Random Reviews Chapter 18: Japan's Bread (Yakitate!! Japan)

WARNING! THE FOLLOWING POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR YAKITATE!! JAPAN. READ AT OUR OWN RISK.

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE IMAGES USED IN THIS POST.

 

Yakitate!! Japan is a shounen anime where our hero, a young, ambitious boy named Azuma Kazuma defeats all his opponents to achive his dreams in true shonen style. But instead of taking part in "battle" battles, he competes with everyone in bread baking competitions.
Yakitake!! Japan's plot revolves around Azuma who wants to bake a bread that represents Japan. He takes part in many bread baking competitions against bakers with increasing skill and experience though out the anime. Though the outcomes of each of these bread-battles are very predictable, what IS unpredictable is the judge's reaction to each new kind of bread he tastes. Each bread causes the judge to perform an over the top reaction which are enjoyable to watch. Some of the reactions include going to heaven, going back in time and growing gills. On top of that, each bread Azuma bakes is different from the last and that was enough to keep me intrigued long enough to get me o finish the anime, which is 69 episodes long (weird number if you ask me). For me, the main selling point of this show came from it's comedic nature. I thought it was funny. But I also thought Watamote was funny so...

This anime has multiple openings and endings. Some I liked, some I hated. But for me, the opening that seemed to fit the anime best was the 2nd one and the 3rd ending was, in my opinion, the best ending. Except for a few, I liked most of the song that were used in the anime.

As for the problems in this anime, I'd say the plot isn't really it's main strength as it gets somewhat repetitive but it's nothing too bad. The characters, besides Azuma seemed to get more and more irrelevant as time went on. However, Kawachi Kyousuke and his interactions with almost everyone was consistently entertaining. Everyone else besides the judges, the protagonist and the main antagonist, doesn't really stand out much.

One thing that bothered me though, was the presence of Kanmuri Shigeru. He's a trap character (Looks like a girl but is a boy or vice versa). Taking into account, the nature of this shows humor in the later episodes, I kept expecting them to  joke about it, which they never did.

Overall, it was a nice experience. It wasn't anything spectacular and it wasn't anything horrible. A pretty good middle-of-the-road anime.

I rate this: 78/100

Thanks for reading!