The hunt is on once again and Komatsu continues to get exposed to a much bigger world, and interesting people within it.
What They Say:
Toriko and Komatsu set out to capture a Puffer Whale, but this daring quest to satisfy their exotic appetites may be the death of them both! Lucky for them, King Coco is along for the ride!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Toriko has pretty much set up its rhythm at this point, though I’m sure there will be some change ups down the line, as we’re getting a show that’s all about the standalone stories (which, like this one, can go into two episodes) that deal with a new adventure between our daring pair of men as they go out Gourmet Hunting. This isn’t a bad thing since you know you’re going to get something pretty much self contained for a bit that lets us get to know the characters bit by bit and reinforce their relationship as they go through the lands. This world certainly has its interesting points about it and there’s a good sense of endless variety to it all, and that works very much in its favor. But you have to be able to deal with the episodic nature of things, something that can be hard when the majority of shows are serial driven.
For this episode, Toriko and Komatsu set out to capture a Puffer Whale, a very interesting creature that has a lot of challenges to being used for ingredients what with a large poison sac within it, but it’s the challenge that makes the ingredients all the more worthwhile. Their journey takes them across the land via train which adds a nice old time kind of feel to it and it allows the two to talk a bit about what they’re after and how they want to approach it to some degree. Food is such a huge part of the show that even the basic meals they eat have a feeling of epicness about them. A meal is a big deal here and I have to admit it makes me grin a bit whenever such events come up.
Thrown into the mix this time is one of the Four Heavenly Kings, a man named Coco, who ends up going with them after they meet during an animal attack within the city limits. Coco has taken some time off from what he’s supposed to be doing by becoming something of a fortune teller that wanders the realm. Meeting with him shows some of the worldliness of Toriko as he’s comfortable with him and talks about other people they know that speaks of at least a little shared history. But there are deeper things going on here with the hunt that Toriko is on, and while that makes up a good part of the second half, there are some character driven things as well as Coco has a strong feeling about Komatsu that doesn’t exactly speak well for his future.
In Summary:
A lot of the second half deals with the adventure of the hunt itself and Coco gets to shine with his varied abilities as well as his overall confidence that definitely stands out. Komatsu continues to get to serve as the newbie through which we have things explained to him and that helps for the brief bits of exposition that get mixed in to the exploration. But in the end, that’s what a lot of these episodes are about, exploration and discovery with a very healthy respect towards nature. It’s really interesting to watch on that level, and we’ve had Toriko comment on it previously with regards to what he will and will not kill, but episodes like this just cement the overall feeling even more. Though this isn’t a big episode in terms of thrills and excitement, it’s fairly fun in its own way and diverges from other shows in a way that continues to surprise.
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
Grade: B
Simulcast By: FUNimation
