Yakitate Japan Review
Jules Altier
"There's English bread, German bread and France's bread. However, Japanese bread, Japan, does not exist. This story is a serious, biographical ballad of a boy whopossesses Solar Hands, Azuma Kazuma, who will create a Japanese bread made by and for the Japanese people, which can bepresented to the world, proudly!"
Yakitate! Japan, as the title says, actually has 2 meanings: 1. Which can bedirectly recognised as Japan, as in, the country of Japan. 2. Ja-pan, pan, inJapanese, is bread, so, Ja-pan, as in Japanese bread, and thus is translated as "Freshly baked! Japan" Sobasically, Yakitate! Japan is a story of a boy, who possess the legendary Solar Hands, who wants to create a nationalbread for Japan. Original run from 2004 and completed in 2006 with 69 episodes altogether and was authored by HashiguchiTakashi.
Yakitate! Japan focuses on bread-making, more precisely, bread-making competition, hence exploiting Azuma's skillsand talents in this industry as he constantly makes bread that never cease to amaze judges through their"reactions", something that has to be noted throughout the series. This story contains quite a number of puns,of course, based on Japanese way of making them - words play, a number of exciting parody basically used in most of thejudging reactions, and of course, your freshly baked breads presented fresh. Although it's mainly based on bread,the story doesn't actually bore you, it's surpisingly very interesting and refreshing story, with a veryentertaining plot, and very wise play on words, which makes the anime very original and enjoyable.
Azuma Kazuma - Your 16 year old male protagonist, who possess the legendary SolarHands which allows yeast to ferment faster and better, thus making it faster for doughs to expand when he'skneading. He quit his studies after Junipr High and heads to Tokyo to enter the Pantansia Entrance Examination so hecould expand his Japan. He has a problem in mishearing what somebody is trying to say, and this is shown throughout theseries. He's not the happy-go-lucky type of guy, but he's a true genius when it comes to bread, a veryoptimistic and cheerful young boy who doesn't give up easily, but is easily stirred by emotional tragedies, which,doesn't last long.
Kawachi Kyousuke - A blonde with earring pierced who hails from the Kansai area,most likely Osaka. He was first met in the Pantasia Entrance Examination, alongside Suwabara Kai who were listed in thefinal 3 of the exam. Initially, Kawachi was portrayed as a baker with superior knowledge compared to Azuma, buteventually as the story progressed, Azuma's ability began to shine more and Kawachi was backed down, and is mostlycrying "Nanyate?!" Which means, "What was that?!", picturing his lack of awareness in bread-makingcompetition, and was then sent off by the Pantasia Southern Tokyo Store manager, Matsushiro Ken, to a church to beretrained. Kawachi may seem like a lazy looking guy with no use mostly at the back of the series, but is capable ofbaking exceptionally good bread at desperate times. He has the Solar Gauntlets, a physical-training acquired SolarHands. He changed his hairstyle 4 times in the anime.
Suwabara Kai - A serious bread artisan who is said to have left the path oflife-killing to follow the path of life-giving bread. Although with that said, there are times where he applied hissamurai skill into baking bread, leaving people to doubt whether he's actually focusing on the"life-giving" part of baking. He has the Solar Gauntlets and considered Azuma his rival. He's the winnerduring the finals of the Pantasia Entrance Examination since Kawachi and Azuma have both pulled out from the exam. Hisbrand of bread is Lupan, which, is a brand "stolen" from all kinds of sources.
Kanmuri Shigeru - A talented Pantasia baker encountered during PantasiaNewcomers' Tournament, and possess the legendary Solar Hands as well. A Harvard graduate like Kuroyanagi, only thathe graduated at the age of 16, thus is considered as Harvard Junior Genius. Originally, he was working under AzusagawaYukino, but then betrayed her and left to join the Pantasia Southern Tokyo branch. He's the son of the HashiguchiClan, the biggest yakuza clan in Japan, but he never admitted himself to be one of the yakuzas.
Azusagawa Tsukino - The understudy of Matsushiro Ken of Pantasia Southern Tokyobranch. Although she doesn't actually bake bread throughout the series, she constantly supports Azuma and Kawachi.She is said to be talented baker to have won the Pantasia Newcomers' Tournament 8 years ago while she's stillcarrying her bag pack during the whole thing. An illegitimate child of the Azusagawa family, she has problems gettingalong with her half-siblings, but remains dedicated to the Pantasia chains.
Kuroyanagi Ryou - Your bread judge for the Pantasia Entrance Exam, PantasiaNewcomers' Tournament and Yakitate! 9. He's the head of the Main Pantasia Branch. At first glance, he lookslike the kind of person who's very straight forward and dislikes nonsensical crapping, but his over melodramaticreaction and his seriousness in making a pun for the sake of judging the bread he has eaten truly shows what kind ofperson he really is. His skill is then fully utilised by Yuiichi Kirisaki in Yakitate! 9.
Pierrot Bolnez/Leonhart XV - Your beloved judge for the Monaco Cup. He's a"Sekai reberu no piero", which translates as world-class clown who's currently working as a bread judgefor the Monaco Cup. He explained himself that he's 22 years old, can speak 135 languages and do all kind of amazingand unusual things because he's a world-class clown, which is constantly emphasised throughout the Monaco Cup. Intruth, he's actually the sole heir of the King of Monaco, but is said to have been given away to be raised by hisordinary foster parents according to the Monaco tradition. But his foster parents ran away with the money and was leftin the Quedam Circus, where he became a world-class clown.
The drawing of bread baked throughout the anime is very good and realistic. And I have to admit I really felt likeeating one when I see them freshly baked. And the melodramatic reactions really makes you wonder whether suchexaggerating thing can actually happen, and it really makes you feel like trying whether you can feel a reaction.It's just awesome.
The OSTs featured in the anime are awesome. I can never actually imagined a song that could go well with bread-makingcompetitions. Iwasaki Taku has done a great job composing a variety of music ranging from music used for competition,retro music, intrumental, etc.
As for the voice-acting department, we have your all-time favourite seiyuus like Koyasu Takehiko as Kuroyanagi Ryou,Seki Tomokazu as Pierrot, Sakaguchi Shuhei as Kawachi Kyousuke, Kobayashi Yumiko as Azuma Kazuma and all other seiyuuswhich have contributed themselves in this anime. They've done an excellent job, but most credits have to go to thejudges, which I think, have portrayed both Koyasu Takehito's and Seki Tomokazu's exceptionally amazing skillas a veteran seiyuu.
Yakitate! Japan, in overall, is great. Moderate music, moderate art, but a huge amount of puns and jokes and usefulknowledges on baking bread sum up to how Yakitate! Japan is. The humour is all over the place, we get to see Japanprefectures' special localities, we get to see how to bake all kinds of bread. This anime actually shows how doesit feels like to be a baker, and might be a very good use for those who aspires to be a future baker. Well, ifyou're not, then mostly likely the hilarious puns and parodies will make you fall in love with the anime.
I had heard about this show once before, might have been Newtype or maybe just word of mouth. It tended to seem like itwould be enjoyable but a 9? Not sure I got that from what I'd heard everywhere else. Either way another review thatmakes all the others on the front page right now look retarded (wait mines there isn't it?) Yea well there ya go.
i agree though... I admit, it's nice review there, but a 9? well, I guess there's a reason for it... might itbe because of the introduction, or something else... either way, I don't get it why you got a 9... But with"Freshly Baked! Japanese Bread" or should I say "Yakitate! Japan" it is really some anime... sincethat's one of the few animes that shows about food... like Cooking Master Boy... talking about it brings backmemories.....
9? Really?
I have always thought that though the comedy sometimes goes overboard, Yakitate! Japan still deserves a rating of, say,7.
But 9?
You have to explain that. I am a bit mystified by the rating you gave.
1) the protagonist Azuma Kazuma (14-16 years old?) has a very annoying voice, and sounds like he is 9 in sub version2) some of the op/end themes talk about "love" and what not... completely unrelated to the series whatsoever(note that this malady is not all that uncommon)
3) the series has an air of that good ol japanese elitism that we have all come to know and love (the reason why thejapanese government tariffs the heck out of foreign rice, because Japanese rice is naturally "better")channeled through the protagonist, who manages to unknowingly have made a "Ja-pan" version of virtually everytype of bread imaginable by himself (which somehow turn out to be better than the originals), yet --still-- are not goodenough to replace Japanese rice. granted, the other characters do not tarry in pointing out Azuma's ignorance ofthe world's breads, but to say that none are better than rice (over and over and over) is not simply a matter ofstating opinion, it is downright audacious and borderline offensive, and finally....
4) the biggest problem of all is the same that many slice of life comedies have... the lack of any real conflictwhatsoever. yes, there are "baking battles" in practically every episode, but one does not really feelthreatened by anything thrown at Azuma's way because it suffers from "godly shounen protagonist"syndrome. it's hard to immerse yourself into the series when you know everything's going turn outalright