Yakitate!! Japan

Information of Anime

Kazuma Azuma has a goal: to create a bread worthy of the name Japan or "Japan" (pan is Japanese for "bread").  To do this, he works at a famous bakery Pantasia to learn of ways to create this bread.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  This section does contain some spoilers.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

Basically, it's about Kazuma continuously creating bread that will represent Japan.  He takes part in competitions within Pantasia & outside the company.  The ones outside Pantasia usually has a rival, which is St. Pierre, another famous bakery.  Kazuma started his goal from, ironically, the owner of St. Pierre when he was a small boy.  Now the owner of St. Pierre, Yuuichi Kirisaki, is Kazuma's enemy that want to drive Pantasia out.  Also, Yukino Azusagawa, the sister of Tsukino Azusagawa, wants to drive Tsukino out of the race for ownership of Pantasia.

As the story progresses, Kazuma makes many allies to help him in his goal.  Also, Yukino becomes part owner of St. Pierre while Tsukino is now the owner of Pantasia after Yuuichi bought out Pantasia after the Monaco Cup competition.  Yuuichi, together with Yukino, are continuously trying to drive Pantasia out of business.

The show ends with another competition where Kazuma wins against Pantasia in the final roudn.  However, the battle between the two bakeries is still going.

My Personal Review

Originally, I thought the idea of bread making in anime is stupid.  However, it turns out Yakitate Japan is extremely funny & I'm actually enjoying it.  Although I would recommend watching this for comedy, there is a lot of references to Japanese puns.  If you don't understand them, you would miss out a lot of the jokes.

Animation

The character designs are wacky.  You have a manager obsessed with afros, a baker obsessed with beauty, a manager with a bunch of birds living under his face mask, etc.  The designs does give some unique characteristics for them.  The drawings are your typical anime style of large eyes & round faces.  They even have some guys that look like girls.  Basically, to sum it up, it's quite different as almost no two characters look alike.  However, starting from episode 54, the drawings start to look different.  The faces look more longer & squished.  My assumption is that the studio started to use different animators.  With a show this long, they are bound to spend less on their budget somewhere.

The colours are pretty bright on the characters, but dull on the backgrounds.  So, you won't see an overlap of colours between the two.

The backgrounds are good, but don't have much details.   The dullness really covers this up so you won't notice it.

The animation movements are wacky & out of this world.  This is mainly because of those bread reactions & other comedic moments.  It's fairly smooth at those fast speeds & slow motions.  In fact, it really brings out the laughter.

Sound

The sound effects are very screwy to fit in with the comedic scenes.  They are clear & the volume is set at a reasonable level.  So, it's clear & fuzz free.

The seiyuus here are very good.  They perform their roles well to the point that you either like them or hate them for their characteristics.  Also, some of them are new & they should be noted for doing a great debut.

The music is really fits the mood of the show.  It's mainly silly pop music with fast & slow tempos.  Although the music is good, I won't find myself getting a copy of the OST.

Story

It's basically Kazuma trying to achieve "Japan" while defending Pantasia from been driven out.  Most of the time, Kazuma recreates old Japans instead of making new ones.  A lot of the arcs are mainly competitions.  Although it sounds boring, it isn't.  This is all thanks to the bread reactions & other comedic bits that keeps the show's interest high.  I'm no fan of any anime shows that is longer than 52 episodes, but this one seems to keep me going.  However, as mention already, it has quite a lot of Japanese puns.  So language barriers could be a problem for some people that don't have much Japanese background.  Plus, it has some parody references to other series such as Initial D & Gundam.

Aside from the jokes, it provides some education bits.  Most of it is know how bread is made, the ingredients used, & some history.  Plus, at the end of the show, there is a "Seed of Knowledge" corner where you learn more educational stuff.

The show ends at the Yakitate!! 9 arc when Kirisaki admits his defeat in losing Pantasia when he give Azuma's bread the victory at the final round.  However, it's an open ending & I felt this was the right choice since dragging this show more would lose its touch & get boring over time.

Overall Conclusion

Yakitate Japan is really a funny show.  Although you may not get some of the Japanese puns, the physical comedy & silliness will get you laughing anyways.  Don't let the fact that it's a bread making anime theme turn you off.  It's something I would strongly recommend watching if you like comedy.

Yakitate Japan gets an eight out of ten grade.  The high points are basically from the jokes it makes & the educational bits of bread.  The lost points are the understanding of the Japanese puns & how long this show will go on.  At the moment, I'm really hooked.  But I may get bored soon since it has a lot of competition involved & the development of Japan is really dragging.  Plus the fight between St. Pierre & Pantasia doesn't seem to end.  Luckily, the ending was an open one.

Last updated on January 22, 2008