Toriko 8

Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro – Viz – 2011 – 19+ volumes

I don’t know, guys. Every volume I read of this makes me like it more and more. I still can’t see that the story is really headed anywhere, but I really appreciate all the extreme, over-the-top detail that goes into the story. More importantly, it’s paced really, really well. That’s something that I can appreciate in a shounen manga. Especially a Shounen Jump manga.

In the volumes I’ve read of this series so far (which, admittedly, is only 6-8 or something), the story does not linger overlong on whatever story it’s presenting. Toriko’s hunting chapters might take up half a volume, then the other half is spent setting up the next hunt. The hunts might actually take up a full volume, but so far, they seem to be split between two half-volumes, which is the perfect length. In what I’ve read, there’s nothing terribly special about the actual fighting. Toriko simply clobbers his opponents, so there’s no need to linger over-long on this. The magic is in the fact that he’s fighting gigantic manly platypus/zebra hybrids with buff muscular legs that spit acid or whatever. Ideas like that keep coming, and that’s why this series is awesome, but each one only goes so far. It seems like Shimabukuro recognizes this limitation, and rolls with it. This is a skill I dearly wish more shounen mangaka possessed.

I also like that he seems to take throwaway ideas from his readers. There’s a lot of crazy one-offs in the dialogue, events and creatures that the characters are constantly alluding to and not shown, and Shimabukuro seems to take these throwaway ideas from his readers, with each credited in the margins. They don’t affect the story, but it still must be neat to have that chance of your name appearing in the comic.

The story here is about Toriko and Komatsu go to Gourmet City, where they stroll around and admire all the crazy on display (such as vending machines that cost $1,000 and dispense the equivalent meal). Then they meet up with an acquaintance of Toriko’s, who winds up being one of the best chefs in the world. Apparently you have to book a meal at her restaurant 10 years in advance, and she only opens when she feels like it. She serves both Toriko and Komatsu a dish called Century Soup, then lets them in on a secret: Century Soup occurs in nature, and hers is imperfect. She asks them to go get the original, appearing for the first time in 100 years.

And this sets up the story for the next hunt, where Toriko and Komatsu head to an arctic region to retrieve Century Soup from the “gourmet’s freezer,” an ice column used by cooks of the distant past (before freezers were invented). The ice column periodically melts due to gases being released by the ocean, and Toriko and all the other Gourmet Hunters in the world are trying to be the first ones to the column in order to lay hands on the Century Soup.

I’m not really doing justice to why I like it so much, though. As I said, it’s not really the story, which doesn’t really try to go above and beyond the minimum requirements. The charm is on the crazy that drips off every page. Absolutely everything in the world of Toriko, including Toriko himself (especially Toriko himself) is EXTREME in the truest sense of the word. It’s funny, though the series itself doesn’t pause over-long on any of it. It’s all very off-handed, which is why it’s difficult to convey in a review like this. It’s awesome, though, and I’d say it’s worth a look if you’re into the kind of super-macho, over-the-top but funny stuff you might find in… actually, I don’t even know what to compare this to. Toriko’s its own thing. It’s worth taking a look, but I still don’t know if I’m in for the long haul yet. It’s more amusing than it is engrossing.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.

Toriko 7

Motsutoshi Shimabukuro – Viz – 2012 – 18+ volumes

I don’t know. I just have a weakness for over-the-top series like this. It’s just so intentionally manly. He tears at things with his bare hands. He has a dog that beats things up. I mean, this makes his quest for the perfect type of popcorn look like something only the most seasoned warriors can do. And to be fair, it is. But still, it’s popcorn.

Sadly, the quest for the perfect popcorn comes as a result of the fact that Terry, his wolf, can’t eat anything that appears on the continent where Toriko lives. Terry is a wild beast, and needs wild fare to subsist. So they go to the Wool Continent, which has the Gourmet food that Terry needs to live. But the catch is, on the Wool continent, even the plants beat you up. After lengthy dialogues about where Terry pees, there’s a strange and manly fight with a tree that Toriko makes Terry fight for himself. It makes men out of both of them.

Hilariously, Toriko carries around some sort of plant that has leaves that wilt in response to the power level of Toriko’s opponent. 1-3 leaves fall off when they run across most of the man eaters in this forest, but when Toriko gets angry, I think all the leaves fall off. Because he’s that strong, you see. Of course, that might be in response to the plant he and Terry fight too, but I’m pretty sure it wilted when Toriko powered up for a second.

Anyway, they find an enormous ear of corn, suitable for popping. Not even Toriko’s knife hand can properly saw this off. Of course, the only place that’s appropriate for popping enormous kernels of corn is a volcano.

So they do that. They roast an enormous kernel of corn, from the top of a forest of man-eating plants, one that Toriko sawed off with his hand, over a volcano.

That’s why this series is awesome. I haven’t even read that many volumes of it, but I’m sorry for that oversight now.

There’s some fighting with a new opponent or something too, which is what Shounen Jump series do. But I’m in it for the manly hijinx. And Toriko has that aplenty. I’m not sure, exactly, how long the ridiculousness will be fresh for me, but at the moment, I couldn’t be happier with it. These volumes make me laugh, and it’s clear that the artist is in on the joke. I love it. It’s sad that I cannot enjoy food manga unless it’s something like this or Iron Wok Jan, but it’s true. There needs to be blood shed from the cook in order for it to be manly enough for my taste.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.

Toriko 6

Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro – Viz – 2011 – 15+ volumes

I have a hard time believing this ran in Shounen Jump. It reads a lot like a “do whatever manly thing you feel” Shounen Champion series. Actually, it reads a lot like the love child of Iron Wok Jan (a Champion series) and Saint Seiya (a Jump series whose current incarnation runs in Champion). The only thing that it’s missing, something integral to every Shounen Champion series, is an element of poor taste. There’s no mean-spirited protagonist, no slapping women around, no penises drawn into the background, no serving people their own pet dogs, no messily exploding heads, no panties, nothing like that.

But it has everything else. Nonsensical manliness to the X-TREME. I like Iron Wok Jan better, because I’m a terrible person who thinks poor taste is hilarious, but Toriko definitely has potential.

It’s set in an alternate world, with manly animals that are hunted by manly men. The manliest of these manly hunters is Toriko, but he’s followed by “Four Kings.” In this volume, two of the Four Kings fight off shaggy birdmen who are unstoppable in the Saint Seiya sense. Toriko is literally in the digestive system of an enormous mammoth, searching for something called Jewel Meat.

I liked the fights for the same reason I like the fights in Saint Seiya. Much time is spent by the birdmen berating the heroes, telling them how strong they are and how the heroes can never hope to defeat them. Then the heroes use their ultimate technique. Then it’s revealed the birdmen are even stronger than they were letting on. Luckily, the heroes were only bluffing about the last attack being their ultimate technique, so they get to attack again. Repeat for 160 pages.

It’s better than it sounds, because in order to do this and not put the reader to sleep, you have to be awesome and over-the-top. Toriko pulls this off. Not only because the heroes seem to bask in their manliness, but also because they seem to use powers that have little to do with cooking. One of them has a poison body, for some reason. Hilariously, his poison is strong enough to kill a robot. One of them has “sensors” in all his hair that make it come to life and attack things. His final attack is also worth seeing. Toriko transforms, which seems way less awesome to me, but the fight that happens when both parties stumble onto the Jewel Meat overrode any concerns I had about this. Also, the fact that many of the fights are between half-naked buff dudes.

Granted, there’s not a whole lot of “meat” to this series, despite the fact that a lot of what they’re doing is hunting and consuming raw meat. And the insanity is more contained than I would like, which is likely a product of the fact it ran in Shounen Jump. But it’s exactly the sort of entertaining nonsense I like to read. I would totally read it from the beginning. It’s definitely not for everybody, though.

I also love that it is a “cooking manga,” but the covers never seem to reflect this. Possibly because not a whole lot of cooking happens. But it’s definitely about food culture. In its way.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.