Even though they only feature in the first episode (so far), Ichigo's family is immediately more interesting than those in a lot of shows I've seen lately (cough, Nanoha, cough).

I only have one bad thing to say about this show, so I may as well get that out of the way first; it uses a lot of shoujo cliches.  If you have ever watched any shoujo anime at all, a lot of this show is going to seem very familiar.  However, one thing that I think people sometimes forget about anime aimed at a younger audience is that the things that bore anyone above the age of ten, may be brand-new to a child.  There is a little girl out there (and probably a little boy to, whether or not he chooses to admit it) for whom Yumeiro Patissiere is her very first anime. And as an introduction to shoujo and anime in general, you could hardly choose better.

Our protagonist, Amano Ichigo, is a clumsy girl with no particular talents (see what I mean?) who is always in the shadow of her talented sister Natsume- and to make matters work, Natsume is Ichigo's younger sister. When attending a sweets exposition, she gets to talking with master pastry chef Henri Lucas, and he lets her sample his latest cake.  From Ichigo's response to the cake, Henri immediately realizes that Ichigo has amazingly sensitive taste buds, obviously a desired quality in the dessert industry.  On the strength of his reputation, he easily gets Ichigo transferred to St. Mary's, an extremely selective private school for future patissiers and patissieres (male and female pastry chefs, respectively.)  Not only that, but she gets waived into the top-tier group.  There is, however, one small problem: Ichigo has never actually baked a cake.

The other students in Ichigo's class have issues with her just waltzing in without ever having made so much as a freakin' cupcake before- and you know what?  They have a point.

The premise is interesting enough that the show could work as a school-life drama, but there's some added mahou goodness for you: St. Mary's is the home of numerous Sweets Fairies, who partner with humans as they train to become patissiers in the fairy world (and I hope later episodes of this show take place there.)  You might think that the addition of little fairy helpers would take the drama out of the story, but you would be wrong; the fairy helpers are basically tiny drill sergeants.  When the fairy Vanilla first appears, Ichigo expects her to wave her magic spoon(!) and turn Ichigo's burnt crepes into a delicious cake; instead, all she gets is someone yelling at her in faux French while she's trying to cook.  "Life is never that easy," says Vanilla.

Just a heads-up? This show WILL raise your cholesterol.  Don't ask how.

And it isn't easy for Ichigo; the strength of this show is that regardless of whether you care about the whole fairy plot, virtually everyone can relate to the feeling of showing up at school and realizing that you are way, way behind everyone else; it's a universal fear for students. Naturally, some of the other kids take issue with Ichigo making the top class while obviously having no experience, and there's a lot of friction there. However, this show doesn't immediately do that annoying thing where everyone insults Ichigo mercilessly, in the hopes that we'll start rooting for her to get better quickly and kick everyone's ass.  At least early in the series, the world of Yumeiro Patissiere is an optimistic one; some students are mean to her, but for the most part, the show seems to be about Ichigo learning how to be a Patissiere, not "Ichigo showing her asshole classmates who's Top Chef."

Seriously, what were the chances of me not liking this show?

Naturally the Sweets Fairies are all cute as a button- personally, I can't wait to see more of the little boy-fairy in a suit-- and the music and animation all seem up to par for a show of this nature, if not particularly great.  I'm hooked on this one, and unless you have no tolerance for shoujo, coming-of-age stories, and things that are cute, you probably will be too. 

The show also features, after the credits, clips of real-life patissieres making some of the sweets that were featured on the show- just in case you weren't craving those little pastry balls, with the creamy stuff in them and the powdered sugar on top, enough. Such a clever and devious plot.