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Yakitate!! JapanYakitate!! Ja-pan (焼きたて!! じゃぱん, meaning "Fresh Made Ja-pan") is a manga serialised in Shogakukan's Shonen Sunday, by Takashi Hashiguchi (橋口 たかし Hashiguchi Takashi). 15 graphic novels have been released so far. An anime is currently being produced by Sunrise, and was broadcasted on TV Tokyo from October 2004. It is a tale about Kazuma Azuma, a boy on his quest to create Ja-pan, a national bread for Japan itself. He heads to Tokyo to expand his bread-making horizons at the giant bread-making chain Pantasia; and continues with Azuma's exploits with his other coworkers. The title of this series itself is a pun. The Yakitate translates to mean "freshly baked", but the "Ja-pan" is in itself a pun, referring to the country Japan and bread, which is "pan" in Japanese. "Pan" is written in Katakana, and it is imported from Portuguese "po" (bread). This mimics the style of the names of other breads in Japanese, such as "FURANSU-pan" (French Bread), "DOITUSU-pan" (German bread), "ITARIA-pan" (Italian bread), etc.. Besides the desire to create his Ja-pan, Kazuma Azuma also possesses the legendary Solar Hands. These hands are slightly warmer than normal human hand temperature, which allows the dough to ferment faster. This gives him some advantage in the beginning of the series, but in the end it's his genius that shines through. Although the story has baking as its main theme, the parts that generate the most interest are the outrageous puns in the story. Especially notable are the puns made by the judges, who go to great lengths to prove a single point about the bread that they tasted. While the characters might create the most extreme breads, most of them are actually real, or are at least based on real bread. Hashiguchi employs a bakery consultant, Kouichi Uchimura (内村 浩一 Uchimura Kōichi). Uchimura creates bread similar to the bread in the manga, and some of the bread in the manga are actually his invention. Uchimura runs a bakery called Pan no Mimi in Kyoto. http://www.akadot.com/article.php?a=252 Characters - Kazuma Azuma (東 和馬 Azuma Kazuma) - Male protagonist, a bread artisan who dreams to make the perfect Japan.
- Kyousuke Kawachi (河内 恭介 Kawachi Kyōsuke) - Coworker and sidekick to Azuma, from the Kansai area. Initially the character that is informative to Azuma, but ends up being the fall guy as the series continues. Considers Azuma to be his rival.
- Tsukino Azusagawa (梓川 月乃 Azusagawa Tsukino) - Granddaughter to the owner of the Pantasia chain, and understudy to Matsushiro Ken
- Ken Matsushiro (松代 健 Matsushiro Ken) - Manager of Pantasia Southern Tokyo branch. A burly man with an afro. He also likes to tease Kawachi.
- Ryo Kuroyanagi (黒柳 亮 Kuroyanagi Ryō) - The head at the main Pantasia branch.
- Kai Suwabara (諏訪原 戒 Suwabara Kai) - Kuroyanagi's understudy. A serious bread artisan, who left the swordsman path of destruction to follow the path of life-giving bread.
- Kageto Kinoshita (木下 陰人 Kinoshita Kageto) - A worker at Pantasia Southern Tokyo branch.
- Pierrot Bonnaz (ボルネーゼ ピエロ Borunēze Piero) - A world class clown working as a bread judge. Heir to the throne of Monaco. Can speak 135 languages.
References External link
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