Yakitate!! Japan

This is what I mostly did during my end of the year break.

1. Starcraft campaign games because I can't wait for SC II !!!111oneone
2. Watch Yakitate!! Japan because I absolutely refused to touch Naruto until there are at least 50 episodes for me to catch up on at one go.

I don't have to go into #1 because everybody knows that SC is one of the greatest strategy games ever known to mankind and how SC II is going to completely blow our minds away. So let's talk about #2.



Background:
Yakitate!! Japan is about a village boy named Azuma Kazuma who aspires to bake THE national Japanese Bread - THE bread that ALL Japanese can substitute rice with - "Japan" (a play on words as "pan" in Japanese means bread). Expect plenty of bread baking competitions which includes crazy-assed far fetched breakthrough bread making techniques and wacky ingredients. 69 episodes in total. Released in 2004.

I like it!
Like Naruto, the story is formed around the same concept - the simpleton underdog with a one track goal - to be the best in what he does. During his journey to be the best; he develops friendships with people around him who after thinking that the protagonist is a loser, will get their ass kicked and then come to love and respect the protagonist as somebody with a heart of gold and the will of titanium. True, I'm a sucker for this sort of lame shit as it warms my cold, unfeeling heart.

But...
Obviously like all freaking Japanese animes there are endless, tiresome, annoying fart jokes and idiotic childish exaggerated expressions (especially during the judging of the breads during the competitions) - which I never like but am forced to tolerate with because I'm a sucker for pain.

In the end.
I liked it, generally. Watched the whole damn series on Crunchyroll with my sister and after every 5-10 episodes my stomach growls up a storm, my mouth waters and I get the most ridiculous munchies because the judges' illustrative descriptions of the prize winning bread is just too vividly delicious. Doesn't help that the breads in the anime look so damn good I could literally SMELL IT and TASTE IT in my head while giving me this uncontrollable urge to lick the monitor screen.

More:
On Wikipedia.