[Manga] Toriko

In a world where the taste and texture of food are an extremely important part of life, a man with superhuman skills is regularly hired by restaurants and the rich as a hunter of precious foods. With the "help" of his timid accomplice, inspired by Toriko's greatness to accompany him, he travels to capture the evasive and ferocious animals he needs to create the ultimate dinner course.

source: Toriko Mangarock

About

Toriko is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro. It was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from May 2008 to November 2016 and published by Shueisha. Toriko was adapted into an anime series by Toei Animation from 2011 to 2014 running a total of 147 episodes.

Thoughts

I came to know of Toriko in 2011 when One Piece did a special crossover with the characters in Toriko. I have to admit I wasn't a big fan of the grotesquely over the top character designs. Muscles all over, big noses, over proportioned body. It wasn't an anime you'll watch if you're too picky on how the characters are presented. But when I've heard that Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro(Toriko) was a good and close friend of Eiichiro Oda(One Piece). My curiosity was piqued. I really do like Oda's writing, so maybe this guy is as good as Oda too. And boy Toriko did not disappoint me.

To start off, don't let the preview of Toriko fool you. While food is the main focus of the show, it's not simply a cooking contest, it's way better than that. The story takes place during the Gourmet Age where Food is above all other things. Delicious foods can start wars and even end one. Discovering an unknown ingredient is praised upon. Hodling rare ingredients is a must to gain and stay in power.

The story starts with Toriko, a famous gourmet hunter together with his cook Komatsu as they try to discover and hunt rare undiscovered ingredients in the wild. Toriko's main goal is to complete his full course menu, which constitutes the top 8 favored dish of a gourmet hunter. This simplistic concept is probably the main reason why early viewers drop the show added with the main characters over the top super human strength it's just hard to take the show seriously. But I believe that was a part of Toriko's charm, Toriko is a pretty straightforward shounen series where a monster (ingredient) appears, gets defeated by the main character, and then another stronger one comes along. This might seem a little cliche, but this is the kind of cliche where every anime lover who loves action is just drawn to.

Oviously Toriko is not all about hunting and defeating monsters. Like every shounen anime there is, things start to get interesting when an unkown and powerful organization is involved behind the scenes. This is when Toriko really starts. Everything seems to move forward, the plot starts to get deeper and complex in a positive way. The way the show handle things at this point is also remarkable seeing as nothing seems to be out of control. The battle scenes are just perfect, not that short also not that long. A little comedy is thrown once in a while making the show refreshing and fun to binge watch. The music is good but almost forgettable.

Overall, Toriko is a fun and entertaining show to watch. It's not your typical anime where the main characters are teens or good looking guys to attract more audience. Despite starting as a simplistic concept, the plot evolves into a deep and complex story which is worth looking forward to. The way the legendary characters are introduced in such a way as to create a big impact and not overwhelm the audience is astounding. If you actually like action shounen series, then I'm pretty sure you'll definitely love Toriko.