Yakitate!! Japan

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I'm not one to often write a review, so don't take this commentary too seriously.

(I've read everything but for the sake of my mental sanity, for the moment, I'm not taking into account the 70 last chapters that... well you'll see)
I understand why some people wouldn't appreciate this manga and the old fashioned humor but as a whole I think it manages to et over the lack of solid story or its weak set of orginal characters.
The characters are clearly copy pastes of a lot of similar mangas but honestly they still get their own little characteristic trait permitting them to have their own ... "mini- development arc" (except Kinoshita-boy, tho he is the real MVP).

As for the story, (tho I'm really biased as it was one of the first mangas I read when I was 7 or 8) it's just a blast to see so much goofiness, and I feel like we don't need to care if everything transitions well or if things actually make sense one by one. Because I'm just focused on the page I'm reading, and I'm not gonna lie, I was actually super involved in the dramatics moments even when it just mix into the comedy, the characters are so extremely serious about it, I just get into the story a little too much.

The art is really correct and pretty much similar to most of this type of manga of the time, but the breads drawings are super cool and made me actually hungry.

So as I said it's a 100Pourcents sure that I have no real objective vision but as I re-read it 10 years later, I still think it's as much fun as I remembered from beginning to... maybe not the end, and a pretty wild ride into another world of "gourmet reactions" type manga. (I actually prefer the type of "reactions" we get in Yakitate ja-pan than what is in food War which get a little old as it doesn't differ a lot, when here... Everytime it just gets better - until chapter )

(WARNING FROM THERE IT'S JUST A TOTAL MESSY RANT TO HELP ME COPE WITH THE ENDING)

.... And I would have loved to stop here but... What the heck? I discovered I never read the last volume of the manga when I was a kid and... I honestly never should have. The author was obviously on a cruel rush to finish in a way or another may it be satisfactory or not.
I mentioned how I loved the reactions, their originality and "unoriginality" at the same time. Same for every characters that managed to have a specific role throughout the story. But, man, right after that katsuo duel.... Everything went downfall, every character just became unfunny running gag, they lost every flavors that made them appealing and were just ghost of the past struggling to sruvive in the publishing world through incoherent and an even more poorly storyline than ever before.

It's not hard to understand what went though the author mind who, more than ever, doesn't hesitate to break the 4rth wall and comment on the bad absurdity he pushed onto his own work.

Thing is, it's not like the humor is drastically different, he didn't either brought out a new plotline with brand new characters out of nowhere. No, everything is built over what was alaready presented and developed but... I think the author just stopped caring, and tried to satire his own work.
The story was never a seriously thought out, solid one but everything that made it... so refreshing didn't even just disappeared it went straight to the trash. I'm just so sad to me, to discover how one of my now ex-favorite manga ended and collapsed on itself.

I just needed to say that, no need to go into the analysis od the"arcs" or "characters in themselves, just read it and it'll speak for itself; nothing to debate honestly.

Sorry for the super long review, I have a really complicated relationship with this work.... (and like I said, no need at all to take evrything I said seriously))

It starts out like your typical sports shonen but with an absurd premise (substitute sports for baking bread). Halfway through the story the author realizes how ridiculous that sounds and stops taking the manga seriously focusing purely on comedy and reactions, it's funny at times but it's shocking (even if it makes me laugh) how the author stops giving a shit about his own story to the point of basically bastardizing the entire cast of characters just to add to the ridiculousness, it would be more acceptable if he had made his intentions clear from the beginning. It is what it is.

The manga was great at the beginning. The ideas for different kinds of bread were fresh and interesting. The characters seemed alright. The reactions to the bread were also unique to this manga and provided some comic relief.

After a while, you will notice that the characters have absolutely no development. Most of the characters are in fact reduced to observers, and the MC is an undefeated champion with absolutely no personality.

The bread ideas became more and more ridiculous and unreal, to the point of being completely disjointed from reality. And as the funny reactions became more and more ridiculous, they started to seem forced ... and unnecessary.

Near the final chapters, it's apparent that the manga was axed and had to be brought to a sudden and unsatisfactory end.

The manga would have greatly benefited from proper planning: it should have been much shorter, the side characters should have been much less passive, and the reactions should have not become the center point of the manga.