Yakitate!! Japan

Yakitate!! Ja-pan (????!! ????, meaning "Freshly Baked!! Ja-pan", the "pan" also meaning "bread" in Japanese) is a manga series, written and illustrated by Takashi Hashiguchi, serialized in Shogakukan's Weekly Sh?nen Sunday from January 16, 2002 to January 24, 2007. The manga has spanned 26 tank?bon volumes. An anime television series produced by Sunrise aired on TV Tokyo and other local stations from October 2004 to March 2006, with a total of 69 episodes. The manga series was later licensed by Viz Media for North American distribution. The series won the 49th Shogakukan Manga Award for best sh?nen manga in 2004.