Yakitate!! Japan ep.15

January 31, 2005 | 6 Comments

I'm sorry for almost missing this one. I thought I've done episode 15 but as it turns out I made a mistake last week. I actually named episode 14 as episode 15, thus the confusion. Anyway, this week's episode is quite hilarious thanks to the never ending supply of comedy courtesy of Kuroyan. I also never realised this before but this series always ends up making me hungry thanks to the never ending display of foods. This episode itself, for example, shows at least 3 different type of foods for one to drool on: Yakisoba bread, Okonomiyaki, and Panini (grilled bread). Okonomiyaki is actually a favourite Japanese food of mine along with Takoyaki. Unfortunately there is no Okonomiyaki restaurant where you can cook the pancake yourself in my area. If I want one, I have to go either to a normal Japanese restaurant where they'll cook it for you. Either way, if you haven't had one before, I'd recommend it.

The episode itself begins with Ryuuroumen-san telling both Azuma and Kawachi that even if they can cook good Yakisoba, they won't be able to beat Sachihoko unless they have an original idea for their Yakisoba bread. Azuma is depressed upon hearing this especially after he knows that even Kawachi has a good idea for his bread. Kawachi, however, encourages Azuma to do his best despite it all. The next day, group B, which includes Kawachi, begins their competition. Kawachi's opponent has created a rather delicious-looking Seafood Yakisoba bread while Kawachi himself has made a Yakisoba Sausage for his bread. I personally don't know how Kawachi managed win this because if I have a choice between Kawachi's Hot-dog looking bread versus the seafood one, I'll choose the seafood one. So that means Kawachi's Yakisoba sausage must be really good to the point that Kuroyan ends up laying on the floor trying to imitate the kanji for Dog - 犬 (Inu).

Tsukino is happy to see Kawachi winning this round and is interested to know how he came up with the idea. It turns out that since Kawachi's family is poor, he used to be unable to afford meat for his brother and sister. So in order to satisfied their meat cravings, he often grinds either Tofu or Fish and then turn them into patties or sausages. I guess in a way this is similar to how vegetarian restaurants often serve meat-shaped soy/vegetable products. Anyway, later on Sachihoko appears and begins to annoy Kawachi again. So Kawachi tells the gaijin that he believes Azuma can beat him if he puts a lot of effort into it. Sachihoko, however, believes that Azuma is not his match when it comes to Yakisoba. Ken agrees with this assessment and thinks that if this had been a normal bread tournament, Azuma will probably win. Upon hearing this Kawachi has an idea and approaches Kuroyan to ask if it's permissable. Thankfully, Kuroyan doesn't seem to have problem with it.

Meanwhile Azuma is in the middle of feeling depressed because he can't come up with a good idea for his Yakisoba bread. Upon hearing this, Kawachi appears and tells him that the person that he knows won't give up so easily and proceeds to smash a bunch of bread rolls into Azuma's face. He then presses Azuma's face into a table and tells the kid that maybe if he flatten Azuma's head, his brain will somehow work. Tsukino is shocked at this brutality but the manager encourages Kawachi to continue and tells Kawachi that he should flatten Azuma's brain like Okonomiyaki. When Azuma hears the word, he suddenly gets an idea for his Yakisoba bread and says that he's going to flattened something, as he looks into the bread he's holding. Tsukino, however, thinks that Azuma is talking about her and thinks that he's being cruel to her. So she imagines herself being flattened into the noodle machine. Heh. Because of this, Ken explains that Azuma was talking about flattening something else.

Finally the inevitable fight between Azuma and Sachihoko happens. Sachihoko produces a delicious Kouchinmi Yakisoba bread. The bread is so delicious that it makes Kuroyan feel like showing his 'who-who-dilly' (TM South Park's Cartman). Azuma, however, manages to create an even more delicious bread: Japan 59 (Okonomiyaki pan). The bread is so good that it sends Kuroyan to the Heian era (794-1185 AD), famous for its poet, Onono Komachi. Kuroyan even attempts to connect the poets' name to Azuma's bread by creating a string of word manipulations. As a result, Onono Komachi-san da ('da' is an informal version of desu) becomes Okonomiyaki Sando (Okonomiyaki sandwich). Anyway, this means Azuma is the winner, making Sachihoko unhappy because he thinks Azuma tampered with his bread. But when he finds out that a grill-pressed bread is a normal cooking method, Sachihoko proves himself to be a gracious loser and congratulates Azuma for winning the fight.

Impression:

Over the past couple of weeks, I realised that the main reason I like this series is mostly because the pace is so relaxed. Watching this episode after going back from work becomes a rather pleasant routine that takes my mind off work. The only problem is, one does get the feeling that no matter what, Azuma will always win at the end of the day. Never the less, I think the most interesting part of this series is not who's going to win the next baking competiton but rather the process that they have to go through in the competition. I personally find all of the bread-making and cooking informations to be enjoyable even though I am not good at any of them. I also find the dynamic and interactions between the main characters to be interesting to watch. It's rare for me to actually like every single regular characters within a series. But with this series, I really have no major objections about Azuma, Kawachi, Tsukino, Ken, Kuroyan and Suwabara's characterisation.

© memento 2003