Yakitate!! Japan

"This is great!"

Like to eat various kind of bread? Or like to make cakes, cookies, and bread? Then you can check this anime out.. I bet you will love it.

Yakitate!! Japan 焼きたて!! ジャぱん is a manga created by Takashi Hashiguchi. It serialized in Shogakugan's Shonen Sunday since 2002. 25 tankobons have been released, and for your information, this series won the 2004 Shogakugan Manga Award for best shonen manga. A completed series of anime has been released, produced by Sunrise and being broadcast in TV Tokyo.

Yakitate!! Japan follows Azuma Kazuma, a 16-year-old teenager who likes to make and innovate bread. He has high creativity and special ability, Solar Hands (the hands are warmer than body temperature), which allow him to ferment bread dough faster. He wants to make Ja-pan, bread that represent Japan's culture and cuisine, and even replace rice in Japan. In order for his creation to be known by people, he applies to Pantasia Main Branch store. This is the first stepping stone his great journey to be a great bread artisan.

By entering the serious world of competition and bakery industry, Azuma meets a lot of other artisan, like Kawachi Kyousuke from Kansai who is comical and cause a lot of laughs throughout the series, Azusagawa Tsukino the owner of Pantasia Southern Tokyo where Azuma and Kawachi work , Suwabara Kai a samurai who also a skillful bread artisan, and a lot more.

Will Azuma's creation become well known by others? Can he be a great artisan? Read the manga, and watch the anime!

Yakitate!! Japan is very fresh anime. This anime features a lot of humor, mouth-watering breads, techniques to make delicious bread (this might be important for you who like to make bread), comedic reactions when eating the breads, which are very entertaining to watch, to release stress and increase your mood meter to happy :D

(+) Delicious, mouth-watering bread, yummy..

(+) Contains a lot dose of humor

(+) Nice artwork

(-) Too melodramatic

(-) Too many characters (in my opinion)

(-) Sometimes the humor are more annoying than entertaining

Story = 3.5/5

Artwork = 4/5

Animation and color = 4/5

Character development = 3/5

Soundtrack = 3.5/5

Overall rating = 3.5/5

Genre = cooking, comedy, action, drama, romance

Demographic = shonen

Original creator = Takashi Hashiguchi

Director = Yasunao Aoki

Seiyuu = Yumiko Kobayashi (Azuma), Shuuhei Sakaguchi (Kawachi), Takayuki Sakazume (Suwabara), Chihiro Otsuka (Tsukino), etc.. full credits is here

Fate/Stay Night

"I will save everyone"

Imagine you are a victim of great war and disaster. You want to do something to protect everyone.. but in the end it all fails because you don't have enough power.

That is how Emiya Shirou feels. Shirou is a victional character from light novel, game, and anime series Fate/Stay Night フェイト/ステイナイト. The light novel is created by Type-Moon. Fate/Stay Night is also available in PC games and PlayStation 2 game. A movie entitled Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works was released in Japanese theaters last January.

This series follows Shirou, a high schooler and also a sorcerer. 10 years ago, he was a victim of a great war called Holy Grail War, left him alone and orphaned. He was rescued and adopted by Emiya Kiritsugu, and the two lived together in Fuyuki City.

Shirou learns of his foster father's failed life ambition is to become a "Hero of Justice", a guardian of mankind who could protect the weak and innocent. Touched by Kiritsugu's conviction, Shirou affirms to his foster father that he intends to devote his life to achieving that distant ideal. To do this, Shirou pleads with a bedgrudging Kiritsugu to teach him sorcery, but being born without the capabilities of a magus, Shirou proves to be talentless in almost all the fundamental sorcerous disciplines.

Shirou is a very kindhearted and helpful student. His traits make his friends often take it for granted and ask him to do a lot of jobs. One day, when he is on the way home after cleaning the school archery dojo, he sees Tohsaka Rin, one of his schoolmates with her servant Archer are figthing other servant Lancer, who is skilled in using spears. Lancer happens to see Shirou takes a look at their fighting (which are not supposed to be seen by mortals) and runs after him. Unfortunately Shirou is caught by Lancer, has his heart pierced by spear, and passed out (but not dead, pleace notice). Rin saves him with some kind of jewel.

Feeling better, Shirou walks home, and finds out that Lancer is still after him, even in his house. Panicked, Shirou escapes to the warehouse. In the same time, a magic circle appears in the warehouse floor. Lancer got him and nearly kills Shirou when the seventh servant, Saber, is summoned from the circle and fights Lancer, therefore Shirou is saved. After some confusion, Shirou realizes that he is involved in Holy Grail War, where all the servants have to fight each other until the only one win and the winner has the opportunity to take the Holy Grail.

Want to know what happens next? Will Shirou and his servant Saber win the war? Watch the anime here

Fate/Stay Night is a very exciting anime and has unique theme. It contains a lot of cool fighting scenes between the servants, features a number of greatly made characters as well. Overall, the storyline is fine, and the character development and interaction is explored very well, and every character has enough on-screen time. This anime shows with friendship and the power of love, mixed with war and sorcery. If you like gore and violence, this anime might be the right one for you.

In summary,

(+) Great and enjoyable fighting scenes

(+) Well-made characters

(+) Unique theme

(-) Complicated storyline

Story = 4/5

Artwork = 3.5/5

Animation and Color = 3.5/5

Character development = 4.5/5

Soundtrack = 4/5

Overall rating = 4/5

Genre = action, fantasy, fighting, war, supernatural, drama, romance, comedy

Demographic = shonen

Original creator = Type-Moon

Director = Yuji Yamaguchi

Seiyuu = Noriaki Sugiyama (Shirou), Kana Ueda (Rin), Ayako Kawasumi (Saber), Junichi Suwabe (Archer), and more.. just check it here