Okashi na Tensei

There’s nothing sweet about the show nor about his reincarnation.

Let's be honest, at first, we surely thought this anime would be that slice of life isekai, where the mc is making pastries and sweets in another world. Just like the "Parallel World Pharmacy" but with sweets and pastry, and with the MC opening a bakery or sweet shop. But sike! It's actually "How a realist hero rebuilt the Kingdom!"

While I don't hate the show for what it was, I can understand why others dislike it for this very reason. The actual story was relatively decent, but it seems to be diverging from its initial ... premise. After all, the show is called “Sweet Reincarnation” for a reason. We were expecting a cooking and baking show centered around pastries and sweets, not another politics and war isekai.

It's a slow burn show with an okayish pace. The worldbuilding is present, although it's a bit shallow in every aspect. Nevertheless, it's better than any other current or previous generic isekai. As we progress through the episodes, we get to learn more about the geopolitics, magic system, and war, all of those funsies details slowly build up.

Strangely, this anime reminds me a lot of “Ascendance of a Bookworm,” but it lacks the unique charm that Honzuki has. In Honzuki, the story is primarily focused on Myne/Main, the main protagonist, and we intimately follow her struggles and journey to make a single sheet of paper for her dream of becoming a librarian. However, in this anime, it seems like the story revolves more around the people surrounding Pastry, the main protagonist. While he faces similar struggles to Myne, every time he tries to pursue his passion, it's constantly hindered by others, whether it's his father, his friend, his brother in law, or unnecessary diplomacy with other fiefs. For God's sake, let him cook for a moment!

All that aside, yet it still lacks baking or making sweets. For a show called Sweet Reincarnation it's incredibly lacking on those thing. I swear I could probably count how many sweets he's made throughout the entire series with just one hand. All I want is just one episode dedicated to making pastry/sweets and with Pas as the main focus, no politics, only sweets and pastries. Maybe a second season would bring justice to this anime.

Anyway to sum it up, it's a fun show about a patissier that reincarnated in another world although slightly a bit lacking in the pastry/sweet department. If you are looking for a foodie show, this is not it. If you are looking for another generic isekai that is slightly better than the others, this would be perfect for you.

Maybe the real sweets were the friends that he made along the way. Seriously, his fiancee's name is Licorice.

Do they make sweets every episode? No not really. At moments I think it should be just called Reincarnation instead of Sweet Reincarnation. Though, there are moments in the anime where it does shine, like the politics the main protagonist plays in order to make sweets. But there are sometimes too many politics which I consider to be both a positive and a negative of this anime. The reincarnate plays the politics well, but when I watch an anime about making sweets, I expect there to be more sweets than politics. If I wanted to watch a politics anime, I would've watched How a Realist ... Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom. Now I did not "not" enjoy this anime, it's good to watch just to pass the time, but I probably would not rewatch this anime in the future.

As someone who has watched this anime just for fun, as well as wants to try watching gourmet animes, I was interested and satisfied, I'm in love with this anime. In my opinion, it is an anime that you can watch when you want to skip time but not watch competitive-based anime. Watching it with expectations of spectacular anime, you'll hate it and think it is boring.

As for the story, it's not that unique, to be honest. It's reincarnation anime as others have the same theme. But as for the art, it's amazing. I think that the main character (Pastry) is smart and strong.

Sweet, Delicious Isekai.

Honestly, I wouldn’t blame you if you neglected to watch or dropped Sweet Reincarnation after a couple of episodes. It’s another low-quality, low-effort isekai set in another European medieval light-novel fantasy land, sure, but unlike all of the other isekai garbage (excluding The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen and Mushoku Tensei) there was a certain charm to Sweet Reincarnation that kept me coming back each week.

Unlike other protagonists of this season’s isekai ilk, the reincarnated pastry chief who died after being crushed by his own cake (no, seriously, that’s how he dies) and now is the nine-year-old son of a noble lord ... called Pastry (no, seriously, that’s his name) has an actual long term goal for us to follow. He wants to create a land of sweets where everyone sits down and eats cake and cookies instead of going to war and murdering each other. Unfortunately, the village and land he lords over are poor and lacking in suitable ingredients for him to bake with. This means that he first needs to build up the village with his father, gather funds and learn how to act like a noble before he can get into the kitchen.
Whilst it is satisfying to watch Pastry slowly but surely work towards his goals, this does mean the show about a reincarnated Pastry chief is caught up in a lot of the typical isekai clichés such as learning magic, fighting bandits and playing politics instead of making sweets. In fairness, his magic ability is very interesting and the way he uses it plays into the politics which is very well done, but it’s a bit disappointing getting five episodes in to see the only thing he’s cooked is an apple pie or a “bonka pie” in this world… because the apples are called bonka’s… even though honey is still called honey and tea is still called tea- its stupid. Why even rename them? I think he bakes maybe five times throughout the entire season.

I enjoyed the characters and the relationships Pastry forms with them, especially with his father and mother which is very wholesome if not a bit slapstick. I especially enjoy Lady Brioche Salgret Mille Leteche's comical reactions to getting bamboozled every time she and Pastry have a conversation. Pastry does an excellent job of balancing his reincarnated adult personality with his nine-year-old new personality to where others around him could believably view him as a prodigy.
Unfortunately, the villains boil down to corrupt nobles doing a bad thing and that's all we get from them for maybe an episode or two before they’re defeated and tossed aside and forgotten.

Sweet Reincarnation is held back by its lacklustre production and light novel isekai clichés, but with a satisfying pacing, interesting magic and politics, something about it reminds me of Ascendance of a Bookworm. Obviously, it’s not as good as that anime and I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t give this anime a shot, but honestly, it’s not too bad. Despite all its flaws, I like it.

6/10 It's Okay *Thumbs Up*