Crystal Tokyo Anime Blog

       This episode begins two days before the opening of the sweets shop, while Ono is prepping the kitchen Tachibana comes in sporting a sexy, refined waiter look, and he also shows Ono a cute maid outfit for a girl he wants to hire. Ono breaks the bad news to Tachibana, he has extreme problems working around young girls (my only problem with that is I become too distracted).

     Just then Eiji Kanda (the injured boxer from the first episode) is jogging down the street when he’s sees the help wanted sign in the sweets shop’s window, he ignores the “female” part of the flier and barges in and demands a job. Tachibana takes him before Ono and asks him if he’s his type, and when Ono says no Tachibana hires him, when Eiji asks what that was all about, he tells Eiji that Ono is epically gay. After eating one of Ono’s confections Eiji is instantly smitten with the taste of Ono’s baking calling him a God and saying that everything that’s been called cake before is a lie. Soon, Eiji is begging to be hired as a trainee, while Tachibana is against this he has to give into his genius baker.

     That night Ono is busy teaching Eiji some of the basics of pastry prepping when Tachibana asks him what he did before this, and Eiji tells them he was a boxer. Later we see at a boxing gym a coach trying to get one of his boxers (Thunder) to retire. Later that night a female customer (Thunder’s girlfriend) walks in to the shop but Tachibana tells her the shops not open yet, but he gives her a gift of cake for stopping by, and as she’s leaving she tells them she’s never seen a shop with so many hot guys. As she’s about to leave Thunder shows up and recognizes Eiji asking him what is a world champion boxer doing working at a cake shop, he kind of puts down Eiji for not boxing. 

      later the three guys discuss why they are at a sweets shop, Tachibana doesn’t like sweets, but he knows that cute girls love them, Ono followed a lover to France where he learned to bake, and Eiji doesn’t tell them why he quit boxing but he does loves sweets. The next day Ono and Eiji are busy making lots of yummy looking lies, and later the woman from last night stops back in and asks to talk with Eiji about boxing. She wants to know about boxing so she can better understand her boyfriend, and he tells her the truth about his injury and how he would go back to boxing if he could.

       Later after his losing fight Thunder meets up with his girlfriend and she tells him good job even though he lost, she asks him if he’s willing to quit for her, and he tells her no. But, he asks her to have their baby anyway and he’ll watch it when she’s not around. Later, she stops back at the bakery to talk with Eiji, and asks him for a cake he made, but he tells her that he’s just a trainee and can’t make one yet. But, Tachibana gives her a cake to take home, and then Thunder shows up and tells Eiji that he’ll buy one of his cakes when he wins a fight. Later as the couple is walking home happy Eiji tells them that he’ll bake them a great wedding cake someday. Well, that’s all for this episode.

Cake is a lie, cake is a lie, cake is a lie, noooooooooooooo I want some cake!

Feed me some cake!

Cake for guys!

Cake for girls!

      Well, I really enjoyed this episode of Antique Bakery, I thought it was very funny how gg Fansubs replaced the word cake with the word lie throughout this episode, cake is a lie. Normally I’m not a fan of Bishounen type anime for reasons stated in my episode one review but I’m enjoying this series. I can understand Tachibana’s reasons for opening a sweet shop, girls love sweets, in real life sometimes things can seem strange, do you ever wonder why so many girls’ gymnastic coaches are men?

      Now to Ono, a gay guy who followed a lover to France where he learned to be a master pastry baker, how very stereotypical but very funny. Now Eiji, I can best understand his reasons for wanting to be a pastry baker, while his first love is boxing he really loves cake, so if you can’t be boxer why not be a baker? I think that this series has a pretty good mix of funny and interesting characters to keep the story moving in a very humorous direction. Everyone remember, cake is a lie, hell nooooo, we all want some cake!

      As a tribute to Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki, I will be doing a review of Taiyō no Ōji: Horusu no Daibōken / Hols: Prince of the Sun, their landmark movie from July 21, 1968. This another anime that I pulled out of my dusty VHS collection. Many long time fans and anime experts consider this film to be the first serious anime film to break away from the Disney mold of film making and truly placing anime films on a separate path.

       I would also like to thank all the readers of my blog for your time and kind comments while reading a old time anime fan’s rants and reviews. When I first stated writing this blog I never thought that I would ever have some many readers, a few days ago this blog surpassed 500,000 hits, and daily visitors number between 2,000 and 3,500, and a couple of my posts have exceeded 10,000 page views. To my surprise most readers of this blog seem to be lead here while searching for shojo and maho shojo related information, so I can assume that there are many closet shojo fans out there like me. Thanks again to all my readers.

      This episode begins with Judy reflecting on the things that have happened since she’s left the orphanage and how she doesn’t want to go back to that life, so she can’t disobey the orders of her guardian. Judy spends the stormy night alone remembering the past and having mixed feelings towards her guardian John Smith, while he has shown her great kindness she feels that he hasn’t thought of her feeling much, so she vows to get better at writing so she won’t have to depend on anyone in the future.

       As the storm gets worse the power goes on and off in the dorm and eventually Miss Sloan and Judy end up together, and try both try to act like the storm doesn’t bother them but it does. The next morning is bright and sunny and Miss Sloan and Judy both finish packing for the summer, Miss Sloan asks Judy if she wants a ride to the station but Judy tells her she’ll walk there instead.

     As Judy walks around the campus she reflects on her life and how she thought she would be free once she got out of the orphanage. When she makes her way to the school’s gate she sees someone from her past, Sadie.  After an awkward first few minutes, Judy invites Sadie to the restaurant where she, Sallie, and Julia hangout at for some lunch. Judy asks Sadie why she’s in town and Sadie tells her that she’s on her way to Atlanta for a job, and that she was finally able to get out of the orphanage. At lunch Judy catches up on the news about everybody from the orphanage, almost everybody Judy knew has either been adopted, left, or retired.

     While walking to the station Judy and Sadie talk about a lot of things, and when they get to the station they say their goodbyes. Before Judy leaves she asks Sadie if she’s changed and Sadie tells her that she’s still the same Judy as before. When the train pulls away, Judy realizes that she’s been spending too much time brooding about what should have been or dwelling on the past. Judy also realizes that everyone is already on their own paths, so she must more towards the future. Well, That’s all for this episode.

       I feel that this was a pretty sweet episode even if the first half was basically a recap of Judy’s experiences as an orphan and her time at high school. But the heart of this episode is about moving towards the future and transcending the past. Sadie’s visit with Judy was a great catalyst for kicking starting Judy, Judy’s been brooding about the orphanage and the past but Sadie made Judy realize that almost everybody she knew is moving down a different so the actual possibility for her returning to the orphanage is zero. Judy now understands that she must walk down her own path to the future and make what she can out of the opportunities given to her.

     Lastly, while Judy thought that she would be free once she left the orphanage she still feels trapped, but it’s a prison of her own creation. As Judy is growing up to be a woman, she must comes to grips with who she really is, the only reason the past holds fear for Judy is because she lets it. When Judy is finally able to look in the mirror and accept what she sees then she can tell everyone who she is; Judy Abbot, a woman, a former orphan, a good honest person. Then she can let people choose to accept her or reject her, the ones that do are her real friends, and the ones that don’t aren’t worth a second thought.