We'll start with Yumeiro Patissiere. I went ahead and watched episodes 46 through 52 in one shot.
Episode 46
Ichigo's grandmother's strawberry tart isn't in her book because the best recipes are taken to the sweet's kingdom and stored in the museum. So Ichigo goes to the sweets kingdom and breaks into the museum with the help of the sweets spirits. The end up finding out that the former curator of the museum is the same old fairy that gave Ichigo the spoon that opens her grandmother's book. She was also Ichigo's grandmother's sweet spirit. They retrieve the recipe and return it to the book, but it is written in the language of the sweets spirits. Ichigo decides not to read it because she wants to create her own sweets and not just copy from others.
I really don't like the Sweets Kingdom episodes. I mean .. the sweets spirits are a fantastical idea, but it really goes past any suspension of disbelief when she goes chibi and flies through an oven to go to a kingdom full of midgets.
Episode 47
Ichigo is practicing making her own strawberry tart, but she can't get it quite right. The strawberries just don't taste the same as her grandmother's. After journeying far and wide, all with the help of the heiress, she finds out that the strawberries her grandmother was using were fraises de bois, found in Europe. The dimwit had already seen them, but didn't try one because they weren't pretty. At the end they find out that Team Tennouji lost in the semi-finals.
In the end, another irritating episode. I wish the heiress would just go away. Characters like her are much more amusing in the manga, since you can't hear their shrill voices. It is kinda amusing to see Kashino sweat, though.
Episode 48
Everyone's shocked about Team Tennouji's loss. After watching the DVD of the competition, it's obvious that they lost because Tennouji-san was distracted. Ichigo goes with the heiress to find out why. Tennouji has locked herself in her room, but opens the door after the heiress yells at her. Tennouji then tells them that she was upset because she saw Henri-sensei with the head of the french team, being all lovey-dovey and telling her that she's the best student he's every taught. Henri-sensei shows up and mocks Tennouji for losing her composure, saying that a patissiere doesn't need romance. He's even mean to Ichigo. The heiress and Ichigo both argue that love is needed (who saw that one coming..) and Ichigo vows to win the finals. Back at the kitchen, they try the competition's best recipe and are shocked at how great it is.
Booo. Evil Henri-sensei? Something's up.
Episode 49
The finals begin. It starts out with a little amusing part about Kashino being tricked into a making a racy commercial with the heiress. He doesn't know that it's racy until he sees it, though. ^_^ I'm taking the rest of my summary from wikipedia. "The finals of the World Cake Grand Prix has finally came and Team Ichigo and François clash in a three hour team battle with two subjects and themes; an entremet made of chocolate and plated desserts which combines hot and cold sensation. Finally, the match turns out to be a tie. The judges decides to make another match at the same day using batter as the subject and this time it will be an individual match. Andou clashes with Katie, Hanabusa matches against Isabella, Kashino battles against Dominique and the team leaders battles each other. "
Nothing out of the ordinary here.
Episode 50
The rematch ends in a tie, with Ichigo losing her battle in spectacular fashion, of course. The final re-match is a battle between one representative from each team. So it's Francois versus Ichigo. Francois makes her specialty, and Ichigo goes for a strawberry tart (surprise, surprise). Ichigo decides to make her own unique tart, using rhubarb, brown sugar, and ... corn meal, of all things. Ichigo wins by only a point. Henri-sensei tells them that he gave her a higher score because she made something new and that she customized it to each judge's tastes. Ichigo finds out that Henri was playing the bad guy so Ichigo would surpass her grandmother. He reveals that his grandfather taught her grandmother and Henri-sensei wants to do the same while she's in Paris. Two years later, we see Ichigo and Kashino standing by a river at night, holding hands, saying that they won't declare their feelings for each other yet, since they still have so much to learn.
Cute ending! The next series has started, called Yumeiro Patissiere Professional. Of course, they're only in high school, but whatever. I'll be watching it, too.
