Episode 01: He has arrived! The boy who possesses the Solar Hands!!

Yosh! The first episode starts off with showing Azuma heading for getting his first job at the Pantasia(sugoi name ne?) chain of bread shops. This episode also tells us a great deal about his past, why he took up bread making and the like. The summary obviously contains spoilers so read at your own risk!

The episode starts of by showing Azuma baking a bread. He brings the bread out of the oven to make his family members taste it, but nobody is there. He is then violently snatched by his sister and taken to the train station who reminds him that he was to head off for Tokyo to join the Pantasia main branch and that he would miss the train if he delayed any more. After a violent ride, his family gives him their parting wishes(his sister especially ;D) and he boards the train.

They know show a flashback to when Azuma was young and his family would eat nothing but rice. His sister Inaho *violently*(if you’ve watche, you know what I mean) drags Azuma to a small bread shop on her bike telling him that he needs to eat good bread before he makes his judgement about bread.

Azuma is fascinated by the various designs of the breads. When Azuma eats one of the breads, he instantly decides in his mind that bread tastes good.The baker in that shop teaches Azuma how to bake bread(Inaho rushes off to school) for his grandfather so that he would switch to bread as well. When Azuma tells the baker that he still prefers rice, the baker laughs and says that the same was true for him, but he liked bread because it was fun to make. He also tells him that his aim in life is to make the national bread of Japan which would replace rice as the staple food.

The next day Azuma’s grandfather is angry for having bread for breakfast and especially so since he did not enjoy having the toast with Natoo soup(they don’t go well). On returning to that bread shop, the baker makes another bread but instead of milk adds a different ingredient. This time Azuma’s grandad enjoys the bread and has a ‘reaction’(you’ll be seeing these throughout the show, they rock!). Azuma then tells his grandad that he made that bread especially for him.

Later the baker tells Azuma that he added soymilk instead of milk which made the bread go well with Natoo soup(for scientific explanation read manga x.x). The baker tells Azuma that he’d be moving to Tokyo so that he could complete his goal and Azuma decides to meet him there later on in his life. Azuma too, takes up the challenge of creating ‘Japan’.

The flashback ends and Azuma reaches Tokyo. As he travels towards Pantasia he recalls his goal and the fact that he had made 55 test “Japan”s already. When he arrives, he enters the shop and a man tells him that he was late and deducts five points for the same reason. He tells everybody that this was an examination out of which there could be only one winner who could become an employee at Pantasia. Every participant started out with 10 points, and the person with the most number of points at the end wins(a point deduction system). Azuma then tells himself that he won’t lose and he’ll use his ‘Japan’ to pass the examination.

A brilliant beginning if you ask me…heck I became a bread addict all thanks to this anime. The first episode marks the beginning of this wonderful series, and the episodes get better with each episode! Well, seeya till I write the next summary.