Yakitate Japan Ep 47

Monica is teaching Suwabara how to create a carving of a horse from malt sugar and they are acting so lovey-dovey that it gets on Kawachi's nerves. He scolds Suwabara for bringing Monica here as she's from the rival team but Monica says that she's not interested in Kawachi and won't pay attention to him at all. In addition, Suwabara defends her which drives Kawachi to seek another place to think of what to do for his Round 2 final.

Kawachi is wandering on the streets where he meets Kuroyanagi who asks about his preparations. Kawachi complains about Suwabara and Monica distracting him thus leading to Kuroyanagi scolding him for making excuses. Kuroyanagi reminds Kawachi that he has to be more serious about the competition since the Japan team would lose once he gets defeated in Round 2.

Even though Kuroyanagi had reprimanded Kawachi, the latter is still unsure of what he has to do in order to defeat Spencer who was already very impressive during the Pantasia Newcomer Contest. He thinks that there is no chance for him to beat Spencer and laments at why he has to shoulder such a great responsibility. Just then, Matsushiro, Tsukino, Kanmuri appear in front of Kawachi which scares him. They scold Kawachi for being a good-for-nothing and not even trying to think of something to win. Matsushiro reveals that Kawachi's family has been invited to watch him during the final but this fails to get Kawachi hyped up since he's worried about losing face in front of them. Kanmuri then passes him the box which he gave to Kawachi before he came to Monaco where there's a scroll with Kawachi's father's name.

Kanmuri then reminds Kawachi of his father's struggle to enter Pantasia despite failing at the entrance exam every year. Even though Kawachi has done better than his father by entering the HQ, the lack of courage to take on the challenge and deal with failure would be the real reason for his disgrace. Kawachi then recalls how his father used to enjoy making bread even though he wasn't too talented and derives inspiration from his father's persistence. When Azuma returns to his room, he sees Kawachi making metal moulds and is thrown out by the latter for causing Kawachi to be distracted.

Kawachi recalls how he admired his father's passion for bread and he mentioned that the square loaf will become a staple food of the people one day. In addition, his father added herbs into the dough for health needs but the taste was too awful. Following his advice, Kawachi tried to make something similar but the taste is too awful due to the bitterness. Kanmuri points out that Kawachi has added dattan soba into the dough and it's no wonder that he is not successful since this is the first time he has tried doing this. Matsushiro decides against offering any advice to Kawachi initially but since the final is on the next day, he still drops a hint for Kawachi to think of the solution himself.

On the day of Round 2, Kawachi and Spencer get into a verbal argument before the contest even starts. From Matsushiro's hint, Kawachi gets the idea to add soba soup into the dough which makes Suwabara remark that Kawachi may have a chance of winning. Monica then reveals that Spencer is not as simple as he seems just because he got No.3 during the semi-final. The reason for that was he had no time to make preparations since he was teaching Monica and he didn't display his full potential.

Just then, Spencer shocks the crowd by making an Egyptian style bread where the dough is rolled around a bamboo pole before it is grilled over charcoal after being coated with a special sauce. Spencer says that he got inspiration for this from the concept of "slow food". Kanmuri explains to Azuma that slow food is a campaign whereby real gourmet cuisine is promoted in place of fast food or junk food. However, this does not make Kawachi waver as he prepares to use the dough for croissants too for his creation...

The next episode is an 1-hr special so I guess Round 2 will be concluded by then. And since it takes up more time than Round 1, there seems to be more tricks up the sleeves of both Spencer and Kawachi.

Actually, what I found very interesting in this episode would be Monica and Suwabara developing into a baka-puru (idiotic couple) which is usually used to describe couples who act lovey-dovey in front of others. Although Pierro made the remark that something seems to be developing between them in the last episode, I never expected them to be so "loving" by this episode. They are a good combination where we have the macho Suwabara with the cutey Monica so it remains to be seen if they can stick it out till the end.