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Main Characters
Kazuma Azuma (東和馬, Azuma Kazuma?) Voiced by:Yumiko Kobayashi Male protagonist, a bread artisan who dreams of making the perfect Japan. He doesn't seem very bright, but when it comes to bread he's a genius. (He is knowledgeable about rice because of his grandfather.) Azuma also has solar hands, exceptionally warm hands that allow the yeast to ferment faster and better when he is making his bread. Eternally optimistic and cheerful, he never gets upset from challenges faced in baking competitions, but rather from emotional tragedies. He gets his insipirations for his ja-pan from random sources, like other Japanese foods and stories from his experienced but overtalkative grandfather, a rice farmer. Unexpectedly great at math when he solved a complicated math problem in his head in less than a minute that took Pierrot hours to conceive that was written out in the sand.
Kyousuke Kawachi (河内恭介, Kawachi Kyōsuke?) - Voiced by:Shūhei Sakaguchi (阪口周平) Coworker and sidekick to Azuma, from the Kansai area. Initially, Kawachi's knowledge is superior to Azuma's, but as the story develops he becomes the fall guy and comedic relief with jokes focused on his incessant cry of "Whaaaaaaat?!" (lit. "Nanyate?!") in every chapter. He considers Azuma to be his rival, but the two develop a dynamic that is more like an older and younger brother, Kawachi being more experienced than Azuma in the world beyond bread. With Tsukino's help, he has obtained "solar gauntlets", solar hands developed through physical training. He is somewhat lazy and perverted, but at desperate times he focuses his effort to create exceptional bread. On one such occasion, he fulfilled the dream of his late father, a diligent but untalented baker, who wanted to make a white bread that was healthy, delicious, and could be eaten everyday. Interesting note about Kawachi is his hair style. Quite possibly the anime character with THE MOST hair style changes throughout the entire series. (A total of 4)
Kai Suwabara (諏訪原戒, Suwabara Kai?) Voiced by:Takayuki Sakazume (坂詰貴之, Sakazume Takayuki?) - Kuroyanagi's understudy, a serious bread artisan. A master of the katana who claims to have left the swordsman path of destruction to follow the path of life-giving bread. Despite that, he often becomes very warrior-like and fearsome during baking competitions, which occasionally makes other characters wonder if he is truly focused on the 'life-giving' aspect of his bread. Like Kawachi, he has solar gauntlets and considers Azuma as a rival. On first appearances, he seems cold-hearted and tough, but in the Monaco Cup Final, he falls in love with a rival German baker working for the American team, Monica Adenauer, and shows a more tender side of himself.
Shigeru Kanmuri (冠茂, Kanmuri Shigeru?) Voiced by:Marina Inoue - An extremely talented Pantasia baker, encountered first during the Pantasia Newcomers' Tournament and discovered to posses the solar hands as well. A Harvard graduate like Kuroyanagi, he looks up to him as a mentor, calling him 'Senpai'(which means Senior). He is considered as a "Harvard Junior Genius", having graduated the prestigious school at a very young age of sixteen. Originally working for Tsukino's evil sister Yukino Azusagawa, Kanmuri defected to the Pantasia's Southern Tokyo store to work with Azuma. He remained to keep the store throughout the Monaco Cup, but rejoined the team for the Yakitate!! 25/Yakitate!! 9 challenge. Recently revealed to be one out of the last two possible heirs to the Hashiguchi Company (the biggest gangster organization in Japan). Although he firmly states that he'd never join the Yakuza, problem sets as the other heir, Tsutsumi Masanobu, Shigeru's half-brother, shares the same sentiments. Tsutsumi is jealous at his half-brother for getting all the attention from their father, thus fueling his own determination to defeat the younger boy in a cooking/baking competition. This problem is promptly settled with a one-on-one battle in Yakitate!!25/Yakitate!! 9 (refer to Episode 62).
Tsukino Azusagawa (梓川月乃, Azusagawa Tsukino?) - Voiced by:Chihiro Otsuka Granddaughter to the owner of the Pantasia chain, and understudy to Ken Matsushiro. Seems to have a crush on Azuma, though it is never explicitly stated. Has difficulty getting along with the rest of the Pantasia-involved Azusagawa family because she is an illegitimate child. She is still very dedicated to the Pantasia chain, seeking out talented new bakers (like Azuma and Kawachi) and has garnered the support of many other characters.
Ken Matsushiro (松代健, Matsushiro Ken?) Voiced by:Hiroki Touchi - Manager of Pantasia Southern Tokyo branch. A burly man with an afro and sunglasses. Renowned as the best French-bread artisan in Japan, he seems to have a predeliction with horses and betting on horse-racing. He is Kuroyanagi's former teacher, but early on recognised his outstanding talent as a food critic, and from that point on discouraged his baking, ultimately driving him away. He also likes to tease Kawachi, to whom he was apparently very similar in his youth, occasionally to give him ideas on bread, but mostly just for the hell of it. He also can make Kawachi hallucinate at times.
Bread Judges
Ryo Kuroyanagi (黒柳亮, Kuroyanagi Ryō?) Voiced by:Takehito Koyasu - The head at the main Pantasia branch, and a Harvard graduate with a Food Science diploma (There he had a girlfriend named Cathy but they got seperated when he needs to go back to Japan). His passion and talent is food tasting, at which he excels. His strait-laced no-nonsense attitude belies his very silly quirk of making strange pun-based reactions to the delicious bread he's eating (He once married an extremely ugly woman just for the sake of a pun. He then got a divorce five minutes later.) He used to be the student of Ken, but Ken drove Ryo away with his behaviour. He is given the opportunity by Yuuichi Kirisaki to fully utilize his skills as a judge for the Yakitate!! 25 competition (Yakitate!! 9 in the anime).
Pierrot Bolnez/Leonhart XV (ピエロ・ボルネーゼ, Piero Borunēze?) Voiced by:Tomokazu Seki - A world class clown working as a bread judge, aged 22. Can speak 135 languages, divide into over a hundred copies of himself, and do all sorts of amazing things due to being 'world-class' clown. Heir to the throne of Monaco, though he doesn't know it at first until the second Monaco Cup competition. Pierrot learns that he is heir to Monaco only through blood loss, he has an ultra-rare blood type called Bombay blood, which the king of Monaco also has. He became a world class clown so that his parents might find him, who he believed had abandoned him at the circus as an infant. In fact, he was given up to be brought up by ordinary foster parents away from the Royal palace, according to Monaco tradition. But these parents ran away with the money paid to them, leaving Pierrot behind. When they committed suicide, he was pronounced dead, but actually ended up in the Quedam [3] circus.
His real mother had died at his birth. The King of Monaco (discovering he shared the same rare blood type with Pierrot) sacrificed himself to donate blood, after one of Pierrot's reactions (Kawachi's Final Victory) turns into 'murder' and he reveals his true background. He is later nicknamed 'Miracle Prince' and both teams decided to make a bread that let him see his parents once again. Azuma's Japan #61 allows him to change history, save his mother and father, and alter his entire life for the better, it seems. Pierrot is the predominant character of the Monaco Cup Arc, who gives the series a fresh aspect, away from just bread-making.
Antagonists
Yūichi Kirisaki (霧崎雄一, Kirisaki Yūichi?) Voiced by:Fumihiko Tachiki - Azuma's main antagonist, the owner of St. Pierre, and ironically, the same 'kind old man' who encouraged Azuma and started his baking career in the very first chapter/episode. He is in league with Yukino, who, in her struggle to dominate her sisters for control of Pantasia, betrays the store and allows Kirisaki to buy it out. The reason for Pantasia's involvement in the Monaco Cup is so that Kanmuri can organize the ten billion yen required to protect the company, but in the end, the plot fails. Kirisaki allows the team a final chance in the Yakitate!! 25 (manga) /Yakitate!! 9 (anime) competition to win back Pantasia, but his ulterior motives for this are not yet clear. Yuuichi's brilliant and estranged son Meister Silvan Kirisaki is the general manager of Pantasia, and his daughter Sophie Balzac Kirisaki assists Azuma's team during the Monaco Cup. When he eats Kazuma's bread in the final round of Yakitate!! 9, he experiences a change of heart and explains to Pierrot why he has been so cruel to Kazuma, but when the effect of Kazuma's bread wears off, his original attitude returns and he continues to challenge Azuma.
Yukino Azusagawa (梓川雪乃, Azusagawa Yukino?) Voiced by:Atsuko Yuya (湯屋 敦子) - The eldest daughter of Pantasia. She had intended to buy up her grandfather's stock but ended up being the president of St. Pierre in a twist. She has a grudge against Pantasia and ended up trying to exhaust Pantasia's 12 billion yen. This character is another one of Azuma's antagonists and possesses the opposite of Solar hands: Snow Storm Hands
Rival Bakers
Tsuyoshi Mokoyama (模糊山剛, Mokoyama Tsuyoshi?) - A contemporary of Ken Matsushiro and a master of sweet breads. He worked at the St. Pierre main branch in South Tokyo--a store opposite the one managed by Ken and Tsukino. After drawing against Azuma in a nationally televised bread battle, Mokoyama was forced to leave St. Pierre and befriended Mizuno Azusagawa. He joined the Pantasia Newcomer's Battle wearing a Koala mask where he tied Azuma once again. Later, in the Yakitate!! 9/25 arc, this time wearing a "Panda" mask, he lost to Azuma. Further, Azuma's bamboo flavored bread had the effect of transforming him into a real panda. Mokoyama was portrayed as a very effeminate man who was always worried about his complexion and appearance and at St. Pierre he had a harem of male bakers cater to his needs.
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