Iron Wok Jan 24
Posted: July 13, 2009 Filed under: Iron Wok Jan 1 Comment »The most notable thing about this volume is a gaiden-type story in the back about Kaiichiro and Mutsuju being jerks in China sometime during Japanese occupation. They both more or less have the same attitudes as Jan, something I wouldn’t have expected of Mutsuju (the current owner of the Gobancho restaurant), but I liked seeing the story about when he and Jan’s grandpa were friends. Of course, they accidentally do good deed during the course of their cooking studies, something that would never happen to Jan, so maybe I overestimate their evil. Hilariously, they run into Oitani and his father, and Oitani was a really bratty babydoll-looking youth.
Otherwise, the only other things going on in the main storyline are the slaughter of the ostriches and the very, very early prelim stages of the final round of the cooking competition. This will be a slow one, folks.
Actually, two other awesome things happen, things that keep me reading and very, very interested despite the slow pace and repetitive nature of the competitions. One is a horrible, horrible joke that Ransei Koh makes at the end of the volume for no reason about teeth. It’s like the type of joke that’s supposed to be a pun, but isn’t. I can’t say if it’s a bad translation making it fall flatter (Iron Wok Jan doesn’t have the best or most consistent adaptation), but I’m willing to bet that it was that horrible in the original too, and I love it a little more because of it.
The other is the extreme way that everyone kills their ostriches, but especially Jan. Kiriko’s method is purposeful and relatively straightforward (aside from the fact she’s using a meat cleaver to decpaitate them), Koh’s method is kind of silly, which seems to fit with him, and Jan… well, he uses a gold-colored cymbal monkey, a closed-off room, and gas. Yes, that’s right, he gasses the birds to death. I know that’s a minor spoiler, but I feel it necessary, because if even one person decides to pick up the series, it will be worth it. And if you’re still on the fence, know that things like that happen all the time.
[...] as Daylight) Michelle Smith on vols. 3 and 4 of Honey and Clover (Soliloquy in Blue) Connie on vol. 24 of Iron Wok Jan (Slightly Biased Manga) Lexie on vols. 1 and 2 of Kieli (Poisoned Rationality) Lorena on vol. 4 of [...]