Yumeiro Patissiere

 is a shōjo manga and anime series by Natsumi Matsumoto. It began serialization on September 3, 2008, in the October 2008 issue of "Ribon". The individual chapters have been collected into nine "tankōbon" volumes by Shueisha as of May 2011. The series ended on June 3, 2011, with a total of 12 volumes. The manga won the 56th Shogakukan Manga Awards in the Children's category.
The series was adapted into two anime television series by Pierrot and Studio Hibari. The series was licensed by Crunchyroll for online streaming with English subtitles. The anime has since been licensed by Maiden Japan.
Plot.
Yumeiro Pâtissière:
Fourteen-year-old Ichigo Amano (her name means strawberry) is clumsy and doesn't have any talent except for eating sweets (specifically cakes). When she stumbles upon a Sweets Festival, she meets Henri-sensei who acknowledges her ability of taste and invites her to transfer to St. Marie Academy to become a pâtissière. Ichigo has trouble adjusting initially, but with the help of the 3 Sweets Princes (Makoto Kashino, Satsuki Hanabusa, and Sennosuke Andou) and the Sweets Spirits (Vanilla, Chocolate, Caramel, and Cafe), she gains the confidence and skill to work towards becoming a pâtissière. Throughout the entire anime is Ichigo and the Sweet Princes trying to win the Grand Prix, which allowed them to go to Paris. Throughout the competition, Ichigo has a lot of character change and she grows little by little. She realizes many things and her skills are improving rapidly.
Yumeiro Pâtissière Professional:
Two years after studying in Paris, the sixteen-year-old Ichigo now returns to Japan as a professional pâtissière. As soon as she returns, Ichigo finds Team Ichigo breaking up. The Sweets Princes, Hanabusa and Andou, take long absences from school to work for their dreams, leaving only Ichigo and Kashino. Kashino skipped a grade due to having top grades back at Paris. Soon a "new" Team Ichigo is formed by Henri-sensei for the project. The team includes Lemon Yamagishi, Johnny McBeal, Makoto Kashino, and Amano Ichigo. They are now working as professionals for the project and their dreams. In St. Marie Garden
Media.
Manga.
Written and drawn by Natsumi Matsumoto, the "Yumeiro Patissiere" manga began serialization in Shueisha's shōjo manga magazine "Ribon" on September 3, 2008 in the October issue of the magazine. Each chapter is called a "recette" (French for recipe); The series ended on June 3, 2011 and is 12 volumes total. The series is licensed by Sharp Point Press in Taiwan.
Anime.
The anime adaptation was accidentally announced in June 2009 by a listing from one of the card game series based on the manga. The series began airing on October 4, 2009 on Yomiuri TV. The series was simulcasted on Crunchyroll with English subtitles. The sweets in the series were all created by the Paris-based patissier Aoki Sadaharu. A one episode side story, title was shown at the "Natsu Doki– Ribon–kko Party 5" event for "Ribon" magazine in the summer of 2010. The episode was included on a DVD with the November issue of "Ribon". A second series, taking place two years later than the first, began airing on October 3, 2010. The second season is entitled "Yumeiro Pâtissière SP Professional" and introduces new characters.
Music.
The first season of the anime series uses two pieces of theme music, one opening and one closing. The opening is and the ending is . The CD single for the two was released by the Columbia Music Entertainment on January 20, 2010 in a regular and limited edition. The limited edition comes with extra charms and costs ¥1,365, but is otherwise the same as the regular edition, which costs ¥1,050. A soundtrack for the series was released on April 21, 2010, entitled .
Video Game.
A Nintendo DS game based on the series was released on May 27, 2010. The game is entitled and was released by Konami.
Card Game.
A trading card game based on the manga was released in Japan by Konami during the serialization of the series. There are two different series, Sweets Deco Cards and My Sweets Cards.
Cookbook.
A cookbook for the series entitled () was released by Shueisha on December 1, 2009 for ¥1200.
Reception.
Carlo Santos of Anime News Network calls the anime "a baking-themed series so rife with clichés that it's hard to tell where the plagiarism stops and the actual show begins." Other reviewers on the same site had slightly better opinions of the series though. Carl Kimlinger calls it "pure shōjo fluff" and says that it is a "sugary little distraction that won't harm any sensibilities." Theron Martin suggests either eating before or during viewing as the series is "undoubtedly one of the tastiest-looking series to come along in quite some time." Martin critiqued the art of the series however, saying "The dessert designs are unquestionably the visual highlight, as otherwise the artistry and technical merits are rather bland." Summer Mullins also notes that the sweets are the best part of the animation, saying, "those detailed shots [of the sweets] highlight the fact that some of the animation is only so-so". As of May 11, 2010 Crunchyroll's website listed Yumeiro Patissiere with an overall ranking of 4.8 out of 5 stars, with a total of 1761 votes.
The manga received the Shogakukan Manga Award for best children's manga of 2010.