Yakitate Japan 1

Although I never read the manga about this series, a lot of my friends told me to pick this one up since it’s similar to Hikaru no Go, and I must say that they were right about it This first episode of Yakitate Japan takes a look at how Azuma Kazuma developed his love for bread making and how he intends to create the ultimate bread to represent Japan, appropriately called “Japan” (for those who aren’t fluent in Japanese like me, “pan” is bread in Japanese, so it’s a pun ) We’re taken back when Kazuma was six years old, and Kazuma’s sister Inaho tries to convince her family, especially her senile grandfather (who happens to be a rice farmer), to accept bread as an acceptable part of their meals. Everyone, even Kazuma, refuses to accept it, so Inaho, seeing how Kazuma was the easiest to pick on , drags him over to a bakery called St. Pierre in their home city. Over there, Kazuma gets his first taste of some good dinner bread and starts asking how such bread is made. The breadmaker in St. Pierre offers to show Kazuma how he goes about making bread.

In the kitchen, the breadmaker shows Kazuma how he combines all the ingredients together, and then he highlights the important aspect of kneading the bread so that the ingredients are combined appropriately and the yeast can start taking effect of rising the bread. The breadmaker lets Kazuma knead some of the bread himself while he explains his dream about created “Japan”, a bread that will forever be synonymous with Japan itself. However, the breadmaker admits that he will likely close down his business since bread hasn’t been accepted well in the area. Kazuma immediately offers to spread some good word about bread by starting with his grandfather after he hears the breadmaker’s story, and Kazuma rushes right out of the bread store. Once Kazuma left, the bread maker inspects the bread that Kazuma had kneaded and finds himself in a state of disbelief to find how well the bread was kneaded.

Unfortunately for Kazuma, his grandfather wasn’t very receptive to the bread that they brought him for breakfast. Fortunately, as Kazuma was telling this to the bread maker later in the day, the bread maker suggested they create a custom bread specifically for his grandfather with some “secret” ingredients. At this point, the bread maker knew that Kazuma had the special hands know as “solar hand” which makes the yeast mix optimally with the bread dough, so he asks Kazuma to knead this special bread prepared for his grandfather. Later the next morning, when the grandfather tries again to eat the bread with his miso soup and nattou, he has a much more positive reaction (which is hilariously portrayed ). From there, the rest is pretty up history as Kazuma continues to create 54 other “Japan” creations. Now, he’s 16 years old and heading into Tokyo to possibly work in Tokyo’s most famous bakery, the Pantasia. However, Kazume finds some tough competition as Kuroyanagi Ryou, the baker evaluator, deducts him 5 points for arriving late to the bake-off, and each candidate only starts with 10 points total! On top of that, only ONE out of the 35 competitors will be accepted to work for Pantasia. But seemingly unfazed, Kazuma exclaims that he will do his best to the end and see how things work out.

Overall, this first episode is light-hearted and chalk full of funny moments, especially with the crazy grandfather So definitely check Yakitate Japan out if you have the chance!

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