manga: Antique Bakery Vol 3-4 (end of series)
Sadly, I did not like these volumes as much as I did the first two. I think because they were almost all about Ono and Tachibana, and I am not nearly as fond of them as I am of Eiji and Chikage. I guess I’m just fonder of human puppies than I am of playboys, whether they’re suave and can make anyone who sees them fall in lust with them or scruffy angstmuffins who deal with their trauma by fooling around. Oh, unless they’re scarred, chainsmoking half-demons with ambiguous relationships with their best friends. I make that exception.*
Actually, I wouldn’t have minded Ono’s plotline as I’m more entertained by him, save that it focused on a relationship that I found rather icky**, especially since I kept getting the feeling that I was meant to at least somewhat sympathize with the abusive ex. Not that Ono himself really came across well in that plotline, either. And I don’t dislike Tachibana, but I’m rather bored with him outside of his interactions with some characters, and so while I sympathized, I couldn’t really get into his angsty backstory or how it was dealt with, though I did appreciate that one cathartic event didn’t just make decades of trauma go away, as usually happens in fiction.
But the best parts for me, aside from all the lovely pastry pr0n (I made sure I read when I was planning to eat soon anyway), were the bits with Eiji’s learning to be a pastry chef, and his commitment, and all the random cute bits with Chikage’s helplessness. I did like a lot of his backstory, too, and especially his relationship with Tachibana, but it also had parts I found icky, though not in the same was as Ono and his ex. Oh, and I loved the female reporters.
*Gojyo is my special snowflake.
**Which I understand also contained a lot of pretty typical BL tropes?
Actually, I wouldn’t have minded Ono’s plotline as I’m more entertained by him, save that it focused on a relationship that I found rather icky**, especially since I kept getting the feeling that I was meant to at least somewhat sympathize with the abusive ex. Not that Ono himself really came across well in that plotline, either. And I don’t dislike Tachibana, but I’m rather bored with him outside of his interactions with some characters, and so while I sympathized, I couldn’t really get into his angsty backstory or how it was dealt with, though I did appreciate that one cathartic event didn’t just make decades of trauma go away, as usually happens in fiction.
But the best parts for me, aside from all the lovely pastry pr0n (I made sure I read when I was planning to eat soon anyway), were the bits with Eiji’s learning to be a pastry chef, and his commitment, and all the random cute bits with Chikage’s helplessness. I did like a lot of his backstory, too, and especially his relationship with Tachibana, but it also had parts I found icky, though not in the same was as Ono and his ex. Oh, and I loved the female reporters.
*Gojyo is my special snowflake.
**Which I understand also contained a lot of pretty typical BL tropes?