Nice little shounen, but I don't think it deserves its place among 'The big three'. I certainly didn't get hooked up on it like I was for One Piece and (especially) Gintama<3. Maybe because of the basic concept of a food-centered manga. It seems to lack some depht, some epicness somehow.
But still, nice read.

Just a warning: Animal lovers, beware! This manga is not for you! XD

... Last updated on May 30th, 2012, 10:18am

It's a light-hearted manga with punny plot devices that are food versions of their shounen stereotypes. It's very fun to read. Doesn't have any deep touchy-feely stuff like naruto, no 2-year long fight scenes like bleach, but has a very extensive world with many interesting natural phenomenon like One Piece. As much as shounen can be, it is very original, and Komatsu is actually a very well formed character that makes you want to root for him and see him succeed. The Manga may be named "Toriko," but I find myself more focused on Komatsu than anyone else. He has his own variety of bad-assery.

I would like to write one thing about this series; adventures fun, charachters are fun, humour is hilarious and everything is about this series is cult. No wonder this series beat the dead of Bleach and now in the big three on the shounen jump magazine.
ps: I have gained so much weight after I started reading this series. More than five kg, man what-

... Last updated on April 24th, 2012, 3:26pm

I was very reluctant about this series, but since I started to watch the anime, I just come to really like it. It's weird, it feels like it's going nowhere, it's nothing really special but it still is something you will have fun reading or watching. As is it now, I can't wait to see what's coming next...the anime is pretty good too. Don't just discard this by what the summary says...it's a really good series once you read through it and just like me, you might just really like!!!

Toriko wasn't exactly appealing when I saw it for the first time (back when it was just serialized). Ugly character design, weird anatomy, and a character combination that seems rather cliche, are just among some of the few things that didn't readers to check it out. While the first few chapters work well as an introduction to the world of the characters, it was weird in a way that you just don't know whether that would be a good or a bad thing.

As it turns out though, Toriko is WONDERFULLY weird.

I love food and I love fantasy comic that actually gives a sense of adventure to its world. Toriko has both of that. For a shounen series, Toriko's pacing is nicely fast. Just when I thought that it might turn into a 'menu of the week' manga, some new elements are introduced in, and that's the way it keeps working. As soon as you are familliar with some elements, something new will be introduced. While it sounds like a no-brainer to keep the readers interested by introducing new elements, it is harder said than done because an error in timing could easily have the readers bored or confused. In a span of 125 chapters, Toriko exercises this practice very well. Even though the story's structure is rather straight forward, I have to give points to the writer for knowing when to spice things up.

Another good thing about the story is the lack of the dread training session (if you have read Bleach or Naruto, you should have a VERY clear idea what I mean by that). Upon meeting the protagonist, Toriko is already good at what he does. He has been trained before the story began and he has a pretty good idea on how to do things. When things are getting tough, he is sufficient enough to learn through battles. Despite the fact that he seems like a brash man at first, Toriko has both the brain and the brawn. He is stubborn and good as any shounen protagonist should be, however, he is smart enough to know which battles he can't win and won't afraid to ask for help if he decides that he needs it. He is also able to show tough love by not getting in the way of other's battles although he would have ones he is responsible of. Toriko is nicely balanced out by Komatsu, a talented chef who aids Toriko in his foodie quest. Komatsu proves himself to be a (physically) weak character who doesn't drag the stronger protagonist down, which is something that I don't see that often in a 'tough-guy+weak-shrimp' shounen character combination.

While I remain the notion that I dislike the character design, I love how the monster looks. They are just so bizarre that you can't help but anticipate what would come next. Not mention that the writer is damn good at drawing delicious food and describe the taste, which probably means that he is a hardcore gourmet himself. I could get hungry from reading this series.


To summarize my long rambling: Toriko is a nicely paced shounen series with simple plot that doesn't try too hard to be anything other than what it is, but it does what it does very well. It also presents some characters with unique depth and fantastic monster design. If you love food manga, you will definitely get hungry reading this one, which might be kinda bad because you know that you won't ever get to eat anything quite like what is shown in the story.

I'm about to embark on the reading of TORIKO since It's been bugging me. I'm pretty sure that the person who wrote this was inspired by Hunter X Hunter (the gourmet hunter) and Oishii Ryouri (the anime, dno if there was a manga) will update once I have started reading.

I don't even know where to start of people rating "+1" on this manga. This manga is what i call a "unique" in many ways. And for people who rated +1 may either not have a taste on this manga OR people didn't even give it a chance and just rated it +1.

This manga is funny, interesting, and very mouth-watering, to people who likes and enjoys food. I believe this manga will be in the race competing against one of the best shounen manga.

Hm... A lot of "1" rating. I bet most of the people who put "1" didn't even read this manga. I admit, the plot seems awful: A man who hunts food for rich people. Ok... And the start is not the good neither... But around chapter 18, it turns out to be one of the bests manga of jump recently. It has many fights, great humor, an average art and even some creativity (something rare in popular mangas).
Well, if it's so good, why did I gave it a 7? Because it's a good manga, but doesn't deserve a 10. It's that kind of manga that will do anything public wants. And also, it's one of those mangas that is in the line of One Piece.
But talking about good things agains, his positive points are: Characters that really surprise you, a great humor, not too long and interesting fights and mainly, a plot that apparentely will be boring, but when you realize, you're addicted to it.

eh this was much better than that basket ball manga it came out with at the same time i gave both a 1 at the beginning cause it didn't meet my expectations and I'm still angry about mx0 being taken off for this and the basketball Manga. I'm so happy that dam basketball manga died but still disappointed that they killed mx0... this may not have replaced mx0 in my favorites but still its not bad

... Last updated on March 17th, 2009, 10:42pm

I was one of the those who gave it 1 rating in the beginning, but it turns out not bad at all. Those who gave it a 1 people read just 1 chapter and disappointed in it, probably just it was serialized in weekly shounen jump. they had huge expectation i guess.