Yakitate Japan Ep 44

Azuma had won the semi-final against the French team and they are facing the US team next. Although they think that the final will be a walkover, Kuroyanagi informs them of his findings when he had watched the US-China semi-final. The most skilful member of the US team is Shadow which makes Kawachi feel that this will be yet another tough fight. Kuroyanagi tells them not to think of relying on Azuma all the time since the final will be a 1-on-1 match where the first team to win two rounds walks away with the title.

At the same time, Kirisaki tells Shadow to be wary of Azuma in the final and all the latter does is to parrot whatever Kirisaki says and does...

The next day, Azuma and Shadow have to present their creations to the F1 racer for judging and Shadow ends up being picked as the better baker. Kuroyanagi is worried about Azuma being disappointed at losing for the first time and true enough, Azuma runs away to be alone and does not return even when it is late at night. The group decide to split up and search for Azuma.

Actually, Azuma is not discouraged by the loss at all and had just followed Shadow to thank him for the inspiration Azuma got from him when he saw how skilful Shadow was. However, he gets very fed up with Shadow who keeps imitating his way of speech and movements thus ends up coming back to the hotel late at night. As such, the group were unable to find him despite searching all night.

Pierro announces to the two teams that they will have to make three types of bread relating to the theme of clothes, food and housing. Under the theme of clothes, the participants have to make bread with an emphasis on the aesthetic factor. As for the theme of food, they would have to make bread suitable for daily consumption. Lastly, the theme of housing would have to emphasize the nostalgic taste of home. Due to this, the order for the competition is decided as Suwabara for the clothes segment, Kawachi for the food segment and Azuma will take part in the last segment of housing.

This episode has a parody on Initial D which is simply ridiculous yet funny. Anyway, that's not the main concern here. Now that we have 3 segments for the final, this anime would probably last another 4 episodes taking into conclusion the need to wrap up the story if it really does end in Sep. Otherwise, the anime would probably go on beyond the Monaco Cup arc which I surely do not mind.