With the final bakeoff day quickly approaching, everyone’s doing what they can to grab as much of an edge as possible. Kawachi takes Ken’s advice and visits the church address on the card that Ken gave him, and Kawachi quickly discovers why Ken wears an afro all the time 
The afro-looking church puts a quick chill down Kawachi’s spine, and he was about to walk away when a nun stops him in his tracks. The nun convinces Kawachi in sort of a hurried manner to go into the church so that he can repent on his sins, and Kawachi, forced into the confession room, tells the nun about the story where he sabotaged Kazuma’s bread during the new baker hiring examination.
Meanwhile, both Kazuma and Shigeru are hard at work perfecting the bread they will present in the finals. Shigeru shows off his Kaiyou R.A.S. yeast to Yukino which apparently gives the dough the ability to absorb salt better. And Kazuma almost gives Tsukino a heart attack as he kneads the dough under running water for Japan #60.
The day of the final arrives, with Kazuma and Shigeru completely surrounded by spectators awaiting the delicious creations that both will make. Shigeru jumps immediately to make his “pan au rustique” using his specialized yeast and some special “soisson” flour which apparently enriches the bread in another manner. However, when Shigeru looks across his table, he’s shocked to see Kazuma apparently kneading the dough under the running faucet. Kazuma’s actions also draw an unfavorable reaction from the crowd as they had read in the papers of the bread that’s good to die for, and most of the crowd wanted to see for their own eyes if this was indeed true. Despite the negative reactions, Kazuma is focused on his bread and surprisingly starts kneading another slab of dough.
During the bakeoff, Kawachi enters the crowd to meet up with Ken and Tsukino, who didn’t recognize Kawachi at first since he now dons an afro as well to Ken’s approval!
Eventually, both sides finish their breads, and it’s showtime for Meister Kirisaki to give the final judgment on who will win the competition. Kirisaki first bites into Shigeru’s bread with Kawachi eagerly awaiting the reaction, but Kawachi is disappointed at first to see that Kirisaki didn’t give show much of a reaction. Ken however points Kawachi above Kirisaki’s mask, and Kawachi finally sees Kirisaki’s point system as peacock feathers sprout out of Kirisaki’s mask! For informational purposes, Ken gives Kawachi the rundown on the Meister’s point system for judging bread along with some birdish commentary Needless to say, Shigeru scored well on his bread, putting some nervous angst into Kawachi as Kawachi proclaims that it would probably take a phoenix reaction for Kazuma to win. Well, Kawachi gets what he asks for as Kirisaki bites into Kazuma’s bread, konks out, and wakes up with his mask starting to crack as a brilliant light shines behind his mask as a phoenix emerges! And needless to say, Kazuma is proclaimed the winner!
An all around good one hour special. Poor Tsukino’s role seems to have shifted to be the Southern Branch punching bag as she gets hounded by Kawachi and Ken endlessly in this episode.
This post was written by...
Kungfucius – who has written 275 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
One of the original founders, and a fan of long-running shounen series.
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Haha, Yakitate never fails to amuse me — Tsukino’s squished-face look throughout this episode had me in stitches, and the Manager’s bird noices (coo coo) were golden ^_^ — good stuff, all around!
Hehe this episode was the first episode i watched of yakitate! I fell in love with the show straight away! Yeh Kanmuri was soo kool and still is and I loved the part with khoo and miester kirisaki!
those episodes were so cool…like aimi, i liked the show coz of the episode…hehe…i’m so addicted to it now…especially with shigeru…too bad he’s not the main character…ü