Lou (Lou and Life)'s Reviews > Antique Bakery, Volume 3

Trigger Warnings: Abuse/Domestic Violence

I managed to continue on my binge reading of this series. I was still up after 18 hours awake to finish this volume. I would say that this volume was still as good as the other two volumes in the series but it dealt with the more serious issue of abuse/domestic violence when Ono gets beaten up by an ex after failing to do what the ex wanted, which was to leave his current job and work for him in a bakery in France. I initially wanted to label this plot point as problematic but I felt like this book doesn't romanticise the abuse, so that aspect wasn't problematic as it's clearly shown to the reader that abuse is not okay. What I would have liked to have seen is for there to have been consequences to the abuse. The abuse/domestic violence itself wasn't problematic, but I think the way that Ono treats is was problematic. Ono accepts the fact that his ex was going to 'throw a tantrum,' but instead of taking himself out of that toxic situation, he walks into it knowing the outcome will be him being beaten up. Later, after the ex has accepted that Ono will not be working for him, Ono still thinks of his ex as a friend and encourages Kanda to go to his bakery to try out his pastries. It didn't make sense in my head why Ono would still support someone who was abusive towards him. I didn't like seeing the ex not having any consequences for his actions, apart from not being able to hire Ono. I feel like the consequences should have been more just.

There was also the plot line with Chikage which had me raising my eyebrows. I won't go into details as it is a massive spoiler, but I didn't like that plot line. I would have rather read a different chapter. I just thought that the whole situation was really weird, and it's weird how the people sexualized a 9-10 year old girl by saying that she has boobs so she needs a bra. It's done in a way that felt creepy to me. The father thinking that she needs a bra, and then the mother asking her if she wants to go and buy a bra and she's like, "it's okay. They'll just grow anyway." And the mother being like, "She takes after me." That whole scene was creepy to me. It feels even creepier now that I know the age of the girl, because the manga just says that she is in fourth grade but I didn't know how old that was until I wrote this review.

I will continue on and read the last manga in the series. I'm hoping that this volume was a fluke. I'm sad to see this series end because I really loved reading it, even this problematic book. I don't know if I would recommend this series after reading this volume. I'll have to make that assessment once I have finished the last book, and I can judge the series as a whole, which is a shame as I did really enjoy the first two mangas in this series.