Iron Wok Jan 18
Posted: February 21, 2009 Filed under: Iron Wok Jan 1 Comment »This was another pretty awesome volume, despite the fact it stuck pretty close to the competition storyline again.
I’m not sure who this series is trying to fool. They start to talk about the master of Chinese cooking secretly entering the competition, and it’s extremely clear to me that it’s the smiley guy who is unrelated to the Riku clan that is the person they’re looking for. Of course, I’m not a 12-year-old boy, but it just seems like Iron Wok Jan is the type of series that could at least try to appeal to an audience slightly outside its age range, given the insane detail it puts into all its cooking.
Of course, this is also one of the more immature titles you can find, and hilariously so. Kiriko and Celine’s breasts keep getting larger and larger while their waists keep getting smaller and smaller. One of the panels towards the beginning of the volume makes you realize that they are now divorced completely from what women actually look like. This is actually pretty funny since this is not exploited at all. Kiriko and Celine are rarely wearing anything other than their chef outfits, so there’s not a lot of cheesecake opportunities. At one point, while Kiriko and Jan are fighting, Kiriko grabs Jan and his head is DIRECTLY IN her breasts. This is, I believe, the first time I have ever seen a shounen manga hero with his head in between the main female’s ample breasts, and neither character mentioned it. At all. I thought the volume would burst into flames in my hand.
The cooking? Hmm. Lots of potstickers. My favorite was probably Suguru’s goldfish potstickers, only because he put a lot of thought into making them swim, and I thought that was awesome.
I forgot that Ransei Koh’s deal was revealed in the last third or so of the volume. I like that he’s just as big an asshole as Jan, except he badgers people with his niceness, whereas Jan just does it out of malice. I think Koh’s method is slightly more evil.
[...] (Comics Village) Michelle Smith on vols. 2 and 3 of Hissing (soliloquy in blue) Connie on vols. 18, 19, and 20 of Iron Wok Jan (Slightly Biased Manga) Julie on vol. 2 of Kiichi and the Magic Books [...]