Yakitate!! Japan

Azuma Kasuma of "Yakitate!! Japan"

I love cooking. I enjoy baking. I make good food that people enjoy. Sometimes I would use the excuse to bake and make my friends guinea pigs in my experiments in gastronomy.

Cooking shows hold my attention with the techniques in preparing food and how to present them. “Iron Chef” was a huge thing as it was a competition featuring master chefs against each other over who could present the best meal with the chosen ingredient. I enjoyed the competition as well as the creativity used to make these dishes. Me and my friends would be glued to the TV to see whose “Cuisine reigned supreme!”

When I discovered that there was an Anime about cooking like this, I knew I had to watch it. It was a hilarious take on baking, full of puns and double entendres. I found myself laughing and tearing up here and there. The title even contains a pun.

Yakitate!! Japan (“Freshly Baked!! Ja-pan”- Pan being the Japanese term for bread) centers around a teen who becomes obsessed with baking the bread that could represent Japan. As part of the opening credits, many famous breads from other nations are recognized as being world famous. Japan does not have this, with other foods such as rice, sushi, and ramen being much more famous. Our hero is set to change this by creating a popular Japanese bread.

Azuma Kazuma is first introduced to the wonders of bread through his sister, who takes him to a local bakery to sample bread. He becomes enamored after eating his first loaf. From that, he started to learn how to make a basic loaf of bread in order to convince his grandfather to include bread into their traditional breakfast. It is here that we learn that he has a natural talent for making bread in the form of his “solar hands”- hands that are unusually warm. They allow for making bread rise and form much faster than normal.

Ken Matsushiro, Tsukino Azusagawa, and Kyousuke Kawachi of "Yakitate!! Japan"

After successfully convincing his grandfather the value of bread, Azuma began to learn how to make bread through experimentation.  Upon entering high school age, he sought to work and learn at one of the largest bakery chains in Japan, Pantasia. Here, he hoped to continue to learn how to bake and find the best bread that can represent Japan.

Here at the initial competition, we are introduced to many of the other cast and reoccurring characters. Kyousuke Kawachi is a fellow teen hoping to continue supporting his family by learning the baking trade like his father. These two become friends and rivals. Their entry exams are administered by the strict Ryou Kuroyanagi, a prodigy who is one of the top bakers and taste testers. Azuma is able to get through the competition with his naivety of traditional baking techniques. This piques the interests of Tsukino Azusagawa, the daughter of Pantasia’s President and owner.

The anime series is a mash up of baking reality shows, cooking competition shows, and dramedy. There are reality-bending episodes in its three-season 69 episode run. There are pleasant touches of emotion that demonstrates the loyalty of Azuma and Kawachi to Tsukino and her branch of Pantasia. Each competition calls upon these bread artisans to beef up their skills with “Rocky” like training in some cases.

With each competition new characters are introduced that are highly skilled. They are all very colorful and exaggerated, some are just downright weird. They often introduce a serious competitive tone to Azuma and the others. Eventually, Azuma wins over some of the competition with his friendliness and optimism. Others are either utterly defeated or continue to compete with Azuma on some level.

Season one concentrates on Azuma cementing his position with Pantasia and introducing the main cast. The second shifts to a world-wide competition held in Monaco. The third and final season is more of a parody of cooking competition shows like “Iron Chef.” It also includes a parody of one of Japan’s premiere pop bands, SMAP.  Each season has Azuma and company creating breads that is beyond normal. Surprisingly, many of these breads are real and can be made even though some of the techniques used to create them are heavily exaggerated. I’ll leave that up to the professional bakers to figure out which ones are real and made up.

The extended cast also parodies some of the many anime and manga influences of the creator Takashi Hashiguchi. This includes Ken Matsushiro, manager of the Tsukino’s branch of Pantasia, who is a parody of Kenshiro of “Hokuto No Ken- Fist of the North Star.” Rival baker Kai Suwabara is a take on a samurai, often dressed as such, wielding a sword hidden in his rolling pin. The manga author even pokes fun at himself and sets himself up as one of the judges in the tasting competition. There is even a recurring character modeled after Brad Pitt named Kid who is Kuroyanagi’s friend while attending Harvard University.

Each episode is laced with humor and puns, which balances with some of the dramatic elements and character development. Azuma’s naivety, optimism, and ignorance drives much of the story as he hopes to create the best bread to represent Japan. His interaction with others makes them friends and rivals, who wish to see this savant baker create his ultimate bread.

Overall, “Yakitate!! Japan” is a funny competitive baking show that runs the gauntlet of comedy, parody, and drama that doesn’t take itself too seriously. There are laugh out loud moments of absurdity and a few touching moments. It is not your typical anime of giant robots, sailor suited girls, or sword and sorcery (believe it or not, there is some of that sprinkled in this series). It is a anime that goes past these staples and presents a truly funny take on baking.