(L) Yakitate! Japan

[jpwong]

Originally Posted by Dorasaga

In another word: this anime series was forced to end earlier than planned, despite its tremendous popularity, because of external pressure from a certain party. Does anyone think so too?

I want to prove this matter. Maybe this topic is worth a new discussion thread...

I don't really feel this is the case, even if the end was "rushed", they could have pulled only a few extra episodes out without it being pure filler. As the manga is currently still running the Yakitate game show (Yakitate 25) as far as I know, the only thing the anime could do after completeing Yakitate 9 would be to run an entire arc (season even) of filler in the hopes that the manga advances to a point where they have enough new manga to create another real arc.

Sunrise could possibly have also wanted to get Gintama underway sooner and cut down on the ending (I think that's what replaced Yakitate). It's not like it's unprecedented where a show has 1 or 2 episodes reduced from it's count because the same company is making the show that replaces it and wants to get it on the air a few weeks sooner.

[Potatochobit]

the ending was good. i was wondering how they would cram everything in the last 2 episodes and it turned out ok.

kawachi should have indeed ended up with tsukino. although azuma has been protecting her in the later part of the series, it was originally her making a bond with kawachi to support azuma.

[Amy-sama]

Originally Posted by Potatochobit

kawachi should have indeed ended up with tsukino. although azuma has been protecting her in the later part of the series, it was originally her making a bond with kawachi to support azuma.

I agree, I liked the idea of Kawachi and Tsukino, but they made Kawachi into the "butt" of all the jokes later. He had some talent, they should have let him have some glory.

But other then that, they did a good job of squeezing all that in.

[andromeda0201]

this was a nice ride!! am going to miss all the hilarious reactions
one thing I have forgotton, what is Meister Kirisaki's position in Phantasia? I thought that he was the general manager of Phantasia but if Yukino sold Phantasia to St. Pierre does that mean she is the actual owner? why didn't the meister had any say?
I'm hoping for a 2nd season

[hakasan]

I thought the beginning of the last episode looked rushed actually. My first thought was: did I miss downloading an episode before this???
But I supposed after getting my head round the initial bit, it was a good episode and a good ending.

[Potatochobit]

meister is the general manager of the store chains, how bread is made, etc.

yukino holds the most stock in the company and apparently uses that to influence corporate decisions like the CEO or president would.

[touchthesun]

Now that Yakitate Japan! is over, like everyone else, I'd like to express a big thank you and heads up to the Anime-Empire staff for taking on this project. All the research, puns and cultural/pop cultural references and the quality and the calibur of each episode was top notch. Really wonderful job guys! Thank you so very much.

As for my reaction, like most of the Yakitate fans, I am very sad that the anime ended so soon. I have no idea if the abrupt ending is due to any copywright issues, budget constraint, or a new project in the works. Regardless, given whatever the circumstance, the ending in itself wasn't too bad. It did seem a bit anticlimactic and sudden though.

One thing that really bugs me is that...

Spoiler:

they did not fully explain the reason why the St. Pierre owner became as evil as he was and how & why he gave up on making Japan/why he said he hated it.

It seems he was largely blinded by money and fame. Please correct me if I missed something, cause everything seemed to happen so fast. Aside from that, I am also disturbed at the memory of Sophie and Miester Kirisaki and how their own father deprived them of food when they were starving to death. You could arge that he "tasted" the food first before feeding it to his children, but it's not like he ever showed them any other form of compassion thereafter for that to be the case.

Once the Kazuma's bread's effect wore off, he reverted back to his evil self. Hopefully the manga will explain Kirisaki owner's good guy to bad guy transition more fully. It may be just me, but it seems a bit lacking.

In the end, I will sorely really miss all the puns, guest anime appearances, cultural references, Kawachi's ever changing hairstyle, random and often disturbing appearances of Kiddo and most especially Kuroyan's mind boggling and death defying reactions. Luckily the manga lives on. Still, this series was one of the few anime I've continued to watch and really enjoy. Here's to the series that made bread funny and delicious again.

[ShadowClone]

Originally Posted by Inujun

this was a nice ride!! am going to miss all the hilarious reactions
one thing I have forgotton, what is Meister Kirisaki's position in Phantasia? I thought that he was the general manager of Phantasia but if Yukino sold Phantasia to St. Pierre does that mean she is the actual owner? why didn't the meister had any say?
I'm hoping for a 2nd season

In the manga (post-Monaco) it was mentioned that the Meister was part of Tsukino's "advisory commitee" of sorts along with Manager Ken, since Tsukino was indeed too young to handle the task of being president of Pantasia on her own. So based on that, I would say the Meister's position as Pantasia's Main Branch GM is stil there.

[aikming]

Actually the anime ended quite sastifactory. If they continue and make anime from the manga, things will get quite cheesy and boring. I lost interest in Yakitate Japan manga after a few arc of yakitate 9. Since the manga has 25 boxes, there's more story but the drawing got worse and story got even more ridiculous. So to end anime with episode 69 is actually a good thing, makes the anime a nice memory.

[Amuse]

Thanks AE for subbing this! I love bread now! Learned so much about Japanese bread from this show.

I'm gonna go to a local Japanese bakery and buy some 'pans' this week

[ekim19]

I think I recall in episode 68, it mentioned that episode 69 would be an hour long special. But the torrents that I find only seem to be for a half hour show. Anyone know if half of it's been cut off? The first half of the episode does seem to be lacking something.

[meingts]

Originally Posted by ekim19

I think I recall in episode 68, it mentioned that episode 69 would be an hour long special.

You recall incorrectly. It does mention that episode 69 is the last episode, but nothing about an hour-long special.

[zajhein]

Yeah, it was surprising that they really jumped into the action of the last episode. Hardly knew what was going on but just had to accept it. I would have rather seen them use part of eps 68 to do something for 69, but the whole lord of the rings thing was pretty funny. The last episode was kinda bland even when they brought everyone together and it was the last episode, but it was good enough.

Overall, I loved the anime with the reactions, tons of puns, and cool bread ideas. It actually made me want to eat bread more, except there's only crappy bakeries where i live, and i'm not much of a baker. But yea, probably the funniest new anime i've seen.

[Rurouni]

Quick question people since I haven't seen all the Yakitate Japan episodes yet (I'm at #41):

How close does the anime follow the manga? Does the anime cover the complete manga or is there more YP to read after seeing the anime?

[Ja-Y-Ce]

Originally Posted by Rurouni

Quick question people since I haven't seen all the Yakitate Japan episodes yet (I'm at #41):

How close does the anime follow the manga? Does the anime cover the complete manga or is there more YP to read after seeing the anime?

I would say very close. more than 90%. However, the anime does not cover the complete manga. In fact, there is a difference in the sense that the anime is 9 boxes but the manga is 25 boxes. Anyway, the manga is still ongoing. this is quick reply. hope it helps

[SayanMk]

It was a great anime. I never seen one anime to parody it self, and so good.
Takitate Gohan (S2) was the best in the parodies. I saw most of my favorite animes
The main thing I wanted to say is: hail Anime Empire. It would take me days to understand the ingrediens of a normal episode

[katakami]

LoL! I found this while looking for reference images:

http://www.nbbd.com/bakery/images/outside10.jpg

(I hope no one posted this before.) >.>

About the series... i thought it got a bit old later on but I liked it over all. =) #2 in my top 5.

But The main flaw I thought was that... Azuma turned out to be too good that there wasn't much room for improvement - his development as a main character. The fact that Kawachi turned into a clown bugged me as well. His sole role in the series was to question Azuma on behalf of the audience. Also Tsukino - I would have liked to see her more in action. She was just a decoration if you ask me. (Even Monica whose supposed to be eye candy was an even more interesting character.) The strongest characters I thought were Kirisaki (St Pierre Owner) and Kuroyanagi.

But what I liked was the research, the detail - and although the idea is definitely not original (there's other bread/food battle manga out there) it was well executed over all.

[Lotiman]

Yakitate! is a good show

[Rurouni]

Originally Posted by Ja-Y-Ce

I would say very close. more than 90%. However, the anime does not cover the complete manga. In fact, there is a difference in the sense that the anime is 9 boxes but the manga is 25 boxes. Anyway, the manga is still ongoing. this is quick reply. hope it helps

So that means that maybe there'll be more of YJ right? Or does the anime stop at 69 (in terms of 'ends the story')?

[jpwong]

Originally Posted by Rurouni

So that means that maybe there'll be more of YJ right? Or does the anime stop at 69 (in terms of 'ends the story')?

Lets just leave it at "there's potential for another series", but it's not about to happen soon. Yakitate 25 got cut down to Yakitate 9 in the anime probably to avoid the classic problem of massive "filler" style episodes, and since as far as I'm aware, they aren't even done Yakitate 25 in the manga, there is nothing else to animate presently.

If the manga continues on beyond Yakitate 25, you might see another series, but it could be a while before enough material is produced to do that so they don't intersect the manga like Bleach and Naruto are doing. So think of Yakitate Japan ep 69 as 'end of story' unless something else comes out.