Yakitate!! Japan
Yakitate!! Japan
Takashi Hashiguchi
I read Volume One of this manga series over the weekend, and found it to be terribly fun. Kazuma Azuma is a bit of a country bumpkin with very little knowledge of the world, but gifted with "The Hands of the Sun"...warm little mitts that enable him to bake amazing bread. Inspired by an incident from his childhood, he is determined to create a unique bread that can represent Japan, and win the hearts of its rice-loving citizens. So at 16 he heads off to Tokyo to get a job at a famous bakery chain. What results is a creative combination of humor, history, chemistry and lots of baking. While it lacks the emotional depth (and more adult themes) of Antique Bakery, readers hungering for a bready nibble should enjoy this series too.