Yeah, I reviewed a show about bread. WHAT OF IT? Yakitate!! Japan isn’t actually that bad or anything, but I can’t say I recommend it – it’s a pretty standard shounen tournament show, it just happens to also be all about bread. Lots of wackiness, plenty of absurd rivalries, etc. It was perfectly watchable, and certainly didn’t require all that much unpacking, but there are many, many better ways you could spend your time.
You can check out my review here! Way too many goddamn bread notes below.
Episode 1
Not widescreen
Fighting with bread
Classic yellow subs
A boy who wants to create the “Japan bread”
“Hands of the Sun” – warm hands for making bread
Classic early 00s style
Ja-pan. Nice pun
Kazuma Azuma is the MC
Writing isn’t great. Art isn’t great
Just a bread shounen
I seriously can’t tell what’s a joke
Just big stupid expressions
The first episode is actually explaining how bread works. Nice
COULD HIS HANDS BE??!?!
The show just isn’t funny
This is a really slow opening
Kneading animation!
Wacky overreactions
I guess you have to find this kind of humor funny
Japan’s top bakery, Pantasia
Oh wow, HxH contest about joining the bakery
Ryu Kuroyanagi is the test administrator
Episode 2
Kyousuke Kawachi is the blond dude
The girl helps him, giving him her hair band
This is just a straight-up HxH exam
“This is…” craziness
“this kid’s stupid, but his hands are the real deal.” Classic shounen protag
We’re getting this from the perspective of the competition-killer
The rye bread dude uses a katana, of course
“How can you tell without tasting?” “BECAUSE I’M ME.” Great answer
The girl’s an “ara ara” type
I really like their over-the-top bread explanations. The over-the-top reactions not as much
“WHAT IS THIS MOUTHFEEL?”
So he made naan accidentally, out of ignorance, to go with curry, which he thinks is Japanese
The girl seems absurdly supportive
They need to make croissants for round two
Episode 3
SHE LICKS HER HAND AFTER SHE HOLDS HIS
His various bread types keep giving him secret weapons
The show keeps using silly visual metaphors for its bread
The girl is the granddaughter of the president of the company. And she’s in cahoots with Azuma now
And now they’re doing a 2001 parody for croissants
Azuma too nice!
Episode 4
Now they’re working at the girl’s Pantasia South Tokyo branch
Kageto Kinoshita is the other employee
This release still has those hideous yellow subs
Kyousuke is the grump with big dreams
Tsukino is the girl
Today’s French bread. Learning French bread stats
Ken Matsushiro is the manager
And he’s got an afro and hip flash and shades. Welp
He tests his bread on the horses
“THE MANAGER IS A HORSE?!?”
“I like that look in your eyes.” Classic shounen beats
“Make good grazing bread!”
So now they must impress their sensei
The horses don’t like additives like butter
The manager’s sister was injured in a freak butter-allergy accident, giving him a lifelong distrust of butter. Lol
BREAD ALMOST TORE THIS FAMILY APART
Azuma remains the super-emotional idiot
Episode 5
I’m not really a fan of the “loud noises and crazy reactions” school of anime comedy, but this show plays off its classic shounen/sports format while also holding close enough to it to actually keep the story moving and interesting
Azuma wants milk from his old cow, Hanako
His sister races it there on her bike
The manager failing at horse racing is a pretty great understated gag
He made it using goat butter. His secret weapon!
The “and I’ll explain just how I did it” moments are pretty great
The manager exploding his shirt off and striking fighting poses to explain the yeast he uses
Explaining the benefits of germinated brown rice yeast in a post-apocalyptic landscape while firing energy beams
“You are already bread” OH MY GOD
Kyousuke just keeps having his goddamn hallucinations
Episode 6
I feel like the OP should be more hot-blooded
They gotta fight St. Pierre, the main store of their biggest rival
Mokoyama is their absurd manager
The expressions are pretty good
Some lame flamboyant gay jokes here, but that’s shounen
Alright, really doubling down on the “he’s effeminate, that’s ridiculous” jokes
Meister Kirisaki – a bunch of doves precede his exit from the limo, and he wears an absurd mask, cape, and tuxedo. The main store’s general manager
The bad guy’s ridiculous, but everyone’s ridiculous, so I’m pretty okay with it
Of course bread competitions are huge news that get major TV coverage
I’m always interested to see how the contests end, how he wins
Episode 7
A massive stadium for the competition
The side characters are already kinda useless, and the girl always has been
The characters narrating exposition
The show has a classic “we will rock you” song for the anticipation moment, horns and trills for the big victory scenes
I like the characters commenting on their hallucinations
He’s realized the dream of… not throwing good bread away
Dramatic twists focused on the pricing of the new breads
Episode 8
And he’s already gotten a competition invitation, to the Pantasia Rookie Competition. TOURNAMENT TIME
They have to make normal loaves that won’t mold for three weeks
Best friend dude is finally feeling bad about just riding Azuma’s coattails
Sucks to be inferior
“Do you want hands of the sun? I know how to get them?” Aw jeez, what’s Girl thinking?
“Why not just be reborn as Kawachi Prime?”
The girl’s thing is being kinda mysterious, I guess
So she wants to remodel the store, and also wants to believe in Kawachi. Getting some character for both of the side leads
Kyousuke’s father had a bread dream
Holy crap, his dad actually died in a fire
So that’s his motivation – to carry out his father’s dream, and help his family
Found a typo in the script
He wants to get muscular to increase blood circulation, which will create “gauntlets of the sun”
Episode 9
Kyousuke’s getting all the crazy strength training
Tsukino’s thing is “kinda scary in a smiley way”
“That’s why avoided making any clear explanations.” Another typo
Oh my god, Azama’s crazy face
Silly slapstick jokes. Eh
He made wasabi-flavored bread
Wasabi blocks bacterial production
This dramatic music for Kousaka’s despair is pretty good
And his sad siblings are also great
Sad sax music for his moping
“Disinfectant?!” Has Kousaka discovered his bread idea?!?
Love this tense drums track for Kousaka figuring his plan out
Bread montage!
Kousaka’s bread has brandy in it. Disinfectant
Manager being all tough love with Kousaka. Manager’s great. Really entertaining guy
And Kousaka thanks the manager. He’s grown so much
Episode 10
So now we’re in full tournament mode
Kousaka wearing crazy arm weights, of course
Azama feels sad. His friend is gone
Crazy dogs smell out which bread aren’t mold-resistant
Samurai dude demands a rematch, his master (the first competition judge) says he must not lose
“Why does someone with your skill pursue the way of bread?” lol
The show’s visual imagery is what is necessary. So is the storytelling. It has momentum, but not necessarily spice, and definitely not brilliance
Manager telling Azama to be a true rival to Kousaka
And of course Azama is literally mining for the ingredients he needs. Clay, this time
The music cues create their own jokes
Good pacing to this pre-tournament stuff
Samurai dude just does waterfall training
Really unfunny jokes about old people. Plenty of unfunny jokes in this show
Pretty great closeups
Suwabara is the samurai dude
I really love Azuma valuing his pink hairband so much
Episode 11
Jokes about Kuroyanagi being old, even though he’s 22. Don’t do this to me, shounens
Another qualifying round, since there were too many successful applicants
Umino Katsuo, another kid, getting dressed down for his bad bread
“What’s the harm in just testing them again?” Azuma being the shounen hero
He accepts being riffraff, but wants another chance
Guts!
Kuroyanagi challenges them to eat the rotten bread
“He just picked out his bread by smell alone. His nose…” NOSE POWERS
These Kuroyanagi faces are great
“Have you forgotten? Forgotten what’s most important to a bread maker? IT’S HEART. PASSION. GUTS.” This fuckin’ show
Now they have to make butter rolls
“The main store has no use for bakers who can’t determine the quality of butter without tasting it!” They have eight butters to choose from, and some are way better than others
“I can’t make any careless moves.”
Oh no! He chose the WORST BUTTER dun dun dun
Umino keeps getting compared to a pig. But his nose gave him the right butter!
Kyousuke chooses the non-melting butter. The judge decides this shows he’s grown as a man. Of course
“His butter roll has a fatal flaw. Let this be a lesson in how weak you are!”
Azuma lacks the experience and knowledge of an expert. That’s his weakness
“There’s no way he could make a good butter roll with butter C!” ominous music
A new girl character appears
Episode 12
Butter C was actually margarine! Oh no!
Mizuno is the girl, and Tsukino is her older sister. Baggage
Mizuno’s pretty giddy
Azuma wins through “vapor action”
Some of the jokes just don’t work – they’re either not funny, or references to obscure bits of Japanese culture that don’t translate. Like this reference to a specific Japanese comedy duo
Oh no, drama between Mizuno and Tsukino. Apparently different mothers?
Yukino is the third, oldest sister
All three sisters are competing for succession, and Tsukino was the one who was born to a mistress. Tsukino’s sisters have much more successful branches
Her dad’s backing the youngest sister, her grandfather’s backing the oldest one. Tsukino has no support
Kyousuke’s getting worked up over it
So now Kyousuke’s motivated to win to earn her more support
Oh dang, the sushi guy is visiting their shop
Azuma’s fighting Mizuno immediately
And yeah, of course this bread competition is resolved through a series of duals
There’s a guy named “Koala” who actually wears a koala mask. He’s from Mizuno’s branch
Melon bread is the first round
If Azuma wins, Mizuno has to call Tsukino “sis.” If Mizuno wins, Azuma goes to her branch
Episode 13
Azuma’s competition is melon bread, and he’s not good at it
The animation takes a lot of shortcuts, and is generally limited, as you’d expect in a long-running shounen
Azuma has to perfect the unperfected melon bread design!
Eating sushi gives Azuma his inspiration. I assume he’s discovered he needs some kind of welding agent between the bread and cookie dough
Oh my god these awful CG melons
Azuma asks out Tsukino! For cooking, I’m sure
It’s because he doesn’t have any money, lol
A suspicious baker called “Motohashi”
Some off-model shots
Oh, he’s going to bake the two parts separately so they cook correctly and then weld them together? It’s fun to guess what his trick will be
Kuroyanagi’s such a dick, lol
A melon-dodging Matrix parody
Oh my god, this CG disco dance with the manager ED. Welp
Episode 14
Yuko Motohashi is Kyousuke’s opponent
“The woman with the hands of the mommy” okay
DBZ charging riff now. She’s straight doing a Kamehameha
And then it turns out she’s totally harmless and he wins easily. It was just the manager fucking with him to make sure he kept taking things seriously
Mizuno hanging onto her koala-giant’s arm as she challenged Azuma is pretty great. The incidental jokes are the good ones
“Spencer Henry Hoko, or Shachihoko for short” – Azuma’s next opponent, the American who wears a baseball uniform while baking
He has a Nagoya fetish. More stuff that just doesn’t translate
This time they’re making yakisoba noodles
Azuma’s never made yakisoba before – his sister always made the noodles, he made the bread
“Manager, what are you doing?” “Oh, just being the voice of Tsukino’s heart.”
So they visit a crazy Chinese martial arts master to learn about making noodles. Of course
Mr. Liu
Episode 15
“I wasn’t born with talent, like that idiot Azuma. That’s why I gotta go all-out against every opponent I face.” Kyousuke is pretty important to this show
Kyousuke makes a hot dog-shaped yakisoba
“They’re becoming a good team.” Yep. Kyousuke shores up Azuma’s weaknesses
“This sort of thing is Kawachi’s job!” This gag goes on too long, but the self-aware kicker is good
“Secret Technique: Dragon Twister!”
The characters generally win not by being better at cooking, but coming up with a trick to laterally attack the challenge. Which makes sense, since that makes it an understandable puzzle, and not just “his food tastes better!” And there’s always a big reveal, and the opponent can always be traditionally stronger
“They’ll cancel this series if you show your cock!” WELP
“This bread reeks of danger!”
Azuma essentially makes a panini, elevating the bread in order to play into his strengths
His friends helped him win this time
Episode 16
Liu Loamian is fighting Koala
The Koala is Mokoyama, Azuma’s old opponent from St. Pierre
Weird pacing this episode
The assignment is animal bread!
“I’ll be grading you in artistry in addition to taste”
Azuma needs a secret ingredient, of coruse
A new, more accomplished examiner is joining Kuroyonagi
Dave Hasiguchi and his assistant Heidi, who arrive in a bulldozer through the wall
A former manga artist, so this is the author stand-in. And he’s immensely fat, and travels everywhere by bulldozer
“Does he break the wall every year?”
Azuma needed glucose syrup
Another Dragonball reference
Azuma made a shining green turtle
Episode 17
“I didn’t expect Kuro to take his dragon-bread reaction in that direction!” The reactions are a big part of the shtick, though they never really do much for me
It feels like everyone’s becoming more conscious of the show’s gimmicks, too
KOALA HAS HIS PRIDE
Mokoyama really winning the crowd with this chivalrous display
“…and I became a koala.” As you do
“If nothing changes, Pantasia will be taken over by St. Pierre.” Eventually the sisters will have to join forces to win!
Never has a man in a koala mask left with so much dignity
Koala and Mizuno embrace in the rain. A touching moment. My god, this show
Episode 18
Tsukino’s missing Kyousuke’s round. She’s visiting her mother’s grave
“She isn’t skipping because she doesn’t respect you. She’s skipping because she believes in you and knows you’ll win!” And Kyousuke buys that
Shigeru Kanmuri, new character. Pink hair
“It’s so strange. Each round I give my opponents a sample of my bread, but then they drop out!” So this is the ominous low-key one
Katsuo (pig kid) made a bread in the shape of his hot wife
Oh my god, Manager using his Tsukino cutout to add her to the reaction shots and then yanking it off for his own reaction is great
Pig kid is actually 31 years old. Welp
He married a part-time employee at his shop. Welp
Kyousuke deeply amused by his own moving crab bread
Oh shit, pink hair is working for Yukino, the oldest sister
Kyousuke really overselling this joke
The semifinals are freestyle. Any bread is allowed
Kanmuri’s playing the friend, of course. He’s the secretly devious type
Wow, pretty intense story of Yukino messing with Tsukino’s mother’s ashes
Can’t really invest in this emotional stuff, though. Though I guess I’m far past the target audience for that
Episode 19
Kuroyonagi graduated from the Harvard culinary school
Now we’re getting a greatest hits of Kuroyonagi reactions. Yeah, cost-cutting flashbacks
Kanmuri’s likely the new student of food science, following in Kuroyonagi’s footsteps
“What they’re researching is most highly anticipated thing in the industry.” Another typo
He might have a special natural yeast. Bread science
And of course it cuts right to a lab with beakers and test tubes and whatnot
Kanmuri has little love for Yukino. Clearly he’ll end up with the good guys
Meister Kirisaki shows up for the semis
“It is finally completed!” Oh bread science
Jokes about Kanmuri and Kuroyanagi being in a forbidden romance. I’m not even really annoyed – all this show’s jokes are harmless boy-show absurdity
“Germinated brown rice yeast plus Gauntlets of the Sun, activate!”
Yukino sabotaged Kyousuke’s ingredients
Episode 20
Kanmuri’s not happy to have his own victory stolen by cheating
Yukino’s got some great evil smiles
Kanmuri devised marine yeast, a special kind of yeast from the sea
These alternate subs for Kuro’s revery are great
Yeah, more “I’m not gay” jokes. Meh
Kyousuke’s falling apart
So they’ll investigate the bread
Kyousuke dying in Tsukino’s arms
Samurai dude still burns with the desire to defeat Azuma
“Super Vapor Action 648 Croissant!”
Kai Suwabara, that’s the samurai dude’s name
Episode 21
So now he’s going to make the mightiest bread, Ja-pan No. 44
“Sorry, Suwabara. I’m going to win.” HE’S READY
“Everyone else put way more on the line than me, and it felt like they were desperate to win. But I can’t afford to lose either. I’m sorry.”
Suwabara manically explaining his technique as Azuma glumly and resolutely works towards victory
“I ate Kazuma Azuma’s bread, and died from its overwhelming deliciousness.”
An extended sequence of Kuronoyagi and the mangaka insert departed to cabaret heaven
“When Ja-pan 44 turns out really well, sometimes people who eat it go to heaven.” Right, of course
“People whose lives aren’t over always go back to the living world.” Azuma’s bread is so good that it actually transports people to heaven, which is a place, where an angel bunny girl explains about other people who’ve been transported there by bread. This is pretty good
So apparently Azuma’s grandfather made that slab for him, and his grandfather is someone important
Episode 22
Flashbacks to the bread reactions again. Saving time with what are normally my least favorite parts of the episodes, but which I guess are a big part of the reward for some people?
Very long flashbacks this time
Winner gets one million yen, a study abroad in France, and a chance to work at the main store
Suwabara and Kyousuke will fight for third place
Manager advises Kyousuke to visit a place where he learned “the most important thing about bread”
Kanmuri might also have Hands of the Sun!
Or he may have heated his hands through the power of Bread Science
Frieeendship
Oh noo, Yukino’s gonna fuck up his slab
Wow, she’s just, uh, destroying it
Yukino being gleefully evil is great
Episode 23
Kyousuke visits St. Andrew’s Church
“What’s with this plotline?”
Locked in the church by a crazy nun
He confesses to sabotaging Azuma during the first competition
Abusing his slab caused Azuma to realize he has to innovate. So now he’s going to make a new bread, Ja-pan 60
Yukino’s ridiculous leather outfit is great
Kanmuri’s yeast is salt-resistant, allowing him to make it saltier and more springy, apparently
Azuma’s also going for a springy, water-heavy bread
Kanmuri learns Yukino stole the slab
Yukino looking absurd as ever, in a crazy gothic lolita red dress
“I’m not serving that woman because I like her.”
“I have a demolition team standing by at your lab.” Ahaha Yukino
Oh god no Kyousuke got an afro too
Episode 24
The manager is of course impressed with his afro
Everyone is eternally “but that’s crazy, Azuma!”
The crowd doing the work of “what are you doing, you crazy kid?!” this time
They play up the reactions of the Maister, but he just reacts like a normal friggin’ human being
Aaand nevermind, he grew a giant peacock frond
He’s “capable of expressing concrete deliciousness reactions with his body, like Dave”
“Don’t say that like it’s not insane”
Kanmuri made “pain rustique,” a very springy french bread
Yukino doing her bragging now. The story understands how to fit its various beats in between the suspense releases of the various competition stages
And the Meister flies around on a bird sprouting from his head. Just bread contest things
The Meister used to sell bread on the streets, and used magic tricks to attract customers
“Does this mean all the score birds are in his mask somewhere?” “Guess so!”
Azuma made “vital gluten” by washing the first bread until it broke apart, leaving only the gluten, which he incorporated into the second bread
“We bread creators are strongest when we have enough dreams and passion to overturn common sense.” This show really, really hammers on creativity being the key to victory. It has the “hard work, friendship, victory” trio of Shounen Jump, but creativity is also key here
Episode 25
Oh dang, Kanmuri’s lab actually gets blown up
Tsukino hasn’t been anything but the cheerleader for a pretty long time
Sister Mako Graham – a french artisan baker
Kyousuke has some confidence now that he’s done well in the competition
More untranslatable puns. More references: “shout love at the heart of the afro”
“How many times do you plan to say ‘what the?’ in your lifetime?” She actually nails his character type in-show
“They broke free of conventions to shock their patrons with bold ideas.” Creativity again
Calling him a minor character directly
“Cast off common sense and get an afro!”
“And that’s how my ruthless afro training at St. Andrew’s Church began.”
“I’ll show you my singin’ french bread!”
The show doesn’t drag out portions of fights it doesn’t need to. It’s pretty good about keeping things moving
“You can’t defeat my ‘dancing french bread!’”
Episode 26
Suwabara made a kind of snake loaf that… well, it looks like a poop
And Kyousuke’s chirps in the oven. Cute
More questionable bread history in the wake of the dancing bread
Azuma declines going to the main store, of course
There seems to be a disk-skip error right after the halfway point of this episode, during the “would you want to leave the story” conversation – TRY IT ON THE COMPUTER
These American designs are fantastic
Kuroyanagi’s delusions just make less and less sense
Suwabara and Kyousuke tie, Suwabara through excellent fundamentals, Kyousuke through innovation
Episode 27
Kyousuke wants to go to the main store, while Kanmuri wants to transfer to South Tokyo with Azuma
Yukino attempting to take credit for Kanmuri’s transfer, and sway her grandfather to make Yukino co-heir with Tsukino
The Meister is also aware Yukino’s a snake
St. Pierre’s owner is Meister Kirisaki’s dad
So he cast off his identity as the St. Pierre owner’s son, and since has been masked
Things are back to being lowkey again
Azuma’s got people who know him from TV now
Ja-Pan No. 2
One last reaction
“Plus, even the Yakitate!! Japan producers can make this one!”
And now they’re actually going through the baking process in live-action. Lol
Now the whole cast is talking about the show producers
Aw shit, Yukino plotting with the owner of St. Pierre