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 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.
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 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-senseis 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.
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. In the second season, Kashino skipped a year in school because of his excellent grades during Team Ichigo's study abroad in Paris. He is now 16, but still conscious about his height, as Johnny regularly teases him for it. Whenever he sees Johnny holding Ichigo, he becomes visibly jealous (often smacking the back of Johnny's head). At the end of the series, he asks Ichigo if she will stay with him forever. And after that, he accidentally falls on top of her and kisses her.
One of the "Sweets Princes" of the school, who specializes in candy sculptures and flower-based cakes. Hanabusa's dream is to work with his mother, who excels at Japanese flower arrangement, and is the flower arranging teacher at St.Marie Academy. His father was a horticulturist who specialized in roses, and who died in a car accident several years before the story takes place. The bottle of rose water Hanabusa keeps is a memento of his father. Since his father died, Hanabusa felt that he should be kind to his mother and women in general. As a result, Hanabusa always focused on roses and is extremely nice to all females (to the point of being a borderline perpetual flirt). He also seems narcissistic and heavily concerned about his appearance, at one point his Sweets Spirit Café implies that Hanabusa needs more than an hour to get ready for school in the morning. In Yumeiro Patissiere SP Professional, Hanabusa starts to work towards his dream, together with his mother, and takes an indefinite leave of absence from school. He admits that he is also in love with Ichigo, although he tells Kashino that he can have her (presumably to make Ichigo happy), but that if she ever dumps him he will claim her for himself.
One of the "Sweets Princes" of the school who specializes in Japanese sweets. Andou's dream is to open his own shop that sells a blend of Eastern and Western sweets next door to his family's Japanese sweets shop, Yumezuki. Andou is the eldest of five siblings, and he often goes to help at his family's shop during holidays and weekends. He is a childhood friend of Kashino, calling him "Maa-chan" in the manga and "Ma-kun" in the anime. Andou is always calm, reliable, and tries to reason with everyone, acting somewhat like an older brother to Team Ichigo. Andou cares about Caramel like a little sister, and he is always overjoyed whenever Caramel does something nice for him. He looks out for Ichigo and tends to worry about her a lot. In the second season, Andou is working towards his dream and takes a leave of absence from school, opening a branch of his family's Yumezuki on the international street of Henri-senseis project. In Episode 11 of season two, he admits that he's in love with Ichigo, but he gives her up for Kashino. Hanabusa claims that the reason behind it was because he was already dating a girl named Kana.
Sweets Spirits
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.
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.
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.
Hanabusa's sweets spirit who is good with coffee. Café is polite, smart, and very calm. He looks up to Hanabusa and sees him as his senpai. Café can make extremely bitter coffee as a potent way of making Team Ichigo more awake.
Mari's sweet spirit who specializes in honey. She is mature, cool, and calm. Even though her expression is always serious, she is very friendly and kind to everyone. The Jerks call her Honey-Pig, much to her disgust. She is very well respected among the sweets spirits, with many of who call her Honey-sama. It is hinted she may be a princess. She is also able to sense someone's feeling.
Miya's sweets spirit who is useful with chestnuts. She tends to be a bit rude and arrogant. Although Marron and Miya are noted to have similar personalities, they deny that fact due to Marron being against Miya at times. Her name means "chestnut" or "brown" in French.
Lemon's sweets spirit who specializes in mint. Like Lemon, Mint admires Vanilla, ending her name with senpai. She is said to be the youngest of the new Team Ichigo's Spirits at the age of 150. Mint usually ends her sentence with "deshi".
Johnny's sweets spirit who specializes in deep-fried sweets. She is strong-willed enough to have anyone bow down to her. Maize is very polite, but can also be very strict, especially when thinking that someone is being rude. She has enough power to burn people to a crisp. Maize is not very good at Japanese, generally using incorrect Japanese and dropping random English words into her sentences. She only appears in the second series.