Rewind: Yumeiro Pâtissière

Today, I feature another anime from the ancient days, from when I used this old PC all the time and wasn't as obsessive about taking screenshots. Those were the days of anime binging and genre phases, when I searched out every acceptable vampire anime, and then every enjoyable cute anime. In other words, I watched Yumeiro Pâtissière three years ago, around the same time as La Corda d'Oro, Gauken Alice, Lucky Star, and Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi. In that time of my life, I appreciated anything that would help me escape from reality, especially if it made me smile or, better, laugh. Yumeiro Pâtissière had just the pleasant, innocent, fun atmosphere I longed for, and between the first 50-episode series and the second, single season series, it wrapped me in comfort for several hours.

My biggest complaint with Yumeiro Pâtissière was the same thing that gave it major cute points: the art. Everyone looked much younger than their actual age, even by anime standards. The adults looked like high schoolers, and 14-year-old Ichigo and her classmates looked like elementary students. It was easy to forget their real ages. Of course, if I wanted realism, Yumeiro Pâtissière was the wrong place to look. It had fairies.

Cute characters looking cute in the 32nd episode. And cupcakes
looking yummy... there's a lot of mouthwatering food in this one.

Before you dismiss this as a kids' anime (which it sort of is), let me tell you that I found the story quite entertaining.

"Sure, Annalyn," you say. "But you've already admitted you were an anime binger, and you weren't very discriminating."

Actually, by 2011, I could differentiate between what would completely, grossly waste my time and what anime was worth wasting my time on. Plus, enough people shared my positive opinion of this show to give it an average 4/5 stars on Anime-Planet. I binged, but I binged on decent quality anime.

Here's some of what kept my attention in Yumeiro Pâtissière, at least from what I remember:

First, Ichigo had a special skill (amazing sense of taste), which was identified by a professional chef. She was invited to a special school, at which she would slowly rise from the bottom of her class cooking group and become a great chef. There was competition and everything. Basically, there were several of the same qualities I enjoy in sports anime.

Second, there was a bit of romance. This anime is no where near entering the romance genre, but there's enough to make me smile. Actually, Yumeiro Pâtissière has some reverse harem elements, as she becomes close to three guys... and, as you may recall, I used to have a weakness for reverse harem (I'm pretty sure I've grown out of it... though it may just be that I haven't found a decent reverse harem in a long, long time).

Third, it made me happy. Look, I don't remember all the details, but I smiled and chuckled and had an all around pleasant time. That's all I wanted.

Yumeiro Pâtissière inspired a little story that I posted on this blog, a hypothetical Valentine's Day story of sorts. That story takes me down memory lane even more than looking at old screenshots. A lot has changed in the past three years... Anyway, I wrote it when Yumeiro Pâtissière was fresher in my memory, so the short introduction probably gives better information about the show than this post does.

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P.S. I just got the news: My Macbook is finally fixed! I'll get it back on Monday, when I return to school from Spring Break. This old PC of mine has been a real trooper, and I always enjoy getting reaquainted with it, but it will be a big relief to get back on the laptop I'm most comfortable with. Plus, I've been using the small inventory of screenshots on this PC to decide what to feature in my Rewind posts. I prefer not to watch anime (or any videos) on this dear, slow, old thing. It will be nice to have the freedom to move about at the speed and ease my younger laptop allows.

A Yumeiro Patissiere-Inspired Valentine's Day

I watched Yumeiro Patissiere back in March, and greatly enjoyed it. This anime revolves around a middle school student with amazing sense of taste who transfers to a pastry school. She’s put in the most skilled cooking group, despite being completely new to making sweets. She overcomes various challenges in both friendship and cooking, including, of course, Valentine’s Day. After all, what school anime is complete without an episode about Valentine’s Day?

For those of you who don’t know, the Japanese celebrate Valentine’s Day a little differently. We’re used to it as a day for Valentines cards and gifts to be exchanged by a couple (or a day when elementary students exchange little notes and eat candy). Every year, I see my parents give each other cards, often accompanied by truffles. Dad tends to bring Mom roses, as well. In Japan, on the other hand, Valentine’s Day is a day for girls to give chocolates to their crushes. It’s a one-sided gift (though, from some anime I’ve seen, I think there’s a day when the guys return the favor).

As I watched the Valentine’s Day episode of Yumerio Patissiere, I wondered what I’d do if we had such traditions. I don’t have anyone to give chocolates to, and probably won’t for a long time. But that doesn’t mean the day wouldn’t affect me. This episode spurred my imagination, so I decided to write out what I think might happen if we celebrated Valentine’s Day the way the Japanese do.

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The following is fiction, imagined as if we celebrated Valentine’s Day with the same traditions as they do in Japan. Names are changed in a paranoid way to protect my privacy, but all people are based on real life (“Rachel’s” crush is based on a collaboration of people, so if someone I know in real life actually reads my blog for once, don’t get any ideas. Moreover, I don’t think “Rachel” has any current crushes):

I flip through a book full of candy recipes. On the other side of the kitchen, my little sister, Rachel, examines a recipe for chocolate cake. I smile. When I asked her if she was making sweets with a special someone in mind, she shrugged it off. “Not really.”

But I knew that sheepish grin, so I pushed. “Oh? What about that one guy I met after school the other day? Jordan or something like that.”

“Annaly-yn!” she protested. I tried to raise one eyebrow. Both went up, but it had the desired effect. “Well, I might have ‘a special someone in mind’, but I’m not giving anything to him.”

Good, I thought in my probably cliché, but quite truly protective, older sister way. Aloud, I expressed a different delight. “So the cake’s for us, then?”

She smiled, crushing my hopes. That wasn’t an indulgent let’s-pretend-I’m-older-than-Annalyn-so-I’ll-be-nice smile. No. Unfortunately, that was a let’s-taunt-her-with-chocolate-she-can’t-have smile. “Nope,” she informed me, “It’s for the tenth grade student council and the Valentine’s Dance committee.”

I’m not a huge fan of cake anyway; but that fact hardly spurned my frustration. Frustrated or not, I’d be lucky to get even a lick of frosting, so I moved on to more important details. “Hm,” I commented thoughtfully, reaching for the candy recipe book. “Isn’t Jordan on the tenth grade student council, too?”

I glanced back over, catching another of Rachel’s sheepish grins. “Yeah, but I’d make the cake anyway. What about you? Are you making chocolate for someone special?”

I gave her a look, but let her change the subject. “Nice try. You know I haven’t had a crush since elementary school. I was thinking of making something to share with some of my friends at lunch, with plenty of leftovers for me. If you ask nicely, I might let you have some.”

We’ve been quiet for a while now, looking at our own recipe books and thinking our own thoughts. Every now and then, one of us opens a cupboard to make sure we have the right ingredients. I’ve decided to make peppermint fudge. It’s a persnickety sweet, one Mom entirely gave up on making. But I learned a few things from my aunt, so I think I can manage it. I even talked Mom into buying a good candy thermometer. Nevertheless, I make sure I have at least twice as much of each ingredient as necessary. I’m okay with slightly grainy fudge, so long as the taste’s the same, but I know of some mistakes that mess with even the taste. Besides, I want to try and make it smooth.

I open another cupboard, and a thought comes to me. What if I melt white chocolate and drizzle it onto the fudge? I could put peppermint in it… or even better, I wonder if there’s a recipe for white chocolate peppermint fudge or something like that? I could swirl or layer them, creating a much lighter flavor than just plain fudge. The whole reason I like adding peppermint to my sweets is that it adds a refreshing element, balancing (and thus allowing) the richer flavors. That element would probably work better if I didn’t just add it directly to the chocolate. Of course, adding walnuts would help make the whole texture lighter, but they also add a different taste, and, in my mind, ruin the fudge.

I grab a pen and pad of paper and return to the recipe book, looking for something that would work with my idea and writing down ingredients as I did. I don’t enjoy cooking as much as my aunt does, but I do love my sweets. And – I allow myself a small smile, turned so Rachel can’t see me – and I imagine, someday in the very distant future, having delicious Valentine’s Day chocolate to give to my husband. If and when that day comes (probably not for at least a decade), I’ll have lots of practice making sweets. In the meantime, there’s plenty of chocolate for me!