This week, I’d like to apologize for not sticking with Yumeiro Patissiere’s first season. I originally stuck with it for five episodes before giving up, but here’s why:
The things I appreciated about this series back then was that even though this was a show in which people are accompanied by strange sweets fairies, it didn’t pull a la Corda d’Oro and suddenly make their characters incredibly talented: they still had to work really hard for it. The thing that turned me off however was that it was already getting dull and repetitive after five episodes. I especially didn’t like the cheesy drama around the arrogant rivals that appeared in front of the lead characters, and on top of that I was also bothered by a lack of creativity…
…so why did the drama in this series suddenly become so good? Where did the inspiration come from for the Professional arc? This second season acts like the two main gripes I had with the first season never existed. The current episode marks the end of the Sweets Kingdom arc, which really shows that better than ever.
The sweets kingdom is… bizarre. What mind came up with that and what kind of state was it in? For the past three episodes, the characters have travelled to various places to collect some conveniently located sweets ingredients. An entire forest made out of baumkuchen? What the heck? This episode went even further by explaining how Sweets Spirits are born. That was without a doubt the weirdest explanation of the “birds and the bees” that I’ve ever heard.
Just about everything about the Sweets Kingdom makes no sense, but that probably was the intention of the creators: to just make this very imaginative fantasy world. It definitely gave me a lot to laugh about for the past three episodes, not to mention Kashino walking around in a pink teddy bear outfit for the entire time. I’m really suspecting that the creators did that in order to avoid confusion with the Kasshi fairy, since the two look so similar. I have not watched the first season, but is there a reason why these three fairies look like Kasshi and the two others look so much like Kashino?
And regarding the drama… why did it suddenly turn this good? I mean, compared to the first season, the characters are much less obnoxious, it’s much less forced and actually quite genuine. Of course, you need to like the childish kind of series in order to enjoy Yumeiro Patissiere. I don’t think that I’m going to end up watching the first season anytime soon (50 episodes is looooong), but the new season definitely surprised me.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Ah, so you have fallen for this show’s charms as well. Very good, very good.
I don’t know if this has anything to do with it, but the first anime series broke away from the manga around the late 30’s and went complete into complete anime-original material from then on. So this entire sequel is anime-original with no manga material to adapt. It could be a reason to why the drama might seem a bit better.
(I don’t think there’s any reason the three fairies look like their human characters. It’s just to give some fanservice or something)
“This second season acts like the two main gripes I had with the first season never existed. ”
Because it didn’t. The first season’s earlier eps were indicative of just the sheer newbie status of Ichigo. That’s about it. Things constantly built up from there including a lot of back history of Ichigo’s grandmother to almost everybody in the cast.
I disagree with the idea that the characters were obnoxious or forced. That’s the general impression they FIRST give, but they did a great job of showing the reasons for the characters’ motivations from there.
Of course, there’s some hilarious ‘what the heck?’ momements scattered about, but mostly for the comedic effect.
Yes I agree with you, the Professional Season definitely has better drama then the first season of Yumeiro Patissiere.
The characters were forced in the beginning, but later on they gave them better character development and spread a background on them.
Oh about the three fairies that look like humans, they were there in the first season but they don’t actually have a serious role in the plot.