New Yumeiro Patissiere Season Announced

Just when all the folks thought they were done with their autumn previews, WHAM!

UPDATED DETAILS AVAILABLE HERE

Not that I really expect anyone to run back and alter those previews in any way over a show such as this; as a matter of fact, I’m anticipating being perhaps the only blogger making note of this. And, honestly, I probably wouldn’t be bothering to except for the fact that I’ve been a fan of the show, and I’ve been feeling a bit leery about the end of it. I’ve really enjoyed having a bright spot of dependable shoujo in  my line-up, so I was feeling bummed about it closing out and leaving me with nothing of that sort to replace it. I mean, yeah, maybe Tantei Opera Milky Holmes will transcend its moe-moe, lolicon origins, but you can color me skeptical on that.

Anyway, this new season of YP will be called Yumeiro Patissiere Professional, and instead of being a direct sequel, it’ll take several years after YP when the core cast are adults and are working in their professional careers. A few other characters are set to be introduced as well.

I find this fairly interesting and am looking forward to seeing how it’ll all be handled. YP was very, very much a shoujo title, and the characters in it were at the upper-end of the target audience’s age range. But here they’ll be attempting to retain that shoujo atmosphere, yet they’ll be operating with an adult cast. I hope the characters will have matured appropriately and not still be acting like middle schoolers, although I am sure that there will still be plenty of moments of character weakness from which they can learn and change. Just so long as those don’t stretch credulity too much… although I’m still not expecting them to act like real adults.

I’m also curious as to the romance angle. YP has been awesomely mellow on that, something pretty rare for shoujo – we’ve only gotten hints that Makoto and Satsuki have crushes on Ichigo, and they only really started popping up at all in the second half of the show. Ichigo for her part seems to have a crush on Henri-sensei, but hasn’t exactly been sitting around pining over him. Mari also appears to have a thing for Henri-sensei. But its all been very much background and not at all overwrought; the plot of the show is all about the pastries and the individual growth of the characters.

That all being said, if I had to guess, I’d say that the romance with any potential canon status would be Makoto and Ichigo. Its getting the most hints, even if Ichigo displays far more interest in Henri-sensei. However, I don’t see how the show could actually advance that with the four episodes it has left. And since it will probably be left at what it is now, I’m wondering how they plan to work that into the next season – again, the next season takes place years later, not immediately after, so presumably everyone in the cast will have gone through a lot more together. Assuming that next season has any interest in integrating a romance storyline at all.

Anyway, I’m probably overanalyzing all of that to an astounding degree… 😉

On another tack, other than what I’ve mentioned, there aren’t any further details out yet. So no idea as to how many episodes this thing is slated for; I am hoping for a set of twenty-six at the very least, although I’d be thrilled if I could get another year out of this franchise. Its just a very fun show.