Iron Wok Jan 11
July 9, 2008
The Right Stuf just had a Dr Master sale recently, so I got the next five volumes of this series. I really should have ordered them from the Dr Master site (or whatever the shop linked from there is) some time ago, but I don’t want to tire myself out on this too quickly. I want to savor it.
I wouldn’t have believed it, but most of this entire volume is the conclusion of the contest between Jan and the Taoist. I mean, last volume they were both done cooking, so all we’re getting here is the spectacle of the taste test. I loved it. Both of the characters fought dirty, but the Taoist had a particularly twisted plan for his meal, and also tried to play a dirty trick on Jan when he nearly killed the judges by having them follow his durian meal by drinking wine.
Let me tell you, I have a hard time believing ANYTHING can get rid of the smell of durian. I don’t care what Iron Wok Jan says. It seems I went on at length about this the last time I spoke of this series. That’s cool, it bears repeating.
The last two chapters deal with a battle between Jan and an amateur chef who has hired Jan, Kiriko, and company to his house. He hires them to cook a Gobancho meal, but of course he just wants to challenge Jan. You can imagine how that goes. I think the story breaks off pretty cleanly, but I wouldn’t be surprised if its continued next volume with Kiriko teaching them a lesson.
The formula here is pretty basic, but I can forgive the series this based on the fact that Jan is an awesome character. I just found out that this is a Shonen Champion series, and based on the awesomeness of… I don’t know, Apocalypse Zero, I would hazard a guess that all Shonen Champion series are way over the top. That’s fine with me, it just reinforces my fondness for anything Akita Shoten publishes.
July 13, 2008 at 5:22 pm
[...] checks out Tough Love Baby, and Briana Lawrence reads vol. 2 of Don’t Blame Me. Connie reads vol. 11 of Iron Wok Jan, vol. 3 of Variante, vol. 7 of Enchanter, and vol. 12 of Saint Seiya at Slightly Biased Manga. Sesho [...]