Having lost his confidence as a breadsmith, Hoshino Masaki works for a bakery and boarding house in Otaru, Hokkaido. A story full of heart unfolds. As Masaki sees the smiles on the people eating his bread, he grows to maturity one step at a time as a baker and a person. Masaki no Pan picks up on a lot of queues from other gourmet manga while celebrating Otaru and Hokkaido’s cultural and gastronomic heritage.

Otaru is heavily featured in the manga, especially on the page-1 spreads. The author, Yamahana Noriyuki, was born in Otaru and is most famous for Yume de Aetara. A collaboration between Masaki no Pan and the Otaru City Literature Museum was organized by the Otaru Film Commission. Square Enix has a landing page for Masaki no Pan tourists and supposedly was making plans for a stamp rally.

The fictional bakery is supposedly said to be close to Asarigawaonsen Ski Resort. There are several real bakeries worth checking out in the area and in downtown Otaru.

Locations featured in Masaki no Pan were entered into an app called Megurutto, which is Japan-only and does not seem to be active anymore. The app has not been updated since 2019. The video below seems to have been produced for Megurutto.

* The China pins may be offset due to the GCJ-02 coordinate system problem.