BONJOUR! Koiaji Patisserie Review
Looking for a lighter romantic comedy that you can finish in just a few hours, and is about making beautiful food? Than you may have found the perfect series to watch. Bonjour Koiaji Patisserie is a series of 24 five minute long episodes, equaling about a five episode mini series if you want to look at it that way. When I saw BKP (I'm going to abbreviate because i'm lazy) on my Crunchyroll queue I decided, "why the heck not?". I first assumed it was like every other series where I would be committing myself to 24 half hour long episodes, but to my surprise the episodes of this show are only FIVE MINUTES LONG. My first thought? How the heck can you have a decent episode of anything in five minutes, let alone build a story with that short amount of time. With a sigh of relief I can report to you all that I actually did not mind the short episodes and it really led to a quick, easy, and enjoyful watch.
First off I just want to say that I love anime shows about food. They are some of my favorites actually. Currently I am counting down the days until Food Wars season two comes out this summer, and many of my favorite recipes to make come from the manga Kitchen Princess (which happens to be my favorite manga of all time). Plus, anime food just looks so dang delicious. Sometimes better than food that could come out of a real life kitchen! But I digress. When I glanced upon an anime that was about a school all about baking, I just had to find out what it was all about.
So we start off by seeing our main character Sayuri Harano walking the halls of the school that she will be attending for the next year; the prestigious Fleurir Confectionary Academy. Immediately we learn that Sayuri is able to attend this school because of an impressive scholarship, but because of this she has to make sure she is able to prove to others that she deserves to be here. Which is when rival student, Tsubaki Sannomiya, questions Sayuri to her face whether or not she will make it at this academy. Quickly into their argument we meet the first extremely good-looking man of the show, Ryou Kouzuki. He orders the girls to step aside and to quit using the hallways as a place for childish disputes. He may look like an angry fellow, but you can tell that he will play a big role in later episodes. The next thing that we learn is the headmaster at the school, Nadeshiko Minagawa, also begins to have her doubts about the scholarship student when she sees Sayuri and Tsubaki having it out in the hallways before the first classes have even begun. Nadeshiko is going to make sure to keep a close eye on Harano-san to make sure that she is worthy of the prize in which she's been given.
After seeing who is out to get her straight away, next Sayuri is told by her best friend at the school, Ran Mochizuki, that there is one specific rule at Fleurir that must be abided by at all costs. No students and teachers are allowed to have any sort of romantic relationship. Sounds like a pretty standard rule right? Sayuri also questions why this is such an important rule since it is basically a moral standard everywhere, but then she is able to meet the staff at the opening ceremony. And just like that, she understands just as quickly as every other girl's eyes begin to turn starstruck at the sight of the professors. They are flawless. The most perfect group of men she has ever laid eyes on. So maybe this year won't be so easy after all?
Our first studly professor is Gilbert Hanafusa (just goes by Gil in the show) who is all the way from France and has perfected the art of French pastries. His blonde hair and quirky personality make him all the more desireable. Second, we have Mitsuki Aoi or better known as the Prince of Chocolate. He is famous for his family shop Lecran which sells many decadent confectionaries. Later on in the series Tsubaki even mentions that an aroma of cacao is always following Mitsuki-sensei. Mitsuki in comparison to Gil is really opposite. He appears as a very mature and serious looking man, and as far as looks go he is definitely a fan favorite. Lastly, there is Professor Yoshinosuke Suzumi who is the rather quiet one of the bunch. Still strikingly handsome, he is often overlooked as a love interest to many young girls because he is betrothed to another woman. However, we learn that it is an arranged marriage and that he has still never met the woman he is said to marry. Since an arranged marriage is not uncommon to see in Japan this becomes almost an irrelevant detail. The three of these teachers together are sure enough to make any young girl's heart skip a beat.
As classes begin, the students are paired up at random and must make a delicious pastry that will show off their initial skills and that they will be able to share with the entire class. To their disappointment Sayuri and Ran are not paired up, and instead Sayuri gets to team with the mysterious guy that shouted at her in the hallway earlier, Ryou. She then learns that Ryou is seventh generation of his family to become a pastry chef, and will one day run his family business. She also learns that his baking skills are said to be some of the best in her class, if not better than her class. Right away Ryou basically tells Sayuri that she will be his assistant for this project, and without the will to stand up to him she will stand on the sidelines for now. This isn't until the pesky Tsubaki comes around to mention yet again that Sayuri is a flake and doesn't deserve her scholarship. Finally we get to see the protective and somewhat romantic side of Ryou and stands up for Sayuri. He often likes to grab Tsubaki's face and say something like, "shut up you octopus" and for the time being it normally works. After this encounter Ryou asks for Sayuri to finally step in on their project together and she finally feels like she can have a voice. She especially begins to impress Ryou when she critiques his creme and says that she can make it taste better. He is taken back quite a bit by this comment but you can tell that he now takes Sayuri seriously as a student and is delighted to let her makes the changes that she feels necessary. In the end they make the number one dish of the class which happens to be a gorgeous orange caramel cake like dessert. Not only did a friendship/romantic relationship begin to form just out of this one simple class, but we then get to find out that rival Tsubaki has created a dish that no one will touch. A strawberry and caviar mille-feuille. GROSS. Sweet fruit and fish eggs just shouldn't ever go together. An even greater feat is that Tsubaki even justifies her dish being delicious which means that she doesn't stand anywhere even close as competition to Sayuri. I will say that Tsubaki being a so-so baker makes the competition between her and Haruno less exciting. But at the same time, it makes it so much easier to say that Tsubaki is more words than actions.
Once all of the characters have been introduced we begin to see how Sayuri is going to deal with the number one rule that Ran reminded her about. No student and teacher can have a romantic relationship. But it seems at Fleurir this may be more difficult than she thought because the teachers seemed to have picked her (among loads of other girls) to be the one they want to spend the most time with. Which each passing episode, all of the prince charmings will eventually show up and approach Sayuri in a different way to show some sort of affection. The best way? Baking her treats. (To be fair though, I would probably fall quickly in love with a man who made me adorable desserts on the regular... ) She too will grow fond of all the gentleman, but which one will she like the most? Maybe by the end of the school year she will know what her heart wants, but for now she will have to settle spending everyday in and outside of the classroom with at least one of the professors or Ryou at a time. This is also leads headmaster Nadeshiko too many wrong conclusions when she catches Sayuri spending time individually with each of the men.
For the remainder of this series you see Sayuri and her confectionary companions go about their normal school lives, or at least what is normal to them. Creating beautiful pastries and talking to handsome men. Sayuri is also often found in the middle of a competition between Ryou and Mitsuki who seems to be the most serious about her. I think that personally I am rooting for Ryou and Sayuri. Ryou seems to be the badass of the bunch and deep down seems to care for her the most, and I would like to convince myself that she feels the same way. Maybe the idea that women love badboys is a real thing after all. On the other hand you have Tsubaki who utterly obsessed with Mitsuki (like to the point of stalking), and I think that it would have been hilarious to see Sayuri make bigger strides in her relationship with Aoi to make Tsubaki even more salty. The cast overall was okay. They were sure to give each love interest in the show a small backstory, however I was disappointed that not much info was given on the female characters in the show. Again considering the length of this show though, there probably wasn't a lot more they could have said without simply making it an episode or two longer. The plot of the show was also decent. I would say somewhere between an "okay" and a "good". There was never a clear goal for Sayuri except to finish her year long term at Fleurir. Everything that happens in between is all for the romantic comedy. This anime overall was simple and flirty and honestly quite refreshing. It has been awhile since I have enjoyed an anime for just the simple things. Well designed characters (I actually love the style that the illustrator used), the "antagonist" wasn't too overbearing (Tsubaki was more creepy if anything), the excellent detail on the beautiful pastries, and the relationships that were built over such a short period of time are some of the main things I enjoyed about BKP.
As I did just mention I loved the illustrations in this show, I am very drawn towards the style of anime in the mid 2000's . Sayuri herself is quite kawaii, and I love her side curly ponytail hairstyle. Ryou as my other favorite character just has a cool ambiance about him, and I like his punkesque red hairstyle. I also enjoyed the character of Gil a lot too, for some reason the fact that he was French made him all the more adorable. When it came to music in the show I unfortunately don't have any new songs that I will be downloading onto my phone. The intro and outro to these episodes are more like the short intermission shot you find in the middle of a normal length anime episode. They are rather jingles than songs, and weren't quite long enough to keep an impression.
Overall I did really enjoy Bonjour Koiaji Patisserie and would recommend it to anyone who is intrigued. The concept as a whole, like I mentioned before, is quite simple but it is quirky and delightful. The characters are all likeable for the most part, and many of them could be considered loveable. I also loved the fact that I was able to binge this series in just a couple of hours. I wouldn't say that I want to watch five minute episode series all the time but I didn't mind that this one was like this. My only complaint is that I feel that they spent a majority of the middle of the series focusing less on the fact that they are in a baking school than on the romance. I can see why they would do this, but personally a part of the reason that I started this show was to watching beautiful characters make beautiful food. That may just be a biased opinion though because of how big of a foodie I am. So if you think that attending Fleurir Confectionary Academy for 24 short episodes sounds like a good idea to you, than go for it! Hot guys and yummy desserts await!
Thank you for reading.
Taylor Stevens
Amasian Galaxy
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