Yakitate!! Japan

焼きたて!! ジャぱん
Fresh-Baked Japan
Freshly-Baked Japan

Manga7.66154 votes26 volumes · 242 chaptersFinished

Award WinningComedyDramaFantasyGourmetParodyShounen

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About this title

Synopsis

The stakes are high and the competition is fierce, but Kazuma won't let anything prevent him from achieving his nation-changing, freshly baked goal. Relocating to Tokyo, Kazuma seeks to further his studies at Pantasia, a famous bakery chain. But will he rise to the challenge and pass the entrance examination, or will his best intentions fall flat? (Source: VIZ Media)

Publication notes

Yakitate!! Japan won the 49th Shogakukan Manga Award in the Shounen category in 2003, along with Fullmetal Alchemist. The series was published in English by VIZ Media under the Shonen Sunday imprint from September 12, 2006, to April 12, 2011. It was also released in French by Delcourt.

Published

Mar 18, 2002 to Jan 10, 2007

Authors

Hashiguchi, Takashi

External links

MyAnimeList page Official Site Wikipedia

MAL rank: #2881
Members (MAL): 13,406
Favorites (MAL): 275

Related titles

Sequel

Yakitate!! Japan: Super Real

Adaptation

Main characters

Kazuma Azuma176 fan favorites
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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 of his grandfather, and Japanese food in general due to further learning and dealing with Japanese restaurant.) 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. He gets his inspirations for his ja-pan from random sources, like other Japanese foods and stories from his experienced but over-talkative grandfather, a rice farmer. Unexpectedly great at math when he solved a complicated math problem in his head in less than a minute that took Pierrot hours to conceive that was written out in the sand. (Source: Wikipedia)
Ryo Kuroyanagi134 fan favorites
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The 22-year-old head at the main Pantasia branch, and a Harvard graduate with a Food Science diploma (there he had a girlfriend named Cathy, but they got separated when he needed to go back to Japan). His passion and talent is food tasting, at which he excels. His straight-laced, no-nonsense attitude belies his very silly quirk of making strange pun-based reactions to the delicious bread he taste-tests: He once married an extremely ugly woman just for the sake of a pun. (He then got a divorce five minutes later.) He used to be the student of Ken, but Ken drove Ryo away with his behavior. (Source: Wikipedia)
Ken Matsushiro50 fan favorites
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The manager of the Southern Tokyo branch of Pantasia. He's muscular due to the training he went through earlier in life to get solar gauntlets. His two main distinct features are his afro and sunglasses. Through the series he explains many of the bread making techniques bread making artisans use. He is the best French-bread artisan in Japan.
Kyousuke Kawachi46 fan favorites
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Kawachi, from Osaka, works with Azuma in Pantasia's Southern Tokyo branch store. He is Azuma's sidekick and friendly rival. Kawachi recognizes that Azuma is the more talented baker but nevertheless he is determined to obtain his dream of working at Pantasia's main store. He is knowledgeable about breads and manages to bake some delicious creations.
Tsukino Azusagawa42 fan favorites
External profile
Granddaughter of the Pantasia chain's owner. She works at Pantasia's Southern Tokyo branch store where she is the manager's (Ken Matsushiro) understudy. She is dedicated to making the store as successful as possible and has earned the respect and affection of her colleagues. She was the one to initially recognize Azuma and Kawachi's talent and bring them to work at the store. Tsukino is implied to be a talented baker since in the past, at a young age, she won third place in the newcomer's tournament.
Shigeru Kanmuri36 fan favorites
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An extremely talented Pantasia baker, encountered first during the Pantasia Newcomers' Tournament and discovered to possess the solar hands as well. A Harvard graduate like Kuroyanagi, he looks up to him as a mentor, calling him 'Senpai'(which means Senior). He is considered as 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 after Yukino blew up his research laboratory as a result of him losing to Azuma. He remained to keep the store throughout the Monaco Cup, but rejoined the team for the Yakitate!! 25/Yakitate!! 9 challenge. Recently 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, problem sets as the other heir, Masanobu Tsutsumi, Shigeru's half-brother, shares the same sentiments. Tsutsumi is jealous at his half-brother for getting all the attention from their father, thus fueling his own determination to defeat the younger boy in a cooking/baking competition. This problem is promptly settled with a one-on-one battle in Yakitate!!25/Yakitate!! 9 (refer to Episode 62). He is probably named after a Shogakukan editor of the same name. (Source: Wikipedia)
Kai Suwabara21 fan favorites
External profile
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 solar gauntlets and considers Azuma as a rival. On first appearances, he seems cold-hearted and tough, but in the Monaco Cup Final, he falls in love with a rival German baker working for the American team, Monica Adenauer, and shows a more tender side of himself. He has an unexplained fear of heights as shown in the parachuting into the Mexico arena. (Source: Wikipedia)