Bonjour♪Koiaji Pâtisserie

(This has been adapted from my reddit thread)

With a show like Bonjour♪Koiaji Pâtisserie (which will be shortened to "Bonjour" from here on out), one is supposed to relate with, to some extent, the main heroine and the cast surrounding her. We're supposed to understand the situations, the happenings, or the predicaments that they're found in. Or at the minimum, at least understand what message the anime is attempting to portray. But behind all of the cakes, hunks, and pretty art lies something sinister: practically nothing.

STORY

Bonjour stars Sayuri Haruno, a young high school girl looking to make a name for herself in the hobby of making ... sweets. Therefore, she enrolls in Fleurir Confectionary Academy, where she meets her friends and professors for the coming year.

This is quite the difficult anime to talk about. Bonjour is technically classified as a harem -- or with further anime jargon, a reverse harem. But that's where the show's problems begin. When it comes to harems of either the male or female variety, it's paramount that the harem-ers show some sort of interest towards the person of their affection. Yet, Bonjour doesn't do this; rather, it shows only one character do this, Ryou...but then subsequently forces him into the friend-zone with a literal handshake and nothing more. It's even stranger for the rest of the cast, because what is given isn't emotional connections or loving feelings but a teacher-student relationship. Which is understandable, given that those are their positions within the school. But then what is the overall point? With nobody to cheer for, with nobody to cheer against, then it fails as a harem and succeeds as being this weird amalgamation of "friends."

Even if one ignores the harem aspect, the only remaining part to fall back on is its slice-of-life foundation. But again, it cannot hold itself up. Many of the events can most certainly be classified as slice-of-life: snowball fights, getting a cold, and going hiking are some of the very simple scenarios that take place. There just isn't any substance to any of what goes on. With the harem already having failed, it becomes evident why this is the case, since most encounters generally never contain feelings that go beyond a good friendship. Furthermore, much of what goes on never serves any true purpose. It just comes off as the cast going through their day-to-day lives without meaning much of anything to themselves or to the audience. And catapulting off this, the show is supposed to be about all-things sweets, candies, and desserts. Sticking true to its established roots, though, it fails to use even its backdrop in a meaningful way. The creation of the various foods is sometimes prioritized in a focused manner for aesthetic appeal (in terms of the food and the guys), but it's never used to further the characters' development or the story. An argument can be had for the near ending "battle" that takes place, but that, too, is forgotten quite quickly, only furthering the already ineptitude of the series' direction.

ANIMATION

Bonjour's strongest point is found here, with its overall art and animation.

The art for the show is usually quite pretty, even given their usual, central location. This is perhaps due to the show's use of lighting and varied day-and-nighttime events. The school itself is appropriate, with its different classrooms, kitchens, and grounds. It also regularly moves outside the school, to the city, parks, or other shops, to spice up the environments. Perhaps as an attempt to keep the viewer at least marginally interested as to what is going on.

The character designs are the highlight, with their overall level of detail and apparent quality to be quite high. Each has this certain sheen to them, which allows them to almost sparkle or standout in a positive way. Sayuri's design is especially nice, with her intricate hair and many outfits. The guys, from Ryou to Mitsuki, are also detailed in such a way. Their most obvious feature is a particular color, but that doesn't take away from how well each was designed.

Finally, actual animation is around average. There aren't too many opportunities for the show to have the characters move about in complex or nuanced ways, usually falling on easy mouth movements or other nonchalant activities. The anime does step it up slightly during the aforementioned dessert-crafting scenes, but those are too far and few between to be considerably noteworthy.

CHARACTERS

Sadly, Bonjour's troubles continue here with its characters.

...And again, it's very difficult to talk about them at length. The problem is that the majority serve nothing besides the food they make. Gilbert is somewhat clumsy yet kind at heart; Yoshinosuke is stern yet caring; Mitsuki is completely understanding; and Ryou is unnerving on the outside yet sweet on the inside. Each of their characterizations is fine, but after their initial showings, they don't help Sayuri develop in any way. They sort of provide different perspectives on life and the way to handle going about weird issues that normally have to be dealt with, but such themes are never explicit nor are they compelling for the viewer taking part in the experience.

Unfortunately, Sayuri fairs about the same as well. This is most likely due to her harem being extremely weak. But like them, outside of her affable personality and super-nice self, she isn't known to have received much treatment in terms of personal growth, despite her coming to the academy to purportedly become a high-class pastry chef. She has these minimal, grounded experiences that allow her to see that what one should cherish are the people and experiences around you. This is reverberated a bit throughout the show at certain points, and during that already-talked-about final battle. Still, even given that she comes to realize that the best things in life are "close to home," it doesn't excuse the fact that, execution-wise, she doesn't seem to improve. The end of the show demonstrates this; she still has no idea that life's events aren't so come-and-go. She begins wanting to have a fun time at school, and ends wanting nearly the same thing.

Imagine the characters as particular treats. Sayuri is the cupcake, topped with decadent frosting and lively sprinkles. Ryou is a chocolate piece hiding a creamy, caramel center. Mitsuki is "rainbow flavored" ice cream. Yoshinosuke is an edge-brownie, with its less-chew-able back. And Gilbert is a crumbly cookie cooked to perfection. Alone, they sound pretty good and possibly for some, when combined into one, it sounds like sugar-heaven. But when one does mesh them all together, what you are left with isn't a delicate, delectable dessert but an inedible, unsatisfactory mess that leaves a horrible taste in the mouth.

SOUND

The OP is filled with drums, pianos, and rather grating vocals. The shaker in the background, the clapping, and the whimsical chimes try to elevate the piece, but it falls flat instead.

The first ED is somewhat fast, with the singers working in unison. The guitar and drums make up the majority of the beat in the beginning, but eventually ends with a flute-y tone that finishes the piece on a literal and figurative high note. The track is okay, but not particularly interesting.

The second ED has more dual-singing, with a much catchier beat generated by the very simple drum and guitar playing. The chimes are present here again, but the track ends on a more melancholic note than the others. Aside from being able to bob one's head to it easily, the track is nothing to phone home about.

The anime's soundtrack is somewhat strange, in that many of the pieces feel oddly too short for their own good. There are more fitting pieces such as the Spanish-sounding, maraca-and-harmonica track and unfitting, joke tunes for the more comedic moments. Again, unlike some of the OPs and EDs it is sandwiched between, though, the OST is entirely forgettable.

And when regarding the voice-acting work, those involved were around average across the board. No special shout-outs are to be had for this one.

ENJOYMENT

The show tries, as much as it can, to be funny. Most of the time, it involves the side characters, such as Tsubaki -- the girl who "hates" Sayuri -- and Nadeshiko -- the president of the school -- but their repetitive nature and gags quickly degraded whatever comedic value this one may have been trying to grab.

When the "romance" scenarios were given the chance to play out, going along with what has already been said, there just wasn't enough there. Ryou being on a dating game with Sayuri, the two enjoying a snow-filled park, or her and Mitsuki gazing at the starry, nighttime sky; each sounds very romantic. But in practice within the anime, it's quite lame to see the same outcome is always had: not being able to tell one way or the other how each of the characters feels about each other.

Bonjour♪Koiaji Pâtisserie is supposed to be an anime about pastries, harems, and enjoying life. But instead what is found is a lame story, a troupe of awful characters, and quite the boring experience. It's only saving grace is the nice art and animation, but that's not enough to keep this dessert from burning.

SUMMARY

Story: Terrible, fails as a harem, fails as a slice-of-life, and the backdrop serves no purpose

Animation: Good, nice art, good character designs, average actual animation

Characters: Terrible, uninteresting, boring, never seem to do much of anything

Sound: Bad, bad OP, okay first ED, okay second ED, bad soundtrack, okay VA work

Enjoyment: Bad, not very funny and the "romance" present is lackluster

Final Score: 2/10

For starters, I just watched this anime because it was a reverse harem. As there is very little in that genre, I thought I should give it a try, and I'm going to be truthful and say that this anime was quite a waste of my time.

Story: I assumed that the story would be something interesting, but it turned out to be a rip-off of Yumeiro Patissiere. This was incredibly uninteresting and evoked no emotion from me.

Art: I give a tiny bit of kudos to the "bishounen" styled art as they had good sense of fashion and the colors complimented each other, but the fact ... that the little "romance" scenes were so flowery and cutesy made me want to gag a bit. I also noticed some weird things going on with their eyes or hair here and there, like the were glitching or seemed out of place.

Sound: The sounds was okay, it was very childish and did not seem too romantic. It's soundtrack did not improve the animation in any way. On the other hand, the voice actors and actresses were.. alright. They did not stand out to me too much, besides the fact that their voices would get all high and squeaky, which annoys me. A LOT.

Character: I expected more development of the characters, but did not see any, besides the fact that their fashion sense was really good at the last episode.

Enjoyment: I did not really enjoy it. It was like a boring train ride.

Overall: Well, my thoughts right now is "at least I got this anime done and over with". Nothing in this anime really struck me emotionally, but only visually. I think this anime is only good for it's eye-candy, otherwise if you are looking for something that is cute all the way through, I recommend this. Though beware, do not expect any memorable things. This is something that you could probably watch if you have some free time to throw away.

This show is the cutest thing ever! The artwork drew me in when I came across this title. Its funny I was not expecting the episodes to be around five minutes. It didn't look like one of those short episode animes. Which sort of drew away from the story being its best. The first episode was 3 minutes long and I stared at the screen and said "That's it?" and I laughed. I still really like this show other than the pacing of the story. They could have done so much more with it. The music really set the atmosphere for the show and also ... all the sparkles. The opening song gets stuck in my head, it is so catchy that I accidently started singing it in choir instead of paying attention haha,it was very embarrassing because my friend looked at me confused. The artwork is like something you would see in a dating sim which is funny because I heard there is a otome dating sim that the anime was based off of. I think this show could have had 24 minutes per episode but its okay, that is just how they made it. The main character is very likable and cute just like a dessert. funny, it is a show about patisseries and there are so many cute sweets in the show. Also I like the main characters realationship with her friend, even though the episodes are short and sometimes skip ahead in the story, you can tell they are truly best friends. Also all of the guys in the show are so cute! I love them all! I would give this show a rating of 8/10.

I had been watching a lot of gory and heavy anime as of late, so I thought I would take a change of pace and go for a nice harem school life sort - you know, just to sit and enjoy. ‘Bonjour’ was just what I needed to clear my mind before I delved into darker and murkier waters again. And with the series having just finished up this last Friday it made it easy to binge watch it.

Story: 6/10
Now if you’ve played Otome games before or have watched other anime based off of an otome game then you wouldn't be surprised by the plot ... of the show. I’m not going to dive very much into it, but for those of you who haven’t watched/played one before here’s the gist of the plot: Cute girl goes to a specialty school, she meets all the boys who will eventually come to like her, there is a rule in the school that disbars relationships, hijinks and fun times ensue with each boy getting their own special one on one time with the girl. Needless to say, the plot was standard at best.
It basically felt like you were watching someone playing the game and experiencing standard dialogue and comedic scenes (and making pastries!). This isn’t a bad thing, but it brought nothing new to the table. The upside is though that the episodes are only 5 minutes long, so you could easily watch the entire series in an hour and a half, maybe even an hour if you skip opening and ending themes.

Sound: 6/10
Just like the story, the music sounded like it came straight from the game - so it was nothing spectacular. The opening and ending themes were short and to the point, which I especially liked. It comprised of the main male cast singing, which was pleasant to listen to. All the voice actors did a good job in their roles, playing their respective characters well. My favorite out of the cast though was Ran Mochizuki , who I thought was hilarious, and always made me laugh every time that she spoke.

Art and Animation: 8/10
The show was bright and colorful, and the deserts absolutely looked DELICIOUS. The scenery was beautiful too with the coloring setting the ambiance of the show very. However, I thought the characters looked somewhat generic. Granted, there are only so many different ways you can draw the heroine and her band of good looking love interests. And there’s nothing wrong with the heroine looking generic, because you are supposed to be able to insert yourself and become the main character. What made me sad was that I didn't particularly find any of the guys that appealing looking. Yes, they were pretty (I guess), yes they had great and eye catching hair color, but they didn't look DIFFERENT compared to any of the men that I have seen in similar series. If I had to pick any one of them on looks alone it would probably be Ryou.

Character: 7/10
Once again we see standard otome game character dynamics. Sayuri is a classic Mary sue who tries her best at everything and has a real talent for pastry making, but is of course insecure about her abilities. She is wildly popular, except by for the one mean girl and her backup possy that dislike her for no good reason. Ran is the best friend that tags along and encourages Sayuri, while staying out of the spotlight. Tsubaki is the mean girl who self declares herself Sayuri’s rival as a chef; her purpose is to provide comedy.
Mitsuki is lovable and good natured, Gilbert is foreign and of course ignorant of Japanese ways, Yoshinozuke is quiet and can be serious but has a gentle side as well after you get to know him, and Ryou is the tough guy and can be scary but is the one who ends up showing the strongest feelings for Sayuri. Like I said - pretty standard. Their backstories are lightly touched on and have just a tad of drama/sadness to give them a darker side without ruining the general light and fluffy feel of the show.

Overall: 6/10
Overall the show was just standard. There was nothing about it that broke away from the basic reverse harem/otome game genre. Now I’m not saying this is a bad thing because it’s a staple for a reason. It’s familiar and comfortable and easy to get into right away. Like I said, this was a nice show to start spring break with and to get away from the dark stuff and from the stress of exams. But if you are trying to find something that’s new or exciting or has a little flair, then this show might not be for you.

Story: This anime, short anime at that, reminds me of a manga I read when I was in high school, Kitchen Princess, except Kitchen Princess was more developed. Because the series is only twenty-four six-minute episodes, what do you expect to come out of this. The climax was that interesting either to me, but why I decided to watch the whole thing, I don't have an idea. There are three teachers who try to hit on the main girl, and I find that to be creepy as fuck. There was this one guy student who I wanted to get together with the girl so badly, ... but do they? You might as well watch and find that out. The whole anime was basically this girl going through her baking school and they describe all the things they bake. Nothing special really. 6/10

Art: The art was very pretty to look at. There isn't much to say except that I liked how it was drawn. It's the typical drawing of any shoujo I guess. There was nothing ugly really but nothing really special either. The neon colors were pretty distracting though, but I wasn't blown away by anything. 8/10

Sound: The only song I actually liked in this anime was the opening. The ending just didn't do anything for me. The opening was a very sweet way to begin each short. There's nothing really much to say about it. 9/10

Character: There are not a lot of characters' name I could remember. That probably means that this anime is either forgettable or just the characters that are forgettable. The girl, Sayuri, is your typical main character girl with somewhat of a caring personality, but that's it. The three teachers are each a trope, the French teacher, Gilbert, (and let me tell you that his is the only teacher's name I remember) being childish, the one with the purple hair being strict and not interesting, and the black haired one to be a major flirt, and Sayuri's rival is always wanting him to fall in love with her. Sayuri's "love interest," Ryou, may be scary at times, but overall, he's just so in love with her that he'll do anything to make Sayuri happy. Sayuri's friend, Ran, is the kinda stupid best friend that could let the show go on even if she weren't in it. The rival is also very unnecessary, too, and her cronies. The principal is one of those bitches in shows that you cannot stand even if your life depended on it. I mean not every character is bad, but they aren't the ones you want to hold onto until the end of the show either. 7/10

Enjoyment: If you want me to be honest with y'all, this is one of the most boring shoujo's I've ever seen. Usually, I would pull up an anime and watch it as I'm doing my homework, but this anime is mostly background noise compared to Blue Spring Ride or Kimi ni Todoke. An easy 7 out of 10 is fine for this, I suppose.

Overall: The anime is harmless, but I wouldn't highly recommend it as much as anything else you can find on the Internet. The overall score for this is an easy rounded 7 out of 10.

I'm a pastry cook so I usually take a look at any anime with pastry in it, even if only to get some ideas for my shop (anime pastry is cute AF. Otomen was a real inspiration for me). I thought that at 5 minutes an episode I could watch this whole anime really fast, that it couldn't be so bad I would get sick of hearing the main character's voice.
Reader, I dropped it.

The problem is that the episodes are so short that there is no time to set up any kind of real plot or character development. It's just a series of slightly connected ... events that happen to an extremely generic main character. There isn't even enough sweets in it to compensate.

Also, I must say that those sensei animations, you know them, when they were supposed to do any real work. That is *exactly* how I do pastry. Yes, sir. I got myself a proper magical transformation and the cakes just turn up decorated, there is no messing with tips and bags, no endless smoothing with a spatula, no praying the weather doesn't turn and melts everything before the costumer picks it up. *sighs*

This is certainly one of those shows that are so bad they're good. The guys have something close to magical girl transformations each time they make a cake, so I think that speaks for itself!! It kind of presents itself as an otome, with how cliché the characters are and how much of a y/n type of person the main character is. The guys genuinely rizz the mc up unwillingly because they're just so unbelievably hot and quirky. Sure, the entire action is pretty boring since there's obviously no plot or character development you could include in what, around one hour and a half of ... actual content excluding the ops/eds?, but it's a fun thing to watch in one sitting just for laughs. The ending is for sure one of the best things I've witnessed in any anime containing a cooking showdown. Can't even explain what happened to be perfectly honest but I'll chalk that up to the sheer brilliance of it. Would've given it the usual ironical 10 if the songs weren't so bad tho :')

To be honest I think that this anime was good. I got confused if their techniques were magic since it looked like it. I really liked the art in the anime especially the 4 guys and the voice actors were really good but the genres does NOT relate to the movie. It wasn't a harem, slice of life and has very little romance in it. This show is more like making new friends than romance. Some of the episodes I thought was really boring and confusing since it just talks about random things. Some of the episodes only talk about the main character meeting and ... working with guys. It wasn't very funny even though I laughed a bit I can still think of better anime than this. Even though there was 24 episodes, it was only 5 minutes per episode which isn't very much. It was very short and I could've had watched it in a day.

Am I watching a reverse harem or a magical girl? Seriously.

Music
The OP and first ED were not very good. Singing is kind of off (some notes just make me cringe), and the instrumental itself is not any better. Second ED, the harmony didn't seem to fit that well. The voice parts don't mesh together and sound like they are competing against each other instead of complementing each other.

Character
Character design is okay, nothing too special. MC is designed to only look pretty. She's also one of those girls with no backbone either. The other characters are not enjoyable either. The mean girl is obviously trying too ... hard to simply be mean - that's not realistic. The teachers too - is this a class, or are you deliberately trying to seduce your students? Makes no sense.

Story
Everything goes too fast - although I suppose it is due to the timing, with it being 4-minute episodes. However, it doesn't flow well, if a character suddenly jumps to a conclusion or a decision after very minimal exploration of the background. It also seems WAY too convenient that all three profs are so friendly with this girl and none of the other students (even though there are hundreds of these other girls), and just happen to hang out with her all the time. That cooking competition was a joke - this is cooking, not some kind of battle where you fall down and can't get back up again. The competition summed up the whole series: "How can something so illogical happen?"
The maro things are also kind of out of place and never were explained - especially that strange dream the MC had.

Overall, nothing special about this show. I think highlight of the show might be the art and designs of the characters and backgrounds, but even then I don't think it's super amazing.

Bonjour♪Koiaji Pâtisserie is bad. It’s really not good. However, I did find myself enjoying it. It was a bit of a cutesy mindless reverse harem, that cheered me up when I was down, and didn’t require me to think too much. Unfortunately, that’s about all it’s got going for it.

Story - 1/10
Yeah... the story was awful. In fact, I’m not sure there really was one. The main character finds herself enrolled in a confectionery school on a scholarship (which is apparently a bad thing according to a couple of characters? I may just be ignorant, but I’m pretty sure no one gets bullied over a ... scholarship…). This is fair enough - cutesy, much reverse harem. The issue is, we get the unnecessary rule of ‘no illicit sexual relations with the teachers’ laid out, and heavily emphasised, and you suddenly realise exactly what this is going to be.

So yes, the majority of the plot is Sayuri hanging out with, and doing various date-type activities with her teacher(s) and/or one of her fellow classmates, in what feels like a super-fast compilation of filler episodes.

But then, right for the last few episodes, we get an actually kind of intriguing plot event. And it throws it away, completely. I thought the magical-boy style cooking sequences were bad enough before, but they just get more ridiculous, and the weird presentation of this mysterious event, whilst entertaining (for all the wrong reasons), completely destroys what could have been something actually good.

The pacing is also just really bad. I get it’s five minutes per episode - and this actually kind of works for some of the mindless cute fun-times we see - it just feels really off (especially when we encounter some potential in the plot). Makes me think, with a longer episode length (with fewer episodes in total), and some actual thought, it could have been pretty decent.

Art - 8/10
It’s a reverse harem, so I’m not surprised that character design was nice - but it really was, and the overall art was actually really pretty. It was enjoyable, nice to look at, and really fit the theme and atmosphere of the show. Definitely the best thing about Bonjour.

Sound - 4/10
The voice actors did really well. I may be slightly biased, since a couple of my favourites are in there, but I felt all the voice acting was solid, everyone fit their characters, and nothing felt out of place in this department.

The issue comes with the soundtrack, though. Music tended to be distracting, unfitting and just downright odd. There were some scenes I felt were really ruined by the sound in the background.

Character - 3/10
Okay, so for the most part, characters were what you would expect from a reverse harem. We have a super cute, ridiculously nice MC; iconic best friend; tsundere “tough guy”; strict but soft smart guy; boyish happy-go-lucky guy; cool, slightly mysterious guy and of course the bully-type rival.

I actually quite liked Sayuri. She wasn’t too annoying, predictable, but just sweet enough to be tolerable. The boys were so typical, they were fine - I liked them enough. But I was actually, surprisingly for me, not too happy with the whole teacher-student thing. Why? It was never addressed. Sayuri got in trouble for breaking the ‘illicit sexual relations with teachers’ rule (which is ridiculous, come on Ms. Headteacher, I know they’re your friends, but they’re also your employed teachers - enforce it on them too lady), but no one actually discussed anything about the implications of the fact that these are actually her teachers, or their ages or literally anything like that. I normally have no issue with teacher-student relationships in fiction, as long as we actually talk about it…

Another place characters were severely lacking was in development. You know it’s bad when the only character who changes, and develops, and you actually kind of root for is the bully.

Enjoyment - 7/10
Despite all its shortcomings, it was enjoyable. Pretty to look at, overall quite sweet, cute and mindless. And to be honest, it’s so bad, it’s hilarious.

Overall - 4/10
Yeah, from a critical perspective, it’s just bad. Enjoyable, but bad.

Story: 5
Art: 10
Sound: 7
Character: 8
Enjoyment: 9
Overall: 8

The anime is not too bad but my problem is the 5 minute episodes, like for real though you can literally finish this series in 2 hours ( 5 x 24 = 120 ). But the art is outstanding, the intro and outro music is good! The characters is pretty good I enjoyed it a lot! But the ending was not what I expected so I gave it a 9/10 Overall 7/10. Since it's not bad.

THE ENDING IS NOT WHAT I EXPECTED AT ALL, I THOUGHT SHE WOULD'VE AT LEAST CHOSEN SOMEONE OR SOMETHING...

My reverse-harem loving people, there's two things you should do regarding this show:
-Dot it down in your to-watch list (it takes 2 hours to watch the entire thing)
-SKIP EPISODE 15.
-I SERIOUSLY WILL WRITE THIS REVIEW AS IF IT DIDN'T EXIST.

OVERVIEW:
Bonjour♪Koiaji Pâtisserie is your run of the mill Otome adaptation: great at giving you several bishounen to swoon over, very bad at conveying one engaging storyline. However, as someone who has seen this unfornuate things in way too many adaptations already, I can't be too dissapointed.

Though the episodes are 5 minutes each, the show has a surprisingly good pacing. No episode feels too heavy/story focused/slice of ... life-y. And in fact, there are several multi-episode arcs that take advantage of the short run time to condense the story just right.
Are there moments, arcs that would require more time to build properly? Yes. Without a doubt. But when I mentaly stretch the episodes that could clearly have been longer, I don't feel they'd be good for the general pacing over all.

THE CHARACTERS:
As with every Otome adaptation, the characters follow very specific archetipes, and they aren't much more than that. They achieve their goal fairly, and as long as you don't expect deep and complex personalities, you won't be dissapointed.

However, the main character surprised me, and pleasantly. She is pretty much a blank canvas, as otome protagonists tend to be, but she also displayed specific personality traits that I wasn't expecting.

THE STORY:
The narrative of the show is pretty well connected. Though mostly episodic, the show starts presenting a "main arc" early on, and wraps it's last episode with a nice, clean bow. There's a clear beginnig and end to the story, and it doesn't feel pulled out of thin air because it's hinted at before the last few episodes.

THE BAD THINGS:
Here's the thing. As good as this show was compared to other Otome adaptations, there were Three things in particular that reduced my enjoyment and overall perception of it.

One of them was the drama. So many moments were overly dramatic, with characters reacting in ways that, were those things to happen in real life, no one would be able to stand having a relationship with them. Of any kind. It would be an unbearable, high maintenance mess.

The second one was the re-using of the "cooking" animations. When handling a show that literally lasts for 96 minutes after removing openings and endings, it's borderline insulting to see techniques used in long running shows like maho-shoujos or shonnens. Besides, the animations didn't even make much sense, and they were extremly cheesy and cringey.

The third one was The ending, the resolution of the whole arc, The MAGICAL B*LLSH*T THAT CAME OUT OF NOWHERE. At NO POINT during the show (asides for the unmentionable episode 15) is the world presented as a magical world. For all intents and purposes, this show is set in modern day Japan, period. AND YET.

To talk about it in detail would imply spoilers, so I'll just say this: DON'T EVER PULL A MAGIC CARD OUT OF THE BLUE AS A SOLUTION TO THE BIG CLIMAX.

CONCLUSION:
If you like fluffy, light, bishounen filled shows, give this a watch. Don't expect it to be story rich, or romance heavy, and you'll enjoy it a lot. Skip episode 15, and you won't have to suffer through the feeling of the void staring at you.

While in the mood for watching an anime focused on food and cooking, this one was ranked in a top ten list for that genre. After viewing the twenty four five minute episodes I'd say it's decent, but probably not the best.

Story (5):

I give the story a rather low score because I feel that there really isn't much of a story here. It isn't until the last four episodes concerning the baking competition that there is something resembling a plot.

For the most part the episodes focus on more slice of life moments of the character and her "love interests." I put that in quotations as ... she never really shows much romantic love for any of them.

This anime feels very much like a dating simulator. I actually wasn't surprised when I found out after finishing the anime that was the original source material.

There are a lot of genuine comedic moments such as the competitions the boys constantly find themselves in, or the episode with the snowball fight. This one succeeds as a comedy.

My major complaint is that there is not nearly enough cooking in this anime. Many times it shows the character getting ready to bake and then jumps to the finished product. Other times it focuses on the emotions used in cooking and then proceeds with the characters posing or moving in a manner that would be better fitted for an action anime rather than baking. In an anime about cooking/baking, I would have liked to see more involving that subject.

Lastly I feel that too much time is given to those little cream puff looking creatures that always say "Maro." I'm not sure if they're some supernatural element, or a part of Sayuri's imagination, but I didn't find them relevant to the story.

Characters (7):

Pretty much all the characters are likable. I like how all four of the "love interests" have their own set personalities, each one as endearing as the next.

I do feel that the main character Sayuri is rather bland. She is kind, but other than that she doesn't seem to have much of a personality, which makes it hard for me to believe that all these other characters would be so interested in her alone. I suppose this is because she's designed this way so the viewer can imagine him/herself as the main character, which works for a game, but not so much in a show.

The best friend Ran and the rival character Tsubaki are much more interesting than Sayuri. I would've rather had one of them at the center of the story than her.

Also, the rival team in the competition are full of intriguing characters. I felt that it was a waste that we didn't get to know more about them as I feel they had potential to be great characters if given the chance to shine.

Art (8):

The art in this anime is beautiful. All of the characters have their own unique and pretty design. The bright colors used with each design has its own loveliness.

The backgrounds are gorgeous. The school itself, the shops they visit, the beach, the sights in town all look amazing. I like the use of lighting in this anime.

The use of color throughout is fantastic.

The animation is fluid. It all looks smooth and pretty.

In short this anime is beautiful to watch.

Sound (7):

The sound is good. I like the opening credits. The ending credit song is decent, but not quite as good as the opening.

The voice acting is all nicely done. I especially commend the actor who played Gilbert as the personality shines through with every line. Each voice matched well with the character.

Enjoyment (8):

As mentioned earlier, this anime is visually pleasing to watch. The story may not be the best, but this is one to definitely watch for the art.

Also I do find it funny. At times this series can get random, especially with the dream sequence episode, and the ridiculous shenanigans the crew finds themselves in. Of course the episode with the cooking competition had me laughing so hard with how over the top it is.

Although I did find it awkward how close the teachers were with their student Sayuri, especially when it was discovered that teacher-student relationships were forbidden. At times they acted too close that it caused some discomfort.

In all this is a light, fun show to watch.

Conclusion (7):

Bonjour Koiaji Patisserie doesn't have a concrete story, but it's decent for what it is. It's not trying to be anything great, but works fine as a light comedy. Although I wouldn't go so far as to classify it as a cooking anime as there is too little of that present.

The protagonist is boring, but all the other characters are fun to watch with their array of personalities.

The art is beautiful. The animation is good. The sound is good.

In all it's a short, fun time.

7/10

I like it.
Sometimes I just need something light-hearted and this fit the bill.
That said, if you are looking for something with a meaty storyline, realistic characters, astounding art and music... then this is not your show.
One thing to take into account, is that each episode is around five minutes long. That doesn't leave much time for plot or character development.
That said, the general storyline is: the main character has just gotten accepted to a sweet making academy. At this prestigious school, there are several handsome young men teachers. The strict principal does her best to make sure none of the students and teachers get ... into an inappropriate relationship...
The characters are mainly flat archetypes--the helpful best friend, the quiet elegant traditional Japanese sweet maker. There were some hints of further development, mentions of the characters families, or what they wanted to do in the future, but again, this was stifled by the time restraint. The main character is the typical 'I will try hard to reach my dream' sort of girl. Nothing about her stood out in particular, but nothing about her annoyed me in particular either.
I did find the character designs cute. Again, the art is not realistic or blow-me-away amazing. However it is sparkly and appealing to look at.
Overall, if you like dessert and (depending on your taste) pretty boys, then give this show a watch.

To be honest, this anime isn't really that bad, but it's not good either.
The story is really light since it's not very developed and the characters all seem to have the same personality. Some situations in this anime made me cringe a lot but it doesn't make it a bad show in my believes.

I wasn't expecting a GOOD anime by watching this since each episodes only last around 6 minutes. An episode lasting for as little time as this has no time to develop a good story. But at least the story made sense and wasn't just a bunch of nonsense.

The art is ... REALLY beautiful, I have to admit. I've rarely seen an anime with such a drawing style and it made my eyes drool.

In the end, would I recommend you watching it? I don't know, it depends. If you wanna watch a really heavy and meaning full show, don't watch it. But if you want to see a show just because you want to see a show without any particular standards or expectation, go ahead.

[This review contains only very minor spoilers.]
I am glad that I watched this.
I would recommend this to others.
I have watched this once, subtitled. I have only watched the anime.
I may watch this again.

---- Positives ----

This series is simple and light-hearted.
All the ideas presented in this series are pleasantly simple. The plot obstacles are all minor and are quickly overcome in simple ways. The only two long-lasting obstacles are overcome at the end of the series, and neither of them particularly inhibit the main character.
...
The art is nice and there's a great mix of scenery.
When it comes to scenery, the characters are actually hardly ever in the classroom. There's such a great mix of scenery that it's actually related to the negative below.

---- Negatives ----

More confectionery-related events could have happened with the number of episodes that this series got.
Although each episode was short, the episode count was high. I feel like not enough confectionery-related events happened for that high episode count. It would have been nice if the series dedicated a few minutes to the details behind making sweets - at least enough to make it interesting to watch the scenes where the characters do eventually make sweets. The series starts off seeming like it's going to be all about sweets, but this isn't the case beyond the first few episodes.
Opportunity for cancel: Not sure. School anime series rarely show the details of schoolwork, so why should this series? The difference, however, is that this is a specialized school and "Pâtisserie" is in the series title. This series definitely revolves around the school being a confectionery school - that's an important part of the series - so I expected the series to talk about sweets a little more throughout the entire series instead of bunching it all up in the beginning.

As I haven't been watching too much anime recently, I begun to search for one that I could quickly get into and enjoy watching each character interact with one another. With 'Bonjour: Koiaji Pâtisserie', I got what I wished for.

If you're looking for a short anime with a good story, this might not be the one for you; it's relatively made to simply entertain viewers, not to pull them in with a catchy story line. However, the art and characters used in this show was rather worth the fallback of that, making me enjoy it more! Each character is fairly different to one another ... so there's one you will always relate to, as well as the art being so beautiful. With each episode being 5 minutes long, it's a great series to simply sit back and humour yourself with, finishing in around 2 or so hours.

Overall, if you like attractive boys and cute girls with very little plot and want to finish it quickly, I suggest giving this anime a try.

I just about made it to the end of the 4th episode. I thought if I watched another episode I would actually die. I've finished Pupa.

It's so... impossible to watch. I don't enjoy harem animes at the best of the time but oh dear lord the male characters were so WEIRD. NO.

The only redeeming feature of this anime is the art. It's fairly pretty I guess. Maybe they could have calmed down when it came to the flowers.

I only watched this anime because I was looking forward to the plot. It did not impress!



...
The OP has appeared in 3 of my nightmares since I watched this anime.

I started this because I've been learning French and there was hot guys on the cover. (There really is nothing about France in this other than Bonjour and the one blonde guy.) I also have ADHD and appreciate the really short episodes. The MC is dedicated to baking but has adventures with her teachers. It's funny because there's so many plot holes and it's just really... something else. I watched this anime with my friends and the experience made it much better but overall I would say it's a 5 or 4 at best if you were alone. The anime is mid and the only ... thing it has going for it is how handsome/cute the characters are.


If I were to describe this anime in a sentence it would be, "Every 12 year old girls favorite anime". I could see myself loving this anime when I was young just liked I was obsessed with Ouran. It's not hard to comprehend but it's pretty lame now that I am older.

I'll be honest, I never knew Bonjour: Sweet Love Patisserie even existed until I went to an anime convention and went to a panel talking about short series, and this happened to be one of the shows they talked about. As soon as the panelist talked about it, I immediately got flashbacks to Yumeiro Patissiere, a shoujo series that's also about a girl going to a confectionery school befriending pretty boys and making sweets, even though it's been years since I've actually seen the series. But I was bored and running out of good anime to watch, and since the episodes are all five minutes ... long at the most, I thought it'd be a nice little time killer and take me away from reality for a while. Needless to say, it met my expectations. However, from all other standpoints, it is VERY disappointing.

The show's about Sayuri Haruno, a young girl who gets the chance to go to a famous confectionery school, Fleurir, on a scholarship so she can fulfill her dream of becoming a chef. It's nothing like she expects, and she meets many colorful friends and teachers. One of them is Ryou Kouzuki, a hot headed and blunt classmate who also dreams of becoming a chef. Teaching them are teachers like Aoi Mitsuki, a sweet and charming chocolatier who's adored by all the girls in the school, Gilbert Hanafusa, a half-French half-Japanese guy who's cheerful, bouncy, and...who acts like he's in high school, and Yoshinosuke Suzumi, a traditional, stern man who takes pride in making Japanese sweets. The show is very light on plot, and very episodic in nature, so it mostly focuses on Sayuri's interactions with her classmates and teachers, and there isn't really much to comment on. She also has to deal with the headmistress, who has a very strict "absolutely no teacher-student relationships" policy and hammers it over everyone's heads with the subtlety of a wrecking ball, even Sayuri, and she just won't let her hear the end of it.

If you're looking for a nice cooking show with three-dimensional characters who actually develop and evolve, you're in the wrong place, as in spite of its sweet nature, the show is as bland as they come. All of the characters are little more than stock archetypes with little, if any, personality or depth beyond the one quirk that gets shilled to no end. Other characters just act plain stupid at times, with Gilbert acting like a kid even though he's, you know, a friggin' teacher! And don't even get me started on the headmistress who is annoying as fuck. All she ever does is look strict and constantly accuse Sayuri of trying to shack up with one of the three main teachers over really petty reasons. Now, I hate the whole student/teacher romance trope as much as the next guy, especially because in real life that's a huge problem and could get the teacher in question either arrested or fired from their job. Most anime tend to romanticize student/teacher romances, and the show does acknowledge it as a bad thing. But the way the headmistress goes about being hyper vigilant about it doesn't make her come off as someone who's genuinely concerned about her students, but more like a hyper paranoid social justice warrior who actively looks for problems where there aren't any and seems to be looking for any excuse she can to kick Sayuri out of school. She even accuses her of trying to shack up with the teacher in situations where there is clearly NO romantic attraction between them at all! It got old, and it got old fast. Lady, if you're really gonna bully an innocent student just for looking at a teacher in a certain way, maybe you should quit being a principal and join the FBI or something. You'll probably do a better job scaring off criminals. Oh, and you want to know the worst thing about this? The whole thing is played as a running joke. Because playing this stuff for comedy surely isn't offensive, right?! There's also the purple haired bitchy girl who is way too obsessed with Mitsuki, to the point of making an entire half-naked chocolate sculpture of him. Shouldn't she be reported or something, because some of her behavior borders on really inappropriate.

Of course, the show is aware of how problematic its whole set-up is, but it still doesn't hesitate to indulge in the very tropes its trying to criticize, what with having girl characters gush over the teachers, even outright calling them sexy during the beach episode (Which is so not appropriate at all!!), and framing the teachers in bishie sparkles and the female gaze. Then again, otome games and adaptations of such have never really been known for their commentary on real world issues, nor were they intended to be so. Still, the show is clearly trying to have its cake and eat it too, and being indecisive in whether it wants to criticize the whole student/teacher romance implications or romanticize them, or doing both, just doesn't work. All it does is give off mixed messages, like "Don't get into romantic relationships with your teachers" and "Check out these super hot teachers! Don't you just wanna bang'em?" Yeah, I think you can see how wrong this is.

But even without that, the show is just another generic harem about a cipher otome protag who gets into a special school and gets surrounded by hot guys. With the show being about cooking and baking, you'd think it would actually show the characters cooking, preparing ingredients, and all the important things that cooking anime are known for, right? Sadly, even that's brushed off to the side. Instead of showing the characters actually cooking, the anime instead has these over the top, melodramatic shots of the teachers and Ryou spinning around and swinging their tools around like they're performing some special attack that's played out like a transformation scene, all with sparkles and dramatic effects. It's like the anime doesn't want to put in the effort to show them actually cooking or something! The animation in and of itself is fine, if nothing ground breaking, though it's not safe from the occasional weirdly drawn face or stiff movement, and the character designs are a little too over the top and otome-esque for my liking. The soundtrack isn't very memorable either, and the opening and ending songs...they're phoned in and badly sung, which is a shame to say because they're sung by the actors who play the three teachers and Ryou, and their acting is fine! Also, for some reason, there are also these cute round chibi creatures that end "maro" at the end of all their sentences that appear every now and then, and they serve absolutely no purpose other than just being cute and annoying, with episode 15 being the worst offender in how poorly written it is and how it's little more than filler made to shill these cutesy spheres.

Honestly, the only real saving grace this show has is that all of its episodes are five minutes long. That, at the very least, keeps the pacing consistent and the episodic conflicts never drag out longer than they need to, though that still doesn't save it from being dull and boring. Then again, I did find out this anime was made solely to promote a cell phone game, and anime based on cell phone games don't really have the best reputation. This could change, and I have seen some that are genuinely good (Granblue Fantasy and Kemono Friends being two examples), but some can be held back by the flaws of trying to adapt a mobage game into an anime and wind up not being very good (Magia Record). If you want to watch something similar to this but better, I'd recommend Yumeiro Patissiere. It's much longer and has more time to develop its characters, and while it's more of a children's show and still adheres to certain shoujo anime stereotypes, such as having a bitchy rival girl character and a green haired pretty boy who's just there to look pretty, it's far better than Bonjour is by a longshot. I mean, Yumeiro is no masterpiece, but it's a much better take on the reverse harem cooking school show than Bonjour tried to be.

Overall, if you like your saccharine reverse harems, Bonjour: Sweet Love Patisserie is cliche but mostly harmless. Otherwise, give it a miss.