Yakitate Japan Review
Yakitate Japan is your standard “born tensai (genius) in something -> wants to become best in that something -> plot revolves around the development of said genius -> genius rarely, if ever, loses -> genius has really l33t and mad (literally) skillz” anime series a.k.a. shounen anime. If you really need a prominent comparison, I’d say Prince of Tennis comes close.
Here are a couple of examples of what I mean:
Yep. Natural super-heated hands hot enough to allow you to knead even goddamn hard dough and ensure that our precious yeast stay active. Don’t worry, Blizzard Hands exist too.
I doubt you need any commentary on that.
Yet, despite the seemingly derisive stuff I’m saying about Yakitate Japan and unlike many shounen anime, you’ll find that it’s really some funny stuff (yep, besides the crazy techniques). But before we progress to even more rolling-on-floor laughter, let’s look at our plot.
Azuma Kazuma (yep…) is a baking prodigy with only one dream - to create Japan, a bread good enough to become Japan’s national bread. In his quest to do so, he joins up with a cast of other bakers by joining Pantasia - a famous bakery chain. From then on, he “battles” talented bakers to stake his place in Pantasia, to “combat” an opposing bakery chain (St. Pierre), and to “protect” Pantasia’s ownership. See it yet? 
To the rescue of a possibly overused style however is pure comedy. In the first couple of YJ’s story arcs, I dare you to say that you didn’t laugh your socks off. We had:
Overexaggerated reactions. In the wonderful world of Yakitate Japan, bread created by top bakers are truly sublime. They’re so good that they induce involuntary reactions to the greatness of the bread. Yeah, permanent transformations into pandas are part and parcel of the show:
Magical loquats too:
Absurd puns. YJ uses any means possible to play on words - no matter how weird the result is.
Unique(ly weird) characters. YJ features a diverse range of colourful characters. For example:
As well as third wall breakage. Like many of the craziest anime (Excel Saga anyone?), YJ characters “know” very well that they are part of an anime (and manga).
But nothing this good can be sustained for 69 episodes. YJ starts getting repetitive by the time you reach the Yakitate 69 arc (episode 50+ I think). Old hands are returned to battle, with the only consolation that you’ll actually get to see Azuma lose for once (to a seaweed expert too…).
I wasn’t particularly satisfied with the ending too. Far too rushed. While the last arc was getting boring, the last episode seemed to jump out of nowhere. The ending was also far too open-ended, but then, that’s where Yakitate Japan Season 2 might help solve, eh?
Overall, I’d recommend YJ to anyone who enjoys comedy and doesn’t have a strict mindset against shounen anime. You won’t regret it (and will probably learn a thing or two about baking bread too).
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This entry was posted on Sunday, June 25th, 2006 at 6:51 pm and is filed under Anime Reviews, Yakitate Japan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 25th, 2006 22:02
There wont be a second season since the manga it’s already reaching its end in the current arc: Yakitate 25, which is the manga version of the final arc in the anime: Yakitate 9
June 25th, 2006 23:11
Ah, thanks for the info. Since I’m not following the manga, I was pretty unclear on that.
Given the open-ended nature of the ending, I thought YJ might go the same way as Prince of Tennis (i.e. second season in the form of the National Championships Chapter).