Comics / Manga

Toriko: Volume 26 manga review

By Leroy Douresseaux
February 19, 2015 - 21:50

Toriko Volume 26 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

Follow me on Twitter.

Rated “T” for “Teen”

This is the “Age of the Gourmet.”  On a savage, alternate version of Earth, the pursuit of the most delicious foods rules over everything else.  It is eat or be eaten; practically everything and everyone is on the menu.  Ultimate Gourmet Hunter Toriko is on a life-long quest to create the perfect full-course meal.  With young IGO chef, Komatsu, at his side, Toriko has an Ultimate Hunter-Chef partnership, as he faces every beast in his way, putting some in his bottomless stomach.

Komatsu is #88 in the World Chef Ranking, and that earns him a spot in the “Cooking Festival,” which is only held once every four years.  Over ninety percent of this Earth's 31.2 billion population watches this event, and over 100 million flock to Cooking Island, the site of the Cooking Festival.  Then, battle breaks out at the festival...

As Toriko, Vol. 26 (entitled Beyond the Limit!! Chapters 226 to 234) opens, the fiercest chefs of IGO face the most monstrous and powerful chefs of IGO's rival, the Gourmet Corp.  IGO's Sunny battles bug-infested Tommyrod.  The lightning-infused Brunch takes on Gourmet Corp.'s Branch #1 Culinary Head, Elg, who is seemingly immortal.  Finally, Toriko rumbles with his longtime rival, Starjun.

Meanwhile, NEO shows itself.  Who is NEO?  While two dogs fight over a bone, a third runs away with it.

THE LOWDOWN:  It has been a few months since I last read the Toriko manga.  I return to find that it is still doing what it does best.   Toriko Volume 26 is a full-on battle manga.  The fights are so monstrous, it is as if Toriko creator Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro is the late Marvel Comics great, Jack Kirby, returned as a battle manga king.

The imagination and inventiveness of Shimabukuro, however, is what makes Toriko so rewarding a read.  Toriko is full of shonen fantasy adventure and fight comics tropes, but everything is done in a way that is different and unique, almost to the point of being combative.  In Toriko, readers come to love this spirited imagination.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Readers looking for the best in shonen battle and adventure manga will want to feast on the Shonen Jump manga, Toriko.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12