Comics / Manga

Toriko: Volume 16 manga review

By Leroy Douresseaux
June 2, 2013 - 16:55

Toriko Volume 16 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

Rated “T” for “Teen”

On a savage, alternate version of Earth, people pursue the most delicious foods in the world.  Practically everything and everyone is on the menu, so it’s eat or be eaten.  Ultimate Gourmet Hunter Toriko is on a life-long quest to create the perfect full-course meal.  A young chef named Komatsu travels with Toriko, forming an Ultimate Hunter-Chef partnership.  Toriko faces every beast in his way and puts many of them in his bottomless stomach.

Toriko, Vol. 16 (entitled Reunion with Terror!! Chapters 135 to 144) opens in the basement level of the Gourmet Pyramid.  There, Komatsu finds strange drawings on the walls, as he waits for Toriko and Zebra, the ravenous monster of the Four Kings, to rescue him.  The sound armor Zebra wrapped around Komatsu continues to protect him, which allows the young chef to explore.

Komatsu discovers an ancient cookbook, which tells him how to find and prepare Mellow Cola, their current food quest.  To get it, however, they have to first face the terrifying Salamander Sphinx and then, the mysterious Nitro.

THE LOWDOWN:  Whenever I would read the Yakitate!! Japan manga, it made me hungry.  The Oishinbo A la Carte manga occasionally made me want to eat the very pages of the book.  The Toriko manga induces hunger, even with all its strange and out of the ordinary creatures.  Sometimes, even strange meat stuffed between two big slices of bread looks appetizing.

In regards to the story, character, and setting content of Toriko Volume 16, I can simply say the word, “ditto,” as I did in my review of the previous volume.  Toriko creator Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro has an imagination that creates people, places, creatures, and things like nothing else found in comic books or manga.  This isn’t a shallow visual narrative.  The eye-popping graphics and striking illustrations make for one of the most unique and rewarding comic book reading experiences.  I think Anthony Bourdain would love Toriko.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Readers looking for something crazy and fun will find that in the Shonen Jump manga, Toriko.

 

Rating: A- /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12