkenly asking a friend if it's possible that whatever the kidnapper did to him, maybe molesting him (Tachibana can't remember anything), warped him somehow. He wonders if he'll be like this forever. Although he does well at anything he tries, he can't settle on a job because he'd have to work with his old girlfriends. He decides to open the Antique Bakery, perhaps as a way to overcome whatever happened to him while he was kidnapped.

The next portion of the volume begins with a flashback to Chikage's childhood. Chikage's mother is taking Tachibana's mother's cooking classes, and Tachibana's mother notices that Chikage's mother is covered in bruises. She invites her and her son to come live with her and her family and work as their new housekeeper. Chikage's mother only agrees to do so after she realizes that, by continuing to live with her husband, she's upsetting Chikage and making him worry about her.

Next, a writer is trying to work and gets into an argument with her young daughter, who wants her affection but doesn't know how to say it. During a particularly heated point in their argument, the mother hits her slaps her daughter, and she runs off. Meanwhile, at the Antique Bakery, Tachibana and Chikage are critiquing Kanda's boring-looking but delicious creations. The writer's daughter, Kaedeko (Deko), enters the shop and, to Ono and Kanda's horror, asks to stay at Chikage's for the night. Ono and Kanda are even more horrified when it appears to them as though Tachibana is flirting with Deko and when Deko climbs onto Chikage's lap and hugs him. Deko tells Chikage what happened with her mother, and Chikage, remembering a younger Tachibana waking up from a nightmare and needing comfort, tells her that she's got to start acting more like an adult for her mother at times, because even adults occasionally have tough times.

Later, Deko tries one of Kanda's cakes and loves it, which instantly makes Kanda like her. Then Deko's mother shows up, at which point it is revealed that Deko is Chikage's daughter (Ono: "So, he was sexually active after all." Kanda: "He actually knew how to make children..."). Deko's mother, Sakurako, had been desperate for a child and convinced Chikage to sleep with her. Sakurako, a novelist, had gotten upset with Deko because she was stressed out by her latest deadline and suffering from a hernia, which she hadn't told her daughter about. Deko, it turns out, is only in the fourth grade, although she looks several years older (as her mother says, she's like Chikage, inside and out - pretty, tall, and not too bright). Anyway, Chikage slept with Sakurako because she was desperate and it was something even he could do for her. Whenever Sakurako needed a break from taking care of Deko, Chikage took Deko in (and Tachibana did most of the "taking care of," which is why he treats her like she were his daughter or niece). By the end, Deko and Sakurako have left and they seem to be doing quite well together - Sakurako's smile when Deko tells her she's like to learn how make a cake for her is very nice.

Overall, I really enjoyed this volume - I don't think there's been a volume I haven't liked yet, because each new volume reveals more pieces of these very interesting characters' pasts. Apparently, I wasn't far off the mark when I speculated that Tachibana might have opened up the Antique Bakery because he hoped to capture his kidnapper. That didn't really surprise me, but Chikage's daughter and the abusive nature of Ono's relationship with Jean-Baptiste did. I suppose Jean-Baptiste shouldn't have come as too much of a surprise. With the way Ono lives, it would be more surprising if there weren't a jerk somewhere in his past, and his habit of sleeping with multiple men without any of his lovers knowing would probably upset the most even-tempered of guys. I guess I just figured that Ono had had all his lovers wrapped around his fingers. It was sad to see how little he seems to care for his own well-being - even knowing what Jean-Baptiste was like, back when he was his apprentice, Ono slept with him again and put himself back in the same position he had been in. It's Tachibana who tries to talk some sense into him, and I'm not really sure he succeeded. I had hoped that Kanda would beat Jean-Baptiste up despite his pastries, or maybe that he would at least say that Jean-Baptiste's pastries didn't compare to Ono's (part of Jean-Baptiste's abusiveness stemmed from his jealousy of Ono's pastry-making talent, but Ono always says that his pastries don't compare to Jean-Baptiste's) - instead, it looks kind of like Ono was right, Kanda really does forgive the guy because of his pastries.

My response to the revelation that Chikage had had a child was pretty much like Ono and Kanda's - I couldn't believe the guy knew how to make babies. I wouldn't be surprised if Sakurako had had to help him figure out what to do. This was a great thing to end the volume with - so much of the volume was weighty and a bit dark that the humor and sweetness of this portion was very welcome.

Speaking of weighty and dark bits, the flashbacks of Tachibana's various girlfriends were interesting. Tachibana had said before that he acts like a perfect young man for his family so that they won't worry about him, but his mother, at least, worries because he's like this. In addition, this behavior is also what drove most of his girlfriends away (one of them dumped him because he didn't really know her as well as he thought he did, something she realized when he proposed after she was told to quit her job). This part finally explains why a guy who, in present day, seems pretty decent, was so horrible to Ono back in high school. It also explains a little more what prompted him to open a bakery.

Finally, I found it intersting that Ono seems to be getting over his fear of women a little. It starts during the fair, when Haruka tells him that the reason he was popular with the women was not because he was acting "obviously gay," but rather because he is really, really attractive - his expression after she tells him this was very hard for me to read, so I'm not sure if he really appreciated what she said and was just stunned or if her words upset him. However, later on, he does fine speaking to a waitress and doesn't realize it until Tachibana mentions it to him. Then he handles throngs of women without a problem when the Antique Bakery handles the catering for Tammy's wedding.

I can't wait to read the next volume and see what else Yoshinaga reveals about these characters. Sure, it's tons of drama, but drama is fun.

Sorry for the pathetic read-alikes and watch-alikes. All my usual resources for hunting down potential read-alikes and watch-alikes for anime and manga that aren't like what I usually read have failed me for this series. It's like Emma, all over again... Feel free to suggest read-alikes or watch-alikes of your own in a comment.

Read-alikes and Watch-alikes:

• Yakitate!! Japan (manga) by Takashi Hashiguchi - Azuma Kazuma's goal is to make Ja-pan - every country except Japan seems to have its own national bread, and Azuma wants to correct this by making bread that would fit in with Japanese cuisine and be loved as much as rice. In pursuit of this goal, Azuma finds work at a branch of Pantasia, a famous bread-making chain. Bread-making isn't a sport, but you wouldn't always know it from reading Yakitate!! Japan - in this wacky manga, people bake the craziest things (which usually have some sort of basis in real-life breads), competing rabidly against one another. The feel of this manga is nothing like Antique Bakery - although this manga is also humorous, its humor is wackier than Antique Bakery's, and it doesn't have that same undercurrent of seriousness. However, readers who'd like another manga featuring mouthwatering foods might want to try this.
• Honey and Clover (manga) by Chika Umino - (This popular manga has spawned both anime and live action shows, none of which I've listed here - check out Anime News Network if you'd like to know a little more about them.) This "slice of life" manga focuses primarily on a group of art college students - their friendships, dramas, and loves. Those who liked Antique Bakery's mix of humor and seriousness, character-driven story, and focus on relationships may enjoy this manga.
  
• Bartender (manga) by Araki Joh (story) and Kenji Nagatomo (art); Bartender (anime TV series) - Ryu Sasakura is a genius bartender who makes the most incredible cocktails anyone has ever tasted. Customers of all kinds come to his bar, and Ryu uses his talents to help each one with their worries and problems. This is another character-driven "slice of life" story. In addition, those who enjoyed Antique Bakery's lovely and well-described pastries and cakes may enjoy Bartender's various drinks. (It is very bad of me to include this in the list, because neither the anime nor the manga are available in the US yet. But, oh, I wish - I've read some very nice blog posts about the anime.)

Antique Bakery (manga, vol. 2) by Fumi Yoshinaga

The guys at the Antique Bakery learn a little more about Kanda's past after he has to find a new place to live. It turns out Kanda used to be in a biker gang. He'd save women who were being beaten or otherwise mistreated by other gang members, and then the women would sleep with him out of gratitude. Yep, Kanda may be cute, but he apparently wasn't always as nice and innocent-looking as he is now. Well, by the end of the chapter, Tachibana has offered to rent the second floor of the bakery out to Kanda, and Kanda has accepted.

Then, Tachibana finds things he thought he'd left behind catching up to him. One of those "things" is Chikage, who is tall, handsome, incredibly loyal, and amazingly inept. He's Tachibana's family's housekeeper, but he's really bad at it. He's been sent to Tachibana for reasons that aren't revealed until the end of the volume, when Yoshinaga hits readers with a plot whammy. I'll admit, when I first got this volume, I was bad and read little bits here and there before I finally read the entire thing from beginning to end. One of the things I read was the ending - at which point I gasped and immediately requested the third volume through ILL. However, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'll talk about the ending later. If you don't like reading spoilers, you probably shouldn't be reading this blog. My posts have spoilers more often than not, and I don't always remember to warn people.

Anyway, Ono notices pretty quickly that there's something going on between Tachibana and Chikage. His first guess was that they were lovers, which Tachibana denies, but it's obvious that the two of them are pretty close. However, all thoughts of the Tachibana-Chikage mystery fly out of Ono's head the first time he sees Chikage without his sunglasses on - once again, Ono is in lust. Despite already having a lover, Ono flirts with and seduces Chikage (we're talking full-power "gay of demonic charm" mode here). Unsuspecting and innocent Chikage instantly falls for Ono's charms. When Tachibana decides to keep Chikage occupied by giving him a job at the Antique Bakery, Ono gets even more chances to seduce Chikage. He even almost manages to sleep with him, but Chikage is too nice a guy - Ono practically throws himself at Chikage, and all Chikage can think is, "For shame! I can't believe I almost took advantage of a drunken Ono."

Remember, though, that Ono already has a lover - this thing with Chikage could not continue, trouble-free, forever. Soon, Ono's boyfriend finds out, there's a big fight, and Chikage's feelings get hurt when he gets caught in the middle and Ono says some careless things. Amazingly enough, Tachibana gets angry with Ono not because he used his charms on Chikage, but rather because he hurt Chikage's feelings. Tachibana may no longer be the cruel homophobe he was (or seemed to be?) back in high school, but still - apparently, his affection for Chikage is such that he doesn't care if he's gay, as long as he's happy. Anyway, Ono patches things up with Chikage well enough, but he also stops playing his usual games with Chikage, at least in this volume. I can't wait to see how things progress in later volumes.

The guys at the Antique Bakery now have to gear up for the Christmas season. Tachibana wants to do some special door-to-door deliveries on Christmas Eve, so Chikage has to be ready to man the tables and take care of customers by himself. Meanwhile, it's time for Kanda to take his next step as Ono's apprentice and make a cake on his own. Nearly everyone has some serious training ahead of him - Chikage with...everything, Kanda with the cakes, and Tachibana with angel hair decoration (Miss Urushihara from the first volume is back, and Tachibana would rather die than make it seem as though the Antique Bakery couldn't handle every single one of her Christmas-time requests). Everything works out ok, though. Tachibana's Santa costume doesn't go over so well at first, and he makes lots of little kids cry, but he handles Miss Urushihara's request just fine. Chikage does well enough, or at least he doesn't fail horribly, and he saves Ono from a woman-inspired panic attack (Ono is afraid of women which, we find out in this volume, may be due to the affairs Ono's mother had with just about everybody, including one of Ono's teachers).

The volume wraps up with a doozy, which, at first, appears to be a setup that will reveal as much about Tachibana as the first chapter revealed about Kanda, no big deal. Tachibana shocks everyone when he shows up to work clean-shaven for the first time since before Kanda was hired. The sudden change was inspired by an impending family visit - Tachibana's aunt and grandmother stop by the bakery. Ono and Kanda are confused and amazed during their entire visit. It seems that both women think Tachibana is a perfect angel, a sheltered young man who should be worried over and looked after. Kanda is really angry with Tachibana for putting on such a "perfect little rich boy" act, which Tachibana says he does because he doesn't want them to worry about him. Only two pages later, Yoshinaga hits readers with the big revelation--

You know how, in my post for the first volume, I wondered if the second volume was going to refer back to earlier events? Well, it definitely does. I only mentioned it a little, but there was a former police officer in the first volume who, years ago, managed to find a kidnapped boy but failed to capture the kidnapper. Tachibana was the kidnapped boy. Mr. Tadahiro, the former police officer, didn't recognize him in the first volume because of the stubble (he really does look a lot different when he's clean-shaven). Anyway, not only was Tachibana the kidnapped boy, the kidnapper apparently loved cake and gave little Tachibana cake every day (I'm not sure if Yoshinaga ever mentions how long Tachibana was gone, but it was long enough for his hair to grow out some).

So, little details are possibly explained now (or they still don't make sense - whatever). The cake thing could be why Tachibana doesn't like sweets (although, emotionally, that dislike is pretty low-key if the kidnapping really is the root of it all). Tachibana's nightmare, earlier in the volume - probably something to do with the kidnapping. His close relationship with Chikage - not sure yet, but, again, probably something to do with the kidnapping or events after he was found. Tachibana's grandmother and aunt seem shocked when Tachibana does his usual "let's describe the sweet stuff in lovely and mouth-watering ways" thing, and his grandmother mentions that she was worried when he suddenly decided to open a bakery - all this probably has something to do with the cake-loving kidnapper thing. Actually, considering that, it's pretty amazing that Tachibana willingly decided to work around cakes and other sweet things all day long. Could it be that he decided to open the bakery just to see if he could stand it? Or - and this could be a little out there - is he hoping the kidnapper might one day walk into his bakery?

When I read the first volume, I remember thinking it was a little odd how easily Tachibana's parents went along with his sudden declaration that he planned to open a bakery. In fact, they not only went along with it, the fully supported him - Tachibana's father was the one who found Ono, the genius pastry chef. With the whole cake thing, it probably worried them a bit, but they've gotten so used to coddling and protecting Tachibana over the years that they couldn't help but support him. I'm impressed they didn't send Chikage after him sooner.

Eh, I must stop, or I'll go on forever trying to relate absolutely everything to the kidnapping.

Oh, I can't wait until I get the next volume. Our ILL staff is amazing - this 2nd volume was especially difficult for them to get, because there was no nice and easy record for just the 2nd volume in WorldCat. The nice thing about working right next to ILL is that they could come by and chat with me about the best way to hunt the volume down. The third volume should hopefully be easier.

(Once again, I have problems thinking up read-alikes and watch-alikes. This list does have some new stuff, but not much.)

Read-alikes and Watch-alikes:

• Yakitate!! Japan (manga) by Takashi Hashiguchi - Azuma Kazuma's goal is to make Ja-pan - every country except Japan seems to have its own national bread, and Azuma wants to correct this by making bread that would fit in with Japanese cuisine and be loved as much as rice. In pursuit of this goal, Azuma finds work at a branch of Pantasia, a famous bread-making chain. Bread-making isn't a sport, but you wouldn't always know it from reading Yakitate!! Japan - in this wacky manga, people bake the craziest things (which usually have some sort of basis in real-life breads), competing rabidly against one another. The feel of this manga is nothing like Antique Bakery - although this manga is also humorous, its humor is wackier than Antique Bakery's, and it doesn't have that same undercurrent of seriousness. However, readers who'd like another manga featuring mouthwatering foods might want to try this.
• Honey and Clover (manga) by Chika Umino - (This popular manga has spawned both anime and live action shows, none of which I've listed here - check out Anime News Network if you'd like to know a little more about them.) This "slice of life" manga focuses primarily on a group of art college students - their friendships, dramas, and loves. Those who liked Antique Bakery's mix of humor and seriousness, character-driven story, and focus on relationships may enjoy this manga.
  
• Bartender (manga) by Araki Joh (story) and Kenji Nagatomo (art); Bartender (anime TV series) - Ryu Sasakura is a genius bartender who makes the most incredible cocktails anyone has ever tasted. Customers of all kinds come to his bar, and Ryu uses his talents to help each one with their worries and problems. This is another character-driven "slice of life" story. In addition, those who enjoyed Antique Bakery's lovely and well-described pastries and cakes may enjoy Bartender's various drinks. (It is very bad of me to include this in the list, because neither the anime nor the manga are available in the US yet. But, oh, I wish - I've read some very nice blog posts about the anime.)
• Emma (manga) by Kaoru Mori; Emma: A Victorian Romance (anime TV series), continues with Emma: A Victorian Romance Second Act (anime TV series) - If you found yourself really enjoying the cake and pastry-making details, you may like the lovely historical details in Emma. The story is set in Victorian England. Emma is a maid and William is a member of the gentry. The two fall in love, but how can they have a future when their class differences keep pulling them apart?
• Fruits Basket (anime TV series); Fruits Basket (manga) by Natsuki Takaya - Tohru had been living with her grandfather after her mother died, but circumstances and Tohru's own desire not to be a burden meant that she ended up living alone in a tent for a while. However, she gets taken in by the Sohma family, who are hiding a secret - certain members of the family turn into animals in the Chinese zodiac when they're weak or hugged by a member of the opposite sex. Both the manga and anime are good - the anime follows the manga pretty closely (except for a few things, and the last episode), but it ends well before the manga does. Like Antique Bakery, this series has a fairly "calm" feel to it overall - also like Antique Bakery, it occasionally hits you with some jaw-dropping revelations that make it clear there's more to the characters than their light, fluffy surfaces let on.
  

Antique Bakery (manga, vol. 1) by Fumi Yoshinaga

This volume begins with what might be the most horrible moment in Yusuke Ono's life - just before graduating from high school, he confesses his love to the gorgeous and popular Tachibana (who happens to be a guy). Instead of just letting poor Ono run off after the confession, Tachibana feels the need to tell him that the confession grosses him out and makes him want to puke. As if that wasn't bad enough, he then tells Ono "Hurry up and die, you homo!!"

The volume skips forward a year, showing a young girl in junior high, trying to remain unnoticed as several other girls verbally abuse someone named Urushihara. Then the volume skips forward 11 years, to show promising young boxer and pastry lover Eiji Kanda as he wins yet another match, only to find out that he has detached retinas and must give up boxing. Finally, the story jumps to the present day as a businessman guilt-trips his son into studying and settles down to enjoy some desert. The son had been watching a television report about unsolved crimes, including the kidnapping of a young boy. Although the boy was found, his abductor never was.

The volume then focuses on two women, who turn out to be Miss Urushihara and the wallflower girl (Miss Ito) from the little junior high snippet at the beginning. They chat a bit and agree to meet again. On her way home, Miss Ito stumbles across a tiny bakery in a residential area that, amazingly enough, is still open even though it's late. Although the stubbly guy who greets her makes her a little nervous at first, the bakery's teas, coffees, cakes, and pastries all sound so good that she stays to buy something. Before she leaves, the father who guilt-tripped his son earlier also comes in to order something.

This is a very character-focused manga. Some parts focus on particular customers - Miss Ito and Miss Urushihara, the pastry/cake connoisseur father who used to be a police officer, and a boxer and his girlfriend. That's the first part of the volume. During the last third or so of the volume, the Antique Bakery and the three men who work in it are the focus. Readers get to see the bakery's beginnings - when Ono was first hired, when Kanda was first hired, and how Tachibana became so well-versed in cakes and pastries, despite not actually liking them.

I'll admit, I didn't really know what to expect when I got this manga. I wanted to read it because the title kept popping up in books and articles I've read, and I fell in love with a page of its artwork (page 158 of this volume, actually) I saw in a book. The first few pages seemed darker and more serious than the stuff I normally read, but I figured I'd continue - then I could say I read one volume, and if I didn't want to read the next that was my decision. Well, although it has its serious moments, the overall volume was much funnier than I expected. Yoshinaga inserts something funny into almost all of the serious moments (the one big exception being Ono's horrible high school rejection). For instance, when Kanda finds out he has to quit boxing, his trainer tells him not to worry - "I may not look it, but I've got some powerful connections...Like at a ramen restaurant or a ramen restaurant or a ramen restaurant." Then there are bits that are just plain funny, like Mr. Tadahiro's very brief courtship of Miss Sawako - it shouldn't take much for the reader to figure out why Mr. Tadahiro is proposing already (even if Miss Sawako's mother can't figure it out) and it says a lot about him and what he's like. Basic character development combined with humor - yay!

Besides the humor, I also enjoyed the story structure. Yoshinaga often shows things out of sequence, either with flashbacks that aren't fully comprehensible until the reader has seen other events, or by revealing characters' stories in bits and pieces. I read the volume a second time immediately after finishing it for the first time, so that I could catch more of the nuances. I wonder if the second volume will refer back to events in the first volume? Anyway, some things take only a chapter to unfold. For instance, one of the reasons Tachibana's story about Miss Ito and Miss Urushihara (Tachibana seems to enjoy making up detailed, on-the-fly stories about customers) is so plausible is because Yoshinaga has staged several panels so that it does seem plausible to readers. However, almost immediately after Tachibana concocts his story, it is revealed to be wrong - so readers can reread the chapter from a new perspective not based on wild speculation.

Other things take the entire volume to unfold. One example: the father from the beginning of the volume is revealed to be the police officer involved in the kidnapping investigation, the one in which the kidnapper was never found. (I do admit that I find it odd that, after one failure, he commits himself to eating fine cakes and pastries for the next 22 years.) Another example: Ono and Tachibana's connection to one another. I admit, his name and appearance should have tipped me off, but I didn't immediately connect the Tachibana of the present with the Tachibana of the past, mainly because it seemed incomprehensible to me that Ono would be able to work so peacefully with someone who had once hurt him so badly. During my reread, I realized that, although Ono says everything is fine between him and Tachibana, he definitely still thinks about and is saddened by Tachibana's rejection of him. I wonder what will happen between them in future volumes? Present day Tachibana doesn't seem to care that Ono is gay, as long as Ono continues to work for him ("the legendary cake master," "the genius pastry chef," etc.) and doesn't try to hit on him too much. I seriously doubt, however, that Tachibana will ever hop into bed with Ono, and it doesn't seem too healthy for Ono to keep going through lovers like potato chips.

Overall, this first volume of Antique Bakery was very enjoyable. I love the artwork and the humor. There's not much of what you might call "story," unless you count the stories that grow from the characters - those are wonderful. Oh, if only Digital Manga Publishing weren't one of the expensive publishers (this first volume is $12.95, although I'm sure there are websites and stores that sell it for less). That said, the people in the interlibrary loan department at my library had to call me over just to figure out how to request the second volume, so I may end up having the buy the rest of the series after all - my consolation is that I now know the series is worth the cost.

My biggest problem right now - Antique Bakery has given me a huge craving for pretty, delicious pastries and cakes, with (as far as I know) no place in town capable of satisfying it.

Read-alikes and Watch-alikes:

• Yakitate!! Japan (manga) by Takashi Hashiguchi - Azuma Kazuma's goal is to make Ja-pan - every country except Japan seems to have its own national bread, and Azuma wants to correct this by making bread that would fit in with Japanese cuisine and be loved as much as rice. In pursuit of this goal, Azuma finds work at a branch of Pantasia, a famous bread-making chain. Bread-making isn't a sport, but you wouldn't always know it from reading Yakitate!! Japan - in this wacky manga, people bake the craziest things (which usually have some sort of basis in real-life breads), competing rabidly against one another. The feel of this manga is nothing like Antique Bakery - although this manga is also humorous, its humor is wackier than Antique Bakery's, and it doesn't have that same undercurrent of seriousness. However, readers who'd like another manga featuring mouthwatering foods might want to try this.
• Honey and Clover (manga) by Chika Umino - (This popular manga has spawned both anime and live action shows, none of which I've listed here - check out Anime News Network if you'd like to know a little more about them.) This "slice of life" manga focuses primarily on a group of art college students - their friendships, dramas, and loves. Those who liked Antique Bakery's mix of humor and seriousness, character-driven story, and focus on relationships may enjoy this manga.
  
• Bartender (manga) by Araki Joh (story) and Kenji Nagatomo (art); Bartender (anime TV series) - Ryu Sasakura is a genius bartender who makes the most incredible cocktails anyone has ever tasted. Customers of all kinds come to his bar, and Ryu uses his talents to help each one with their worries and problems. This is another character-driven "slice of life" story. In addition, those who enjoyed Antique Bakery's lovely and well-described pastries and cakes may enjoy Bartender's various drinks. (It is very bad of me to include this in the list, because neither the anime nor the manga are available in the US yet. But, oh, I wish - I've read some very nice blog posts about the anime.)