Toriko

Hamburgers that grow out of the ground like four-leaf clovers, mountain ranges carved out of ice cream, and warm servings of mac and cheese that stew deep within the stomachs of volcanoes fill the landscape. This world of delectable natural wonders has reached a prime age of exploration—the Gourmet Age! Citizens and chefs alike aspire to taste and prepare the finest dishes, while adventurers called "Gourmet Hunters" seek out delicious rare ingredients.

Possessing a unique set of skills, the wild and passionate Gourmet Hunter Toriko is infamous for discovering 2% of all known ingredients. Together with his friend Komatsu—a highly skilled chef working at a five-star hotel—Toriko strives to complete his Full Course Menu of Life. But it isn’t going to be easy; in order to obtain the most delicious ingredients, Toriko must battle against obstacles like deadly monsters, evil organizations, and food itself!

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Toriko Main

Okiayu, Ryoutarou Japanese

Zebra Main

Matsuda, Kenji Japanese

Coco Main

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Komatsu Main

Park, Romi Japanese

Sunny Main

Iwata, Mitsuo Japanese

Jirou Supporting

Morikawa, Toshiyuki Japanese

Midora Supporting

Terasoma, Masaki Japanese

Ichiryuu Supporting

Horiuchi, Kenyuu Japanese

Terry Cloth Supporting

Starjun Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Jouno, Masato Producer

Herek, Samantha Assistant Producer

Ueda, Hidehito Director, Episode Director

Reviews

Dec 19, 2023

AnimeEnjoyer420

Recommended

Toriko is one of those shows where there's nothing too deep going on, but it's just a blast to watch. The story largely revolves around the eponymous Toriko, a "Gourmet Hunter" that battles monsters and a chef named Komatsu that cooks the monsters Toriko defeats into delicious food, which then makes Toriko even stronger. It's a very action-forward series, as one might expect from a WSJ adaptation. Most episodes feature at least one battle and most problems are solved with fists.

A key to why the series remains mostly entertaining throughout in spite of that frankly braindead approach to things is frequent action combined with strong ... pacing. Even longer story arcs like Ice Hell and Cooking Fest generally don't suffer from the pacing problems that shows of this type often deal with. Progress markers are clearly staked out throughout the series and Toriko becomes meaningfully stronger throughout the events of the story without succumbing to shounen power creep. The story largely avoids the problem of "Oh no, Toriko must fight the most invincible enemy ever!" -> "Toriko wins" -> "Toriko must now fight an even more invincible-r enemy!" by keeping things grounded and parceling out progression to its characters in the right amounts. This might seem like an esoteric dive into the finer points of outlining and planning a series, but it's a key reason that show remains compulsively watchable even after 150 episodes.

There is also a certain zany energy to the entire thing that I would hesitate to describe as "funny", but is entertaining nonetheless. There aren't really that many jokes as such, it's more about the inherent absurdity of everything in this series and the attempts to construct a plot around that insanity. For example, the main goal for the characters in the series is to, and I swear I'm not making this up, find and eat God, which will give them "control over all the world's ingredients". At no point do they give any sort of explanation for what this could possibly mean, and it ends up being funnier for having never been explained in even the vaguest terms, even as it becomes increasingly important to the plot as the series progresses. That sort of "just go with it" attitude is ever-present in the worldbuilding, where almost everything is named in the laziest possible way (almost all proper nouns in the series are "Gourmet [thing]"; Gourmet Age, Gourmet Hunters, Gourmet Eclipse, Gourmet Cells, just to name a few) and there are no attempts at reconciling most things or events in the series with any sort of logical reality. This will either drive you insane or become progressively funnier the further you get into the series, depending on how seriously you attempt to take it.

I also want to briefly take a moment here to shout out series narrator Kenjiro Ishimaru, who delivers some delightfully hammy narration in the food pun segments that precede each episode. Don't skip these, they're one of the best parts of the show!

There are, however, a few things from the series to take issue with. The animation is more functional than impressive, in keeping with the demands of producing weekly television for 3 years without a break. There are a handful of more impressive episodes scattered throughout (episode #22 from future One Piece series director Kouhei Kureta is a particular highlight), but the animation is not strong as a consistent rule and there are sometimes noticeable dips in quality. While there are some positive things to mention about the look of the series (the strong, creative monster designs coming most readily to mind), the overall visual aspect grades out to below average, which is sometimes disappointing when you want a highly anticipated fight to wow you with some sakuga and it turns out to be pretty basic instead.

The series is also a continuation of a longstanding and unfortunate shounen trend of marginalizing its female characters. Only 2 female characters have a significant role in the story; Tina, a newscaster joke character that mostly exists to commentate on action, and Rin, whose entire personality is "head over heels in love with an indifferent Toriko". While there is a certain "buff dudes being manly" vibe to this series that makes it harder to comfortably fit female characters in, there was clearly no effort made here. Unfortunate, though not a dealbreaker.

Overall, it's certainly not without its flaws, but it makes for a fun over-the-top action series that balances its story well and rarely suffers from the problems of "filler" or other dips in narrative quality that often accompany long runners. My recommendation to those interested would be to give it a try through the "Regal Mammoth" arc (roughly 2 cours worth of episodes) to get a sense of the variety that it brings in terms of shorter bits mixed in with longer and more involved story arcs, and decide to drop or continue after that point. The first episode, a One Piece crossover, is also skippable both in terms of relevance to the story (there is none) and quality (bad unless you really like One Piece).

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Dec 15, 2023

RealYRC

Mixed Feelings

This show got the manga canceled , cannot ever forgive Toei Animation for that mistake , Anyway the show blood got turn down , and the tone is way more childish too , your better off start reading the manga , because this show is incomplete, its so not cool the show was gonna be the next big shonen hit too , from crossover with anime , and games to even getting movies , the Toriko anime is the worst Toei Adaptation ever , your better sticking to Kira Kira Pretty Cure A la mode if you want a cooking anime without much ... in terms of Violence , Toriko himself acts differently in his own show , he not even a beast , he just another shonen protagonist by the hundreds , its a real bummer they did him dirty the most , the animation is also trash

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jul 30, 2021

Resting_Bonfire

Not Recommended

Toriko

I'm only writing this review now after I've read the manga in full to get a better understanding of the implementation and the overall picture.

To everyone interested. !
- Anime has a lot of fillers and even some non-canon characters.
- An alternative non Canon ending with "Joa" as the final antagonist.
- Huge censorship of fights, the manga is just as brutal as the final arc in Bleach Manga in terms of brutality and fighting.
- The manga has a much more extensive and appealing implementation and is much less drawn out.

Toriko has by far one of the best World Buildings among manga and anime and is ... roughly on the same level as One Piece in this area. Likewise, the creative approaches of skills, powers, developments and various imagined imaginative creatures and preparation methods. Also the concept of the "gourmet world" and the "background" <- which can only be seen in the manga, since the anime ends from the "Food Tournament Arc".
And to be honest, this was the point that fascinated me the most about the anime and the manga, the wonderful creativity, and attention to detail of the World Building.

Unfortunately, that was all positive about this anime adaptation.

Toriko is a title that uses almost all sorts of stereotypes and has some of the most sluggish and boring fights I've ever seen in a shounen. Especially since Toriko is extremely monotonous. You spend 90% of the time with Toriko traveling around and putting things on his menu while also fighting against a few bad guys and defeating them after he has received a power-up from his gourmet cells. And this process is maintained almost until Chapter 250 in the manga and until Episode 110 in the anime. From then on, not many changes, but the process becomes slightly more individual.

Furthermore, there is a massive negative aspect of the series, the characters, and the dialogues. They are not even part of the average, they almost scratch the bottom of the barrel. The characters are flat, monotonous, have a strict and simple personalities without fluctuations or development. Your conversations are always copied and paste the same. They argue or talk about the delicious food for 300 chapters. Komatsu always cries and says Toriko's name, Toriko does the same without crying.
Worst of all is Komatsu's general personality and all of his scenes. They're frighteningly clichéd and humiliatingly badly written. Especially when everything he does is justified with "I hear the voice of the ingredients" or "The voice of the knife". Nice, that with the ingredients can somehow be interpreted in the course of the manga. However, almost everything he does is more plot armor than the battles of Toriko. Especially the fight against Four Beast and when he found an alternative for the antidote. I would not have expected such a banally bad explanation from the author, even though he pays so much attention to detail. Just an "Oh so and so did he do it? So and then so? I understand I wouldn't have thought of it" <- Given that this dialogue was said by the world's best chefs.
But this is only part of what you have to experience.
Only the 2 main antagonists had some depth and personality, unfortunately only at the end of the manga.


Animations fluctuated from being fluid in some of the main moments. Up to flat, dull, and mostly poorly drawn. Especially just before the end.



Toriko is a work I would rather recommend the manga for, even if it reflects most of the negative points from the anime. So much wasted potential when this work could have turned out well.


Story - 2
Art - 5
Sound - 5
Character - 2
Enjoyment - 4
Overall - 3

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: Toriko Episode 110 Discussion SilentTruth - Jun 23, 2013	12 replies	by kazuma-kisaragi »» Sep 7, 8:06 AM
	Poll: Toriko Episode 5 Discussion Game_Master - May 3, 2011	21 replies	by PlasticRobot »» Oct 28, 2023 8:36 PM
	Poll: Toriko Episode 3 Discussion EvilSynner - Apr 19, 2011	29 replies	by PlasticRobot »» Oct 27, 2023 1:29 PM
	Poll: Toriko Episode 38 Discussion Cetais - Dec 27, 2011	11 replies	by Frippy_ »» Apr 13, 2023 7:25 AM
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