Antique Bakery



Antique Bakery is a manga by Fumi Yoshinaga which depicts the lives of four men who work in a small bakery. It was published in Japanese by Shinshokan and in English by Digital Manga Publishing.

The series won the 2002 Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo manga. The manga was adapted as a Japanese TV drama, with the title Antique: Antique Bakery, which was broadcast on Fuji TV in 2001, a TV anime, airing on July 3, 2008 on NoitaminA, and a Korean live-action movie.

Compare and contrast to Kinou Nani Tabeta.

Antique Bakery contains examples of:

 * All Gays Are Promiscuous: Ono, because of his "demonic gay charm".
 * Author Appeal: If you read Fumi Yoshinaga's various manga series, you realize that she REALLY likes pretty boys and food
 * Bad Dreams: These usually lead to Tachibana's Catapult Nigtmares.
 * Bastard Boyfriend: Jean, though he gets better.
 * Battle Aura: Cake-baking is Serious Business, isn't it, Kanda?
 * Bespectacled Bastard Boyfriend: Ono, when he's seducing. Ono!
 * Blue with Shock
 * Cast Full of Pretty Boys
 * Colour Failure
 * The Ditz: Chikage.
 * Even the Guys Want Him: Ono has a reputation as a "Gay of Demonic Charm," and has been fired multiple times for (sometimes accidentally) charming his straight coworkers and bosses.
 * Face Palm: Tachibana a couple of times. Also, Akugawa in episode 10.
 * Food Porn
 * French Cuisine Is Haughty: The titular cake shop has a menu entirely in French to evoke this idea, the head pâtissière learned his trade and title in France, and the apprentice goes to France for advanced cuisine instruction. The waitstaff, thankfully, don't manage the snooty part of the stereotype.
 * French Jerk: Jean.
 * Freudian Excuse:
 * Genre Shift: A very subtle one, but at the end of the series Antique Bakery gets some detective/thriller-ish overtones as the police begins to believe that the same man who kidnapped Tachibana when he was a kid has resurfaced and is now kidnapping and killing kids, while also buying cakes from Antique.
 * The Glasses Come Off: Chikage when . Also counts as his Crowning Moment of Awesome.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: You might be interested to know that Ono shares his voice actor with Lockon Stratos, Tachibana with Ali Al-Sarchez and Eiji with Setsuna F. Seiei. All from Mobile Suit Gundam 00.
 * Hikkikomori: the  kidnapper/molester
 * Hot-Blooded: Kanda.
 * Hotter and Sexier: Antique Bakery dj by Yoshinaga herself.
 * Manly Tears: Chikage a couple of times.
 * No Sense of Personal Space: Deko.
 * Punny Name: Chikage; "kage" meaning shadow, the joke being that he follows Tachibana everywhere. It's actually how he introduces himself to Ono and Eiji.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning:
 * Running Gag: Chikage hitting his head on doorframes.
 * Spit Take: Tachibana in episode 10.
 * Sunglasses at Night: Chikage, who wears them because of his light-sensitive eyes. Lampshaded by Ono.
 * Unusually Uninteresting Sight: In episode 6, when, a waitress happens to pass by, stops for a moment and walks away like nothing happened.