~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 has got to be one of the most original and stylish opening credits I've ever seen for an anime. Using little “cardboard cut-outs” of the characters and placing them in a tiny rotating model of the Antique Bakery Shop...is just downright innovative and pretty fucking fierce you gotta admit! Watching it always puts me in a good mood. The ED sequence was also pretty good, I love how they played with the various character images, deconstructing and reconstructing them into little jigsaw puzzle pieces. It all matched the music 100%!
But one thing with the art I do have an issue with, and that's the choice of colors and the shading style. As much as I appreciate how much they have preserved the original character designs from the manga, I truly felt the coloring was a little too subtle and understated, and also, I wasn't too impressed with the shading which they seem to rely too heavily on smudging the colors. Artistically, you shouldn't really use smudging as your primary way for blending colors/shadows because if you use it for everything then aesthetically the work looks “smudgy” dirty or untidy. The smudging technique works great for some shadows or “tan-lines” but that's about it. Besides that, though I though was awesome was that the backgrounds were all CGI. But I'm still giving the art high marks...because I know they did not have the same budget as....say, Naruto or Inuyasha!
~Sound
The music is great, I love both the OP and the ED theme songs, it could be because it's the same song, and the same band but sung differently [I thought that was very cool] It also be because of the art sequences used for each of them, I'm not sure, but I liked the music very much. I watched the show in Japanese audio, which was good.
~Story
This is one of the few gay anime series [if not, THE ONLY ONE that I've seen] out there that actually offers a good story that's not entirely about just being a gay man and/or dealing with the stereotypical gay issues. Yes, Oro is an openly gay person [I doubt I'd consider him "flamboyant" as he isn't walking around in stilettos and butt-less chaps or anything...but he's a little effeminate] and a few of the episodes do deal with the personal aspects of his life but the entire series was not exclusively dedicated to him and his issues. If you have ever watched Gravitation [which I also liked] then you will understand what I meant. Gravitation was very much about just being gay, at least a good chunk of the story is only about Suuichi and Yuki and them being gay men or whatever...and I found it tiresome sometimes. Yuki's story, about him killing someone when he was a kid [seemed a lot more interesting] and even Suuichi's singing career all seemed secondary and incidental compared to the OVERWHELIMINGLY gay theme.
With Antique Bakery, the gayness is not the main story,...it's actually one side story, the main story is revolves around Keichiro Tachibana, his insistence in opening up a pastry shoppe and the surrounding traumas behind his mysterious kidnapping over 23 years ago.
This is a wonderful story that's being told really well with a lot of humor, the time flies by and you're never left wondering what is the point of the show...and “why are you watching it?” Which is the way I've been feeling about a lot of anime shows lately.
~Characters
I love a small cast! I love the intimacy between the characters. I like being able to fully appreciate each person that's introduced to me and you can only get that with a small cast. Especially if it's a 13 episode series, you can't afford to have a large cast because you won't fully develop the characters into believable personalities. Baccano! was a great anime with a very LARGE cast, however each character demonstrated only one side to their personality as if each character represented a particular emotion [and somehow it worked for that anime] but on the average a large cast in a 13 episode series usually spells disaster as far as character development is concerned. With Antique Bakery we get to fully enjoy all for main characters and their histories. With a small 4 person cast like this I can't pick a favorite because they all held a special importance and they each have something I like very much. The only gripe I have, as I have said in the Art-Section is that I think the designs were fabulous but the color and shading choices were not right. With a cake shoppe you want colors to be vivid [which the did for the desserts and the background] but the characters were washed out looking.
~Verdict
I first came across this title from the movie of the same title...and it was a great movie! Very funny and romantic with very nice F/X. The series is just as funny and endearing and I do like how they play with the backgrounds to convey a character's emotions. I recommend everyone to check out the movie if they love the anime...the move is awesome!
This, in my opinion, is the best shounen-ai anime title out there by far! It's two closest competitors "Gravitation" is kinda childish and "Loveless" which seems to have an awesome story but is incomplete. every other shounen-ai title I've seen is just very silly and not worth mentioning. Which is sad because there are some pretty good shounen-ai mangas out there.
