Yakitate!! Japan, Volume 8 by Takashi Hashiguchi | Goodreads
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It's only the exhibition for the Monaco Cup--the prestigious bread tournament Kazuma and company are participating in as they study abroad in France--and the competition is already ablaze. Kawachi and Kanmuri collaborate on an outlandish decorative bread scheme to earn their team some extra points, but will their avant-garde approach hurt their chances more than help? Later, a roulette wheel is used to decide which ingredients will be allowed in the first preliminaries. Will Kazuma's trusty Ja-pan 21 see Pantasia through to victory?

191 pages, Paperback

First published July 18, 2003

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About the author

Takashi Hashiguchi

54 books22 followers
Takashi Hashiguchi (橋口 たかし) is a Japanese manga artist. He is best known for his manga series Yakitate!! Japan, for which he won the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen in 2004. Hashiguchi won a newcomer's award in 1987 (published in a magazine), and Combat Teacher debuted the following year in the same magazine.

A prevailing theme seen throughout his manga is the realization of childhood dreams, such as making bread in Yakitate!! Japan or becoming a yo-yo master in Super Yo-Yo (Chousoku Spinner). Hashiguchi mainly focuses on unusual occupations or sports.

He enjoys comedy as well, and took a brief interlude from drawing to try his luck as a comedian.
Source: Wikipedia

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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
Profile Image for D E N Z.
365 reviews16 followers
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October 8, 2020
Beginning of a brand new competition! It's too early for me to say if I like this more than the previous one though.... :))
Profile Image for Jacob.
458 reviews6 followers
June 3, 2020
This may be the best Yakitate!! Japan volume so far. So many places had me LOLing.

The Monaco Cup baking tournament is in the preliminary stages. In order to advance to the main competition, our Japan representatives have to be one of the top 16 scoring teams. But their ploy in the exhibition stage to lower their betting odds may have impacted their ability to advance: They already enter the prelims two points down, and considering there's only 10 points to be had, that's a major disadvantage.

It's a rare humor that can go in crude directions without being off-putting. Yakitate!! Japan isn't usually crude, but here a significant portion of the opening section's humor involves certain bodily functions, which I would usually reject outright. I don't find farts and poos and whatnot to be funny. They're shortcut humor for "comedians" who've found more success grossing people out than actually being funny. The usual M.O. for this kind of thing uses the function as the laugh-getter: He farted, lol farts are funny; he pooed, lol poos are funny. But here it's done differently. It's funny not because "lol farts, lol poos" but rather because author Takashi Hashiguchi makes it identifiable. We place ourselves in the shoes of Kawachi because we've all been in situations where we need to do a bodily function, but can't. The irony is that the sequence featured here is conceptually grosser than most gross-out humor, but because it's identifiable it lands as genuinely funny. Hashiguchi also keeps it largely implied; we don't see anything gross—not that that stops our imagination—and the subtle implications land twice as hard for their coyness.

That's a lot of words for a comparatively short section of this volume, but I was very impressed at how it played out. The rest of the volume is not bodily-fuction-focused—probably for the best—but it's still pretty great. The combination of casino-like atmosphere with a lot of circus flashbacks (the judge for this competition is Pierrot, a clown) comes up aces.
Profile Image for M.
675 reviews2 followers
July 28, 2020
Kinda hate how much they sexualize Tsukino...
Profile Image for Kurtis Burkhardt.
5,999 reviews51 followers
August 16, 2021
This is a pretty decent cooking manga, it was really good and interesting at the beginning but got bored the second half probably because it’s solely just about bread 😂👌❤️
Profile Image for MissAnnThrope.
561 reviews4 followers
June 25, 2013
25 June 2013

The battle for the second annual Monaco Cup begins in Yakitate!! Japan, Volume 8 and it begins with one of the most ridiculous scenes ever drawn in a manga. Poor Kawachi! I didn't know whether to laugh or to feel sick. It will undoubtedly produce a severe reaction, so be careful not to poop yourself!

Since the bread tournament is held in Monaco's largest casinos, each challenge cleverly ties into various gambling games. Although the plot is beginning to feel redundant, this new casino twist and the introduction of Pierrot Bolnez spices things up a bit. Also, the wacky Kayser brothers keep things interesting with their deceptions.

Meanwhile, the South Tokyo Branch tries desperately to stay afloat when Yukino's plan threatens their business after discovering Kanmuri's plan. With some creative brainstorming and with super ninja, Kinoshita, the gang is able to attract customers. Tsukino and company shouldn't get their hopes too high, though, because it looks like Yukino is preparing for a vicious attack.

I really miss Kuroyanagi's reactions to tasting the breads made in the competitions. His exaggerated responses were my favorite part of reading this series. I hope that we'll get to see him lose control again in a future volume.
Profile Image for Earl.
749 reviews18 followers
January 6, 2015
This is my favorite Yakitate Ja-pan!! segment, insofar as the anime is concerned. And in the first round, we see Kawachi raise the odds which could grant them the money to keep Pantasia running.

Favorite bread of the volume? That thinking man living bread!
Profile Image for Kayla.
1,612 reviews65 followers
July 10, 2014
I don't have much to say about this one. On to the next volume.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews

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