Skipping ahead, coming home, and departing once more
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro
Translation: Christine Dashiell
What They Say
The Age of Gourmet is over. More than eighteen months after Meteor Spice destroyed much of the Human World, people struggle to find new food sources. The former President’s Full-Course Meal, the Billion Bird, would provide enough food to feed the world – if the fowl didn’t taste so foul! Can Toriko and friends turn this ugly duckling into the swan of cuisine?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Time has passed, and we rejoin Toriko as he’s already adjusted to the Gourmet World, having collected a horde of food to send back home. As such, he and Komatsu plan to finally return home. This is actually an interesting choice, to skip entirely over Toriko getting his feel for the Gourmet World and even rescuing Komatsu. It’s odd and feels like a bit of a letdown, but it flows well enough at least. Fortunately, the time skip is used far better in the Human World, where we get to see a completely devastated society forced to survive on food in pill form. This gets just enough time to drive in the seriousness of the situation, and then Toriko of course comes back with his spoils from the Gourmet World.
Back in Igo’s Biotope 1, Toriko agrees to marry Rin with little thought on the matter (perhaps a reference to the classic Dragon Ball, where Goku’s marriage to Chichi is set up in a near identical manner?) This is quickly pushed to the side, though, when our heroes get down to business and try to finish off Ichiryu’s Full-Course Meal. Thanks to Toriko’s knowledge of “safe zones” that he gained in the Gourmet World, they quickly find the final ingredient and get to work. It turns out that the entire Full-Course Meal is meant to revive the Billion Bird, a bird that can provide near infinite food thanks to its near instant reproduction method. The only problem is that it tastes terrible, which is why it went extinct in the first place!
Despite this setback, the Billion Bird proves a crucial food in reviving the Human World, offering real, good food for the people of the world thanks to the tireless work of the chefs. And just what will the result be when Komatsu figures out that it’s a food that requires special preparation? And finally, will our heroes be ready when they head out once more to properly tackle the Gourmet World?
In Summary
This volume is a bit of an odd kickoff to the new Gourmet World part of the story. Rather than actually dive into what you’d expect, instead we skip ahead and have Toriko ready to return to the Human World with Komatsu in tow. It really is an unusual choice, and makes it feel like a good chunk of plot was cut out. Fortunately, getting back kicks off an interesting change of pace, showing a world lacking for food, as well as a need to come up with a solution that’s practical rather than just figuring out what’s the tastiest. It ‘s a very nice twist considering the focus of the series up to this point, and it’s definitely appreciated. Finally, we get a bit more setup, leading to yet another departure for the Gourmet World, meaning that’s been the end of two volumes in a row. It’s quite a weird way to start off a new part of the series, and as such it may not be what fans were expecting or hoping for. But even so, there’s still plenty to love here, making for a solid and enjoyable read.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: October 6th, 2015
MSRP: $9.99