Jul 31, 2024
The problem with this show is that it doesn't quite know what it wants to be. Is it a charming, found-family, slice of life about a bakery? Or a dark crime mystery about survivor's guilt and PTSD?
UNCLEAR.
The tone is all over the place sometimes and it doesn't have any clue how to strike a balance. It pulls off most of the slice of life stuff pretty well, though there are some weird 2008-style tropes about gay characters that are more than a little off-putting at times. Still, even with all of that, there's surprisingly little "romance" for what I was told was BL.
Beyond that, and
...
the real reason I struggled with this is the absolute disregard it has for abusive relationships.
Ono's ex-boyfriend literally beats the shit out of him (off screen) and threatens to break his hand (on screen) and there is nothing done in the narrative to call it out. The relationship was obviously toxic before, but that seems to justify the behaviour? The ex gives a shallow apology and kisses Ono on the hand when he leaves at the end of the episode. And Ono clearly says he deserves to be abused given his promiscuity or whatever. It's appalling. (Chikage, at least, is properly upset by this, but then it's just kind of over and swept under the rug and never mentioned again.)
To make matters worse, in a later episode shows obvious emotional neglect of a child by her mother. And that mother slaps her daughter across the face and tells her to get out. For context, it's late at night and the child is canonically like 10 years old at best. When getting comforted by her father, she's told that when her mom is struggling, she--the child--needs to step up and be the mother. ABSOLUTELY NOT. This is also a one-off episode and the characters never reappear and we just sort of forget that it all happened.
It's too bad, because there were some genuinely heartwarming character moments with a cozy feel. But it keeps jamming in these plot points that are truly the antithesis of that vibe for no real reason? Maybe they thought it was necessary to add """""depth""""" to the characters? I don't know. (I get that this was based on a manga, but the point still stands.)
Anyway. Can't say I recommend this at all. It's too all over the place, feels dated, and fails to confront some horrific behaviour. Even if you could put that all aside for the BL or whatever, it doesn't even pay those dividends so I can't really fathom the draw.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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