MANGA REVIEW: Yakitate!! Japan, v1 – Takashi Hashiguchi

Although I’ve been pretty addicted to Harem comedy as of late, I’m glad to come across Yakitate! Ja-Pan, a stellar example of the “Best____ in Japan”/”Quest for the best” genre. You may call it something different, but we’ve all seen this type of work before – a young guy gets it into his mind to become the greatest/best “______” in all of Japan. He’s forced to face many challengers and struggles before he can realize his dream, and his passion attracts the admiration of friends and rivals alike – and usually a young woman, too. The “____” can be any number of things: Go player (Hikaru no Go), drift racer (Initial D), Chinese cook (Iron Wok Jan), so on and so forth. I’ve even heard there was a manga from the 60’s/70’s about a guy who wanted to be the greatest pachinko (Japanese pinball) player in Japan! Japanese culture buffs will have noticed this “quest for the best” story has a long history in that country – witness the ever-popular and oft-repeated story of legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi.

Ok, enough literary theory for today……

As a young boy, rice-loving Kuzuma Azuma was forced by his sister into eating a local baker’s delicious bread – and was instantly converted into a bread-loving wannabe baker. The mysterious baker passed on his techniques to young Azuma, as well as the dream of creating a uniquely Japanese bread that would rival the great breads of Europe – in essence, a true “Ja-Pan” (“pan” is the Japanese word for bread). Ten years have come and gone, and 16 year old Kuzuma has become an amazingly talented baker with dreams of continuing his studies at Pantasia, the greatest bakery chain in Japan. When he arrives in Tokyo from the country, he finds out that he must fight his way into an apprenticeship by engaging in a baking competition! Despite being outclassed by more experienced bakers, Azuma has an ace up his sleeve – 55 different and unique bread recipes he has created himself. His creation – bread in the shape of Mt Fuji – impresses the judges, but will his skills impress his weird afro-wearing new boss, Ken Matsushiro?

I’m gonna be pretty blunt here and say that I think YJ is pretty dang awesome. The detailed art is top-notch, with appealingly illustrated characters and well-rendered backgrounds; the characters themselves are lively and hilarious – particularly the eternally cheerful Azuma and the stoic yet eccentric store manager Ken; and the author’s knowledge of the science and art of bread is amazing. It’s a rare creator that can get so many laughs and so much action out of characters baking bread – particularly bread-loving characters in Japan, a country that regards rice as “the staff of life”.

I’ve heard that there’s an anime version of this series, so you know I’ll be hunting that down soon. In the meantime, this series is definitely a “must-read”!

Odds and Ends and Updates again

So, I finally finished downloading the entire Welcome to the NHK! anime series via BitTorrent this weekend…and, after many weeks of anticipation, have finally begun watching the series in its entirety. I gave this series a pretty good review and I’ve been dying to see more. I’m under the impression the anime has a different ending than the manga, so I’m interested to see how they compare.

In other news, I’ve decided to continue posting on a once-a-week schedule – as time allows, naturally. I have to sneak in posts between my “real” duties at work, so don’t be surprised if I miss a week now and then.

Aside from W2TNHK!, Samurai Champloo (almost finished!), and the odds and ends that I’ve watched at the library Anime Clubs, I’ve been in a real harem comedy mood for the last couple of weeks. Hell, I’ve already made multiple entries for DearS, and I’ve also started in on Girls Bravo and Shuffle!. I know part of being an otaku/geek is embracing your eccentric interests, but I have to admit I’m sort of embarrassed to like these series…. I guess they appeal to the introverted 14 year old boy inside of me; and honestly, doesn’t most anime and manga – and by that thinking, video games, comic books/graphic novels, and sci-fi/fantasy in general – appeal to that mindset?

In any event, I’ll be putting on 2 Anime Clubs next week:
1) New Lots Library: Wednesday, Feb 27th @ 4:30pm
2) Arlington Library: Friday, Feb 29thth @ 4:30pm

By popular request, I will probably be showing Fullmetal Alchemist. I’ve heard a lot about this series from a number of patrons and would like to give it the old “once-over” myself.

Recanting on DearS (somewhat)

So I ended up watching the whole DearS series (all 13 episodes), and actually started to like it….. some of it, at least. A new DearS, the uptight and intellectual Miu, enters the series and provides a nice contrast to Ren’s spacey submissiveness, along with Nia, a weird and klutzy DearS catgirl that provides a fair share of comic relief. It’s reveled that Neneko has been harboring a long-standing crush on Takeya, and Takeya’s antipathy to Ren gets more and more exaggerated, providing an increasingly painful conflict - a lot of the sympathy that Takeya’s situation initially inspired began to ebb away as he gets increasingly hotheaded and dismissive toward Ren, even as he simultaneously develops feelings toward her.

Still, there’s way, way more fanservice than I’m comfortable with, and Ms Mitsuka (the characters’ high school teacher) is little more than a one-dimensional nymphomaniac gag that gets old fast. The plot’s pacing is a little off at time, and the series’ climax is dependent on twists that happen in the last few episodes and characters that are barely referenced through most of the series; as usual, this may been better hashed out in the manga that the series is based on.

In any event, I even began to feel a little sad when the end credits flickered on my TV…so I guess the series affected me more than I thought it would (I’m a pretty big softy, though). I still think there are better Anime comedies, but DearS definitely outdid my initial expectations.

Arlington Anime Club this Friday, Feb 15th - 4:30pm

I'll be having another Anime Club meeting at the Arlington Branch this Friday, Febuary 15th at 4pm. No booktalks planned, just a showing of the first episode of Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid. I've taken a look at the episode and it looks pretty action-packed...I'm looking forward to showing it. And I hope y'all look forward to seeing it!

Anime Review: DearS

Mysterious but beautiful aliens called DearS (“Dear friends”) arrive on Earth after their malfunctioning spacecraft forces them to make an emergency landing. They decide to embrace the situation, and attempt to live with their Earthling hosts by learning Earthling ways and entering Earthling society. However, an errant and “unprogrammed” Dear called Ren somehow ends up wandering the streets of Tokyo, and falls into care of average high school guy Takeya after he offers her Melon Bread. Next thing he knows, Ren’s followed him home and is addressing him as “master”. It’s up to Takeya and his unflappable gal-pal Neneko to feed, dress, and integrate Ren into normal Japanese life. But is there more to Ren and the DearS than what meets the eye?

When I first took a look at this series, it struck me as being reminiscent of the classic Uresei Yatsura – i.e., an over-amorous female alien latching onto reluctant teen boy. That series’ female protagonist Lum was far more crazy and bad-ass than Aturu, the human guy she followed around; Ren, on the other hand, seems pretty submissive and devoted toward Takeya, and that put a bad taste in my mouth. It could be argued that it’s a Japanese cultural “thing”, but still, I don’t feel comfortable with depictions of women of some sort of willing slaves. However, it appears that Ren’s submissiveness may be some sort of cover, and I'm told that the series apparently takes a turn away from the comedy of the early episodes toward a darker theme…so, seeing how it's a somewhat short series (12 episodes on 4 dvds), I'm willing to give the series another chance.

DearS isn’t bad, but if simply must watch a series involving a female alien chasing a human guy, I think you might be better off with the afore-mentioned UY.