~Story~
The premise of Yakitate!! Japan is of simple nature, Azuma Kazuma a young boy in his quest to make the best bread that identifies with Japan and is able to compete at an international level, called "japan". Throughout the anime viewers realize how bread making is actually nothing simple, but a complicated process which involves a lot of specific knowledge on ingredients, as well as techniques. The anime manages to convey these very well by explaining those in detail, but never in excess. In earnest, the amount of techniques that exist was unexpected.
Naturally, creation of bread on its own can be rather dull, so competitions between different contestants and aspirants of the world of baking are introduced (tournament style) ranging from rookies to famous and top-tier bakers from different countries. To show the audience how excellent a bread is, reactions are shown, which are hilarious and fitting to each bread theme it offers. Verbal jokes are often made as well, which at times can be very amusing.
Up to this point it may seem very positive and engaging, yet as the story progresses, the show's quality declines significantly. First of all, throughout the whole anime all the secondary characters are used once, to be rendered insignificant later on, essentially making this anime a one-man-show composed of Azuma. The power levels are imbalanced as it can get in a shōnen. In addition, events that take place as story progresses get out of hand and begin to be ridiculously over the top, such as assassination attempts. Jokes and reactions are no exception either: in the last half gags get repeated constantly to the point of being annoying, and reactions begin to even affect audiences, instead of being individual reactions. Not to mention the wrong and bad use of parodies to other famous series which was introduced in the last half of the series.
~Characters~
The is a wide variety of characters in Yakitate!! Japan, some memorable, some outright annoying, all with a personality, but very generic and stereotypical characters. Azuma is your typical one-dimensional shōnen characters whose only objective is to complete "japan" and undergoes near to zero character development or character fleshing; in fact, he seems to posses all knowledge about baking that there is at his age of 16, making it a rather tensionless watch, as he wins competitions effortlessly and get hints through convenience of the plot.
The supporting cast is rather lackluster as well, all being one-dimensional undergoing almost no character development. Villains are very typical with no motives, opponents as well. There are nevertheless some interesting characters personality-wise, such as the case of Kuroyanagi or the baker with the afro, Matsushiro. However, background stories are almost non-existent, and it is hard to relate to the characters in any way.
~Animation and sound~
Animation quality of Yakitate!! Japan is nothing outstanding, yet fulfills its purpose well enough to convey the different reactions characters have, as well as being consist throughout the entire anime. Backgrounds are varied when needed, and character designs matched with the personality of most of the cast. However, mostly they were generic and nothing out the norm.
As for the sounds used, some soundtracks were memorable and well done, yet were overused throughout the whole show as no new compositions were made. The dialogues were of simplistic nature, and the gags that were repeated became soon old, and pretty annoying.
~Enjoyment~
Yakitate!! Japan was overall somewhat enjoyable experience, being the first half a good experience, proceeding to fall apart as story progressed. How bread making was displayed was well done, as well as the use of different ingredients and techniques. The reactions and comedy was amusing to watch, until it was rehashed and novelty left. This anime would have been much better off by halving the duration of it, as the second half felt unnecessary and was very lackluster, in addition with undesirable characters.
Thank you for reading.
