Toriko, Vol. 1, 1

By Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro

Food tastes better when you have to gather it with your blood, sweat and tears R to L (Japanese Style). In a savage world ruled by the pursuit of the most delicious foods, it's either eat or be eaten While searching for the tastiest foods imaginable, Gourmet Hunter Toriko and his bottomless stomach travel around the world facing every beast in his way. In a savage world ruled by the pursuit of the most delicious foods, it's either eat or be eaten While searching for the tastiest foods imaginable, Gourmet Hunter Toriko travels the world with his bottomless stomach, facing every beast in his way. Gourmet Hunter Toriko This is the great era of gourmet food And only Toriko can hunt down the ferocious ingredients that supply the world's best restaurants. As a gourmet hunter, Toriko tracks and defeats the tastiest and most dangerous animals with his bare hands. But has he met his match with an eight-legged alligator the size of a tank?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1421535092
• ISBN13: 9781421535098
• Release Date: June 2010
• Publisher: Viz Media
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 14 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 9 to 12

Customer Reviews

A fun and savory adventure!

Toriko is another series serialized in our monthly Shonen Jump recently that was pretty adventurous. Unlike the other shonen manga it diversifies itself from the others by not having epic and huge fights involving pirates, ninjas, or shinigami (soul reapers) but instead focusing on the world of gourmet and finding all of these delicious and simply stunning foods. It is pretty nice in what it sets out to accomplish because it seems to be something that could be within everyones imagination. Who would not want to live in a house of sweet candy and honey and what not? The cast is currently interesting and keeps me laughing, especially the head chef Komatsu, the hunter Toriko, and other people in the International Gourmet Organization. Rather than spoil the story why not give this volume a try and definitely enjoy it. It is read in the traditional style of most Japanese manga these days read from left to right panel style, there are two bonus fun chapters included and occasional definitions of high level terminology.

A high-spirited, exuberantly drawn and wildly action-packed manga recommended for teen and older rea

The debut volume of Toriko collects the unflipped, black-and-white Shonen Jump manga (Japanese comics) adventures of Gourmet Hunter Toriko, a man dedicated to combating and hunting the most preternaturally fierce creatures, in order to supply the most upscale gourmet restaurants with the finest delicacies! Gourmet Hunter Toriko is a superlative master of martial arts and survival skills, capable of defying gargantuan behemoths that could take down a tank! And what is the passion that drives this greatest of all gourmets? Why, to assemble nothing less than the greatest full-course meal that ever was, or will be - a meal so heavenly that he has not yet figured out what mortal ingredients could possibly compose it! With the aid of a relatively ordinary yet surprisingly courageous young follower, Toriko is out to see his dream made real regardless of the risk, in this high-spirited, exuberantly drawn and wildly action-packed manga recommended for teen and older readers.

Gourmet Hunter Toriko!

What would happen if you crossed Junichiro Tanizaki's The Gourmet Club with Ishiro Honda's kaiju flick All Monsters Attack, and then bound them together as a Shonen Jump comic? Well, you might not exactly get "Toriko" but you would get something pretty close. In the future Gourmet Era, when the quest for exotic flavors is the primary drive of people everywhere, and when the rich and powerful will spare no expense to bring the rarest and most delectable treats to their plate. Of course, most of these exotic tastes come in the form of giant monsters such as the Baron Tiger (capture level 3) or the massive Swamp Snake (capture level 5) who have no intention of winding up on anyone's plate. Each monster-type is assigned a capture level, starting with capture level 1 which is defined as an animal so large it would require ten professional hunters armed with shotguns. When a five-star hotel sets their sites on a 300-year old Garara Gator (capture level 8) they can only rely on one man to bring it in, Gourmet Hunter Toriko! Accompanying Toriko is the meek Komatsu, a chef at a 5-star hotel who wants to study with Toriko and get to know ingredients in their natural form, instead of as pre-packaged ingredients delivered to his hotel. Together they go off in search of not only the Garara Gator, but also the mythical Rainbow Fruit, said to be the single most delicious desert on the planet. "Toriko" combines two of Japan's obsessions; gourmet dinning and monsters. This is the country after all, where simply being able to eat a whole lot can make you a nation-wide celebrity (I'm looking at you Gal Sone!) and a country that has spent sixty years being cinematically destroyed by a giant lizard of their own making. You have to admit that at least once in your life you wondered what Godzilla would taste like. Toriko himself is a superhuman monster with an appetite that outstrips any of his prey. Of course, even though Toriko consumes more food and drink than a fully-booked restaurant, he is a massively muscled fighter. (Because whereas watching a fit, healthy person eat a shocking amount of food is good fun, watching a fat person eat all that food just makes you feel bad, right?). Toriko lives his life in search of the ingredients for his perfect meal. Although his fees are large for hunting down the dangerous delicacies demanded by the hotel, his true purpose is to sample every rare flavor on Earth until he decides his dinner. Komatsu suspects that Toriko might be something more than human when he unveils his true aspect when engaging in battle. Like most series in Viz's Shonen Jump line, "Toriko" is good fun, but not too deep. The art is dynamic and vibrant, and the monster battles are great. I love the scene when Toriko unveils mankinds greatest weapons, a knife and fork, and shows that humans have always demonstrated their dominance over other animals by eating them. My only real disappointment with "Toriko" is that there is far more mons