Yumeiro Patissiere

"Won't you have some of my dream-colored sweets?"
—Ichigo

Yumeiro Pâtissière began airing on October 4, 2009 and was adapted from a manga serialized in Ribon magazine.

Clumsy junior-high student Amano Ichigo has never been good at anything. Her younger sister Natsume has all the talent in the family. But Ichigo loves cakes, or eating them, at least. Sweets can make people smile, even when they're feeling sad; her late grandmother, a pâtissière (French for "female pastry chef"), could always cheer her up with her "magic" cakes. One day, during a pastry convention, Ichigo meets Henri Lucas, a pâtissier from the French baking school St. Marie Academy. He lets her try his newest cake, and she's able to describe the feelings that inspired it after one bite! What amazing taste she has! That's it—Ichigo decides she wants to be a pâtissière and make sweets that spread happiness. Henri helps her enroll at St. Marie (which conveniently has a Japanese division), and thus begins her journey down her grandmother's path! But Ichigo's clumsiness catches up to her, and baking proves harder than she imagined. To make things worse, she's placed in the same team as the Sweets Princes, St. Marie's three master pâtissiers! Thankfully, more help comes to her in a tiny form: a "Sweets Spirit" named Vanilla, who's also trying to become a pâtissière in her world.

Season two, Yumeiro Pâtissière SP Professional, jumps a couple years ahead of the manga's story. Now in high school, Ichigo and the Princes become involved in a special project led by Henri. Each student must maintain a real pastry shop, including creating the menu and keeping the business in the black. This time, Ichigo must prove she can turn her love for sweets into a career. (Of course, there's also plenty of high school romance drama mixed in as well.)

Tropes used in Yumeiro Patissiere include:
  • Adult Child: Caramel is the oldest among the main cast's Sweets Spirits. Think about that for a second.
  • All of the Other Reindeer: Ichigo's classmates mock her for being a complete newbie at baking, especially since she's in the A-group with the Princes. She'll only make them look bad. What was Henri thinking?
  • Alpha Bitch, Girl Posse: Group B.
  • Ambiguously Brown: Mari's friend Linda. Seriously.
  • Ambiguously Gay: Hanabusa sure does seem like it sometimes...but he's not, if his advances towards Ichigo are any indication.
  • An Aesop: Simultaneously inverted and played straight in episodes 24 and 25: Team Koshiro wins the match by cheating, providing the inversion, while Kashino allows his mysogynistic pride to lead to him to making a promise he couldn't keep (namely that he would join The Heiress's team, if he lost), but of course, had to, since "a promise is a promise".
  • Armor-Piercing Slap: Hanabusa gets one from Ichigo.
  • As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Francois is a male name.
  • Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: Ichigo and Kashino, at the very, very, VERY end of the first season. A tad bit sudden on her part? Maybe. But no one cares.
  • Banana Peel: In the Christmas episode, one of the B-Group girls tries this oldie on Ichigo...and, much to everyone's surprise, it actually works.
    • There's a little lampshading in this scene—one of the girl's friends points out how cliché the banana peel prank is and that it probably won't work.
  • Beyond the Impossible: Not only do the teams have to create an elaborate dress made out of chocolate in episode 44, someone has to model the creations (And even dance in them) at the masked ball afterward. How Koshiro can move at all while wearing her team's monstrosity, no one knows.
  • Big Applesauce: The second season's "Dance and Rhapsody" arc is set in New York.
  • Big Eater: Ichigo and Vanilla.
  • Bishie Sparkle: Hanabusa and Ricardo to the nth degree. Henri too, just less. The two former ones even start a Bishie Sparkle war at some point in the anime.

Kashino: *looks at the bishie sparkles* See what you got us into?
Ichigo: Sorry...

  • Bishonen: The Sweets Princes, Henri
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Revealed in episode 48 to be Henri Lucas, who laid a trap for Mari Tennouji to see if she could keep her heart strong after seeing Henri and Francois together. For Tennouji, who crushed on him for so long, this was a hard blow to her since it was what made her lose at the semi-finals.
    • But he only did that to actually HELP Tennouji to let her surpass HIM, instead of only wanting to catch up to him.
  • Black Sheep: Kashino comes from a massive family of doctors and was expected to become one, too. Nope, he decided he wanted to be a pâtissier and made a deal with his parents that if he ever dropped from head-of-the-class, he'd give up and return home.
  • Non Sequitur Episode: "Happy Sweets Dream." Vanilla shrinks Ichigo and sneaks her into the Sweets Kingdom, where she meets three baking school drop-outs who are miniature versions of the Sweets Princes. Calling themselves "The Jerks," they try to ruin the Spirits' New Year's festival as revenge for having their magic revoked by the Queen. Ichigo manages to stop them. Of course, it ends up being only a dream...or was it? Yay for filler.
    • A similar short story appeared on the manga, where Ichigo falls asleep and shrinks to the size of a Sweets Spirit and meets two other Spirits. The trio together then bakes a cake. It's never stated if it was real or a dream unlike the above mentioned episode, which is stated in later episodes to be real, and not just a dream.
  • Bland-Name Product / Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Several of them during the Dance and Rhapsody arc in Yume-Pati Pro, which is set in New York. A couple of them include "Toureba" (Toshiba), and "The Lion Kong".
  • Chekhov's Gun: The spoon Ichigo receives from the mysterious old lady during her first visit to the Sweets Kingdom turns out to be the key that opens her grandmother's recipe book. Later on, it also opens the secret door in the Court Patissiere Museum.
  • The Chosen Many: A few St. Marie students have a Sweets Spirit partner (most notably the four main characters), Tennouji has one as well since she is such a prodigy, and the Heiress eventually gets her partner after showing her determination. Once they go to Paris to participate in the Grand Prix we find out not only Henri-sensei had one (naturally), but every team member who participates, the spirits are even part of the contest by this point.
  • Christmas Episode: Ichigo and the Princes make a special cake for two, reunited lovers. Random, yet sweet.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Koshiro Miya, to Kashino
  • Color Coded for Your Convenience: In the anime, the shades for the chef suits are colored differently for protagonists. Background characters have an aqua green shade on their suits.
  • Cooking Duel: Ichigo vs. "The Heiress" to see who can make the best pudding. The winner gets to enter the Cake Grand Prix with the Sweets Princes. Ichigo wins (of course) by figuring out that the judge likes bitter foods and intentionally making the caramel topping bitter. The Cake Gran Prix counts as a big one as well.
  • Cute Ghost Girl: Marie Lucas (The foundress of St. Marie Academy and Henri's grandmother) appears as a ghost to Ichigo and Vanilla in one extra chapter in the manga. The reason of her youthfulness is that since she died, she can manifest herself at any form she wants.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Lemon-chan in episode 21
  • Did Not Do the Research: The oven in Episode 41. It's stated that countries other than Japan use Fahrenheit on their ovens, but, since they're in France, they should still be using metric/Celsius (France actually has the thermostat, which is similar to the British gas mark, where Thermostat 1 equals 30°C, increasing by another 30° for each thermostat). The only countries in which Fahrenheit temperature settings on ovens would be common would be the United States, Canada, Thailand, and Belize. The UK uses the gas mark notation on ovens instead. Germany uses the Stufe (step), which starts at 125°C for Stufe ½, increasing by 25°C for each step up.
    • Also, a minor nitpick in Episode 34: People who are native to Andorra usually speak Catalan, NOT Spanish. Although two of the characters work in Spain...
  • Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Lemon-chan again
  • Doppelganger: Kashino, Hanabusa, and Andoh have chibi versions Kashii, Narci, and Andy in the Sweets Kingdom.
  • Dreaming of a White Christmas: In Professional. Miya blames the snow for the lackluster sales on that day, since her customers had to wait in the cold and eventually gave up.
  • Edible Theme Naming: All of the Sweets Spirits (except the Queen, whose name is revealed in the manga to be Marie) and Ichigo.
  • Elaborate University High: St. Marie Academy
  • Expy: Though not created by the same author, Ichigo is very similar to Kazami Najika of Kitchen Princess. In fact, the whole series is very similar to Kitchen Princess.
  • Fairy Companion: The Sweets Spirits
  • French Chef: The lead character studies to be a pâtissière in a French baking school.
  • Filler Arc: The Paris arc; see Overtook the Manga below.
  • First Kiss: Ichigo and Kashino finally have theirs on the last episode of Professional.
  • First-Name Basis: Ichigo and Kashino finally call each other by their first names at the end of Professional, but in the last moment, Kashino lapses back into calling her "Amano."
  • Genius Ditz: Besides her expertise in her namesake, Caramel also manages to recreate a bust of Michelangelo's David on a bon bon chocolat. From memory. This is, of course, in between her repeatedly tripping over herself and not originally knowing what a bon bon chocolat was.
  • Girliness Upgrade: Ichigo goes through this for the second season.
  • Gratuitous English: Courtesy of Johnny and Maize.
    • Kashino's shirt in the eleventh chapter of the manga. Asides from the text making no sense, it changes from panel to panel!
  • Gratuitous French: And a lot of it. After all, French is everywhere in this show. It's in the title and the song, the characters use it, they learn it at St. Marie. Hey, the school's French!
    • Vanilla, in particular, likes to answer yes-or-no questions in French.
  • Heroic BSOD: Episode 48 reveals that Mari went thought this when she sees Henri-sensei flirting around with the leader of Team Francois. This even causes her team to lose the semi-finals.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: Miya Koshiro is also Rima Mashiro
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: It took a while, but Miya finally gets one. She loses the re-match in the World Cake Grand Prix semi-finals to Team Ichigo for the same reason she won many of her other competitions: her superior ingredients, which came exclusively from Chateau Seika. Team Ichigo, using chocolate from around the world, gave a less-expensive but more-expansive range of tastes, which impressed the judges vastly.
  • Holding Hands: Ichigo and Kashino at the end of the first season. And we even get a close-up of the gesture to possibly compensate for the long wait.
  • Holier Than Thou: Referred BY NAME in the manga. Kashino says those exact words when describing Mari Tennouji's "point of view on the others".
  • How Much Did You Hear?: When Ichigo has her little hear-to-heart with her sister Natsume in episode 28, she isn't aware at first that the Sweets Princes were hearing the whole thing.
  • Ho Yay: Andou likes invading Kashino's personal space and likes calling him "Maa-chan" from time to time. And Hanabusa seems to be awfully mesmerized by Henri in chapter 17...
    • In episode 43, Andou and Hanabusa had to sleep in a high-class suite, in one bed. But at some point they say that it's ew.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Uses "recette" (French for "recipe") in place of "episode"
  • Impossibly Delicious Food: Needs no explanation.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In Episode 11 of YumePati Pro, Hanabusa and Andoh say this to Kashino as far as his relationship with Ichigo is concerned.
  • Invisible to Normals: Only people who have Sweets Spirits can see them.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Kashino
  • The Klutz: According to Ichigo's dad, she trips three times a month. She's also quite clumsy in the kitchen at St. Marie.
  • Last-Minute Hookup: Ichigo and Kashino. But at least there is a second season to enjoy the result.
  • Limited Wardrobe: Johnny is the only human character who wears the exact same clothes in every episode. This usually applies to the sweets spirits, although there have been episodes where they wear something different.
  • Love Confession: According to the manga Mari confessed numerous times to Henrie, only for him to always turn her down saying that they are better as students and teacher.
  • Lucky Charms Title: The opening theme is called "Yume ni EERU! PATISHIEERU♪."
  • Meaningful Name: Ichigo can mean "strawberry," a fruit used in baking and topping cakes. The kanji for Amano (天野) is read as "sky field," but it could be a pun, as it looks like "sweet," from amai (甘い) and no (の). The Sweets Spirits' names are foods and flavors, like Vanilla, Chocolat (French, not a typo), Caramel, Cafe, Honey, Marron, Orange (it's not pronounced the traditional ORENJI [オレンジ], but ORANJU [オランジュ], which is a much more accurate way to say it), Peach, Cherry, and Black Cherry.
    • Sweet, in Japanese, also means indulgent and naive (in a bad way, usually translated as "fool")
  • My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: Maize slaughters the Japanese language often and has to be corrected by the other Sweets Spirits.
  • Name's the Same: In-universe. The foundress of Saint Marie Academy and the Sweets Spirit Queen are both named Marie, in fact, sharing the same name is what started their friendship and eventually gave birth to the whole partnership system between humans and Sweets Spirits.
  • Narcissist: Hanabusa.
  • The Nicknamer: Andou's brother Ichita has a nickname for each of Andou's friends. Ichigo's is "Cake Hog," which she, of course, doesn't take kindly to.
  • Noblewoman's Laugh: Koshiro Miya (the "Heiress")
  • Oblivious to Love: Ichigo sure seems to be. Poor Hanabusa.
  • Ojou: Koshiro Miya; in fact, that is what everyone calls her.
  • Older Than They Look: The Sweets Spirits (Mint, the youngest of them, is 150 years old!) and Marie Lucas' ghost.
  • Omake: At least one per volume in the manga. We even discover the name of the Sweets Spirit Queen (for those who want to know, her name is Marie which makes her the only Sweets Spirit to not have an Edible Theme Naming) in one of them.
  • "On the Next Episode of..." Catchphrase: As stated at the top, "Won't you have some of my dream-colored sweets?"
  • Opposites Attract: Ichigo and Kashino.
  • OVA: Yumeiro Pâtissiére Mune Mune Kyun Tropical Island, a seven minutes short in which Ichigo, Kashino, Andou, Hanabusa and the Spirits are, by no explained reasons, trapped in an island in the middle of nowhere.
  • Overprotective Dad: Mr. Amano, definitely—not just when it comes to Ichigo dating but also her clumsiness and what might happen if she falls from something tall.
  • Overtook the Manga: While the YP manga (which appears in Ribon, a monthly magazine) is still in the middle of the Cake Grand Prix in Japan, the anime went in its own direction by having Team Ichigo lose in the finals, but still able to go to Paris as sub-representatives for the St. Marie Japan campus. Additionally, a new season of the anime entitled Yumeiro Pâtissière Professional will be a completely original story taking place a couple years later with an older Ichigo. The manga will likely still be in the middle of the current story during this time.
  • Percussive Maintenance: Amano knows the best way to fix a broken oven. Actually subverted; it starts to spark right after it starts working again, and then explodes.
  • Plucky Girl: Ichigo, of course
  • Precocious Crush: Mari fell in love with Henrie when she was a little kid, and is what inspired her to become a pâtissière.
  • Public Domain Soundtrack: The Valentine's Day episode, but especially in the scene where everyone dances to Tchaikovsky's "Waltz of the Flowers".
    • Episode 45 has the opening to Swan Lake when Miya does her best Odette (to impress Kashino of course). In a later scene, The Wedding March is heard during Miya's delusions of grandeur thinking she's going to marry Kashino "when" she wins the semi-final rematch. Not surprisingly, she loses.
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: The Sweets Spirits. Mint, the youngest, is 150 years old! And Cafe says that's "so young!"
  • Red Herring: The grey-haired male judge is the only one (besides Henri) who appears in the theme song, making you think he may have some significance in the story. He's the director of St. Marie in Japan and a judge at the Grand Prixes, but he's no more important than that.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money: Koshiro Miya, who always buys extraordinarily expensive ingredients and can be relied upon to use her money and influence to compensate for her (relative) lack of skill. Her "accomplishments" include paying some of the greatest patissieres in the world to teach her their secrets and buying 200 kilograms of super-expensive chocolate to make a fondue, though she has managed to top herself by buying one of the St. Marie campuses so she could enter the World Grand Prix, even after being knocked out in the first round of the high school tournament.
  • Second Love: Kashino for Ichigo.
  • Shout-Out: In episode 17, the F-Group boys mention that anime with a cute character saying "Moe, moe~" and then talk about listening to "Yui's song" after class. Considering how popular K-On! is in Japan, it's pretty obvious that's what they were talking about.
    • Episode 33 is titled Strawberry Panic, although any connection between the two series pretty much stops there.
  • Shoujo
  • Slice of Life: No pun intended
  • Something About a Rose: Hanabusa has an affinity for them.
  • Status Quo Is God: The sales battle between Beautiful Night Castle vs. La Rêve Couleur sales ends in a tie. Then after Johnny and Miya concede defeat based on net sales (Miya spent more on advertising than the shop made), they go back on it and say they only gave up chasing Ichigo and Kashino for that day and will never stop. Then Ichigo and Kashino head to London to help out with a new Marie's Garden/Marry's Garden, bringing the season full circle.
  • Strawberry Shorthand: Ichigo
  • Technician Versus Performer: Sometimes instead of sticking to the techniques of baking, Ichigo will try to get by with appeal and taste—and it works. A good example is during her Cooking Duel with "The Heiress," when Ichigo intentionally burnt her pudding's caramel topping, making it bitter, because she had noticed that the judge likes bitter foods.
  • Theme Tune Cameo: In one of the birthday cake episodes, Vanilla, while posing for Ichigo's marzipan statue, starts humming the opening theme.
    • In "Happy Sweets Dream," the Sweets Spirits start singing a (bad) rendition of the theme song.
    • In the beginning of the last episode of Professional, Vanilla hums "Sweet Romance" while she works.
  • There Is Only One Bed: Both Ichigo/Kashino and Hanabusa/Andoh face this dilemma during the patisserie visit episode in Paris.
  • Time Skip: The second season is an original story not based on the manga, which the first season had already overtaken.
  • Title Drop: Very close at least. In Professional episode 11, when Ichigo's team finally creates their shop, Ichigo randomly says it's a "dream-colored pâtisserie" (yume iro pâtisserie). They translate it the yume iro part roughly into French, "La Rêve Couleur," and use it as the shop's name.
  • Title Theme Tune: Close enough--"Shiawase wo ageru yo! Yume iro no PATISHIEERU!!" (I'll give you happiness! The dream-colored pâtissière!!)
    • Out of the context of the song, the "no" could be omitted and the line would have the same meaning.
  • Tournament Arc: The Cake Grand Prix...at least, that's where it appears to be headed.
    • It even has brackets!
  • Tsundere: Chocolat is a very cliche one, perhaps to contrast Kashino, a more subtle variation. Andou's little brother Ichita could count, too.
    • Marron can be one.
  • Training from Hell: All-night baking lessons, French cram sessions, push-ups, and laps around the school? Every day? Is there more to being a pastry chef than Ichigo ever imagined...or are the Princes just sadistic?
    • Actually, in the manga, Andou and Hanabusa called Kashino an S, as in the one in an S&M relationship...
    • Subverted in the case of Koshiro Miya: she intentionally invokes this by inviting world-class pastry chefs to teach her their secrets. She still ends up being slightly worse than the main characters.
  • Unmoving Pattern: The older female judge in episode 45.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: By the time they get to Paris, it becomes clear that everyone in the Cake Grand Prix, and pretty much anyone of importance who has ever gone to St. Marie's, has (or had) a Sweets Spirit. After the initial shock of this revelation, everyone seems to get over it pretty quickly.
  • Verbal Tic: Caramel, desu. Also don't forget Chocolat, desu wa. There's also Mint, deshi.
  • Wingding Eyes: Mint when she meets her "senpai" Vanilla in Paris.
  • What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: All of the Sweets Spirits carry utensils around with them. Vanilla, Caramel and Cafe have spoons, while Chocolat wields a fork. That has to mean something, right?
  • X Meets Y Meets Z: Gakuen Alice meets Kitchen Princess meets Shugo Chara, especially when you consider Ichigo's hardy personality and love of foods, with also the fact that she was randomly recruited by a mysterious teacher into a high class academy. Meanwhile, the "Sweets Spirits" have been compared to the Guardian Characters from the third mentioned series because of their fairy-like "chibi" appearance.
    • Not to mention that Ichigo even has the same hairstyle as Mikan.
    • How about Yakitate!! Japan meets Shugo Chara? Like Yakitate!! Japan, this show features a kid chef/baker who can make some amazing foods despite being a complete amateur. Ichigo and Kazuma also both have a special "power" (Ichigo's senses of taste and smell, Kazuma's "solar hands") that no other baker has. And the Cake Grand Prix and World Cake Grand Prix are like the Pantasia Newcomers Battle and The Monaco Cup.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: And green and purple and orange... hell, Ichigo is one of the only people at the school with regular old brown hair and brown eyes.
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