Toriko Volume 6 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

Rated “T” for “Teen”

On a savage world called “Earth,” the pursuit of the most delicious foods is the number one priority.  Practically everything and everyone is on the menu; it’s eat or be eaten.  The ultimate Gourmet Hunter, Toriko, and his bottomless stomach travel the world facing every beast in his way and eating most of them.

As Toriko, Vol. 6 (entitled Ten-Fold!!) begins, Toriko and his friends are inside the massive Regal Mammoth.  There, they battle the evil Gourmet Corp.’s GT Robots as all players set their sights on the precious Jewel Meat, the ultimate cut of meat, inside the mammoth.  But Toriko’s battle with a GT Robot may cost him his life before he finds it – unless his cells can evolve.

THE LOWDOWN:  Pumped and muscular, Toriko is a shonen manga (comics for teen boys) on steroids.  It is a battle manga and fight comic, but creator Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro has a mad inventive visual style that makes Toriko seem to exist beyond genre considerations.  This is one of those manga that are fun to read because you never know what craziness awaits you when you turn the page.  A whole volume of this offers just the kind of fun that comic books should, and readers will gobble this up.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Readers looking for something appropriate and unusual to thrill young readers will find it in Toriko.

A-