Yakitate Japan

Yakitate!! Japan (焼きたて!! ジャぱん^?, meaning "Freshly Baked!! Ja-pan", the "pan" also meaning "bread" in Japanese) is a manga, authored by Takashi Hashiguchi, serialized in Shogakukan'sShōnen Sunday, which has been adapted into a television anime series by Sunrise. The manga has spanned 25 tankōbon volumes, as of January, 2007, while the weekly serialization of the manga has ended as of January 10, 2007. The anime series, broadcast on TV Tokyo and other local stations from October 2004 to March 2006, spanned a total of 69 episodes. The series won the 2004 Shogakukan Manga Award for best shōnen manga. The manga series was later licensed by VIZ Media for North American distribution.

Storyline

The story focuses on Kazuma Azuma, a boy on his quest to create "Ja-pan", a national bread for Japan itself. He initially heads to Tokyo to expand his horizons at the bread-making chain Pantasia; the story continues with Azuma's exploits with his other coworkers.

The title of this series itself is a play on words; Yakitate translates to "freshly baked", but Japan has a double meaning. Besides referring to the country of Japan, pan is the Japanese word for "bread" (stemming from Portuguese pão). Ja-pan is a pun for this series. This mimics the style of the names of other varieties of bread in Japanese, such as "furansupan" (French Bread), "doitsupan" (German rye-based bread), "itariapan" (Italian bread), etc.

Besides the desire to create his Ja-pan, Azuma also possesses the legendary Solar Hands (太陽の手 taiyō no te^?). These hands are warmer than normal human hand temperature, and allow the dough to ferment faster. This gives him some advantage at the beginning of the series, but his innovation is his greater talent.

Although the story has baking as its main theme, the parts that generate the most interest are the outrageous puns in the story. Especially notable are the "reaction" based puns made by the judges, who go to great lengths to prove a single point about the bread that they had tasted. The series in general also pokes fun at the shōnen genre's tendency to be melodramatic over mundane tasks.

Main characters

Kazuma Azuma (東和馬 Azuma Kazuma^?)

Voiced by: Yumiko Kobayashi

The 16-year-old male protagonist, a bread artisan who dreams of making the perfect Japan. Initially, he doesn't seem very bright, but when it comes to bread, he's a genius. (He is knowledgeable about rice because he lived on a rice farm, and Japanese food in general, due to further learning and dealing with Japanese restaurants.) Azuma also has "Solar Hands": exceptionally warm hands that allow the yeast to ferment faster and better when he is making his bread. Eternally optimistic and cheerful, he never gets upset from challenges faced in baking competitions, but rather from emotional tragedies that occur to characters around him. He gets his inspirations for his Japan from seemingly random sources, like other Japanese foods and stories from his experienced but over-talkative grandfather, who is a rice farmer.

Kyousuke Kawachi (河内恭介 Kawachi Kyōsuke^?)

Voiced by: Shūhei Sakaguchi

Coworker and sidekick to Azuma, from the Kansai area. Initially, Kawachi's knowledge is superior to Azuma's, but as the story develops, he becomes the fall guy and comedic relief. He considers Azuma to be his rival, but the two develop a dynamic that is more like that of a pair of siblings. With Tsukino's help, he has obtained "Solar Gauntlets": Solar Hands developed through physical training. He is somewhat lazy, but at desperate times, he focuses his effort to create exceptional bread. An interesting note about Kawachi is his hairstyle - he is the character with the most hairstyle changes throughout the entire series. Another running gag with Kawachi in the early volumes is his tendency to exclaim "What do you mean?!" (In the english anime, however, the phrase has been changed to "What was that?!"), which both Manager Ken and others have noted upon, with Suwabara even breaking the fourth wall in the 8th volume by denouncing Kawachi for saying the phrase four times in the starting pages of the chapter.

Kai Suwabara (諏訪原戒 Suwabara Kai^?)

Voiced by: Takayuki Sakazume

Kuroyanagi's understudy, a serious bread artisan. A master of the katana who claims to have left the swordsman path of destruction to follow the path of life-giving bread. Despite that, he often becomes very warrior-like and fearsome during baking competitions, which occasionally makes other characters wonder if he is truly focused on the 'life-giving' aspect of his bread. Like Kawachi, he has the "Solar Gauntlets" and considers Azuma to be a rival. During the first appearances, he seems cold-hearted and tough, but in the Monaco Cup Finals, he falls in love with a rival German baker working for the American team, Monica Adenauer, and shows a more tender side of himself. After his loss in the Newcomer's Battle, he understands that all techniques are actually "stolen" from all existing food, and thus he begins to "steal" techniques from other food, bakers, etc, to create "Lupan". The name Lu-pan is possibly derived from the anime/manga series Lupin ("Rupan" in Japanese) who is a famous "thief".

Shigeru Kanmuri (冠茂 Kanmuri Shigeru^?)

Voiced by: Marina Inoue

An extremely talented Pantasia baker, first encountered during the Pantasia Newcomers' Tournament and discovered to possess the "Solar Hands" as well. A Harvard graduate like Kuroyanagi, he looks up to Kuroyanagi as a mentor, calling him 'Senpai' (which means Senior). He is considered to be a "Harvard Junior Genius", having graduated the prestigious school at a very young age of sixteen. Originally working for Tsukino's evil sister, Yukino Azusagawa, Kanmuri defected to the Pantasia's Southern Tokyo store to work with Azuma. He remained to maintain the store throughout the Monaco Cup, but rejoined the team for the Yakitate!! 25/Yakitate!! 9 challenge. Late in the series, he is revealed to be one out of the last two possible heirs to the Hashiguchi Company, the biggest gangster organization in Japan. Although he firmly states that he'd never join the Yakuza, a problem sets as the other heir, Masanobu Tsutsumi, Shigeru's half-brother, shares the same sentiments. He is probably named after a Shogakukan editor of the same name.

Tsukino Azusagawa (梓川月乃 Azusagawa Tsukino^?)

Voiced by: Chihiro Otsuka

Granddaughter to the owner of the Pantasia chain, and understudy to Ken Matsushiro. She seems to have a crush on Azuma, though it is never explicitly stated. Has difficulty getting along with the rest of the Pantasia-involved Azusagawa family because she is an illegitimate child. She is still very dedicated to the Pantasia chain, seeking out talented new bakers (like Azuma and Kawachi) and has garnered the support of many other characters. While she stays behind the scene most of the time, she is implied to be talented, as she managed to make it to the third place of a past newcomer's battle.

Ken Matsushiro (松代健 Matsushiro Ken^?)

Voiced by: Hiroki Touchi

Manager of Pantasia Southern Tokyo branch. A burly man with an afro and sunglasses. Renowned as the best French-bread artisan in Japan, he seems to have a predilection with horses and betting on horse-racing. He is Kuroyanagi's former teacher, but early on recognized his outstanding talent as a food critic, and from that point on discouraged his baking, ultimately driving him away. He also likes to tease Kawachi, to whom he was apparently very similar in his youth, occasionally to give him ideas on bread, but mostly just for the hell of it. He can also make Kawachi hallucinate at times. Due to a series of mishaps, he became the next heir to the Hashiguchi company, much to his displeasure.

Internal Link

List of Yakitate Japan Characters