Manga Review: Yakitate!! Japan

[Floating_Sakura]

Title: Yakitate!! Japan
Mangaka: Takashi Hashiguchi
Publisher: Viz Media
Price: $9.99
Genre: Shounen, Culinary
Serializes in: Weekly Shounen Sunday


J: You're reading that comic book about bakers again?
Me: Yup.
J: What's it about, again?
Me: It's about bread. . .
J: Bread and. . .aliens?
Me: No. . .
J: Bread and. . .robots?
Me: No. . .
J: Bread and. . .kung fu?
Me: No, it's about bad puns and slapstick humor and shounen-style hierarchical competitions---and bread.
J: I get it, I get it, it's about bread and. . .romance, right?
Me: No, just bread.
J: Now you've totally lost me.

By making the central activity of his manga something totally devoid of intrinsic action, Hachiguchi has succeeded in creating something that is more iconically shounen than crowds of mecha.

Without any actual action to get in the way of the stylization, nothing remains to obscure the intensity, the humor, the melodrama, and the blinding muscle -- in other words, the extrinsic action. Unlikely competitions and exacting judges show off the heroes' skills, the cuteness of the girls, the characters' determination to excel, lightweight food science, and the author's versatility of puns (at once challenging the translator's/adaptor's skill) and visual humor.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, in a light and fluffy kind of way.

Reviewed by: anitra
Proofed by: Iliana
Edited by: Firedog

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