Iron Wok Jan 1
Posted: December 17, 2007 Filed under: Iron Wok Jan 3 Comments »Because I heard the last volume just came out, and because Right Stuf was having a sale on DrMaster books, I momentarily lost my reason and decided to commit to a 27-volume cooking manga series by buying the first four volumes.
While things like this are not easy to explain to my roommate, he has never read a cooking manga, nor does he understand how fantastic many of them are. I’ve heard Jan is one of the best. From what I read in volume one, it’s got a pretty simple formula, but still manages to be insanely awesome.
The plot of the series is this: Jan’s grandpa died, and asked an old friend of his to take Jan on as an apprentice at his restaurant. Said friend runs the most prestigious Chinese restaurant in all of Japan. Jan vows to be the best Chinese cook and beat the venerable old chef and his prodigy granddaughter to this title. That’s all there is to it.
Each chapter is just a new recipe with characters reacting to each other’s cooking so far. But the cooking is so insanely intense, and drawn with such energy, and the character’s reactions are so exaggerated, it’s hard not to get drawn into the action. It’s just so over-the-top, almost a parody, that it’s hard not to like.
The art is also quite good, with not only the food lovingly rendered, but the characters are all drawn in particularly weird styles. Jan is totally evil-looking, and one worries he will consume one of his fellow coworkers in a fit of bragging. Kiriko is drawn with enormous breasts for no real reason (she’s the only female in the series, I guess), and her grandfather has eyes that jut from his head that seem to point in different directions.
Jan is really the reason I’ll keep reading this series, though. He’s a total asshole, and he gets no end of pleasure from dissing his fellow employees, or any human being for that matter. His perfect dishes are often followed by tirades that may last for several pages about how great he is. Jan’s just awesome.
Super exaggerated reactions and over-the-top parody? Sounds very much like Yakitate Japan! Only, without bread of course.
Yeah, I’ve heard they’re very similar series. I just picked this one to start instead of Yakitate because I liked the idea of a really irritating, abrasive main character.
Jan is irritating and abrasive, to say the very least. XD