Antique Bakery

Anime Review

Antique Bakery

Genres: comedy, romance, slice of life

Themes: Bishounen, cooking, shounen-ai

Plot
Antique Bakery, is a small bakery that's run by four handsome man. Tachibana, the owner. Chikage, who was send by Tachibana's family to watch over his childhood friend. Ono the "demonically charming" gay master pastry chef. And Kanda, a former boxer and Ono's apprentice.

Main characters

Keisuke (or Keiichirō) Tachibana (橘 圭一郎, Tachibana Keiichirō^?)

Voiced by: Kōichi Yamadera (drama CD), Keiji Fujiwara (anime), Asami Sanada (anime, young)

The owner of the Antique Bakery, as well as a waiter. He was childhood friends with Chikage, the son of his family's live-in housekeeper. He was also Ono's classmate in school and harshly rejected Ono's love confession. He seems to be the only man whom Ono finds attractive, but who is not attracted to Ono in return. Tachibana comes from a rich family. He was kidnapped when he was a child. The one thing he remembers about his abductor is that he loved cake and fed him the cakes he bought every single day. Although Tachibana was rescued, his abductor was never found. After this ordeal, his family became overly protective of him. He feels obliged to play the "good boy" for his relatives because he does not want them to worry about him. As a result of his experiences, he often suffers from nightmares and has no taste for sweets. He is also fluent in French.

Yusuke Ono (小野 裕介, Ono Yūsuke^?)

Voiced by: Hozumi Gōda (drama CD), Shinichirō Miki (anime)

The pâtissier, a renowned chef who has been fired from many bakeries because of his "Demonic Charm": whenever he is attracted to a man, that man — whether gay or straight — suddenly becomes irresistibly attracted to him in return. His coworkers will inevitably fight over him, and Ono will wind up fired again. This stemmed from when he was in high school, when Tachibana turned him down. He went into a gay bar, and suddenly he became a very popular lover. He has said his type is older men. He is also scared of women, and is fluent in French as well.

Eiji Kanda (神田 えいじ, Kanda Eiji^?)

Voiced by: Tomokazu Seki (drama CD), Mamoru Miyano (anime)

Eiji is Ono's apprentice, as well as other help in the kitchen. He is a former street punk who was picked up off the street and reformed by a boxing coach. He trained to be a boxer, and was a top fighter. However, due to his detached retinas, he had to give up boxing. He saw a "Help Wanted" ad in the bakery's window, and decided to join. He has a huge sweet tooth. He holds Ono in very high regard, calling him his "Master", due to his skill in making sweets. Over time they have developed more of a father-son relationship than that of a master and apprentice.

Chikage Kobayakawa (小早川 千影, Kobayakawa Chikage^?)

Voiced by: Kazuhiko Inoue (drama CD), Eiji Hanawa (anime)

Chikage is Tachibana's childhood friend. His family works at the Tachibana house. He was sent by the Tachibana family to watch out for his friend. Chikage is trained to become a waiter by Tachibana. However, he is very klutzy and has a hard time. He wears sunglasses all of the time, as his eyes are weak. He has a crush on Ono, though he thinks Ono doesn't feel the same way (on the contrary, Ono is in love with Chikage). He is very shy and polite. He calls Tachibana "Young Master" after the game "Ōoka Echizen (大岡越前)".

Minor characters

• Kaedeko (楓子^?), affectionally called "Deko" or "Dei-Dei", Chikage's daughter, is a sweet, beautiful, if not so bright young girl, although she is often mistaken for a teenager because of her "mature" looks (she is really about ten years old).

• Ms. Ito (伊東, Itō^?) and Mrs. Urushihara (漆原^?), two regular customers at the Antique.

• Haruka Nakatsu (中津 はるか, Nakatsu Haruka^?) and Tamiko Kagami (各務 民子, Kagami Tamiko^?) (nicknamed "Tammy") are two voluptuous female news announcers who are used on the news simply to display their bodies. They long to be seen as real reporters rather than a peep show; they reported a story about the Antique Bakery.

• Tadahiro Akutagawa (芥川 忠宏, Akutagawa Tadahiro^?) is a cold, boring, and, frankly, somewhat scary reporter who works for the police, was obsessed with trying to find Tachibana's abductor, and who is now a pastry connoisseur, sampling cakes from bakeries all over Japan.

Voiced by: Norio Wakamoto (anime)

• Sakurako Sakaki (桜子, Sakurako^?), is an award winning author who persuaded Chikage to help her conceive Kaedeko.

• Jean-Baptiste is a famous patisserie and Ono's former mentor and ex-lover, who attempts to persuade Ono to return to France to work in his new restaurant.
  

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