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Yumeiro Pâtissière (TV) (both seasons).




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MaxSouth



Joined: 11 Oct 2008
Posts: 1363
PostPosted: Sun May 03, 2015 7:29 am Reply with quote


Yumeiro Pâtissière
Yumeiro Pâtissière SP Professional(TV)

Genres: comedy, fantasy, romance
Themes: cooking, male harem, school life

Plot Summary: Ichigo Amano is an average, sweets-loving, 14 year old girl who dreams of becoming a pâtissiere like her grandma. One day, she is scouted by a genius pâtissier to enroll in St. Marie Academy - an elite patisserie school. Here she meets new friends and the Sweets Spirits, which partner with humans to help make their dreams come true.

(I diligently browsed through all of the two pages of forum search results on Yumeiro Pâtissière, and found no proper general thread about it, so lets make it here.)
___________________________________________________________________

Full analysis of the show, all thirty nine points:

Concept:

1) pink and sweet overdose, though it is typical for the genre of shoyo, and appropriate for the target audience;

2) the setting is naive fantasy-dream for girls; writers *really* did not think highly of the audience in terms of trying to come up with something more clever (which is kind of insulting to young girls because many of them are pretty clever and could easily survive more realistic plot turns, contrary to what authors think of them);

3) magical part of the concept is pretty weak: the spirits are useless little creatures that know just a little more than the newcomer girl, and even if they know something, they are mostly not allowed to help anyway. So it is just cutesy partners for embellishment, and nothing more. Normally, spirits in such stories would play a major role by sometimes allowing a newcomer to show amazing craft and skill, that would not be expected from them by public;

4) sponsor of supposedly high-art food show is MacDonalds -- those words look like oxymoron when put together, ironic;

5) alas, this anime does not go to confectionery techniques too much, nor goes to discuss economy of sweets such as cost of ingredients and time to make them;

6) authors obviously wanted to create a story about a complete novice, but they went overboard and made the main heroine girl too unrealistically and annoyingly bad (see details in story section);

7) authors went to be completely irresponsible to the future health of children who watched this show. They do not mention horrible damage to health that excessive consumption of sugary food does: diabetes, chopped of limbs, obesity, high blood pressure, heart attack and early death -- nothing of it is explained to the audience, which is mostly little girls. Main girl is shown over-eating sweets (as much as "27 cakes" per day) without getting fat, and this is also irresponsible by authors, and is misleading viewers;

8) some children are shown to fat-shame each other, even though no fat was shown in how those characters are drawn -- this unhealthy thing display to youth;

9) anime promotes highly unhealthy practice of nightly trainings (which are allowed as part of training in the pastry academy in this anime), with multiple heroes collapsing because of this;

10) there is a lot of what can be called as almost sexual harassment towards both women and men, which should not be taught to minors; authors are irresponsible again;

11) the project installs some ridiculous cliche about other nations (details below; thankfully, not too malicious);

12) this project showcases breaking speed limit in cars with children without safety belts used -- another irresponsible decisions by authors;

13) the show advertises a very strange idea that only original confectionery, not made on recipes by others, can make people smile -- which is, of course, nonsense;

14) this show's tournament portrayal is vastly incorrect, because, of course, contenders never come up with their ideas on the spot on the match: even genius ideas require refinement;

15) also, contrary to how it is shown in this project, contenders in competitions never scream at judges, demanding explanations why they have lost. Judges usually either comment on their decisions, or do not at all, but contenders just keep silent either way;

16) this anime presents competition of confectioners as having multiple additional matches for various reasons, which is not really how it happens because all events and schedules are pre-planned beforehand, and there is no time and budget for additional matches. And, of course, matches are not held in castles and palaces like Versailles; nor they are televised worldwide;

17) confectionery store managers and confectionery chefs are usually quite separate positions, yet the project mixes those into one.

___________________________________________________________________


Story:

1) it is utterly unbelievable that a confectioner that has potential would butcher spoiler[more than a few crepes before making it right]. You have to have at least basic sense of cooking to eventually become a great confectioner. Contrary what this project shows, this main heroine girl would have been be expelled. At best, her fate would be to become hard-worker type of mediocre confectioner that has no talent and only manages to keep afloat by over-training herself to do things she does not understand and has no sense for;

2) all the trouble with making spoiler[crepe] because of not being able to manage the temperature right is not realistic since special tools for making spoiler[crepes] exist already for decades. There is no need to care about spoiler[pan] being overheated or underheated;

3) the story of other girls being jealous of incapable novice spoiler[put to best performing group] and committing violations is a showcase of their nasty characters, but also of incompetence of school administration; process of selection and spoiler[moving pupils from one group to another] should be transparent and not crony-based;

4) one of the stories is about spoiler[evil pupil girl who sabotages main heroes' team, steals their design and concept for a school's Grand Prix competition]. The moral that this anime gives is that if you do that it will be rewarded and you will succeed with your goals, and that your crime will be unpunished. In most cases is it realistic, but it is weird thing to teach children to in this silly anime for children that supposed to be positive and educate children to be honest about their jobs;

5) story about a team from spoiler[Andorra] is questionable due to introducing ridiculous nationalistic cliches -- like spoiler[Spanish people (most of Andorrians) turn into behaving like bulls from Corrida] once they become excited. Also, authors are wrong suggesting that spoiler[Andorra] is poor, showing old trashy wooden place where the team has practiced. Also, an spoiler[American] later is presented as country bumpkin, hick and yokel;

6) this anime does not think of New-Yorkers well as heroes had to change spoiler[classy French confectionery into regular NY one like hundred of others]. There is no way in city such as this high-class true spoiler[French confectionery made by confectioners who studied their art in France] would not succeed in centre of NY with any level of decent management;

7) semi/finale matches are, of course, not realistic -- not only because there would not be spoiler[two Japanese] judges or two spoiler[Japanese] teams, but also because level of expertise of main heroes' team is way below of that of spoiler[European] team.

8) level of expenses that spoiler[rich girl] shows would bankrupt even rich family/business;

___________________________________________________________________


Characters:

1) fourteen years old main heroine is presented/drawn/voiced as 10 year old, which is creepy;

2) in some characters, including main heroine, you can see white eye area above the iris, which is a sign of insanity or severe illness, because characters do not actually express shock/surprise by this, it is not how eyes should look normally. Medical attention might be necessary;

3) main girl always falls from staircases -- this is very strange for her age. She probably has serious brain illness, and it has to be treated. Obviously, authors have tried to make her look cute, show her to be clumsy character. However, this does not match her age, so they have made it look really weird;

4) main heroine talks aloud to her spoiler[imaginary fairy friend] with people around. In her writings, she also talks to her spoiler[dead grandmother]. Foгrteen years is like half of her age too old to behave like that. It looks like main heroine has serious mental development issues, and she needs to be hospitalized;

5) main dark-yellow-haired lad at one point tells his spoiler[chocolate partner] not to get close to him since he has just returned from a running, and hence he is sweaty. However, if it is just a fresh sweat, it does not normally smell at all -- unless the person is ill with fungus infection or something. So, this anime tells viewers that the lad is sick. Whether he gets treatment or not, is not covered in the story;

6) main dark-yellow-haired lad's spoiler[fear of women], of course, is made overboard. Yes, he was spoiler[harassed by girls] for his cuteness factor, but once he matured sexually, this would definitely change his attitude about, and he would very much enjoy it and use such attention for pleasures for both himself and the young ladies. Unless, of course, he is not interested in spoiler[women], which should not be the case. So this antagonism against spoiler[intimacy] could be a sign of him being traumatized much more seriously than just by being spoiler[harassed by girls], so he should have to go to professionals for medical treatment;

7) characters have stylish/hip clothes (especially lads).

___________________________________________________________________


Sound/voice acting/music:

1) voice actress for main heroine tries too hard to sound dolly-cute, and you can hear the effort, it does not sound genuine sometimes; ideally, audience should not notice the strained voice acting, it is not a work of high class quality;

2) voice for Caramel fairy is the best, because actress is actually the youngest girl, so she sounds cute most naturally;

3) it is weird how all foreigners speak Japanese, but it is typical for most anime anyway. But what is even more ridiculous is that sometimes foreigners are given strange voice intonations -- that have nothing to do with how actual foreigners speak Japanese with an accent;

4) music is cute, but nothing extraordinary;

5) few good children songs.

___________________________________________________________________


Visuals:

1) animation and character design -- basically everything, except for sweets -- looks pretty cheap here;

2) at times ugly key frame side-view character design, so the quality of animation is uneven.

___________________________________________________________________


Resume:

Despite its many fundamental flaws and vastly irresponsible approach by authors, this anime deserves rating between "Decent" and "Good" ("worth seeing") for both parts of the show since it does partly explain how the pastry is made, and gives some cultural and geographical knowledge to its children viewers. Also, there are rare genuine drama moments, as well as some cute characters.

[EDIT: Cut the thread title down to include the fact that it's for both seasons so there wouldn't be as much text to jumble it up. -TK]


Last edited by MaxSouth on Sun May 10, 2015 7:18 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Tue May 05, 2015 12:47 am Reply with quote
MaxSouth wrote:
m

2) the setting is naive fantasy-dream for girls; writers *really* did not think highly of the audience in terms of trying to come up with something more clever (which is kind of insulting to young girls because many of them are pretty clever and could easily survive more realistic plot turns, contrary to what authors think of them)


I don't see anything at all wrong with a "naive fantasy dream setting" in a show for eight-year-old girls?


Quote:
7) authors went to be completely irresponsible to the future health of children who watched this show. They do not mention horrible damage to health that excessive consumption of sugary food does: diabetes, chopped of limbs, obesity, high blood pressure, heart attack and early death -- nothing of it is explained to the audience, which is mostly little girls. Main girl is shown over-eating sweets (as much as "27 cakes" per day) without getting fat, and this is also irresponsible by authors, and is misleading viewers;

8) some children are shown to fat-shame each other, even though no fat was shown in how those characters are drawn -- this unhealthy thing display to youth;

9) anime promotes highly unhealthy practice of nightly trainings (which are allowed as part of training in the pastry academy in this anime), with multiple heroes collapsing because of this;

10) there is a lot of what can be called as almost sexual harassment towards both women and men, which should not be taught to minors; authors are irresponsible again;


..........

are you actually typing these words?



Quote:
1) fourteen years old main heroine is presented/drawn/voiced as 10 year old, which is creepy;

THERE'S NOTHING "CREEPY" ABOUT IT!!

I looked and sounded like I was 10 when I was 14, so I suppose I'm creepy then!?

Quote:
2) in some characters, including main heroine, you can see white eye area above the iris, which is a sign of insanity or severe illness, because characters do not actually express shock/surprise by this, it is not how eyes should look normally. Medical attention might be necessary;

.....you're ridiculous.


Quote:
3) main girl always falls from staircases -- this is very strange for her age.

MANY shoujo heroines are klutzes. It's a trope.

Quote:
4) main heroine talks aloud to her spoiler[imaginary fairy friend] with people around. In her writings, she also talks to her spoiler[dead grandmother]. Foгrteen years is like half of her age too old to behave like that. It looks like main heroine has serious mental development issues, and she needs to be hospitalized;

.........you're very ignorant of how seriously the Japanese take their loved ones passing away. There is nothing wrong with Ichigo!! Characters address dead friends and relatives in their thoughts and writings all the freaking time.

I really don't understand how your mind processes things. You shouldn't be allowed to type on the internet.
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getchman
Space Cowboy



Joined: 07 Apr 2012
Posts: 9117
Location: Bedford, NH
PostPosted: Tue May 05, 2015 6:53 am Reply with quote
holy shit this is hilarious. Thank you Max for sacrificing your sanity for our amusement
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MaxSouth



Joined: 11 Oct 2008
Posts: 1363
PostPosted: Tue May 05, 2015 2:35 pm Reply with quote
Chiibi, getchman:

I am watching anime with little regard to "common tropes" and preconceived notions, keeping an open mind and maintaining pragmatical, realistic view on things.

And, yes, result could be funny as in many cases such super-grounded view on what happens in a silly anime leads its heroes to be "prescribed" to hospital treatment for their physical and, more commonly, mental illnesses. Wink


Chiibi wrote:
I don't see anything at all wrong with a "naive fantasy dream setting" in a show for eight-year-old girls?


I did not write that it is a bad thing.


Quote:
THERE'S NOTHING "CREEPY" ABOUT IT!!


It is creepy because, as I mentioned, the voice acting is a little strained to sound dolly-cuty, and because you know the purpose why producers decide to make character looking and sounding so obviously younger than their nominal age -- there are fans of that, and they are not little girls at all.


Last edited by MaxSouth on Tue May 05, 2015 2:51 pm; edited 1 time in total
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getchman
Space Cowboy



Joined: 07 Apr 2012
Posts: 9117
Location: Bedford, NH
PostPosted: Tue May 05, 2015 2:45 pm Reply with quote
they man, it's cool. if you want to take a fantasy show about cooking sweets, that's aimed at completely different demographic, super serious, you go right ahead. I'm just here for the entertainment
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MaxSouth



Joined: 11 Oct 2008
Posts: 1363
PostPosted: Tue May 05, 2015 2:59 pm Reply with quote
It looks like my reviews of silly shows are funnier than reviews of projects for more mature audience, where I am just counting inconsistencies, being a nitpicker.

Most often people overlook certain details, considering them "usual", but if you throw off this notion, it opens opportunity for a fresh view that could be more interesting than what you can typically read. Smile
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Tue May 05, 2015 7:47 pm Reply with quote
MaxSouth wrote:
I did not write that it is a bad thing.

YOU DID.
You wrote "the authors must not think highly of the audience" or some crap like that....like you're accusing the show of "talking down" to young girls watching it.


Quote:
because you know the purpose why producers decide to make character looking and sounding so obviously younger than their nominal age -- there are fans of that, and they are not little girls at all.


Oh good grief.

You can't just assume that the show catered to lolicon perverts; there are plenty of otaku-targeted shows that do that but this is not one of them. Ichigo isn't sexualized in this show at all; she's not drawn in her panties, she isn't groped, she doesn't act provocatively either.

This series was based on a manga that ran in a magazine (Ribon) FOR LITTLE GIRLS AND THE CHARACTERS ARE DRAWN THE EXACT SAME WAY.

Here is Ichigo from the manga

I even have a few issues with this manga in them. Many shoujo series have protagonists who are physically underdeveloped and insecure about it; this is what Japanese preteen girls can relate to.

Since I have collected and studied shoujo anime and manga for fifteen years, I know way more about this crap than YOU do, Max. Don't even try to argue with me. There's nothing creepy about it; if your mind immediately goes there when you see such characters, YOU are the one who's got a problem. And it really bothers me that you're trying to take an innocent shoujo series of purity and twist its intentions.
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Ortensia1980



Joined: 31 Aug 2011
Posts: 803
Location: some town near Amsterdam
PostPosted: Wed May 06, 2015 4:30 am Reply with quote
I've often wondered this, but doesn't it take away some enjoyment of a show when you take it super seriously? The main character likes sweets and wants to turn it into her profession and one of your complaints is that it's irresponsible to the health of the kids that watched it, because at no point is it mentioned that eating too much sugar is bad for you. If you go into the show with that attitude, how will it (or anything for that matter) ever be enjoyable?
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getchman
Space Cowboy



Joined: 07 Apr 2012
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PostPosted: Wed May 06, 2015 7:49 am Reply with quote
piggy backing off of that question, based on your life experiences with health issues involving food, why would you ever go anywhere near a cooking show?
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MaxSouth



Joined: 11 Oct 2008
Posts: 1363
PostPosted: Sun May 10, 2015 7:16 pm Reply with quote
Chiibi, I like that you are so passionate about all of this, but whether depicting and voicing 14 year old girl as 10 year is creepy or not (and what the purpose of this was) is matter of opinion. You can think it is not creepy at all, but I still think it is (though it does not mean that there are no creepier examples, you are right about that). There is no way to definitely establish this one way or another, so lets agree to disagree.

Chiibi wrote:

YOU DID.
You wrote "the authors must not think highly of the audience" or some crap like that....like you're accusing the show of "talking down" to young girls watching it.


Yes, I critiqued this aspect of the show, however, it does not mean "naive fantasy dream setting" is "bad"; it means that less naive settings could be better. This is not binary issue, there are more gradations to it.

Ortensia1980, I did not write that I did not enjoy the show. Yes, since I could not brush all the silly things in this project off, I had less pleasure watching it, but I still watched it and had some pleasure while doing so -- it was not unbearable.

And yes, I never forgive irresponsible attitude of authors towards well-being of viewers, especially children. It is not only my humanistic position in general, but also personal thing as due to ignorance and propaganda of bad habits (eating, smoking), I have lost a number of relatives to painful deaths. I will never be able to "let it go" on those issues, ever.

Silly story or serious story, people's lives are in stake, and every bit of brainwashing in any media warps the (sub)consciousness into worse state. This is why banning propaganda of smoking and bad eating habits (chips, sugary products) is critical.
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Wed May 13, 2015 11:52 am Reply with quote
MaxSouth wrote:
Chiibi, I like that you are so passionate about all of this, but whether depicting and voicing 14 year old girl as 10 year is creepy or not (and what the purpose of this was) is matter of opinion.

Have you been to Japan? The difference in a 14-year-old Japanese girl's voice compared to a 10-year-old's is not much....if any.
Japanese girls have high-pitched voices for a very long time.

Quote:
It is not only my humanistic position in general, but also personal thing as due to ignorance and propaganda of bad habits (eating, smoking), I have lost a number of relatives to painful deaths. I will never be able to "let it go" on those issues, ever.


Oh geeze, spare us the angsty "melodrama".

I lost three grandparents to smoking....do you think I go around screaming at every anime creator who wrote a character who smokes?

No, because that is stupid and irrational. People who point fingers at the media for "causing unfortunate events" only do so when they think they have nothing else to blame it on. People smoke because they are addicted to nicotine. They don't do it because it "looks cool on TV." Likewise, I eat sweets because they taste good. I don't eat them "because cute anime characters eat them".

Quote:
Silly story or serious story, people's lives are in stake, and every bit of brainwashing in any media warps the (sub)consciousness into worse state. This is why banning propaganda of smoking and bad eating habits (chips, sugary products) is critical.


Sounds like someone is a wee bit paranoid....no, it is not "critical"....unless the audience watching have very very low intelligence.
The Japanese are the longest living race on Earth, currently. Evidently they know how to take care of themselves.
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MaxSouth



Joined: 11 Oct 2008
Posts: 1363
PostPosted: Sun Jun 28, 2015 4:13 pm Reply with quote
Chiibi:

1) Japanese girls mature at about the same age as any other girls; the voice chages at that time, not at any later time; it is just science, it is indisputable. So there is no excuse in way how production makes women to speak in anime other than for fan-service, for loli-fans -- though, to be fair, Lolita was older than a ten year old (how main lass in this anime was depicted, despite formally being fourteen);

2) if you personally feel indifferent to the fact that your relatives have died of smoking, then it does not mean that others (like myself) are the same. Smoking continues to be huge global issue, and countless people die from it every day;

3) depiction of bad habits influences young viewers not depending on their intelligence, it happens even subconsciously. So propaganda of smoking and bad eating habits has to be absolutely banned -- like it has happened with smoking in most countries in the world, including in USA. Soda/chips/MacDonalds industry still bribe the hell out of politicians to never admit the fact their their products sometimes as poisonous as cigarette and bring deathtoll comparable to that, and thus advertisement for those killer "food" has to be banned;

4) Japanese average life length would be even better if smoking would be as epidemic as it is there. And due to increasing adoption of junk food, Japanese average life length, as scientists predict, will not grow any more and even turn back to lower figures.
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Mon Jun 29, 2015 5:00 pm Reply with quote
MaxSouth wrote:
Chiibi:

1) Japanese girls mature at about the same age as any other girls; the voice chages at that time, not at any later time; it is just science, it is indisputable.


THEIR VOICES DO NOT CHANGE.

Why the hell else do you think middle-aged ladies like Megumi Hayashibara and Mitsuishi Kotono were able to voice little teenaged girls like Lina and Usagi....hell, Kotono voiced Chibi Chibi. who is two years old in Sailor Stars.

I've seen Aya Hirano in concert. She doesn't change her voice to do Konata's role in Lucky Star; she actually sounds like that!!

Yumeiro does not target loli fans. It targets the manga audience who are 9 to 14 years old.

Why the hell would lolicons think it was targetting them? Why the hell would you think they would even choose to watch this when PLENTY of other anime target them?


Quote:
So propaganda of smoking and bad eating habits has to be absolutely banned

No, it doesn't. And it won't. And besides, Japanese sweets are much healthier than sweets in America.
I know because I've eaten them and you haven't.

Quit debating with someone who knows about this stuff much more than you do....it's just making you look foolish. You clearly have no idea what you're talking about, as usual.

This is why people hate every post you make.

Quote:
Japanese average life length, as scientists predict, will not grow any more and even turn back to lower figures.

I would like a link citing EXACTLY that.
If you can't provide one, you're full of it.
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Bianca-Sama



Joined: 12 Nov 2014
Posts: 9
PostPosted: Mon Jun 29, 2015 11:55 pm Reply with quote
WHAT!?
I'm 18 and it's still one of my favorites ( I watched the series when I was 14)
Honestly, it's anime. It doesn't have to be realistic lol It also didn't influence me into getting obese. IDK, I don't think that it should be critiqued that harshly. I absolutely adored it and loved Ichigo. Razz
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 12:21 am Reply with quote
Bianca-Sama wrote:
WHAT!?
I'm 18 and it's still one of my favorites ( I watched the series when I was 14)
Honestly, it's anime. It doesn't have to be realistic lol It also didn't influence me into getting obese. IDK, I don't think that it should be critiqued that harshly. I absolutely adored it and loved Ichigo. Razz


You really can't take Max South's posts seriously. All he does is talk out of his ass. >_>
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