Toriko: Volume 24 manga review

Manga
Toriko: Volume 24 manga review
By Leroy Douresseaux
October 11, 2014 - 12:04

Writer(s): Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro, Christine Dashiell
Penciller(s): Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro
Letterer(s): Erika Terriquez, Elena Diaz
ISBN: 978-1-4215-6483-8
$9.99 U.S., $12.99 CAN, £6.99 UK, 200pp, B&W, paperback
Rating: T (Teen)

Toriko: Volume 24 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

Follow me on Twitter.

Rated “T” for “Teen”

It is the “Age of the Gourmet” on a savage, alternate version of Earth, where the pursuit of the most delicious foods rules over everything else. 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.

Toriko, Vol. 24 (entitled Cooking Festival Kickoff!! Chapters 208 to 216) opens in the aftermath of the great battle that took place at the center of the human world. This epic engagement pitted the monstrous Four Beasts: Mount Turtle, Invite Death, Fang King, and King Octopus Kong against the Four Kings: Toriko, Coco, Sunny, and Zebra. The Four Kings won, but they survived because Komatsu cooked up a miraculous cure to counteract a poison rain to which they were exposed during the battle.

The crucial role Komatsu played causes him to rise to #88 in the World Chef Ranking. 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 (yes, indeed!) watch the event. Over 100 million (yes!) flock to the site of the Cooking Fest, Cooking Island. On a stage so enormous, can Komatsu the newcomer win?

[This volume contains a joint special interview with Toriko creator, Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro, and Naruto creator, Masashi Kishimoto.]

THE LOWDOWN: The Toriko manga does it again. In my multiple reviews of this series, I often praise creator Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro's imagination and inventiveness. In Toriko Volume 24, he takes his creativity to new heights in the one chapter that he uses to describe several chefs competing in the Cooking Festival. Here, Shimabukuro does his best Eiichiro Oda (creator of One Piece).

It is a no-brainer that fans of shonen manga will want to read the Shimabukuro-Masashi Kishimoto interview. However, aspiring manga creators will certainly want to pay attention to the anecdotes and tidbits offered in it.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE: Readers looking for the best in shonen battle and adventure manga will want the Shonen Jump manga, Toriko, on their reading list/menu.