Audience reviews
15 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
duckingaround
It's a heartfelt and warm anime- The journey that the four main characters took, the character development, and growth were completely on point and realistic. It's not just some random queer baity anime (Though one character is in fact gay), but an anime that centers itself on people's stories, their backgrounds, and I'm sure that anyone would relate to them, even if it's just a little. There were also moments of suspense, in the midst of mostly calm and normal scenes in the anime, when Tachibana recovered his memories, and revealed who the kidnapper was. Antique bakery is something you'd look for when you're looking for slice of life animes, and it genuinely did not fail to take my breath away. I found comfort in the characters, in their very distinct personalities, in their uniqueness, i…
Read at the sourceLunaPKL
A light anime that reminds me of Bartender, just a mellow anime celebrating desserts. The MC opens a cake shop with his childhood friend to catch a killer, however if you're expecting a deep mystery or a compelling BL romance, then this isn't it. It's just a light anime about four guys running a cake shop, every episode also shows off some of the prettiest sweets I've seen. The ending is a bit unsatisfying, but you'll have fun if you don't take it too seriously. One downside is if you don't like the opening song then don't bother watching it, since every scene either has the instrumental version as piano or violin. I loved the opening song so I didn't mind, but by episode 8 it was too big not to notice. Also I have to stress, THIS IS NOT A ROMANCE. There are BL characters and BL scenes, bu…
Read at the sourceunluckyprimes
The problem with this show is that it doesn't quite know what it wants to be. Is it a charming, found-family, slice of life about a bakery? Or a dark crime mystery about survivor's guilt and PTSD?
UNCLEAR.
The tone is all over the place sometimes and it doesn't have any clue how to strike a balance. It pulls off most of the slice of life stuff pretty well, though there are some weird 2008-style tropes about gay characters that are more than a little off-putting at times. Still, even with all of that, there's surprisingly little "romance" for what I was told was BL.
Beyond that, and the real reason I struggled with this is the absolute disregard it has for abusive relationships.
Ono's ex-boyfriend literally beats the shit out of him (off screen) and threatens to break his hand (on scree…
Read at the sourceElla_Yo2001
If you are looking for some yaoi action or BL (boys love) unfortunately this anime is not really the case. Even though we have a character who is gay, the story doesn't focus a lot on it.
This anime has kind of a dark storie that happend to one of the main characters when he was a kid and how his life changed after it.
Some episodes made me laugh a lot and some were pretty cute. Chigake is a sweetheart, one of my favorite in this anime.
It was not a great anime, but I still enjoyed watching it.
If you want to know more about how their lives goes after the anime, I really recommend the manga called "Seiyou Kottou Yougashiten dj", there, we DO have some action LOL.
Read at the sourceUnconfidence
So, I liked this anime quite a bit. It wasn't anything overly extraordinary, but it did execute a number of concepts very well with other anime struggle with.
One of the main things I'd like to mention is how they treated homosexuality in the series. The thing is, with anime there's usually a strong dividing line between "Gay Anime" and "Straight Anime". If anime is "gay-centric" it'll be a romance either centered around gay men or gay women exclusively. But this anime does something different, where it introduces gay and bi characters, but makes them and their romantic situations incidental to the overall plotline. In every other anime I've seen featuring gay men, either it's a Shounen Ai in which the romance IS the plot, or the gay character is just some comedic side character. This sho…
Read at the sourceweeaboogers
I stumbled upon this bad boy one night while searching for shonen-ai.
Now don't get me wrong- it's KIND OF shonen-ai but definitely not enough for it to be classed as that. I don't know if it's different in the manga but- well, I was kind of disappointed.
Nevertheless I actually found this a pretty interesting anime. The premise was kind of nice, the animation wasn't awful to look at (unlike most shonen-ai) and the opening was a bit of techno bop that I did not expect. The character designs were also quite refreshing. There was no seme/uke bull and the characters actually seemed like more than just the tropes of the genre.
The whole dramatic backstory/ sideplot thing was ridiculous and I hated it but I also lowkey loved it but literally nothing happens with it.
Likes; the opening, the ch…
Read at the sourcewhatchamini
Honestly I have no idea how anyone could give this show a score above a 5. Typically I do not even finish shows that I deem a 5 or lower, but for some reason I kept on hoping it would get better.
Nope.
TDLR: Please do not waste your time watching this anime. It is mediocre at BEST.
Story: 3
Lets be honest: The premise is stupid. A guy decides to drop everything to open a cake shop in order to one day catch the man who kidnapped him because the man made him eat cake every day. However, even with such a dumb premise, there can often be other good qualities or even side stories that make up for this (like romance!). However nothing saved the story. There were no romance stories, no resolution at the end of the 12 dull episodes, nothing. Just terrible all around.
Art: 3
Most of the time if…
Read at the sourceCabernetRose
I greatly enjoyed Antique Bakery. It was very refreshing to find a "light" comedy without the use of annoying, overreacting characters. The series started out very light-hearted and relaxing, and the darkness creeps up on you, hovering just a little while until the end of the series ends, and it takes off with a sigh. Nothing big, no major climax - save for the "fake" climax near the end.
Art:
I noticed some figure poses were drawn awkwardly - noticed in the first scene with the boy running. The series uses CGI background juxtaposed against the drawn characters. At first, this contrast seemed strange, but I got used to it. The CGI itself reminds me of playing a point-and-click game that tries to make itself appear realistic; those end up being quite beautiful. The actual character art ap…
Read at the sourceT-hime
I usually don't write anime reviews. However, I had to with Antique Bakery. It gives off a slice of life feeling. It's realistic, with its anime points. The real scenery and objects are not what I'm talking about. That threw me for a loop, it's been a while since I've seen an anime where everything is not animated. Antique Bakery conveys that a face to face confrontation with one's past are not options for some. In most anime the person that hurt the protagonist always shows his head in the series. Really, though, what are the chances of that happening. Even if you past them in the street if it happened like 10 years ago, would you really know it's them. Antique Bakery is funny and tragic(don't worry not enough to cry, a hint,). It's entertaining while getting you to know all four characte…
Read at the sourcecookieminx
First time I ever watched this, I had to stop at episode 3 go to the nearest shop and by buns and cakes :/ but that totally off the point. I really did love the art work on this anime and alongside the characters I found this anime to be enjoyable, addictive and something I just finding myself going back to - just like cakes :) totally worth the watch but make sure to have something sweet on hand throughout (This totally has to become a written warning at the beginning of the anime)
^_^
Read at the sourceindi135
I was pleasantly suprised by this anime, as it was not what I expected. There is a beautiful and real story interwoven into the overriding plot-line. Though the gender and sexual orientation of the characters comes into play and drives the plot, these issues serve as support for a more complex set of interactions. In many ways this anime manages to escape the mold cast for most other anime I have seen. The feeling that the characters are real and struggle in a real world allows the viewer to quickly and easily connect with them.
The biggest con to the show was the artwork, which had a strange combination of computer generated background with flat animated characters. I have seen this style incorporated in other anime, but I don't prefer it myself. Though the CG background can be more det…
Read at the sourceshadowfireflame
Four hot guys, some of whom are questioning their sexuality, decide to band together and run a bakery in this low-budget anime. While this one is pretty lighthearted, some of the characters' backstories are quite creepy; these guys have been through a lot.
I didn't really like Ono, the kind of stereotypically gay pastry chef, but I loved Kanda, the boxer, and Tachibana, the owner. And Tachibana's psuedo-bodyguard, Chikage, has a backstory that is really sweet. This anime won't change your life or anything, but it's short and sweet with some unexpectedly meaningful parts.
Read at the sourceBishounen_Hunter
Gay anime [shounen-ai & yaoi] in general get no real respect from the industry do they? That's the thing that has always irked me in the back of my mind when watching shounen-ai anime. The fact that they are either cheaply made or that they lacked any real story beyond being “gay gay gay and GAY!” From Gravitation right up to Junjou Romantica, it's always the same no matter what [All EXCEPT Loveless, perhaps, but that was incomplete]. Antique Bakery is probably the only gay anime in existence that has a significant story beyond the standard-stereotypical gay plot, For this reason alone Antique Bakery has my utmost respect.
~Art
Just the OP sequence alone gets a 10! Because watching this series, it's pretty obvious they were on a tight budget but that didn't stop them from putting out what…
Read at the sourceLaAmaya
It was a really enjoyable anime. For first, art. It was average, nothing special but you can watch without harm. Music seemed a little weird for the first time, but when you get used to it, it gets better and begins to perfectly fit the anime. Plot is kind of lazy and slow. Four guys running a bakery, light shonen-ai from time to time, some boxing- and kidnapping-thingy and lots of yummy cakes. There is no fast action or heart stopping moments - if u're looking for them, u can already give up on watching this. But the thing is, that anime has really specific mood. It gave me some nostalgic, calm feeling. Altough there were funny moments, too (especially when Chikage was involved). I liked it because of the ballance and the moment of tranquility in the busy, daily life that it gave me. I'm…
Read at the sourcekiriska
In which a man still has traumatizing memories of being kidnapped and forced to eat cake, so he opens up a cake shop in hopes of catching his long-ago tormenter. ...Seriously.
STORY - The absurdity of the above summary still surprises me sometimes, but if nothing else, I have to give Antique Bakery props for being unique. The bakery element is pretty original in itself, but I was more impressed to see an easygoing comedy/slice of life-ish series involving mostly-ordinary, adult characters in their thirties. That Tachibana has reoccurring nightmares involving cake is very, very laughable to me, but thankfully, even though that could be considered the main plot of the series, it usually takes a backseat to the everyday shenanigans around the bakery, which I find infinitely more entertaining…
Read at the source