Toriko and Komatsu get their chance to impress Setsuno with their mad fooding skills.
What They Say:
Komatsu and Toriko are treated to an ultra-exclusive tour of Setsuno’s kitchen, including the top secret area where she prepares Century Soup! Inspired, they set off in search of the genuine article, but trouble lies ahead!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With Komatsu and toriko having headed into the food related amusement park, there was some definite fun to be had there, especially as they met up with old lady Setsuno. She’s fun to watch simply because she plays to the old lady stereotype so well in that she’s exceptionally gifted and had an impressive life behind her and is still fully capable. And Toriko is respectful to her and Komatsu gets to experience something quite legendary. Even the water in the small diner she runs is considered out of this world with its origins, which further impresses the young man. Setsuno brings that conflicting element out well in that she has only high class foods in her place but it looks like a dive.
The first half of the episode largely deals with this silliness as we get continually impressed moments by Komatsu and Toriko as they sample her cooking. It’s actually amusing at times and especailly when we see an exterior shot of the small diner and see that the crowd that’s gathered out there is considerable and very enthused at even the prospect of getting a whiff of what she’s cooking. The real fun, be that as it is, comes when Setsuno invites the pair down into her real kitchen to see how she truly operates since she’s so impressed with how well they pick out the ingredients from her soup (that’s actually invisible).
The kitchen down below is fun, silly and completely outlandish in a way that makes no sense other than to do it for the hell of it. And while that does make it fun in its own right, it’s kind of annoying at the same time because it doesn’t make sense to have a swing rope to get across it other than for kicks. There’s some decent exploration of things down there when it comes to ingredients and more, but eventually it’s all just a push to get Toriko and Komatsu going in the right direction they need to for some information. It’s an incredibly long path to get there, not without merit since it does have some fun, but it’s just so extended that it’s not hard to lose interest.
In Summary:
One of the strengths and weaknesses of Toriko is that it can do an episode where it takes a break from things. It’s good to have that down time rather than to be constantly on the go, but at the same time it can feel so devoid of worth in watching it that you start to question the show overall. Not that I haven’t been doing that for awhile, but it’s the kind of show that at times has some real creativity and sense of fun about it that many shows lack, but it then gets bogged down in other areas, such as pointless stories and dark drama that really doesn’t seem to fit. This episode is cute for what it is, but when you realize you just spent twenty-three minutes on a five second setup at the end of it, you feel kind of gipped.
Grade: C
Streamed By: FUNimation
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.
