Iron Wok Jan 26
July 25, 2009
Shinji Saijyo – DrMaster – 2007 – 27 volumes
I want to say that there were pacing problems with this volume. After all, we start with the judging and end with the judging not quite finished. The entire last half of the book is dedicated solely to talking about how awesome Jan’s dish is. An entire volume of judging… well, that’s hard to take.
On the other hand, I could not read it fast enough. I was literally flying through it to see what would happen when Jan’s dish came up for judging. I had my guess about what he used on his meat, and in the end, I was right. Except it’s much more horrible and grotesque than I could have ever possibly imagined, and seeing all the stuff drawn out and the judges puking and stuff like that… that’s why you should read Iron Wok Jan and not any other sissy cooking manga. Of course, many people will probably not get this far even if they do read it (it’s long, and its hard to take 27 volumes of straight-up cooking contests that move slowly), but know that vomit awaits you when you do.
Also, finally the judges called Koh and Kiriko out a problem I’ve been noticing with the dishes for the past several rounds. They were making dishes with the ingredient, but not dishes that featured the flavor of the ingredient. Why that factored in just now rather than in some of the more blatant violations earlier… I’m not really sure. But it was awesome to see both of them humbled like that. That’s not to say their scores were affected, really, but it did come up.
If you’ll excuse me, I have to read the last volume right now.
