Pan de Peace!

Normally I try to not waste my time on sharing my opinion on the internet because its effect is proportionally moot compared to my time wasted. Normally I only view MAL beside other websites through the Google search details to get a rough rundown about what most people think about an anime. Even if my perception of the anime then differs vastly from the average rating of it, there's no reason I should give a shit about adding a rating to some other thousands.

I was really shocked after I saw this bullshit. For instance, living in Germany with all those fascist and left-militant red army ... groups arising on the streets who are struggling and cutting themselves in the dark instead of watching anime and becoming weebs I am used to people spreading stupid nonsense because of the confirmation bias regarding their seemingly superior ideology. But I was still shocked when I saw the shit people posted on this bulletin. Don't get me wrong, there are some erudite en337s here that can grasp the awesomeness of this unmatched masterpiece, but I do pity the laymen that weren't able to.

As one may conclude from my name, I created this account solely for the purpose of extolling this gem of an anime. I wanted to name myself "signedupforpandepeace" at first, but it turned out to be too long.

I'll commence with the first thing most weeble face when starting of with a new anime. The title. Already a literary artwork:

"Pan de Peace"

I'm gonna leave two blank lines to not defile this incredible piece of stylistic art. To cut it into bite-sized pieces, let's start off with the language. This title consists of 3 words from 3 different languages. Which three languages? you may ask. Japanese, French and English. However, there is even more to it. "Pan" could also be Spanish and "de" could also be Japanese, not only adding to the artistic value of the title but also render it appealing for an international audience. Contrary to common belief and how it is inscribed in the Japanese version of the title, "de" is meant to be primarily French for a stylistic effect so that the peace and personal liberation through bread is connoted with the French Revolution.

The story is marvelous. The viewer follows a group of anime high school girls who are confronted with everyday high school girl problems like bread, cute lolis and bread. While familiarizing themselves with their new high school, they also learn to find inner and outer peace through the sacred path of the bread. All I can say is that this anime truly changed how I view life and bread in general.

The art is 911/FBI, would lewd. But read me out. To use proper terminology, I should describe it as "kawaii desu af". It is the only anime whose imposing virtuoso artwork prevented me from searching hentai for it before I completed it. After I was done, I kinda felt bad for the girls that I didn't wish to lewd them. So I did it for their sake. And I was yet surprised again. There is very little good content out there. And I'm not writing about the artistic quality here, because obviously it is impossible to compete with the original show, but it appears to me that there is simply a major lack of rule 34. So an invocation to all the hentai artists out there:

DON'T BE INTIMIDATED BY THIS UNMATCHABLE ARTWORK. THINK OF THE SAD FACE OF NOA IF SHE KNEW THAT YOU DON'T DRAW ART OF HER.

Back on topic. Fuck Rem. I love emily.


I am glad that there isn't any anime or any media product in human history that can stand up to

Pan de Peace!

Because if there was, I wouldn't be able to achieve anything productive in my entire life.

Story 9/10:
I honestly think that the story was what carried Pan de Peace. There are many interpretations, but I will try to give my own here in summary. Pan de Peace takes place in an alternate timeline to our own in which a mutated strain of the Panama disease caused a plague on all of humanities crops, notably fruit and vegetables were the hardest hit. The result of this being that only cereal grains were able to be grown in the now tainted soils of the planet. The story follows our titular protagonists years after the initial plague as humanity are trying to get along ... with their lives. Bread is one of the few foods that can be afforded by the commoner, hence why the characters try to make the best of a bad situation by trying different breads. The show does a great job of masking these sad and bittersweet undertones with it's cutesy plot, creating a breathtaking experience for the viewer. Without spoiling too much, Pan de Peace really makes you feel a mix of emotions as you watch the pureness of youth making the best of this dying world, knowing they can't delay the end, The final episode hitting the hardest of all.

Art 4/10:
Not the strongest part of the anime. The characters sometimes look like they're melting in places, but I guess this is just what people refer to as "Mo-Blobs"

Sound 3/10:
Other than the opening which was sub-par at best, the soundtrack was forgettable for me.

Characters 7/10:
Pan de Peace features a wide range of different character types which really helps complete the world and make it feel alive, every character has their own motives and goals, and they manage to jam pack so much development into each and every one, fleshing them out in such short time.

Enjoyment 5/10:
I found it hard to truly enjoy this show. I went in with practically zero expectations, and was pleasantly surprised by the characters and the fleshed out world and lore, but those were the only elements really carrying the show.

Overall 5/10:
If you enjoy cute "Mo-Blobs", I'd probably recommend this to you instantly. But for anyone else, it's hard to suggest this show. Yes, the story remarkable and an experience I would love to share, but it really depends on how much you can allow poor animation and sometimes unreliable pacing be your window into this exciting world.

I didn't expect to have strong feelings going into Pan de Peace. I expected it to be a simple short that wouldn't take much investment, and indeed, when it aired, I didn't really care about it. However, that feeling of mere apathy didn’t last for long. As it became more and more apparent that the show would not amount to anything, it was quickly replaced by a desperateness to find some modicum of significance in what was essentially a void of nothingness. Did the show eventually present me with any truths? Well…

Upon first inspection, and second inspection, and pretty much every inspection afterwards, Pan ... de Peace appears to be a disgustingly generic moe show. The characters are cute in their design but have no character development whatsoever. The episodes feature the mildest of problems that always get cleanly resolved, with no lessons learned. A new type of bread is consumed every episode, the girls are happy, and we move on to the next episode. This simple story analysis would conclude that Pan de Peace’s story suffers from both the stagnation and mediocrity of typical slice-of-life anime and the difficulty of creating a worthwhile story with such a short episode runtime.

The average reviewer would right now rate the story 4/10 or so, and move on to discussing the sound or visuals. But unfortunately for you, this isn’t an average review.

Thanks to a certain subbing group, we know that Pan de Peace is actually a brilliant social commentary on feminism. We see this from the very beginning, when Minami is worried that she will be unable to make friends in her new class. Her progressive views have often left her isolated in the past, so when she encounters several fellow bread buddies, she is ecstatic to have found a community where she can share her views.

When the cast dons maid uniforms during their school's cultural festival, this isn't just some cheap fanservice. Rather, these girls are aware of the cultural practices in place, and are working within the system for their own benefit. After noticing one of their friends becoming overweight, they have a discussion on fat positivity and whether it’s a good thing or not. Another good scene is in an early episode where they discuss the merits of sex-positive feminism and how it divides the generations of feminists. One of my favorites is when the girls collectively agree that Ayn Rand was a hypocrite and hater of strong women (for context, their argument is that Ayn Rand’s objectivism supported free will, but she herself said that homosexuality should be treated as a lesser to heterosexuality, and that women should find men to marry and worship as heroes. These views strip lesbians and independent women of their free will, clashing with Rand’s Objectivist movement).

Pan de Peace helped me realize the true intersectionality of feminism. It’s hard to even call it a single unified movement. Under the banner are a plethora of sub-issues, everything from sex-positivity to lesbian acceptance to wage equality. There are so many issues that it’s impossible for someone to try and take on every single one of them. Under the umbrella of feminism are all sorts of movements and people, but they all share a goal of trying to make the world a better place for women, and by extension, everyone. Anyone can be a feminist, and as long as they’re not being problematic, there’s no reason to call someone out on not being a “true feminist” or something like that. All you have to do is find the issues you are most passionate about and the problems you have the most agency in solving, and get to work. Even just talking to others about feminism and answering their questions is doing great work.

The biggest problem with Pan de Peace is that without the right framing, you might not be able to get these same values out of it.

After all, Pan de Peace is just a stupid slice of life centered around bread.