I watched the first episode of Onegai My Melody a little bit ago for context... doesn't seem like the kind of thing I can enjoy that much at my age, without nostalgia. Though maybe I'll watch more of it later and be proven wrong. I've been curious about Kuromi for a while, as a staple cutesy-gothic character, and I've also enjoyed other Sanrio properties, namely Aggretsuko and Gudetama. I've been looking forward to the release of this project, as both a way to take a look at a more modern depiction of the characters and simply because I can really appreciate the style and hard workfor stop motion as an art form. Between this and more Pokemon Concierge, stop motion has been involved with projects from fairly big franchises lately. Here, it was outright beautiful at times! Props to a lot of the English voice acting too, especially for Kuromi.

And I overall enjoyed this series quite a bit! I'm likely biased in some ways, in that I also love baking at home and I revel in the punk-flair Kuromi brings My Melody's world without being a cartoonishly evil villain, even if everything also obviously needs to stay very family-friendly. But the whole thing can be enjoyed in a few hours and, while the plot is nothing to write home about (if you've seen literally any children's fantasy cartoon depicting a "put your heart in your cooking" message), I found myself a lot more engaged than I may have expected myself to be. And I do, in fact, crave sweets by the end. Don't watch this one hungry!