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*
