David Lim
One of the more iconic of sports manga. It's the first series where I actually both read the manga and watched the anime. It has flawed protagonists, growing up pains, colourful characters, and beautiful meaningful relationships, all neatly wrapped around the context of college basketball.
One of the more iconic of sports manga. It's the first series where I actually both read the manga and watched the anime. It has flawed protagonists, growing up pains, colourful characters, and beautiful meaningful relationships, all neatly wrapped around the context of college basketball.
Yukihira Souma vs Hayama Akira, theme: bear meat. Awesome volume. We see the depth of Souma's cooking - “why” he cooks. We also see more backstory on how Hayama Akira turn out this way. And we see the next level of the Nakiri family's ahem foodgasm.
The most prestigious and the most bizarre Blue competition has started, pitting Light vs Dark. This is becoming a bit weird to be honest. A surprise candidate for the Light side shows up.
There's a lot of build-up in this volume. The bad guys level-up again, this time a whole new team of antagonists, with the volume ending on a cliffhanger of danger. Oh, and Tatsumi stumbles upon the feminine side of General Esdeath (you know what that means).
And the Regal Mammoth arc draws to a close. We see the three (out of four) Heavenly Kings each battle a GT Robo. And here is where things are first very noticeably different from the anime. The fights are a lot of bloodier and more violent than what can be shown in an anime targeted at kids. I think like this better. But Komatsu's reactions to Toriko is the same as in anime. So however you feel while watching the anime, it'll be same here. This is where it all starts.
Interestingly, I had completely forgotten that Sani actually had this aversion to other people seeing his hair punch attack. This is probably the only time it was ever mentioned, and I guess the other just dropped it later, seeing as he needed to power up Sani as well.And another point of interest is that Rin had a Devil Durian fragrance, in which the tree actually shows up much later.
Nakiri Erina finally makes an appearance in the fourth round of the Regiment de Cuisine. Erina, Isshiki, and Takumi face off against Eishi, Rindou, and Momo, with Eishi and Rindou having recovered from their tiring second round. Erina's dish has a surprising and very touching inspiration.
As expected, Central sweeps the second round, producing convincing dishes that overpower the best the rebels can produce. But apparently, this is part of Erina's strategy - to wear out the top three in order to force them to skip the third round.
The BB Corn arc ended rather quickly and now we get into the Century Soup arc. As I recall from the anime, this is much longer. We get introduced to more of this “Gourmet” world with what is apparently the “capital” city of the human world, Gourmet Town (why it's translated as “Town” is beyond me). A short bout of exploration, we finally get introduced to a second female character - an old lady chef who's apparently a “living legend”. I'm really amused though, 8 volumes and only 2 females. Anyway, it's also from this legendary chef that we get more confirmation of Komatsu's instinct and talent for ingredients. And all this lead to the need to find the Century Shop in Ice Hell.
Side note: Just another observation based on the anime. This Century Soup arc is the last time we really get to see other bishoukuyas as something a bit more than just a single-scene footnote. Like the Hunter X Hunter I suppose, these minor characters just stop getting mentioned. But I feel that it's kind of a waste, as they bring the setting to life, that it's not just Toriko and his friends who are doing this stuff.
Saiba Joichiro and Dojima Gin start training Souma, Erina, Megumi, and Takumi for the Regiment de Cusine. A couple of time-skips later, the battle begins. Souma had bad luck with the theme in the first round!
After Central's top three swept the second round, the rebels send out their first years - Souma, Takumi, and Megumi. I have to say that, although Souma continues to take center stage, Takumi and Megumi are the stars here. Both of them have gained new skills. We also got a bit of backstory for Saito Somei.
One of the more iconic of sports manga. It's the first series where I actually both read the manga and watched the anime. It has flawed protagonists, growing up pains, colourful characters, and beautiful meaningful relationships, all neatly wrapped around the context of college basketball.
Resident Evil plus fan service. What's not to like?
I only found out about this watching some Youtube video on the Resident Evil timeline. I came in expecting cheesy fun and gratuitous “skin” and I wasn't disappointed. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that the plot is actually pretty engrossing.
We essentially follow a reality TV filming crew (think Survival, but with bikini-clad contestants) arriving at a tropical island. Claire Redfield and Inéz Diaco of Terrasave also just happen to be around investigating rumours of a biohazard. The pacing is actually pretty good as we're shown new B.O.W.s right off the bat with several plot arcs kicking off pretty early - a naive Assistant Director with a crush, the video game protagonists, a mysterious local cult, and a couple of unknowns among the crew with hidden agenda.
One of the more iconic of sports manga. It's the first series where I actually both read the manga and watched the anime. It has flawed protagonists, growing up pains, colourful characters, and beautiful meaningful relationships, all neatly wrapped around the context of college basketball.
The volume starts off on a lighter note, but towards the end, reality sets in, and Takumi is shown the brutality of the world that he has gotten himself into. A world full of twisted people and morality and “rightness” all turned completely upside-down. Things get dark really fast.
One of the more iconic of sports manga. It's the first series where I actually both read the manga and watched the anime. It has flawed protagonists, growing up pains, colourful characters, and beautiful meaningful relationships, all neatly wrapped around the context of college basketball.
And Night Raid clashed with the split-group of Jaegers headed by Kurome. There's a lot of action in this volume, and as you can probably expect, deaths, injuries, and backstory occurred on both sides. My favourite character sadly falls here.
Wow, talk about speeding through the plot! Things start getting very noticeably different from the anime. After the celebrations of the victory over the Four Beasts, we enter the Olympics of this Gourmet World - the 50th Cooking Fest! Due to his exploits, Komatsu gets recognised with a rank and gains eligibility into the competition. In the anime, there were a couple of interludes where the Four Heavenly Kings are shown appreciating the results of their training and fight. There was only a very short moment with Toriko here in the manga, before the Cooking Fest arc begins proper. Lots of chefs were introduced, some not even named in the anime. After a similar opening and the introduction of Buranchi, the actual preliminaries were over in just a single page. The anime actually devoted some time to each preliminary round. That was better than just, “oh, there were these rounds that took place and Komatsu successfully passed them”. Maybe the author was on some sort of deadline so the pacing went up.
The final round of the Regiment de Cuisine and the finale of the advancement exam arc! Souma and Erina face off against Central's Eishi and Rindou. This one really pulls out all the stops and is a tense affair from start to finish.
With the Regal Mammoth arc wrapped up nicely, we go after plants for a while: enter the BB Corn arc. The first of the Bishoukukai shows up in the flesh in this volume. A strange four-armed man. The funny thing is that not a single character in the entire anime commented on his four arms. I found that really odd. Sure, this series is about evolution and mutation but still, four arms and not a single character even referenced it, not even in the typical mange/anime shocked style of reactions. I do find his power to be genuinely interesting though, it's a really atypical set of abilities.
Sidenote: The closing of the Regal Mammoth arc is one of the last times that I can even recall the Four Heavenly Kings talking about their own personal full course menu. Over the course of the anime series, this goal of Toriko goes more and more into the background and no longer relevant. It's kind of disappointing as that was one his whole motivation for going on adventures to find gourmet ingredients in the first place, and not just "training" (which is what the latter parts of the series just devolves into).
One of the more iconic of sports manga. It's the first series where I actually both read the manga and watched the anime. It has flawed protagonists, growing up pains, colourful characters, and beautiful meaningful relationships, all neatly wrapped around the context of college basketball.
The Moon Festival climaxes splendidly, as Souma claws his back from a loss on the first day, with Mimasaka Subaru put to good use. We also get to see Eishi Tsukasa, the current First Seat, in action for the first time in the series. The whole series takes a darker tone towards the end, as Nakiri Erina's estranged sinister-looking father makes a reappearance.
The Aldini brothers get caught up with a nefarious (and somewhat offensive) noir chef. Well, you-know-who just happens to be right there to help him out. The feel of the series has definitely changed, and it's not for the better. It's no longer a cooking manga - more like a duel/fighting manga but using “special” skills and culinary dishes as weapons instead.
Souma's shokugeki with the First Seat concludes... with something that feels somewhat like a cop-out. It's explained, but still feels like a cop-out. But the rest of the volume was great - more backstory on Erina's childhood, seeing other supporting characters shine, and the set up for the next “field trip”, which is the advancement exams for the first tears, potentially spelling doom for the band of resisting students.
One of the more iconic of sports manga. It's the first series where I actually both read the manga and watched the anime. It has flawed protagonists, growing up pains, colourful characters, and beautiful meaningful relationships, all neatly wrapped around the context of college basketball.