Manga Review: Yakitate!! Japan

August 28, 2008 by Dennis Amith

In a latest manga review for Daily Yomiuri, Tom Baker reviews “Yakitate!! Japan”. Baker wrote, “Kazuma Azuma is a young man who has come to Tokyo with a big dream. Ever since a fateful childhood encounter with the owner of a small-town Japanese bakery, Kazuma has been obsessed with creating a bread worthy to rival rice as Japan’s defining dish. He calls this holy grail Ja-pan.”

“Pan is the Japanese word for bread. This is just the first of many puns in Yakitate!! Japan, a hilarious and wildly inventive manga series by Takashi Hashiguchi.”

“When Kazuma declares his ambition, his grandfather is not impressed. “Little fool!!!” the old man roars, “We’re rice farmers! You want us to eat bread?! WESTERNIZED IDIOT!!”

“Grandpa finally agrees to eat bread on the condition that Kazuma can bake something that goes well with miso soup and natto. To everyone’s surprise, he does just that, baking bread with soy milk mixed into the dough, reasoning that it would go well with other soy products.”

“But when he arrives in Tokyo and takes a job with the Pantasia bakery chain, Kazuma discovers that he is far from alone in his devotion to bread. Competing in Pantasia’s high-stakes rookie baking tournament, he borrows techniques from a sushi chef to create a new method of making melon pan and demonstrates a type of bread that is baked by sticking the dough to the roof of the oven. But he is up against competitors whose bread “dances” and “sings,” and who use ingredients far more exotic than soy milk. (Late in the series, someone even bakes a supposedly edible loaf with pearl powder mixed in.)”