anime episode summaries

Poor Azuma!Hattori Surpise!! Transformation with the Secret Sauce!

At the TV Station, the showdown between Mokoyama Tsuyoshi and Azuma Kazuma commences. When the two are introduced, Mokoyama is all flashy and stuff and his St. Pierre employees are cheer him on. Mokoyama is determined to defeat his Ken-chan’s apprentice. The host introduces the three judges, bigwigs from the baking world, and she names the rules. Each of the contestants start with ten points each. Deductions are made from there on. The one who gets the most points wins.

Mokoyama’s kouign amann.
Mokoyama starts first and he takes the lid off his platter, revealing three pieces of round, glittery bread. One judge says it looks like a kouign amann. In the stands, Kawachi and Tsukino lecture about kouign amann (it’s made of sugar and butter, it came from France, yada-yada…). The judges take a bite and they’re taken away by the bread’s rich, sweet taste. One judge notes that it’s not regular kouign amann. Mokoyama mentions that his bread has a secret, that being unsweetened custard pudding is used as filling alongside the supersweet bread. He calls his creation kouign pudding amann. The judges are impressed and each award him a perfect score of ten, thus earning a total of thirty points. Kawachi and Tsukino are worried and Mokoyama gloats at Azuma, telling him to go home. Kawachi thinks of the fatal flaw the manager said earlier.

It’s Azuma’s turn and he reveals three pieces of bread, each having a different shape but all have the same fried texture. The judges wonder if they all taste the same and Azuma just prods them to eat his bread in order to find out.
Azuma’s Japan #57.As soon as the judges bite into Azuma’s bread, they are electrified. The judges feel as if they’re transported into a stage and they become kabuki actors and they declare "kabukiage da" or "it is kabukiage" (kabukiage is a rice cracker). Mokoyama is surprised by the judges’ reactions. Azuma calls his entry Kabukiage bread, Japan #57. He also tells of how he made it using leftover bread, dipped in a special sauce, and then fried. The judges are amazed that such leftover bread could taste so good. Even the audience clamor for a taste. However, before the judges give their scores, Mokoyama steps up, emphasizing the fact that Azuma used old bread, saying that it’s rude to Pantasia’s customers. The manager explains that this image is the flaw in Azuma’s bread. Azuma insists that Pantasia’s bread tastes good, no matter how old it is, and that it’s such a waste to throw good bread away since everybody worked so hard for it. Kawachi confronts the manager, asking him why he didn’t stop Azuma since he knew of this flaw, but the manager points out that since Azuma didn’t want to waste anybody’s bread, the manager didn’t have the heart to refuse him. Of the three pieces of bread Azuma presented, one is Kawachi’s flavor, another is Tsukino’s flavor, and the last one is the manager’s flavor. Everything seems hopeless but suddenly, somebody from the audience speaks out loud.

(more…)

It’s the Main Store!! Dancing Meister!

Mokoyama preparing for the match.Kawachi wonders why the Southern Branch isn’t as popular as the Main Branch. Matsushiro, the manager, shows them St. Pierre’s (Pantasia’s rival) Main Store just across the street. They meet Mokoyama, St. Pierre’s Manager, and as Mokoyama insults them, Matsushiro rebuts that Azuma is better than Mokoyama. Mokoyama challenges Azuma to a televised bread competition. Matsushiro accepts the match but back at the store, he tells them that Mokoyama is a highly skilled artisan specializing in sweet bread and that they might lose. Matsushiro tells Tsukino to keep everything a secret from the Main Branch. The next day, the street is filled with banners and streamers announcing the competition (St. Pierre’s doing). A convoy of black cars from Pantasia’s Main Branch arrives. First, Kuroyan (in a suit!) steps out and argues with the Manager but Matsushiro ignores him and Meister Kirisawa climbs out of the car, accompanied by a flock of birds. Meister is the Main Branch’s manager and Tsukino says that although he rarely makes public appearances, he has more power than her grandfather. Meister wants to meet Azuma and goes inside the store. He sees him cooking something (Azuma is making sauce for his Japan #57) and spots a bunch of hardened, leftover bread at the table. Meister asks Azuma how much his bread is. Meister then leaves but before that, he tells Matsushiro that he thinks Azuma is interesting. The day of competition arrives. As Mokoyama and Azuma are introduced, Matsushiro whispers to Kawachi and Tsukino that Azuma’s Japan #57 has a fatal flaw.

Kawachi and Azuma revise their French bread. Kawachi uses oats while Azuma uses goat’s milk. Kawachi’s bread is fragrant but lacks in taste because it doesn’t have any dairy product in it but the horse eats it anyway. The manager lectures him about a special kind of yeast (made from special brown rice or something) that he uses to make the bread taste good. Azuma’s sister brings Azuma fresh milk from their goat, Nanako, and with this, Azuma makes a special kind of butter which he then uses to make his France-Japan. The horse refuses to eat Azuma’s bread (and stomps on it, too) but the mangager says it’s OK since goat’s milk doesn’t have the ingredient that causes allergies and the resulting taste is richer than if one uses regular cow’s milk. The manager calls Kawachi a mimicking monkey while Azuma is lauded for being a pioneer. The manager officially welcomes the pair into Pantasia’s Southern Branch Store and is pleasantly surprised that one of them possesses Solar Hands. A lot of crazy reactions and silly puns (u-meeee!) in this episode, too.

Yaki ep. 1 - Enter Azuma, a boy who wants to make Japan (pan is bread in Japanese so Japan is a pun here), bread that tastes better than rice. Flashback Azuma’s past about the baker who inspired him and how his grandfather wouldn’t eat bread until Azuma made bread that tastes well with natto and miso soup. Azuma has magical, flashing solar hands whose temperature is warmer than usual, which basically makes any bread he makes tastes good. Azuma goes to Tokyo to work for Pantasia, Japan’s #1 bakery, but discovers that he has to pass an employee selection examination first. Kuroyan, the examiner, deducts 5 points from Azuma for being 5 min. late (oni!). The test is a point-deduction system. You initially start with 10 points. If you run out of points, you go home. Tsukino notices Azuma’s solar hands (well who wouldn’t notice them, they were glowing, for crying out loud!). Azuma resolves to win with his Japan.

Yaki ep. 2 - Kuroyan sends home three people for having nose hair, for being sweaty, and for having an ugly haircut. He deducts two more points for Azuma because of his messy hair, but Tsukino interferes and gives her hairband to Azuma. Exam starts and Kuroyan tells them to make any bread they like. Kawachi notices Azuma’s solar hands, too, and destroys Azuma’s dough because he wanted to win so bad (Kawachi, you bastard!). Since he was running out of time, Azuma decides to make a bread which has a short baking time. The dough looks like the Japanese flag and the bread was shaped like Mt. Fuji and tastes great with curry (Azuma thought curry was Japanese food; Kuroyan: nan da). Azuma’s bread was the only one Kuroyan tasted. Suwabara’s bread gets 0 point deduction (it pops right back if you punch it), Kawachi gets a 2 point deduction (he overbaked it a little because he was too interested in Azuma’s bread), and Azuma gets 2 plus points (I think I saw Kuroyan drool a little). Only Azuma, Kawachi, Tsukino, and Suwabara proceed onto the next round (Kuroyan sent the rest crying home). Kuroyan tells them that the next test was to make a croissant.

Yaki ep. 3 - Azuma didn’t know what a croissant is (he thought it was a person, Kurowa-san) so Tsukino volunteers to teach him. Kawachi realizes Suwabara is a croissant champion so he convinces Azuma to team up with him instead. Kawachi tells Azuma about how his little siblings would be homeless if he didn’t win the match (it was a total lie though). Azuma makes his 324 layered-croissant but backs out of the competition for the sake of Kawachi’s family so Kawachi gets credit for Azuma’s bread and wins the competition instead (the bread started out burnt black but if you hit it with a spoon, the charred layers fall off and the croissant inside is revealed). Because he felt guilty, Kawachi backs out, too, so Suwabara wins by default. Tsukino, who happened to be the owner’s granddaughter, decides to hire the two for her Southern Branch store.

Yaki ep. 4 - Azuma’s and Kawachi’s first day of work. Azuma gets stucked inside refrigerator and freezes. Tsukino asks them to make French bread, the Southern Branch’s specialty. Although their bread was delicious, Tsukino tells the two to get the approval of the store manager who was at the stables that day. Azuma and Kawachi meet the manager, Matsushiro Ken, who then feeds their bread to a horse. Horse wouldn’t eat the bread. Manager tells them their bread sucks. The manager tells them to make a bread good enough for a horse to eat or else they’re fired. Tsukino tells the story of how the manager’s lactose-intolerant sister got hospitalized by eating regular bread. They learn the whole deal about horses being vegetarian and how they wouldn’t eat anything with animal products in it. Azuma cries for the manager’s sister (he wasn’t listening when Tsukino said the sister recovered). Very little action in this ep. though.