It's just sad how many authors thought they have a unique premise to the ever so saturated Isekai genre, but forgetting that the premise has to be backed up with the plot, and that's where the entire work is doomed even before the work could get an upstart. Yet, this is exactly the scenario for novelist Nozomu Koryu's only work that is Okashi na Tensei a.k.a Sweet Reincarnation, a perfectly average work that got its start in Syosetu in early 2015, and then spawning with the LN with 24 volumes ever before the anime got its start. And yes, if you're thinking of giving this anime a go, please hear me out first before you do so.
So first up, I'm going to spare you the pain of watching a rather mediocre Isekai: this anime describes the VERY definition of the word "misleading" at best. Yes, it features patissierie...food like sweets and pastry to be exact, but most of the time, it's stuck to the very same tropes that we the audience have been and now suffer from in Isekai every season, and Okashi na Tensei is clearly no different from the rest of its contemporaries. Moreover, I'm just sensing that Japan sure doesn't care, and by some perchance, makes the trick to propose old works that only will see anime adaptations years down the road, only to forget that Isekai is the safe cash cow that will make profits even if losses are predicted beforehand.
That said, what Okashi na Tensei does well in is its simple plot of a reincarnated adult-turned-kid who wants to run a business selling sweets, and surprisingly, its characters, whom of which many are references to real sweets in life. Though I will say for the MC that is the bright kid of Pastry Mille Morteln: "Boy, you're in the wrong show! If you want to really make sweets, join Anne from Sugar Apple Fairy Tale, and you two can become child prodigies together to make sweets and build a sweets empire together!" Aside from the copy-paste repeated plot that has Pas (name in short form) fight for his lowly Morteln family by ascending to the likes of bigger kingdoms like the Hubarek family, forcefully getting engaged to the children (because that's a thing that the adults will capitalize on to build the next generation) with names like Petra and Licorice, yeah...give your children unique names so that you can have a sweet marriage when they grow up, I see your game there, ah hah? Aside from the adults having names like Pas's father Casserole, the caveat is that you'll have to see all of the usual BS like kingdom politics and family infighting, not to mention arranged family marriages, just to see the plot progress for Pas to finally make baby steps in his venture to create his sweets kingdom.
It feels like the patisserie segment is only a piece/slice/share of the pie while the usual Isekai tropes are just slathered everywhere else being the filling of the pie, almost like a bonka (apple) pie that is not filled enough, or if it has a bad taste due to the wrong mixtures of fruits and spices. The baking takes at most 5 mins, while the rest of the episodes are all your usual Isekai shtick, and that should say something about either if Nozomu Koryu was a clown or a genius that he/she managed to fool his/her audience into thinking that: "If you want to see some real sweets baking, please read my work...and I promise you that as much as you love reading Isekai and put up with all of its nonsense, the sweets will come and make your time worthwhile." To which I say, it's total BS, it's clear which parts of the story makes the entire work profitable, and it's definitely NOT the sweets portion that makes this show and its original source material, the way it is.
Everything else surrounding Okashi na Tensei is average at best, from SynergySP's art and animation, and even to the music, which I've definitely heard better from sajou no hana (given that it's only Sana), and YuNi's ED is just...kinda annoying to hear after awhile.
If you want shows that aren't complete white lies to its premise, try Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi a.k.a Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill, which I still believe is one very recent show (from Winter 2023) that sticks its guns better, or even Isekai Shokudou a.k.a Restaurant to Another World, which is a rather soothing good time of an Isekai/fantasy show. It's just a shame that all of the Isekai BS we've seen and tolerated for years now, it's happening to unique-but-not-so-unique works like these that has got producers and directors thinking that they have a small gem, but they're diamonds in the (literate) rough.
If only I rather not take this show at face value, then it's a pretty decent show, all things considered. But when you have something like "Sweet Reincarnation" in the name, it's anything but sweet, a total flaccid waste of time.
