Lawl. Corny post title. But this is just what this anime does to. It really does make me want to eat my favorite treats too. Not just because all of the delicious looking food that makes this anime so dangerous to watch while I’m trying to diet (but seriously, that food). It’s just damn cute and that makes want all sorts of sugary evilness all on its own. I don’t know why cute things affect me this way, they just do. I bought a whole box of munchkins to be prepared to watch the first episode of Kobato. (And no, I didn’t eat them all.)

The point is this series needed another little fangirling post because I just love it so. Why? I don’t know. My interests seem to change arbitrarily. I want to say that super cutesy anime is a constant, but it’s just not. Sometimes it will piss me off right off the bat. So why does this series succeed where so many others fail? I don’t know, but I think it’s proportionate to the amount of sugar damage it does me. The fact that it’s a perfect amount.

After watching this anime and realizing I want to eat something deliciously bad for me five minutes into each episode I started to think about why. So I could put a stop to it if possible (it’s not).

Really, it turned out to be quite simple. Shoujo poisons us with all of its sugary-ness anyway. Have you looked at some furoku that comes in Nakayoshi? I swear I have a donut eraser somewhere for a series that is not at all related to donuts. So it’s not my fault if my mind automatically connects delicious frosted goodness with cute shoujo anime.

So, to me it just connects automatically. Somehow. I think on a personal level its made worse by the fact that I smell like all sorts of delicious smells from work every day. (Why can’t I spill the hazelnut for once, the smell of that in high concentration makes me sick!)

But not every anime that’s supposed to be cute and adorable has this effect. Some have the opposite effect in fact. Why? Because the anime already overdoes itself in cuteness and it’s just…it’s horrible. Or there’s something awkward about it that doesn’t make it work. Or there’s too much story and romance and…not enough cuteness!

There’s a lot of factors that go into it, but the point is that Yumeiro Patissiere is just right.

Somehow.

Really, by looking at it, it should fall in the too cute to be legal category. But somehow…it just manages to be downright charming.

Of course, the wanting to eat something sweet is just my own personal quirk. Caused by the brainwashing of shoujo manga often being funded by the Evil Sweets Coalition. You know, the ones to blame for Halloween and Valentine’s Day. Watch! You’ll find out I’m right someday.

The point that I’m trying to get across using this personal defect (yup, downgraded from quirk to defect already) is that Yumeiro Patissiere is just right.

It  should be noted that I didn’t read the manga so I can’t judge it based on its original content. I can’t raise my eyebrow at anything extra that feels off or get impatient about the scenes I want to see. I can just enjoy the ride and enjoy it for what it is. And what it is is darn cute. We’re still early in the series that’s supposed to be 52 episodes (which I would have seen myself getting bored with until I found it was being streamed and I can handle anything being streamed) so there may be more random filler along the way. It may get more boring. Lots of fans like cute ultra shoujo like this until it starts becoming repetitive.

But it still has the feeling of being just right. It fits its audience perfectly. There’s a downside to reaching beyond the regular audience, they’re more likely to get tired of the little elements that don’t work. And of course if you cut down the series and replace it with even more random cutesy-ness and just plain plot-less-ness there will be a mutiny.

Yumeiro Patissiere? It’s just right.

Now, there’s been cute series in the past. Like everyone points out the Full Moon anime and especially Kirarin Revolution when we’re talking about Ultra Shoujo (I still haven’t decided if that term should be capitalized or not…). But this is what my teensy problem with them was. Too much romance. Romance is the instigating factor in both series. So when the fillers usually don’t involve progressing that beloved fangirl element, they get crazy. Heck, I got crazy too. (Watched less than half of the Full Moon fillers on my first time through and Kirarin Revolution got dropped like a rock)

Yumeiro Patissiere’s premise doesn’t involve romance. At all. Unless you count when the three bishies get mentioned…I don’t. Not to say that there’s not shipping (oh there is. There always is.) it’s just not necessary for the enjoyment.

It’s a good old fashioned shoujo where you get to cheer on the girl who is going to be amazing, but sucks at life right now, but you can’t dislike her because she gets an unfair amount of punishment from her peers for her suckage and you want to cheer her on so those idiots have to eat their words! It’s an element like that which made Itazura na Kiss work at all. It’s employed by many shoujo series. Especially those at fancy schools. Some level of bullying.

But even that gets tiring if it’s too over the top. Kitchen Princess suffered from too much bitchiness I think (as well as a shallow love interest who only got real development after he died, but I digress). So Yumeiro Patissiere balances any teasing with a cast of people who are all supportive of Ichigo (I love her roommate). Not everyone besides the bishies has to be someone she wins over (and often including bishies). Some are just functional human beings who are capable of empathy.

Also, the fillers even come in handy in this series. Ichigo sucks at cooking at first! So it’s more believable for her to make small steps each episode. The fillers work! zomg!

There are probably more examples I can come up with. The bishes being bishies, but that getting lampshaded by Andou being a narcissist too (I love that trait in bishies). Kashino being a jerk, but not too much. Among others. But the point is what I’ve just been saying. It’s perfect…for what it is.

And I love it. Because I love what it is. And it’s been so long since I’ve had something like this that…excuse the corniness considering the premise, but that does the recipe right. (I said it, see what this anime does to me? Puts me in a good mood to say corny things.)

Now that it’s officially being subbed by CrunchyRoll (which means everyone gets to see it the whole time it’s running, because if you don’t get it on the site, you’ll just get it through HorribleSubs) there are just two downsides.

One is that we still don’t get many images of this on the internet. This is why I will at least shallowly like Shugo Chara! no matter what it does and secretly was happy about it continuing, images everywhere. I used every image that is possible to find for this post. Anything I’d have to do in the future will have screencaps which because of the nature of the show has the time stamped on it. Oh god memories of Full Moon again. (Another major plus for a series like this for a nostalgia-loving girl like me is the amount of times I am reminded of past beloved Ultra Shoujo.)

The other…just goes along with the genre. It won’t be popular, or if it is, any popularity goes along with an increase in stupidity amongst the fandom.

So that’s actually something made worse by CrunchyRoll. Damn it.

It’s also the answer to why, even though the series gives me the inspiration to write so easily like this, I will never blog it regularly. Never. Never, ever, ever. Not again. Never a series from Nakayoshi or Ribon.

…Probably.

And I guess there’s a third. After writing this post I just want to go out and buy something sweet. Damn it. You win again Evil Sweets Coalition.

In: Anime | tags: criminally cute, fangirling, ultra shoujo, zOMG. | #