Yumeiro Patissiere (Japanese: 夢色パティシエール, Hepburn: Yumeiro Patishiēru; lit. Dream-Colored Pastry Chef, sometimes stylized Yumeiro Pâtissière) 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 series ended on June 3, 2011, with a total of 12 tankōbon 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.
Contents
Plot
Yumeiro Pâtissière:
Fourteen-year-old Ichigo Amano (her name means strawberry) is clumsy and does not 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, Chocolat, 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 returns to Japan as a professional pâtissière. As soon as she returns, she 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.
Characters
Main characters
Ichigo Amano (天野 いちご, Amano Ichigo)
Voiced by: Aoi Yūki
Ichigo is a young girl who is clumsy, naive, and innocent, but is also optimistic and lively. Her mother Mrs. Amano ignored her for many years because of her having no talent (compared to her younger sister Natsume, who is an aspiring pianist, and who generally excels at almost anything). Due to her incredible palate that allows her to immediately tell what ingredients are used in different sweets, and who made the ingredients, she is spotted by Henri Lucas during a "Sweets Festival". Following his suggestion she transfers to St.Marie Academy, in order to train to become a pâtissiere like her late grandmother. Ichigo is also known for her huge appetite for cakes, she claims there is a second stomach specifically for sweets, and has won several cake eating contests in the past. As the story progresses, Ichigo improves her talent as a pâtissiere, and gains new friends and rivals along the way. She wins the hearts of almost everyone due her hard work and unwavering love for pastries of highest quality. Her dream is to create sweets that make people smile. She initially had an innocent crush on Henri Lucas because of his princely looks and kindness. However, as the series progresses, she falls in love with Kashino, who ultimately returns her feelings.
At the end of the last episode of the first season of the anime, Ichigo and Kashino promise to tell each other about their feelings when they're accomplished patissiers. During the second season she is 16 years old, and a member of a new "Group A", consisting of herself, Lemon, Rumi, and Johnny McBeal. She is also a part of the Henri-sensei's project, "Marie's Garden", which includes Kashino, Lemon, and Johnny. In the very last episode of Yumeiro Patissiere SP Professional, Kashino tells her that he always wants to be able to make sweets with her, and accidentally kisses her.
Makoto Kashino (樫野 真, Kashino Makoto)
Voiced by: Nobuhiko Okamoto
One of the "Sweets Princes" of St.Marie's Academy who specializes in chocolate. Andou is his childhood friend and Hanabusa is his roommate. Kashino is sometimes teased or misjudged due to his height, for he is the shortest of the Sweets Princes. He comes from a prestigious family of doctors who do not approve of his career choice. Due to a condition that his family gave him before attending St.Marie, he is forced to be always at the top of his class. Kashino is generally unsociable, straightforward, easily angered, and prickly. He greatly admires his uncle (who is a chocolatier), and he spent a lot of time in his shop when he was little (which inspired him to become a pâtissier). Even though he is initially judgemental and sarcastic due to Ichigo's klutzy personality, he warms up to her to the point of being teammates and friends, and later falls in love with her. In episode 34 it is shown that Kashino has a drawing of Ichigo in his notebook.
Sweets Spirits
Vanilla (バニラ, Banira)
Voiced by: Ayana Taketatsu
Ichigo's sweets spirit who specializes in vanilla. Often labeled as Spartan, Vanilla's attitude is quite fiery. She generally fights with Chocolat, though they don't seem to actually hate each other, and in fact they work together in the manga for a Sweets Kingdom test. She is often called pudgy. Ichigo and Vanilla consider each other to be best friends, and are extremely loyal to each other. Vanilla often plays a big part in cheering Ichigo up whenever she feels discouraged. Her sweets magic is decorating plates, shrinking people to the size of a sweets spirit, filling an entire room with a pastry's scent and translating Sweets Spirit language into Japanese.
Chocolat (ショコラ, Shokora)
Voiced by: Yuri Yamaoka
Kashino's sweets spirit who is skilled in chocolate. Chocolat has a competitive spirit but is easily frightened. She is a classic example of a tsundere character, though it seems that she is somewhat losing this trait as the series progresses. Although she appears to dislike Ichigo, she actually cares for her and helps her whenever needed. She may not look like it, but she cares for Kashino and considers the pair as a "married couple". In season two, it shows that she cares deeply about a sweets spirit named Kasshi and may have romantic feelings for him. For example, in one of the episodes, Chocolat goes to the Sweets Kingdom to help out the 'Jerks', but gets Kashino and Kasshi mixed up. When she tries to 'express' the connection she has with Kashino, she ends up clinging to Kasshi, while Vanilla is saying that she clung onto Kasshi on purpose, while Chocolat Tries to deny it.
Caramel (キャラメル, Kyarameru)
Voiced by: Mayu Iino
Andou's sweets spirit who is useful with caramel. Although Caramel is the eldest out of Team Ichigo's Sweets Spirits, she is clumsy like Ichigo and tends to cry a lot. She commonly ends her sentences with desu. Café states that she has a terrible sense of direction. She considers Andou to be her big brother. Her sweets magic allows her to make pastry pictures to show someone how the sweets look like.
Supporting characters
Henri Lucas (アンリ・リュカス, Anri Ryukasu)
Voiced by: Daisuke Kishio
The great grandchild of Marie Lucas who created St. Marie Academy to raise patissiers. Due to unknown circumstances, he transferred to Paris to teach at the main campus right before Ichigo moved to the Japanese St. Marie campus. He is known as a "master of sweets," and a "master of dance." Henri is characterized as calm, collected, and a handsome gentleman. But shows his true colors when Mari loses in the Grand Prix, though he shows great interest in Ichigo and Tennouji as pâtissieres and seems to favor both of them among all his students. Henri wants to do the same thing by training Ichigo like his grandfather did to Ichigo's grandmother. During the Grand Prix, he acts like a bad guy on purpose to show Ichigo that she has the power to become a great patissiere and surpass her grandmother. In season 2 in episode 10, he is cruel to Mari, saying that he should use somebody else to run her shop, but by the end of the episode it is revealed he only said those things to try and encourage her, he wanted to see if she had the courage to continue her shop.
Mari Tennouji (天王寺麻里, Tennouji Mari)
Voiced by: Eri Kitamura
One of Henri Lucas' favorite students. She is the daughter of a hotel owner and the Student Council President of the Japanese St. Marie campus. Mari is often referred as the "Princess" of St. Marie Academy. She is known as a genius when it comes to pastry. Though she has been given many awards for her excellent work, she has stated that all of her medals and trophies are meaningless compared to the attention she wants from Henri Lucas. Mari constantly works very hard to improve her skills, regardless of her being the St. Marie Academy's top student. In the anime version of the semi-finals of the Cake Grand Prix, she lost to Team Francois because of the "show" Henri- "sensei" put on to test her. But after that test, she began to start new in SP Professional, she has cut her hair and currently lives in New York to help Henri-sensei's with a shop. Her sweets spirit is Honey, who is well respected like she is.
Miya Koshiro (小城美夜, Koshiro Miya)
Voiced by: Sayuri Yahagi
Family members
Ichita Andou (安藤 一太, Andou Ichita)
Voiced by: Riko Hirai
A first grade student, Sennosuke's younger brother and the second oldest of his younger siblings. He originally did not like cake because his older brother left the family to fulfill his dreams and believing that Sennosuke enjoyed baking pastries rather than having a good sibling relationship; after Ichigo baked a Matcha roll cake for him, he started enjoying cakes again in the process he reconciled with Sennosuke by tearfully embracing him. In episode 4 he nicknamed Ichigo "Cake Pig".
Natsume Amano (天野 なつめ (棗), Amano Natsume)
Voiced by: Mariko Mizuno
A third grade student and is Ichigo's younger sister, before her sister left for boarding school she and Ichigo always had a sibling rivalry with each other, but the two start to get along after Ichigo pays her family a visit. She has a talent for playing the piano.
Momoe Andou (安藤 百絵, Andou Momoe)
Voiced by: Erika
Masayo Andou (安藤 万佐代, Andou Masayo)
Voiced by: Airi Sakuno
Kyouko Amano (天野 杏子, Amano Kyouko)
Voiced by: Saori Seto
Shigeru Amano (天野 しげる, Amano Shigeru)
Voiced by: Takashi Oohara
Michiko Amano (天野 ミチコ, Amano Michiko)
Voiced by: Tamie Kubota
Rei Kashino (樫野 麗, Kashino Rei)
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 Yumeiro Pâtissière Mune Kyun Tropical Island! (夢色パティシエール 胸キュントロピカルアイランド!, Yumeiro Pâtissière: Heart-Racing Tropical Island!) 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.
In March 2026, it was announced that both seasons of this series would make their debut on the HIDIVE platform, on March 24, 2026.
Music
The first season of the anime series uses two pieces of theme music, one opening and one closing. The opening is Yume ni Yell! Patissiere (夢にエール!パティシエール♪, Yell For the Dream! Patissiere) and the ending is Ichigo no Mirakurūru (いちごのミラクルール, Ichigo's Miracle–le). 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 Yumeiro Patissiere KiraKira ☆ Myūjikku (夢色パティシエール きらきら☆ミュージック, Yumeiro Patissiere SparkleSparkle ☆ Music).
Video game
A Nintendo DS game based on the series was released on May 27, 2010. The game is entitled Yumeiro Patissiere: My Sweet Cooking (夢色パティシエールマイスイーツクッキング, Yumeiro Patishiēru Mai Suītsu Kukkingu) 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 "Yumeiro Patissiere Special Recipe Book: Oyako de Tsukuru Hajimete no Sweets" (夢色パティシエール スペシャルレシピブック 親子で作るはじめてのスイーツ) (ISBN 978-4-08-102082-9) 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.