Your mileage may vary, but when I think of Shonen Jump, I don’t think of Naruto, One Piece or Bleach. I think of THIS:
Pictured left to right, top to bottom: Hokuto no Ken, Kinnikuman, JoJo's Bizarre Adventures, Sakigake!! Otokojuku, Rokudenashi Blues, Slam Dunk, City Hunter, Cobra
It’s never a good idea to pin all your hopes to one thing, but with Toriko, I’m hoping a little bit of that older SJ flavor is finally making its way back home.
Toriko doesn’t plumb dramatic depths nor is it artistically stunning, nevertheless it’s fun without being all funny. It’s most comporable to Kinnikuman, a light-as-a-feather-hearted action series governed by a wild and unpredictable spirit. In Kinnikuman, wrestlers with absurd appearances duel in neverending tournaments. In Toriko, superhuman gourmet hunters kill absurd creatures and eat them.
The series also caters to the seemingly-inborn affection some of us have for kaiju (monsters), which I’ve always preferred drawn rather than live-acted. Whether it be Berserk or Guyver, I’ve always found more impact in a stroke of the artist’s pen than a rubber suit or CGI effect.
In these ways, to me Toriko is more than just a goofy cartoon. It’s a return of the old guard, a recognition that an all-ages story doesn’t have to star a child to be effective, nor does it have to be completely neutered. This is perhaps where the anime adaptation falls short the most–by the first episode many scenes have already been altered or redacted to remove references to smoking and alchohol. At the same time, the creatures are rendered in a less cartoony way in the anime than they are in the early manga, which I liked.
The first four volumes of the Toriko manga have been released in English by Viz Media, with a fifth volume going on sale in June. Update: On April 13, Toei Animation announced Funimation would be streaming the show on their website.
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