Yakitate!! Japan 8-10 by Takashi HASHIGUCHI
These three volumes of Yakitate!! Japan bring us to the Monaco Cup arc. Azuma and his teammates meet the other competitors and test their baking mettle.
What I did enjoy about finally getting to the Monaco Cup arc is Pierrot’s arrival in the series, and boy, does he manage to steal the show. I actually think that this arc is less about Azuma and more about the clown, considering that his flashbacks take up a good chunk of each volume every time. Whereas Kuroyanagi’s reactions were more ‘punny,’ Pierrot’s reactions as the competition judge always involved him recapping part of life story (a task that would generally take hours and would tire out his listeners most of the time).
Despite Pierrot, this isn’t my fave arc in the series. There are parts where it feels entirely dragged out, and where Azuma pulling out a Ja-pan out from his bag o’tricks just isn’t as amusing as it was in the Pantasia competition arc. I’m not sure if having dual plotlines of intrigue and sabotage was such a good idea for what really started out as a comedy shonen manga. There were still a good laugh-out loud moments, but not as much as in previous volumes.
Do check out the creative Lord of the Rings parody chapter in v.10. It’s worth the price of admission, in my book.