The bridge between main events: we’ve seen it all before, but at least it isn’t a painful watch and can still provide some smiles.
What They Say:
Komatsu voices his concerns about travelling with such a dangerous criminal, and Zebra makes some new friends after a slugfest with a savage scorpion!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The start of this episode uses an interesting take on the episode starters for One Piece’s Alabasta arc. In One Piece, each episode started with a map of the Alabasta country showing where the crew has traveled and what they were up to at that point in time. Here, this same effect is presented in the form of a “Special Report” from Gourmet News where Tina provides a “Zebra Report” that helps the viewers follow the progress of our team but focusing on the everlasting threat that is Zebra. I really like this bit because it uses Tina for good…for once. Plus it is immensely amusing that Toriko (often lauded in the series as a hero that everyone loves) doesn’t matter a hill of beans and that all eyes are on Zebra.
What follows is some pretty standard fare where Toriko and Zebra are constantly getting into fights and Komatsu monologues about how scary the situation is. It’s nothing too impressive or fun but acts as a good time killer to show the team dynamic as they travel in the lift house. Thankfully it doesn’t last too long as we get some background on the layout of the sand garden. The Sand Garden is made up of multiple deserts of which the localized sand is a different type of ingredient and a famous sight-seeing location. Upon arrival to the town on the edge of the Sand Garden (Sand Kingdom) the lift house completely falls apart behind them. It’s a standard shonen gag but I still enjoy it. Call me easily amused but it works for me every time as long as the characters are interesting and the lead up comedic enough.
Unfortunately, the rest of the episode isn’t very impressive or noteworthy. We watch our team taste some local food, prepare for the journey across the desert, and learn of the country’s war-torn past. It lacks the extreme sense of humor the previous episodes had but flows at an extremely brisk pace free of filler. This is always welcome in a long running shonen show and where Toriko has really excelled at since episode 20 or so. The only really interesting event is when the villagers of a nearly destroyed town praise Zebra as their savior. This is interesting because it brings full circle the chaos that Zebra’s release has caused the Human World. When Zebra was released and everyone freaked out, the war that ravaged this country was immediately halted so that the enemy could prepare to defend themselves against Zebra. It’s an interesting dynamic because it helps illustrate that nothing is black and white. Every event has both positive and negative consequences and it helps blur the line of what is a good or bad event.
In Summary:
This episode takes a slight dip from previous episodes but not because it is a bad episode. There was a certain amount of setup and world building that they wanted to do since we will be spending some time in this country. That setup inherently has to take precedence over the comedy and action but was generally effective because it adds yet another layer to the world. Seeing a group of people that praised Zebra and not automatically fear him was very refreshing and seeing Zebra’s reaction to all of this is quite amusing and adds an ever so slight character arc to him. The plot is unpredictable in how it unfolds events but wholly predictable in the general overlay and becomes simply a necessary bumper to bridge main events of the arc. The saving grace here is, again, the fact that Toriko takes care of it in a single episode; not two or three.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Funimation
Review Equipment:
Sony BRAVIA KDL55EX720 55-Inch 1080p 3D LED HDTV, Built-in Hulu Plus app
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