Manga Review: Toriko

Toriko is a japanese manga written by the author Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro. It was published by the japanese manga publishing company Shueisha and it is run in the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine alongside Bleach, Naruto and One Piece. It first began publication in May the 19th 2008 and is still currently ongoing with 8 volumes in total. At San Diego Comic-Con International 2009, Viz Media announced they had licensed the series for their Shonen Jump imprint.

In a world where the taste and texture of food is extremely important there exist individuals known as Bishoku-ya (luxury food providers) who specialize in the acquisition of rare ingredients and animals. Toriko is one of these hunters and it is his dream to find the most precious foods in the world and create the ultimate dinner course. As one of the most skilled hunters in the world he is regularly hired by restaurants and the rich to seek out new ingredients and rare animals. A man with inhuman ability, he utilizes his incredible strength and knowledge of the animal kingdom to capture ferocious, evasive and rare beasts to further his final goal, the ultimate dinner course composed of the most delicious food in the world. He is currently accompanied by a weak and timid chef who, inspired by Toriko's ambition, travels with him to improve his culinary skills and find rare ingredients.

You have a manga about men fighting, and you have a completely different manga about food and cooking, now combine them together, what do you get? a masterpiece of a manga! By far this is one of the most creative manga's I have ever read! using the theme of food throughout the entire manga is difficult to do because we all proberbly take eating for granted. However imagine a world where food is life! the economy, the education even the health care is revolved around food, the world is run by it! In this world there are millions of different spieces of animals that range from small mouses to gigantic dragons. Whats the catch? it is a dog eat dog world out there, humans are animals and the characters hunt and eat animals as it is the natural process in the animal kingdom. However these animals are anything but normal, so you need abnormal people, you need incredible gourmet fighters who literally fight to the death to eat!

Toriko: He is the main character and a A Bishoku-ya one of the four heavenly kings of the Gourmet World. He has an abnormally large appetite, A food serving for 500 people could only get him 1/10 full. Despite having a huge appetite and massive power, he doesn't indiscriminately kill and eat any animal; he only kills those animals he decides to eat. And what he decides to eat is only the strongest and deadliest animals on the planet! His main fighting abilities is his left arm which acts like his fork which he uses to spear his enemy's and his right arm as his knife which he uses to slice them! When utilising these two deadly abilities together he will literally make a meal of his enemys!

Coco: He is The "Gentleman" of the "Four Heavenly Kings" and good friends with Toriko. He is calm and composed and is a very peacefull man but he is incredibly deadly. Unlike Toriko who uses brute force and power to win his battles, Coco uses his wit and cunning with strategy in mind to subdue wild beasts. He is also strong defensively; he is immune to five hundred different kinds of poison. However what makes him truly dangerous is that he has been able to create his own poison by combining the most deadliest poisens in the world inside him. With this poisen he can utilize it in many different forms and wild animals instinctively do not approach for they will die a painfull death.

Sani: He is the third of the "Four Heavenly Kings" and a rival to toriko. He also utilises great strength just like Toriko but in the form of his hairs! He has monstrously strong hair, each one of its strings being strong enough to lift nearly 50 pounds, and with a full head of long flowing hair what he loses out on in defence he makes up in sheer power! He also has an incredible senses that allows him to detect danger and dangerous animals and can read attacks effectively. Also unlike Toriko he prefers much more beautifull food with harmony as he believe's it reflects his mind body and soul. And very much so he takes great pride in appearing beautifull no matter who he sees and how he acts.

Komatsu: With every strong guy as a main character you need a little weakling as his partner so that main protaganist has a reason to jump head first into danger to rescue him from pretty much damn everything. A five-star chef who works for Hotel Gourmet, part of the prestigious IGO (International Gourmet Organization). He posseses absolutely no fighting skill what so ever so Toriko and gang spend alot of time protecting him. But what he loses out on strength he makes up for in pure culinary skill! He is unmatched in his cooking abilities and is always on the hunt of the greatest of ingrediants to cook fabulous meals for everybody! It is his kindness that keeps the reckless Toriko in check.

This is a good example of old school shonen art style. I can imagine alot of people would not like it because the art style is dated, I mean it does resemble dragon ball quite alot, however the fact that you should keep in mind that BOTH of these manga's were awesome regardless of art. However that being said I still thing the art quality is pretty damn good, the ability to draw food and make it delicious is quite difficult, but they achieve it by the sheer detail in the expressions of the characters as they eat it. Yet it is not just the art quality when they are eating, it is of course also when they are fighting! the fight scenes are really well detailed and you can clearly see that as the manga progresses the art quality becomes much more sharper and clearer.

There is not many manga's out there in the world that are based on eating and food, so it is not difficult to say this manga is the very greatest when it comes to making you feel hungry. Watching the characters chow down on food and their expressions of pure bliss and joy is enough to make our stomachs rumble. Sure we might be looking at a piece of meat that was just carved out of a gorilla's leg but man it sure does look delicious! But it isn't just meat! all types of food is explored in this manga from vegetables to soups that are all more mouth watering then the last. But the very greatest thing I love about this manga is how they rate all the animals in the gourment world in levels. Sure it goes back to old school dragon ball z power levels, and yes further on in the manga it does get out of hand when you think a level 5 was big news and then we see a level 81 dragon. However it helps put animals and ultimately food in perspective of how difficult it is to get.

This manga is truly awesome and indeed a great manga. It is running in the Weekly Shonen Jump which is pretty much the most popular japanese manga magazine with Bleach, Naruto and One Piece in it. However this manga is so underrated and hardly anybody knows it! It is truly a shame that this manga does not receive the fame it so surely deserves in the western world. Any idiout can create a generic action manga, but to make all about a gourmet world?! now THAT is creativity. And it is not just the creative plotline that as it develops gives us more insight in the gourmet world and bizzare wildlife, but the fight scenes and characters! I can assure you, you will not see fighting styles like the ones in Toriko before! they are all based off eating someway or another and it always leaves me feeling amazed, and also a little hungry!