Toriko, the freewheeling boy’s comic about brawny gourmet hunters journeying to discover and conquer the most exotic foodstuffs the world has to offer, is silly through and through.
Or so it appears. Having recently caught up to Viz’ release of the manga (both available in print and on vizmanga.com at five bucks a volume), I’m not here to try and sell you on Toriko. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great, but right now I’d like to record some of the more unexpected moments I’ve encountered so far. Toriko is peculiar, and maybe even a bit subversive.
It encourages alcoholism.
Japanese culture can be less strict than American, and the subject of alcohol is no exception. For example, the children’s cartoon Dragonball Z once featured an older character drinking beer, and the beer had to be chroma keyed into looking like water before it aired on television over here.
Toriko takes it a step further than that. Characters don’t simply drink beer (constantly). They invite the reader to do so as well, as in this celebratory splash page:
The target demographic for this manga is ten year-old boys. The drinking age in Japan is 20.
But we’re not just talking about beer. Hard liquor is glorified! And unlike the crazy made-up food in this comic, the spirits are very real. Watch how the artist seductively introduces us to a glass of Blanton’s bourbon whiskey.
This makes me thirsty, and I don't even like bourbon.
It mocks Japan’s political allies.
One of the international organizations in Toriko runs an underground arena which pits the most ferocious creatures against one another. Yes, blood sport. If that isn’t bad enough, the clientele for these exhibitions are the world’s most wealthy and politically influential.
(They all have Western facial features.)
When an exhibition gets out of hand, people begin panicking and fleeing the arena, causing one of the manga’s heroes to exclaim:
In other words, “fuck you, nuclear-weapon states.” Things get interesting to me at this point, even though I’m really not a political guy.
I find it refreshing when the Japanese express a more individualistic and competitive worldview than the more genteel sentiments you’re used to hearing. I’m not saying they should go full-out nationalist, but some fire in the belly can make a people more interesting.
You see shades of this in Buronson’s seinen manga, for example. In particular I’m thinking of Sanctuary, Strain, and Japan, all of which have been published in English and I recommend reading.
It villainizes vegetarianism.
Japanese fiction is often preoccupied with the concept of apocalypse, as well as the precocious balance of nature. In Toriko, life on Earth was threatened with ecological disaster in the distant past.
What caused this? Ever-expanding human development? War? A meteor?
No! Enormously fat and ugly plant-eating monsters wouldn’t stop devouring the world’s vegetation.
Pictured above: someone sampling organic vegetables at Whole Foods Market
Seriously, it wasn’t until a giant wolf killed them all that harmony was restored and the Earth saved.
It’s saying something that in a manga about the unapologetic murdering of animals for the sake of one’s taste buds, the greatest threat the Earth has known comes in the form of herbivores. Think about it. Do you really think it’s a coincidence?
In conclusion…
Am I reading too deeply into these story elements? Perhaps. I do think there’s a devilish side to Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro, author of Toriko, that most have failed to articulate. At the very least, it may be an expression of core Blog of the North Star principles with which the author agrees: to eat, drink and be merry.
The Toriko anime adaptation whitewashes the majority of these amusing little moments out, which is why I’ve decided to only follow the manga for now. At first I tried to follow the anime exclusively and lost interest in the whole thing, but thanks to some prodding from @gokuffy, I’m back on the manga horse and loving it.
