This Week in Anime

Carboloading with Yakitate!! Japan

Nicky
As for me, I'm trying to lose some weight so I'm on a low-carb diet and this anime all about baking and eating bread is making my mouth extra watery. Though, I will say anime is a great way to pass the time while exercising. Especially if you have a stationary bicycle at home!

Anyways, if you haven't already guessed, today we'll be discussing the bread-centric anime Yakitate!! Japan (lit. translated Freshly Baked! Japan) a series guaranteed to spike your glucose levels by just looking at it. It's also a total classic from the digipaint era.

Also as with most older properties, we're only going to be covering the first six episodes out of this 69 (nice) episode series. Currently, all episodes are available for streaming on various platforms.

Well, enjoying bread so much you turn into a trendy Parisian gal is still kinda horny, but Yakitake! does tend to lean more on just being over-the-top in a way that isn't too uncomfortable whenever your mom walks in. (Thanks, Mom)

It's also notable that many of the bread reactions have existed out of context via YouTube and the like for well over a decade now and may still be there long after this column is written.

This is Kazuma Azuma, a 16 year old boy who sets off to a bakery in Tokyo in order to make a bread worthy of being called characteristically Japanese. Or "Ja-pan" as everyone calls it. For those that don't have sharp ears, "pan" is the Japanese word for bread, a loanword taken from the Portuguese word for bread, "pão", after traders came in the 16th century. And as there's no dub for this show, you'll be hearing it a lot.

I also love that his special talent is...abnormally warm hands!! Better than mine. My palms are clammier than a corpse on a good day.

I guess you can say he's a real bread-head, huh? Ha ha!

But can any of them truly be worth of being the so-called "Ja-pan"?! That is something we'll still have to see. Japan has a bit of history with carbs, mainly the more widely available rice. With the two carbs competing, you have to work extra hard to knead bread's way into the heart (and bellies) of a rice-loving nation. They even bring up that after the war the staple bread introduced was quite hard and tasteless due to having to be shelf stable.

And Japan being fairly isolated for centuries and lacking in wide access to wheat meant that the culture of breadmaking is something greatly foreign and had to be imported. Yakitate!! delivers this info in a way that's got an edutainment spin. The over-the-top quality mentioned earlier keeps it from feeling stale, despite it's age. On top of this, it also recognizes that food, like bread, is both a process and an artform. It's something meant to be consumed and enjoyed by humans. It's full of passion for pan!

At least it's not covered in gross fondant like specialty cakes are. I love it when my cake tastes like Playdoh.

At first this seems like it could be a big disadvantage to him having no real professional training or experience but none of them have the power of the "Hands of the Sun" aka the extra hot hands that promote the fermentation of yeast. Those years of experimentation also mean he's got a keen intuition and creative thinking to boost him in a bind compared to someone shackled with a more traditional background. All of this comes much to the shock of the other bakers.

Which is good because the proctor in this test is a real hard-ass voiced by Takehito Koyasu just totally chewing the scenery.

The proctor immediately docks points from Azuma simply for being late or dressing sloppy and not for judging his real skill. It gives the idea that the bakery biz is truly a bread-eat-bread world. But then we also see him do crazy shit like punch the hell out of a whole loaf before it bounces right back so as a viewer, I can't complain.

We also meet a few other bakers there, first off is Kawachi, who's a bit smarter than Kazuma but a lot shittier. He knows he doesn't have the talent of the sun hands but he does dole out the regular knowhow for the viewer while also trying to either sabotage Kazuma or fool him for whatever suits his own gains. He sucks!! I really like him.

He's probably the closest the show has to an everyman and he really does know his stuff when it comes to breadmaking even if he isn't as top-tier as some of the other competitors. Besides, he's got a great Kansai dialect and his delivery helps sell some of the show's greatest reaction moments.

Especially since some of the other characters who know about as much as him can be umm...intimidating...

The other notable baker would be Tsukino, who actually turns out to not be a tester at all but the granddaughter of Pantasia's founder. She recognizes Kazuma's talent immediately and sets her sights to scout him for her own branch.

Yeah, she uhh comes on a little strong. She seems ambitious in her own right. Also, she's got the best eyecatch. Remember those?

Heck yeah, Tsukino is still a bit too young to be the manager of the store where Kawachi and Kazuma work after somewhat cheating on the test for the main branch. So this afro'd gentlemen is the actual manager. He loves horse races and feeding bread to his favorite horse. AND EVEN THE HORSE REACTS TO THE BREAD! He seems like the exact kind of eccentric, hardened, and experienced mentor the show needs.

Also he does a great Fist of the North Star parody at Kawachi's expense.

The lengths this show goes even just for normal explanation sequences like this puts it above a lot of similar fair for me. I'm so used to shōnen anime just showing me a bunch of graphs now. Presentation is key!

It's both incredibly hilarious and also actually sad? I felt like cry-laughing. Food allergies really aren't a joke! And anyone who makes food has to consider that. Fortunately, his sister isn't actually dead. But that's part of why he's so obsessed with horses. As they don't really consume diary products.

Ridiculous, dehumanizing, and slightly unethical? The kind of test of merit perfect for shōnen anime. The additives and fats in dairy products like milk make bread super soft and cakelike though so it's challenging to make something that's both nutritious with a good mouthfeel without it. Kazuma, distressed at the thought of his sister dying, rushes to call her, and she grants him an idea.

His older sister is also very cool and rides a motorcycle, I'm glad she's not entirely out of the show after her introduction.

Well the horse didn't buy it, but the humans like it. Goat's milk doesn't trigger the same allergic reaction as cow's milk so he gets a pass and bonus points for being inventive to boot.

Also, it's hard to bring up in text but I think the show's soundtrack is top-notch. It's got lots of great strings, light jazz notes, and even the occasional funk.

Kawachi passes by doing it the proper way, using oats. But his bread isn't as flavorful and he gets labeled a copycat. He really can't win, can he?

To reference another big tournament-style shōnen anime of my childhood, I consider Kawachi to be the Joey Wheeler to Kazuma's Yugi. He's got a bit of an underdog quality. He's not as out-of-the-box as Kazuma but he's not uninspired either. In the competition he put a spin on a Chinese-style bread while baking it that was only ever slightly [Paul Hollywood Voice] overbaked. But the fact that he's less than perfect now means there's a lot of motivation to see him succeed eventually too.

Kawachi still gets plenty of screentime, actually more than Kazuma sometimes, but he's not exactly the kind of guy you root for in these things. He's not quite a Kaiji or a Great Teacher Onizuka. Also I don't think the show would be just quite as weird without Kazuma and his crazy way of thinking, even if he is a dumbass.

Like making upside down naan for curry is still pretty impressive for a novice.

I have mixed feelings about more gay stereotypes in my shōnen anime as they don't have a good track record. I agree that Mokoyama is extra, but not in a way that's out-of-place for this already weird show.

Though, I can't forgive his stance on puns.

Most importantly, he's extremely competent. And that means the South Branch of Pantasia is in some deep do-do water financially, having a competing bakery right across from them.

So the whole bakery and the franchise name is gonna hinge on whether Kazuma can bake a brand-new bread well enough to impress everyone, on live TV!

Well speaking of fashion shows. There's also THIS man. Introduced at the last minute. He's from Pantasia's main branch and the only person to have ever earned the title of "Meister", Meister Kirisaki.

Again, this is a point where the different genres of music totally sells some of the better moments, this guy steps out a limo and doves pop out. It's played with a classical affair like we've gone from bakery to ballroom.

Probably a lot if they're eating a ton of bread.

Anyways, he wears a mask because he hates appearing in public. Though you'd think that you'd go for something more inconspicuous if that was a case. His appearance is the last major thing introduced before the competition itself, but then the episode cuts there.

His actual name is Kageto Kinoshita, because his hair is shaped like a mushroom. He doesn't do much except give a bit more for the other characters to play off of him.

He also seems like the only regular employee considering the manager is always off duty, and the deputy manager, Tsukino, is actually still in high school and has to attend classes. Unlike Kazuma, where no amount of schooling could fix his dough-y thoughts.

I wouldn't call it a "must watch" but I could see it be good for small bites of casual viewing, since it's entertaining and it goes down pretty smoothly. I could see myself watching an episode before bed (bread) or in the background. It was really nice to revisit an older show for once though, even the digipaint era feels like it has very different sensibilities compared to a modern shōnen adaption. The slower pace included. A newer show would've crammed this stuff into 12 episodes and called it a day. I appreciate the more time spent on making sure the jokes land.

Even the horse can agree!