‘Toriko’ is only just starting out in Weekly Jump, with just this one chapter out yet.
Little chance I’ll continue reading this series… ‘Toriko’ takes us to the wonderful world and tough life of gourmet hunters – no, wait, that’s what they were called in ‘Hunter X Hunter’, years ago when the idea was still original. What are they called in ‘Toriko’? I forgot. But they are awesome~, and bad-ass~, and ~manly~ – and half this chapter is spent demonstrating in many ways how ~awesome~ and ~bad-ass~ and ~manly~ the main character, Toriko, is: He’s huge! He has a lot of muscles! He smokes tobacco TREES! His shit weights several kilograms! He drinks a lot of alcohol! He eats a lot! He catches huge animals by using huge animals as bait! And in case the reader is dumb and doesn’t pick up on it yet that this makes Toriko ~manly~ and ~bad-ass~ and ~awesome~, there is a tiny wimpy rookie character whose sole purpose is to comment on everything Toriko does, and tell the reader what he’s supposed to think: “He drinks a lot of alcohol! He’s awesome! He catches huge beasts! What a guy!” etc.
I’ve been considering the possibility that this is supposed to be funny. Over-the-top = funny, you know. ‘Yakiktate!! Japan’ has proven that it can work. But in ‘Toriko’, it’s just annoying, because this sort of gag grows old pretty damn fast, and thirty pages of it is certainly too much. And you’d think the first chapter would have some kind of climax, maybe a little turning point, but there’s not even that. Unless you count this instance of “Toriko is so bad-ass, he only has to look at the huge wildcat, and it escapes from HIM!” which is so. freaking. old. it’s about as surprising or exciting or funny (I don’t know what it is that ‘Toriko’ wants to be) like finding an old man in a retirement home…
So, if you want the manga version of “Chuck Norris Facts”, read ‘Toriko’. That’s all there is to it.
… maybe I’m being overly mean and maybe future chapters will improve, but this first chapter doesn’t really give me a reason why I would want to bother.
