Antique Bakery 4
Posted: March 7, 2007 Filed under: Antique Bakery 14 Comments »Aah! It ended! There was no closure, and the end was a bit agonizing when the kid kidnappings started up again and you think that Tachibana is going to get revenge, but… he does get his moment, a couple times.
Lots happens with Eiji early on in the volume. He has to start taking French lessons against his will, and Ono has to put him back in line when he strays. He has a mini-confession about how much he likes the bakery, then things go back to normal.
There are lots of weird hints and reflections about Tachibana and Ono’s past. I kind of liked it.
Yeah. I liked this series. It was fantastic. Scratch-n-sniff covers for life, baby.
Also, I feel the need to mention that I got all four volumes of this and Flower of Life together from Amazon, and the books arrived absolutely SOILED. Like, caked in filth so bad that my hands were completely covered in dirt just from unpacking the box. After wiping them all down copiously with paper towel, the books are still so dirty that I need to wash my hands after reading each one. Buyer beware on that one, I’m cutting back on my Amazon.com stuff.
Find the doujinshi by Yoshinaga-sensei that’s set after the series~ XD
Oh! I forgot Yoshinaga does doujinshi of her own work! I just found the one you’re talking about, I gotta read it now. I can only imagine how this series would be if it were just a hair smuttier, and it sounds like this may deliver.
I just want to say that I bought the first two volumes at amazon.ca and they were also filthy and looked used. I was so upset about it but I’m also reassured to know I wasn’t the only one who got them in that state (but I bought the other two online just not on amazon and they were clean clean clean).
I loved the books as well but I wished it had more boy love in it. It would have been amazing.
Quick question: Does this series really have any BL in it at all beyond the shounen-ai state? I’ve gotten pretty confused over this series and Flower of Life, and whether or not they’ve got BL in them. I’m not really a BL fan, but I’ve heard so much good stuff about Yoshinaga so…^^
Hm. Not really, I’d say it’s not a BL manga. You certainly wouldn’t be uncomfortable reading it if BL isn’t your cup of tea. It kind of uses BL occasionally for humor, and it does have the gay character (and maybe one other gay character), but that’s about it. It’s a lot like Flower of Life, which is totally not BL in any way, shape, or form (though it does try to fake you out in the first volume). Both are full of “in the moment” stories about the main characters which can be about almost anything, and they’re both quite good. Fumi Yoshinaga’s probably the best I can think of for making real-people characters, and these two are my favorite series by her.
A lot of people call it BL because it’s got the gay characters, and it’s easy to imagine all the characters in… certain situations, but it’s not BL in that it doesn’t really show any serious romantic relationships between the main male characters, and there really aren’t any fanservice-y sex scenes the way there are in most BL titles. As someone above mentioned, she left most of this for a doujinshi :p
^^ Only Yoshinaga would doujinshi her own work.
Thanks for the clarification on Antique Bakery and Flower of Life. As for the uncomfortableness, Gravitation is one of my favorite manga, and that was full of very…uncomfortable scenes. XD
Ah, haven’t read Gravitation. I know it’s sort of a classic BL series, though, sort of the Fruits Basket of that genre.
Yeah, it’s pretty good. I’ve only read 4 volumes, and it’s kind of odd…>< But it’s classic. And it focuses on character development over plot, although the plot is still present. Kinda like Fruba, only less cutesy, more angsty. ^^
Haha, and from what I understand, a boy band instead of the Sohmas, I suppose :p
Yes. Only the main character belongs to aforementioned boy band, and there aren’t a bajillion members (so many you can’t keep track), only three. XD And there are rival bands! And managers! And really really reaaaaaaally weird monk cousins! Yes, monk cousins. ^^ At least I think they’re a cousin…>< They might be a brother, cousin, who knows! A monk is involved, and he is odd!
Hm. How is the ending? I remember there being some weirdness with the serialization of Gravitation, and I know it’s currently being run in an online publication as Gravitation EX, so I wondered if maybe it had a weird ending and was then continued in EX. It sounds good, though.
I’m not actually sure how it ends. Like I said, I’ve only read four volumes (MUST BUY MOOOOOORE) but I’ve heard that it pulls out of the dark, grim storyline that it’s in and twirls into a crazed comedy. Or so Jason Thompson-san says. XD
Sorry to add something about an entirely different series and to a post from two years ago, but Gravitation IS classic. I didn’t find the ending particularly satisfying- it felt more like something that would take place in a regular volume- but I would definitely recommend the series. The story is pretty dumb and soap-opera-like but the dialogue and the characters are hilarious. Crazed comedy is probably the best way to describe it. Ridiculous, impossible things happen (most characters are shot in the head at least once, cities are destroyed, a giant robot panda runs rampant, ect.) and I don’t think I’ve ever laughed out loud over a graphic novel as much as this one.
Thanks for the heads-up! I ought to try it, I wish I had picked it up rather than Fake, another series I’ve heard is classic. It sounds a little like it might have the same vibe as Totally Captivated, which would be great, though the humor sounds a little more overt in Gravitation than Totally Captivated. I’ll give it a go next time there’s a Tokyopop sale at Right Stuf.
I usually don’t mind comments on old posts, either, they all show up in the same place in the admin screen here, which is why I like to moderate them. I only have problems when I remember nothing about the series I wrote about. ^_^;