Yakitate Japan Ep 52

Azuma finishes his creation and tells Pierro to taste it so that he can go to Heaven and meet his father again. When Pierro opens his eyes, he finds himself sitting on his father's lap and gets a big shock. The King scolds Pierro for addressing him as father and claims that his baby is still in the Queen's womb. Pierro notices that he's not in Heaven and that the palace looks rather new. As such, Pierro asks the King about the year and he's surprised to know that it is the year 1982. He cannot understand why he did not go to Heaven and returns to the past instead.

Just then, the Queen enters the room and asks the King why Pierro is here. The King orders his men to take Pierro away so he decides to turn the situation to his favour by claiming that he is invited by the King to entertain his wife. This makes the Queen very happy and gives Pierro a legitimate reason to stay in the palace.

Meanwhile, Pierro is motionless after biting Azuma's bread which leads Kawachi and the rest to wonder what is going on. However, Azuma is very confident that Pierro is in Heaven to meet his parents.

At the same time, the Pierro in 1982 is trying hard to please his parents. He realises that Azuma's bread serves as a time machine to send him back to the time before he was born and is happy to meet his parents while they are alive. Since then, Pierro stays in the palace as a servant and entertainer.

The Queen puts on so much weight due to over-eating as she wants to provide enough nutrition for her baby. Pierro decides to get the Queen to lose some weight for her sake since he remembers that his mother passed away due to labour difficulties. As such, he attributes it to her excessive weight gain and insists on her losing weight so as to look better.

The Queen manages to regain her past figure and Pierro helps the King to make a party successful with his social and language skills. She asks Pierro to stay behind in the palace and teach the prince his abilities. Pierro rejects the suggestion as he senses that he will return to the real world when he sees that his body is becoming transparent.

When the Queen collapses along the corridor, Pierro sends her to the hospital on foot. However, as his body is disappearing, he can't make it there and apologises to his unconscious mother about his inability...

Pierro finally returns to reality and bursts out crying for not being able to help his mother. However, he sees his parents appearing before him and cannot see why this is happening. From his parents' words, he finds out that his mother managed to give birth to him successfully so he was sent to Quedam in memory of Pierro, the clown who saved the Queen. That is why his parents are still alive and he has never been separated from them contrary to what had happened previously. The Queen hurries Pierro to declare the verdict soon instead of remaining in a daze.

Pierro selects Azuma as the winner but Shadow does not accept the outcome. Pierro says that Azuma managed to change history as compared to Shadow who let him see his mother on a planet. In fact, everyone except Pierro has forgotten about the actual past and assumes that the King and Queen are alive all along.

Just then, Kirisaki appears from the spectator stands and congratulates Azuma for surpassing him. He points out that Azuma had used the black sugar deposits derived from boiling sugarcane. Besides that, the method he had used to make the doughout was far more superior than Shadow. Kirisaki offers to shake Azuma's hand but the latter refuses to oblige. Unknown to everyone, Kirisaki's hand is shaking uncontrollably. Kanmuri tells Kawachi that Kirisaki is just trying to show everyone that he's a graceful loser. Azuma is also chosen as the MVP for the Monaco Cup and given a ring by the Queen as a present but he actually finds it a hassle when making bread and prepares to give it to Tsukino instead...

This is an unexpected development where Azuma's bread actually changed history and let Pierro's parents come back to life. Well, this is kind of exaggerated but I guess that's only logical since Azuma has to defeat Shadow in this final round. Just too bad that I won't see Pierro again after the end of the Monaco Cup arc...

Even though there were rumours that this anime would not go beyond the Monaco Cup, it seems like there is going to be another series of competitions for the Pantasia guys. Meanwhile, Kirisaki should have managed to take over Pantasia if the story follows the manga.