Antique Bakery

Antique Bakery is a manga by Fumi Yoshinaga depicting the lives of three men who work in a small bakery. It won the 2002 Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo and is being published in English by Digital Manga Publishing. A Japanese TV drama was adapted from the manga.

Characters

Keisuke (or Keichiro) Tachibana-The owner of Antique Bakery, as well as a waiter. In high school, he insulted Ono after the other man confesed his love for him. He is the only man Ono finds attractive who isn't attrached to him. He was friends with Chikage during his childhood. He was kidnapped at a young age, and was found by a detective who loved cake. His family is wealthy, and were very protective of him after his kidnapping.

Yusuke Ono- The head chef at Antique Bakery. He is also gay. He is a renouned chef, working in many bakeries in France. He is said to have brought popularity to these bakeries. However, he is always fired for what he calls his 'Demonically Gay Charm.' This comes from when he finds a man attractive, whether he is gay or straight, the man suddenly becomes inresitibaly attraced to Ono, causing fights in the workplace over him. This stemmed from when he was in high school ,when Tachibana turned him down. He went into a gay bar, and suddenly he became a very popular lover. He has said his type is older men. He is also scared of women.

Eiji Kanda-Eiji is Ono's apprentice, as well as other help in the kitchen. He is a former street punk who was picked up off the street and reformed by a boxing coach. He trained to be a boxer, and was a top fighter. However, due to his detached retinas, he had to give up boxing. He saw a 'Help Wanted' ad in the bakery's window, and decided to join. He has a huge sweet tooth.

Chikage Kobayakawa-Chikage is Tachibana's childhood friend. His family works at the Tachibana house. He was sent by the Tachibana family to watch out for his friend. Chikage is trained to become a waiter by Tachibana. However, he is very klutzy and not that good. He wears sunglasses all of the time, as his eyes are weak. He has a crush on Ono, though he thinks Ono doesn't feel the same way(on the contrary, Ono is smitten with Chikage). He is very shy and polite. He calls Tachibana 'My Lord' after the game 'Oh-Ohka Echizen.'

Some minor characters include Ms. Ito and Mrs. Urushihara, regular customers at the Antique who are sometimes thought of as lesbians, Haruka Nakatsu and Tamiko Kagami (nicknamed Tammy), two bodacious female news announcers who are used on the news simply to display their accets who long to be seen as real reporters rather than a peep show that reported a story about the Antique, Mr. Tadahiro, a cold, boring, and, frankly, somewhat scary reporter who works for the police that was obsessed with trying to find Tachibana's capture when he was abducted who is now a sweet connisouir, sampling cakes from bakeries all over Japan, Sakurako Sakaki, an award winning author who pursuaded Chikage to help her concieve a child, and Kaedeko (it's unclear whether her last name is Sakaki or Kobayakawa), Chikage's daughter with Sakurako, an all around sweet, beautiful, if not so bright young girl, although she is often mistaken for a teenager because of her "mature" looks (she is really about ten years old).