Yakitate!! Japan - it's all about Pan and Ja-Pan!

Yakitate!! Japan must be one of the most random series I've watched. It's amazing that they can turn bread-making into something so dramatic and interesting! The comedy can be split into two categories: puns and parodies. While they tend to be fresh and funny at the beginning of the series, they became increasingly lame with time. Some of the humor is also too hard for a non-Japanese to understand as one will need to know a lot about Japanese culture/language to pick up the puns.

I personally like the first two-third of the series much better than the last third. Initially, I looked forward to the parodies and the over-dramatic reactions of the characters. However, towards the end, the reactions became too lame, the jokes were not as funny and the story got a little boring.

Despite what I feel about the last third of the series, I still feel that this series is worth watching if you are looking for something with parodies, randomness and humor.

Plot: (8/10) – Good
The story is simple. It’s about Bread!

16 year old Azuma Kazuma is a boy with the legendary Solar Hands and his dream is to create JaPan (pan is bread in Japanese) - an original Japanese bread. To follow this dream, he starts working for Pantasia and in the process, Azuma invents and makes all sorts of breads to prove his strength to the world while at the same time to save Pantasia from its rival St Pierres.

Characters: (9/10) – Great
The characters are not exactly original but most of them are likable.

My favorite character is Kanmuri Shigeru. He's cute, intelligent, witty and I love how he makes fun of people (notably Kawachi Kyousuke and Kuroyanagi Ryo). ^-^

I also like Kawachi but I don't like how the series handle his character. At the beginning, he was focused and knew what he was doing as a baker, but towards the last third, he became more of an omake character.

Art/Animation: (7/10) – Fairly Good
The art has nothing special. It's simple and easy on the eyes.

Sound/Music: (8/10) – Good
Among the 9 opening and ending themes, I like the 1st opening - 'Houkigumo' by RYTHEM, the 1st ending - 'Sunday' by The Babystars and the 5th ending - 'Merry Go Round' by Mai Hoshimura.

Enjoyment: (8/10) – Good
Initially, it was very addictive to watch. However, it got repetitive towards the end.

Overall: (8/10) – Good
Before watching Yakitate!! Japan, I was skeptical about watching it as it was about bread-making. However, I'm glad that I watched it anyway as it turned out to be a pretty entertaining series.

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