Yakitate Japan Ep 54

The first round of the Yakitate 9 competition begins with Tsubozuka Takumi from CMAP representing St Pierre against the Pantasia trio of Azuma, Kanmuri and Kawachi. Kuroyanagi explains the rules of the game where they will win a panel of the 9 available in each round. The side with the most panels at the end of the contest will be the winner. As such, Kuroyanagi reveals the first panel which reads Ooma, a place in Aomori Prefecture and the northern most port town of Honshuu.

On the train heading to Ooma, Azuma remarks that CMAP is rather famous as he sees Tsubozuka's photo on the cover of a magazine. However, he pronounces the group name wrongly which leads an irritated Kawachi to correct him. Kanmuri explains that CMAP stands for "Cooking Meal Assemble People" and is an idol group of 4 people who have been put together because of their culinary talents. Kanmuri remarks that Tsubozuka alone is a tough rival but Kawachi does not think much of it. Azuma asks what Ooma is famous for so that he can think of what type of bread to make. As Ooma is a famous harbour city, the tuna caught from the nearby waters are termed as "Super Tuna" and sold at the premium price of at least 20,000 yen per kg. This will pose a challenge since they cannot produce something whereby the locals and tourists cannot afford as that will defeat the purpose of the contest.

Upon reaching Ooma, the trio find themselves having to live in a rundown hotel as they have to foot the production costs of the programme. Thus, they have to scrimp and save in other ways since they agreed to this condition without much thought when Kirisaki brought up the idea.

On the other hand, Yukino brings the staff and Tsubozuka to a sushi restaurant as her intention is to chalk up an exhorbitant bill since the Pantasia side has to bear the cost. However, Tsubozuka doesn't want to eat the sushi and criticises it for being too awful. Yukino wonders if there's anything with Tsubozuka's thinking as he suddenly tells the chef to let him make the sushi. The chef is furious to hear Tsubozuka's remarks but decides to grant his request. Tsubozuka manages to come up with the sushi in a shorter time than the chef and the taste turns out to be much better. Kuroyanagi points out that Tsubozuka used a different method in cutting the tuna so that the muscles are removed thus leading to a better taste. In addition, he manages to extract the muscles which is filled with the freshness and essence of the tuna. Upon seeing Tsubozuka's performance, Yukino is convinced that he can do well for the contest.

When the producer asks for more tuna, the chef explains that he has run out of supplies since the tuna is only harvested from Aug to Jan. For other periods of the year, the tuna served would be those frozen from the catch in the harvesting season. Yukino thinks of an idea to deal a fatal blow to the Pantasia team.

The next day, Kuroyanagi explains the rules to the two teams and stresses the importance of using the local produce in their bread creations. Azuma, Kawachi and Kanmuri go to buy the tuna but find out that the supplies had been snapped up on the previous night. As such, they realise that this is all Yukino's doing so as to obstruct them in the contest.

Azuma suddenly asks Kanmuri when Ooma receives the most tourists and the latter says that it should be during the Golden Week period of April to May. In winter, Ooma is too cold while in summer, the seafood produce is tasteless thus tourists usually do not come here during such periods. As such, Azuma thinks that they should drop the idea of using Super Tuna since the tourists would not want to eat frozen stuff during a holiday. Besides, there is no rule that they can use a single type of local produce. Just as they are thinking of alternatives, Yukino deliberately appears in front of them to flaunt the tuna she bought in bulk so as to emphasize the helpless situation they are in.

Kanmuri brings Azuma and Kawachi to the fishery so that they can use sea urchins instead of tuna for the contest. Since sea urchins are harvested during March to June which coincides with the tourist season in Ooma, they can get the freshest supplies at a much lower price. Azuma is excited about this since they can get purple sea urchins here which leads Kawachi to ask if there are different colours for sea urchins. Kawachi explains that there are two types of sea urchins i.e. the red-flesh and the white-flesh. Thus, the purple sea urchins refer to the white-flesh variety. Azuma tells them that he knew about this because his family plants rice and works with sushi restaurants. Azuma then wants Kawachi to make some French bread but Kanmuri objects to this since they will lose if they use Kawachi's bread. However, Azuma explains that he wants Kawachi to make some awful-tasting bread which gets the others bewildered by his action.

The trio go to their cooking trailer made specially for this programme and paid from their own pockets so as to make their chawan-mushi bread. Kawachi makes some awful-tasting bread at Azuma's request but the latter says that it's not enough. He wants Kawachi to make some soggy bread since his current creation is too good to meet his expectations. Kanmuri finds out what Azuma is trying to do and tells Kawachi to add more water into the dough while he goes to get a secret weapon for the contest.

Matsushiro and Tsukino come to support the trio but are surprised to hear that Azuma wants Kawachi to make some awful-tasting bread. Meanwhile, Tsubozuka asks for permission to use his personal oven which Kuroyanagi agrees to. Just as Kuroyanagi wants to begin the programme, Azuma comes to interrupt him again and asks for permission to use a local rubbish bag. Kuroyanagi is taken aback by Azuma's action and thinks that the latter must be up to something again.

Kawachi doesn't understand why Azuma must force him to make the awful-tasting bread since he has improved his breadmaking skills over time. As he has no idea what Azuma plans to do, he can't help but feel apprehensive over their chances of winning. Meanwhile, Matsushiro remarks to Tsukino that Tsubozuka is not a simple character after seeing him make 2 types of dough i.e. for cream puffs and pastries which may be bad news for the Pantasia team.

Just then, Tsubozuka comes to the Pantasia team and tells them not to throw in the towel in such a manner by making awful bread even if they have no confidence of winning. However, Azuma tells Kawachi that he has no intention of losing delibrately by using the latter's bread directly. Kawachi and Tsubozuka watch in amazement as Azuma puts the bread into the rubbish bag...

It is so evident that CMAP is used as a parody for SMAP where even the acronym is a direct rip-off from Sports Music Assemble People. ^__^ I was giggling as I watched this and wondered how they could have done it in such an obvious manner. Anyway, I just can't link Tsubozuka to any of the SMAP members he could have represented. His appearance doesn't look like any of them and his name...the closest match I can think of is Kusanagi. Anyway, I guess the other members may appear in future so I can see whether they are modelled after the real SMAP members.

Azuma is always up to his unthinkable ways of making bread but asking Kawachi to make awful-tasting bread and throwing it into a rubbish bag? This is indeed worth thinking about. What exactly is he trying to do?