Ristorante Paradiso

It's been a long time since I sat down and watched something as slow-paced as Ristorante Paradiso. To tell the truth, I was actually longing for a good slice-of-life anime to come up somewhere. When I stumbled upon it, the whole idea of "a restaurant with a single lady worker and lots of aged men" interested me. I mean, the abundance of grown men is curiously odd enough. It's not a plot that's usually used in an anime. And, I'm a guy, so at first I felt a little uncomfortable with the show with lots of males on it, but after watching, it's not like ... they're those guys on anime that lives just to attract females, so guys are welcome to watch this josei anime with peace.

Anyway, if you don't like slow-paced, quiet shows, and dislike works without much action, then Ristorante Paradiso will surely disappoint you. It's a story for people who like the quieter, more peaceful side of life and anime.

-Story
Ristorante Paradiso is all about a restaurant, somewhere in Rome, with its employess consisting of lots of aged men with glasses. Then, enter Nicoletta into the picture, and the restaurant's never the same again. Don't get me wrong though. The show has this quiet atmosphere that makes you feel like you're at the restaurant as well, eating its delicious delicacies.

-Art
Old people ahoy! The anime's full of the art consisting of old people's faces. It defies the usual standard that you need a sexy/moe/whatever type of character design for the anime to work. Anyway, the art is okay, with its dreamy-like colors and all. But the food! They drew it well!

-Sound
Listen to the opening song and agree with me: the music is well-thought of. It meshed well with the overall theme of the anime: slow-paced slice-of-life. The background music gets it right with the scenes.

-Characters
Ristorante Paradiso's working point is its characters. Each one of them (from the weird Gigi to the old Luciano) has a story of their own, and it worked well with the overall feel. From the beginning, you'd wonder what kind of people works at the restaurant; don't worry, everyone will be focused on.

-Enjoyment
I really enjoyed watching this. The combination of the setting (Rome), characters, and good food, makes this show worthwhile. But, as I've said, it's for people who enjoys quiet anime, so it really depends on your preference if you'll enjoy this or not.

-Overall
Can't say much more; it made my day. Imperfect, yes, but it is a worthy slice-of-life anime, so go try it. Contrary to the common belief, it's not shoujo; it's josei, intended for an older, more mature audience. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but you'll appreciate it more if you're old enough to understand how elder people's minds works. And, this anime's not limited to women. Men can appreciate it as well.

It is a calm story to appreciate another side of life as it is more adult people and spend moments of everyday life with them.
It has some weak points as some pasts , flashbacks tucked quickly or actions of the protagonist that leave some doubts that make you say ''Why?'' or make you feel uncomfortable and with anguish (I do not know if it is good or bad) .
In addition we have the theme of the mother , in general , many times it comes to annoy and had a rather inadequate and at the same time sad ending in the sense that she treated ... her daughter like that for years and she just assimilated it , it lacked a lot of development at that point being one of the main plots . Next, it does not have a very good quality as far as scenarios are concerned because of the limited budget that is understood when watching it, although they are quite unique and satisfying to watch.

On the other hand they deal with interesting themes and have characters that are easy to get attached to like Luciano who makes you feel like you are his grandson or Gigi (at the beginning I didn't like him too much) but as the episodes go by and the subtleties that surround this gentleman make me love him.

Ono Natsume works are largely hit-or-miss for me: I really liked ACCA, but deeply disliked House of Five Leaves. Unfortunately, Ristorante Paradiso falls into the latter category - falling further into the josei harem-ish demographic while providing even less interesting exposition. Simply put: this anime is boring.

This may be a character-driven slice-of-life, but the direction and writing unfortunately do not captivate the audience at all. Presumably, it's the stories of young woman Nicoletta getting to know the elder employees of a restaurant and their interpersonal relationships, but most of the stories are... very mundane. Get over your ex-wife already! Just ... have an honest conversation with your estranged mother! Thus, the corresponding dialogue also isn't groundbreaking and you just don't end up having much of an emotional connection to any of the characters.

The art is very reflective of Ono Natsume's art style, which isn't actually terrible if you're used to it, and the color scheme is quite warm and nice for an SoL set in Rome. Unfortunately, the slower pacing of dialogue and a lack of any aesthetically interesting shots (face close up to face close up to face close up) stifles any interest in really paying attention to the screen.

Unless you like old spectacled men. Then this is the 10/10 anime for you.