November 5th, 2004
Kawachi tricks Kazuma into working with him on the croissant, which it turns out is another of Kazuma’s Ja-pans except his has an impossible number of layers inside. While the croissant is an amazing success after what appears at first glance to be utter failure, Kawachi’s plotting backfires on him and he develops a conscience at the last minute - however, it looks as though Tsukino has plans for both Kawachi and Kazuma anyway…
I can’t get over how much I despise the voice acting in this show, it’s really beginning to put me off since, having read the manga already, there’s not much to see here that’s new. I’ll give it one more episode.
Posted in Yakitate!! Japan | 2 Comments »
October 29th, 2004
The exam begins - the task is just to bake some bread of any type in three hours. Kawachi, the blonde guy who mocked Kazuma last episode, decides to cheat after noticing Kazuma’s Solar Hands, and sabotages his dough - however, Kazuma is not to be beaten, and thus makes naan bread (which doesn’t require rising time in the oven) in the shape of Mount Fuji. The taste sends Kuroyanagi to India (metaphorically) and Kazuma claws back some of the points he’d already lost despite Kuroyanagi’s ruthless judging. Only four are through to the final round (croissant baking) - Kazuma, Kawachi, Tsukino (the mysterious girl) and Suwabara (a psychotic samurai baker) - can Kazuma win this round when he has no idea what a croissant is, let alone against deceitful opponents?
Less Kazuma speaking = a good thing. A good enough thing that I’m willing to keep going with the series after all - it’s enjoyable, fairly funny and well animated. But GOD, the voice acting is annoying, I think the only voice I can really stand is Koyasu Takehito using the same old bishounen voice for Kuroyanagi - Kazuma hurts my ears, Kawachi sounds like a truculent pig, and Tsukino will take time to get accustomed to methinks.
Does anyone know if the crazy baking methods actually work? It’s highly tempting to find out…
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October 20th, 2004
OP - Houki Kumo (RYTHEM) - pleasant little song, with a half-decent opening animation to go with it.
ED - Sunday (The Babystars) - cheesy J-rock. But YOU TOO! can learn how to make bad if you watch the professional chefs reeeeeally closely in the little picture in the corner.
Azuma Kazuma wants to make Ja-pan, the national bread of Japan. We find out why when we delve into his past - he’s part of a family of rice farmers, but one day his sister drags him off to a bakery and he learns to love to eat and make bread, and the baker he met then inspired him to make Japan. The baker discovers that Kazuma has “Solar Hands”, which means the yeast ferments faster when he kneads the dough, and thus together they make marvellous bread to go with natto for Kazuma’s grandfather with soya milk - the taste experience is…interesting.
Fast-forward to the present, where Kazuma heads off to Tokyo for the entrance selection exam to Pantasia, one of the best bakers in the country. He turns up late, though, so he’s already off to a bad start - and there’s a girl in the exam with him who appears to recognise his potential already…
OUCH, why does Kazuma have the most annoying shounen hero voice EVER? It’s almost more annoying than Naruto’s, and that’s saying something. I always got the impression from the manga that he was a bit less…brash, for some reason. Anyway, aside from this rather disappointing aspect the episode itself is a fairly good adaptation of the manga - I have high hopes for the bread-tasting scenes in the future given the wonderful animation and terrible puns in this one, and generally it’s pretty much the same as the manga which is no bad thing. Perhaps Kazuma’s voice will grow on me - everyone else seems to be fine.
Posted in Yakitate!! Japan | 5 Comments »
