Toriko

The story of Toriko takes place in the Gourmet Age. In that world people live to eat. Wars can erupt over delicious food. The main character Toriko and his partner Komatsu travel around the world to find exquisite ingredients. Toriko hunts, his partner cooks. This is the basic premise and I’ll be honest, it sounds stupid. Teenage heroes of other anime are trying to save humanity, planets, their family and friends from cool-looking edgy evil forces. But Toriko, a twenty five years old adult male, is chasing after food. It isn’t primarily a comedy anime to excuse the premise. Although soon it becomes clearthat evil people can use rare food for their evil ends, it still isn’t enough to make most viewers take Toriko seriously. I’d like people to watch it but I will be honest. Toriko is mediocre at best. Despite its simple and not-too-intelligent premise, the story unfolds itself and turns out to be very complicated. For the first time in the history of shounen anime, the main character’s voracious appetite has a convincing reason: some people in this world have gourmet cells which can evolve and ultimately level up as they consume high-quality food. Because these cells demand an immense amount of energy, characters usually eat a lot. This constant need for better food makes the story dynamic. Villains and heroes vie for the best food to become stronger which opens up possibilities of immense change. As they get stronger, they search for the ultimate food that can make one the most powerful. Thus, many different groups, both righteous and evil, clash with each other over food. As the story progresses it gets very complex but nothing is out of control, the anime preserves its integrity. In other words, the basic premise is nicely developed. The animation successfully creates its original world. There’s a lot of talk on food. The beast and plants of the world are an amalgamation of different species of ours. They often look childish. Moreover, the world is very colorful. Bright colors are preferred for animation. This adds to the childish aura of the anime. Nevertheless, the animation is well done. Colorful scenes make fight scenes more fluid and add an extra dimension. As it’s expected from all 100+ episodes anime series, the budget of each episode is low. But when it comes to major fights it does not disappoint. Nothing top notch, yet well done. The sound is not exceptional either. Voice acting is well done. It brings out what it aims to do. Music is not so great as to be memorable. It still fits the general mood of the anime. You don’t feel like songs are out of place. One positive side of Toriko is that it doesn’t have many filler episodes. The number of filler episodes is 18 (13% of total) which is significantly lower than almost all long-running anime. Toriko isn’t great at character department either. Though many characters are usual clichés, there are some positively peculiar ones among them. One positive thing is that they are older than 21. This is consciously chosen because they usually consume a lot of alcoholic beverages. However, it isn’t used in a meaningful way. They don’t differ much from younger shounen heroes. The main character Toriko is a nice lead. What he lacks, his partner Komatsu provides. They complete each other (sadly, this isn’t a love story). Toriko’s friends Sani, Coco shine in terms of power. The anime does not fall into the trap of overpowered main character standing alone against the enemy, reducing the rest to a bunch of useless spectators who are there only to get impressed by the main character. Also, female characters do not have overgrown breasts, an oddity in this age. Overall, I enjoyed Toriko. Unlike other shounen, it requires a little more patience to be immersed in its world. But it’s painfully mediocre.

WARNING: Anime doesn't cover all of the manga. Toriko is a series where MANLY MEN have gritty fights against villains & monsters for the sake of heroism & food. Many people have told me how much they hated the anime & prefer reading its manga, which is fine but I'm here to give my honest opinions about the animes pros & cons. Toriko's concept is one of hunting & cooking where our heroes "The 4 Heavenly Kings" (Toriko, Coco, Sunny & Zebra) explore the unknown lands of the Gourmet Age where exotic food stimulates power resulting into a war which purpose is to obtain "GOD"; themost sacred dish on the planet. As a story, Toriko slowly builds up into hype moments where strength is taken to gargantuan levels & takes careful consideration of minor details which later deliver in the payoff in both exposition & combat. Most arcs can range from exploring, fighting or just eating which can vary per viewer but thankfully there aren't any major filler arcs that affect the overall story. (Most of them just range from stand alones or 2 eps) Similar to Dragon Ball & One Piece, Toriko carries that same adventurous feel & welcomes its viewer into a imaginative world filled with unique animals & technology. A highlight of the series are its subtle references to Fist of The North Star with Toriko, Coco & Zebra being based on Kenshiro, Toki & Raoh among other things. As expected of battle shonens the series does deliver on fights sadly most of these battles do contain watered down violence. This is the main reason why most people just ignore the anime yet the adaptation serves better as a gateway due to its few crossovers with One Piece along with its soundtrack & usage of atmosphere in either the laid back scenes or the intense ones. Flaws of the anime include its later decrease in animation quality around the 100s & the filler ending to the series as the manga is still ongoing. Also I'm certain characters such as Komatsu & Tina will affect viewing experience in a negative way. While I suggest to do what you think is better (watching or reading) please give the series a chance as it was only recently in 2013 where people began to become fans of the series. While some scenes can feel dragged & its food concept ridiculous, don't forget that even Dragon Ball pokes fun in itself due its name choices (such as Trunks, Dr. Briefs, Tambourine, Drum & Piano). Don't let misconceptions affect your judgement as you may end up liking the series whether you watch or read it. Toriko is not the greatest series but does pay tribute to shonens of the 80s & 90s where it follows a straight forward story that offers imagination, gritty battles, monstrous villains & heroic characters.

Okay, so to start I originally watched the first 20ish episodes of Toriko a couple years ago but then put it down because it just wasn't that appealing to me. Two weeks ago I decided to pick up the manga because I heard it was better than the anime. Still skeptical I powered past what happened in the anime, in the manga. After that, it was all downhill for me. I read through over 300 chapters of Toriko in a week. The characters and progressing story had me going through dozens of chapters a day. While the concept of a food world/combat may be aturn off for some, Toriko utilizes this to a high degree making each arc dynamic and different. I would highly recommend anyone to read this shonen. And I also recommend people to stay away from the anime because of the inconstancies between the show and manga, lack of brutality (edited out for child viewers), and also length. The anime only goes up to the Gourmet Festival. I am really enjoying Toriko and I feel it still has its best work ahead of it! PLEASE READ THE MANGA!!! And if you do watch the anime first, then watch it, then pick up the manga. I promise you it is totally worth it.

I bet you’re wondering “how can a shounen about food be interesting”. I thought the same thing until I watched it, and honestly it completely blew my expectations away... at first. I’ll explain what I mean later Pros: - Unique concept and setting (Can you name another battle manga about food?) - Godly world building. Seriously, it’s one of the best in anime/manga - Amazing, brutal action sequences - The hype is over 9000!! These are the only pros I can think of for Toriko unfortunately, because i felt this series had a lot more flaws.Plot: 3/10 The story takes place in the Gourmet age, a world where people live and explore various delicious foods to eat. Our main protagonist Toriko, and his partner Komatsu explore the world to find rare and exquisite ingredients, to accomplish Toriko’s dream of creating the best full course meal. Toriko’s the gournet hunter who hunts for food and defeats any enemies that comes their way, meanwhile Komatsu’s the chief who prepares the food. The plot is simple and repetitive e.g. Toriko and co. go on a quest to find a food-> Toriko arrives and has to fight some monster who doesn’t actually give af about the food-> villains shows up, Toriko fights them and wins-> Toriko gets a powerup from eating said food, then decides if he’ll put it on his full course. Rinse repeat for 150 episodes and you have Toriko There’s a lot of nonsensical powerups our 4 heavenly kings receive that become forgotten after the arc they’re introduced, the calories aspects to moves gets dropped. Characters: 5/10 There’s a diverse, large cast of characters, but they lack basic characterisation and meaningful character development. Our main characters, the four heavenly kings are just as bad in this aspect because they’re really static and never really grow or change much throughout the course of the series. The villains are poorly written and generic. Animation: 1/10 The show has bad animation, its heavily censored, the fights aren’t as brutal or have any blood as it goes on, and it’s filled with filler. Overall: 1/10 The Toriko anime is shit. They introduced a anime only character (Tina), made her important as a “canon character” by having her tag along with Toriko and Co’s adventures when she wasn’t needed. The anime leaves out a lot of the description which enriches the lore and makes the world building so great. If you really want to start Toriko, I recommend reading the manga from the beginning.

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