Title: Yakitate!! Japan #2
Author: Takashi Hashiguchi
Publisher: Viz
ISBN: 142150720x
May Contain Spoilers
The quest to create the perfect Ja-pan continues! As Kazuma and Kawachi struggle to make Mare-velous bread, they learn from Tsukino that the manager’s sister almost died from an allergic reaction to dairy products. They are challenged to create a bread that is delicious, yet safe for everyone to enjoy. Kazuma modifies the recipe for Ja-pan 24 - will it be nanny-tastic?
I love this series. It’s fun and Takashi Hashiguchi manages to make baking suspenseful and interesting. The characters’ outlandish personalities play well off one another, and there isn’t one that I dislike (so far!). In this volume, we even have the introduction of Meister Kirisaki, Pantasia’s general manager. Reclusive and given to appearing masked in public, he looks like the Phantom of the Breadshop.
Kazuma appears in "TV Bread Grand Prix," which pits his baking skills against Tsuyoshi Mokoyama, the manager of Pantasia’s main rival, St Pierre. Burly Mokoyama is frothing at the chance to humiliate Matsushiro on the televised contest, but does he stand a chance against Ja-pan 57? Half of the fun of this series is trying to figure out the end result of Kazuma’s hair-brained baking techniques.
Next up - the Pantasia Rookie Tournament! How will Kazuma make a bread that doesn’t mold in 3 weeks? Oh, no! If I hadn’t forgotten to order volume 3, I could find out!
Grade: A-
Rated for Older Teen
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12:47 am
Thanks to your positive review, I think I’ll buy Yakitate! Japan after all :3 Because after the latest "shocking" edit cuts to FMA and reading Naruto (D:), I’m hesitant to buy from them XDD (though the cover is just too weird o_O)
7:02 am
I don’t like the cover of this one, either. If you give the series a try, post back and let me know what you thought of it.
2:59 pm
[…] At Yaoi 911, Alex Woolfson reviews Same Cell Organism. Active Anime’s Christopher Seaman reviews vol. 1 of Rozen Maiden and Holly Ellingwood reads vol. 3 of Godchild. At Anime on DVD, Patricia Beard reviews vol. 3 of Passion. Julie gives vol. 2 of Yakitate!! Japan high marks at Mangamaniaccafe. Kethylia finds Kiriko Nananan’s Blue boring and unoriginal and then knocks off another point for being overpriced as well. […]
4:40 pm
I’m with Lenners–the cover art isn’t very appealing. But this is the fifth glowing review of "Yakitate!" I’ve read, which leads me to believe that I just need to get over that ‘do and start reading. Maybe Hashiguchi should draw that character a hairnet…
4:42 pm
Just wrap a paper bag around the cover if helps you pick up the book and read it. It’s a really fun series!
6:54 am
Does Viz provide translator/cultural notes for this series? When I watched the first couple of story arcs as fansubs, there were numerous notes, both about ingredients and about the various crazy reactions to Azuma’s bread, since some of them are not likely to be understood by the average Western reader.
6:57 am
Yes. There are notes beside the panels explaining terms used in the book.
5:39 am
Wtf, that cover rocks xD
What’s so bad about it?