ReviewBonfire

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.