Why Are There So Many Anime About Baking?

Dessert-themed series, such as Antique Bakery and Yumeiro Patissiere, are popular among audiences. Why have they become such an anime staple?

Gourmet anime has gained popularity with series such as Food Wars! and Restaurant in Another World. It isn't the storylines that fully capture the viewer's attention, but instead, it is the scrumptious and mouth-watering food art.

Similarly, dessert and bakery-themed anime series, like Antique Bakery, have a strong appeal to anime fans too. Here are a few reasons why dessert-themed anime is popular!

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Similar to gourmet anime series, dessert-themed anime have amazing food art that would make viewers crave the dishes. Series such as Yumeiro Patissiere and Bonjour♪Sweet Love Pâtisserie design delicious Western-inspired pastries and confectioneries. The dessert animation showcases the fluffiness of the vanilla cream in the cream puff and the fresh and warm bread of the éclairs. In addition, the characters would give detailed commentary on the baking process, encouraging the audience to try the recipe at home.

In recent years, dessert-themed anime series began highlighting Japanese sweets too. Rin Asano's Deaimon is about a young man named Nagomu Irino who returns home to take over his family's business, a wagashi (Japanese sweets) shop. Although the series primarily focuses on Nagomu and his interactions with a young girl named Itsuka, the series introduces traditional Japanese sweets to viewers. Thus, the show opens a new world of Japanese delicacies and ingredients to viewers.

The tasty sweet pastries in these anime series are like advertisements, encouraging viewers to go to bakeries and enjoy these delicacies. There are a ton of bakeries in Japan because traditional Japanese homes do not have large ovens in the kitchen. Thus, a person cannot bake cakes or cookies in their households. Instead, a person must purchase desserts at a grocery store or bakery.

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Dessert-themed anime series mainly target the female demographic. For example, Natsumi Matsumoto's Yumeiro Patissiere, combines baking with magical fairies, paying homage to the magical girl aesthetic. In the series, the female protagonist, Ichigo Amano befriends a sweet spirit named Vanilla, who helps her develop her baking techniques at a prestigious culinary school. This series incorporates magic to help the young female protagonist gain confidence, a common theme in the magical girl franchise series. In addition, the desserts are overtly cute and feminine, using pastel colors and sparkles, contributing to the "kawaii" aesthetic.

Bakery-themed anime series help increase the popularity of real dessert shops and bakeries in Japan. Dessert shops are marketed toward younger crowds who watch anime. There are dessert shops that are anime themed, such as Pokemon and Demon Slayer. These anime-themed dessert shops would design delicious pastries and confectioneries inspired by your favorite anime characters.

In addition, dessert shops and bakeries are the perfect "date" spot for couples. In many rom-com series, the main couple would always seem to share a dessert, such as a sweet strawberry or chocolate banana crêpe or a delightful fruit parfait at a hipster café. The scenery and food art are selling points that dessert cafés capitalize on for the younger crowd. Bakery anime allows fans to envision themselves enjoying a colorful and sweet dessert with a close friend or significant other at a cute café.

Bakery-themed anime capture the gazes of all anime fans with its sugary confectioneries and pastries. As anime food art continues trending among young adults on social media, there will never be a shortage of dessert-themed anime.

Ederlyn Peralta is an Anime & Manga Features Writer for CBR. She has an MA in Comparative Literature from San Francisco State University and a BA in Japanese from UC Berkeley. She spends her time playing with tarot cards, collecting crystals, and consuming too much pop culture entertainment. She runs a personal blog and you can find her on Twitter @lynlynsays.