Tetsunabe no Jan!

Description

Jan Akiyama, a cocky arrogant teenager wants to fulfill his grandfathers wish of defeating his arch nemesis Mutsuju Gobancho. When he arrives at the Gobancho restaurant he meets his granddaughter Kiriko Gobancho. Their rivalry is easily compared to Jan's and Kiriko's grandfathers, for Jan believes cooking is about competition and Kiriko believes cooking is about heart.

Type

Manga

Tetsupai no Jan! (Alternate Version)

Tetsunabe no Jan! Gogyou-kun no Tanoshii Hong Kong Seikatsu (Spin-Off)

Associated Names

Iron Wok Jan!

จอมโหดกระทะเหล็ก (VBK)

鉄鍋のジャン!

Groups Scanlating

N/A

Latest Release(s)

N/A

Status in Country of Origin

27 Tankobon Volumes (Complete)
13 Bunkoban Volumes (Complete)
16 Kanzenban Volumes (Complete)

Completely Scanlated?

Yes

Anime Start/End Chapter

N/A

User Reviews

N/A

Forum

0 topics, 0 posts

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User Rating

Average: 7.9 / 10.0 (32 votes)

Bayesian Average: 7.11 / 10.0

25%

16%

19%

25%

Last Updated

December 15th, 2025 4:00pm PST - 3 days ago

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Genre

Action Comedy Drama Shounen
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Categories

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Category Recommendations

Houchou Mushuku Shoubu Tabi

Shokugeki no Souma

Liu Yao: The Revitalization of Fuyao Sect (Novel)

Peerless: Wushuang (Novel)

Recommendations

Author(s)

Artist(s)

Year

Original Publisher

Akita (1995)

Media Factory (2005; 2007; 2012; 2017)

Serialized In (magazine)

Shuukan Shounen Champion (Akita Shoten)

Licensed (in English)

English Publisher

ComicsOne (Defunct / Vols 1–11)

DrMaster (Defunct / Vols 12–27 - Complete)

Activity Stats (vs. other series)

Weekly Pos #576

(-217)

Monthly Pos #1728

(-135)

3 Month Pos #2257

(-1082)

6 Month Pos #4789

(-601)

Year Pos #6148

(-2314)

List Stats

On 72 reading lists

On 135 wish lists

On 47 completed lists

On 12 unfinished lists

On 57 custom lists

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Forum Posts Click to view the forum

User Comments [ Order by usefulness ]

"I am far more skilled than any of you guys! Hahahaha! Jealousy is the worst trait a man can have."

by StoneLuigi
7 months ago

Rating: 8.0 / 10.0

Solid cooking tournament series! Starts off with a bang, but after the main characters settle in, they just tear through the enemy cooks like a machine gun at a shooting gallery. I was left unsatisfied that the lovely art and funny writing fell into such a predictable formula, although the core element of surprising food ideas stays compelling through to the end.

I'm happy I read it and I'm recommending it on the basis of the very strong 90s art and appealing character writing. Jan, the mega-asshole, flamboyantly demolishes and mocks the opposition in a way that's always fun to watch. The author does not baby Jan; he is regularly subject to blowback and humiliation, which he admirably sustains. Still, the series suffers because Jan's harsh training occurred before the series begins, so it's just amusing to watch him wipe the floor with lesser braggarts -- amusing but not gripping, because they never have a ghost of a chance. The villains are by and large not afforded sympathetic personalities or much time to flesh out their gimmicks.

Bringing back the evil judge Otani again and again is a dissatisfying bellwether of the series' limited structural progression. A lot of these fights you could read in any order. The central element, the food choices, again, remain fresh to the end and ramp up in intensity, which is great. I was still a little disappointed that when we're finally given a convincing major threat, he turns into an anti-villain. It's unfortunate that all of Jan's rivals must end up as his sidekicks to avoid compromising either's reputation, with the end result of downgrading them. (cf DBZ) Still, the less-mean deuteragonists/rivals retain plenty of skill and interest to make them fun to root for.

Well, it is about traditional Chinese cooking, so it does get a tad mean with the graphic animal death, eating things while they're alive et cetera. To me, the foreigner, it comes across as funny to see such merciless, ghastly imagery juxtaposed with the series' pretty characters and relatively mild vanilla humor. It's an interesting twist in the series' complicated relationship with cruelty.

The art is nice and bold, a bit of a horniness victim. The writing is welcoming and supportive of women; Jan's foil (and our viewpoint, sorta) Kiriko is especially likable as the firebrand fight-hungry goody-two-shoes Vegeta figure, reliable for respectable wins and endlessly determined to crush the titular character.

...but it's tough to submit IWJ as a feminist manga as the author Saijyo pulls a bit of an Oda and sneakily begins to draw his strong heroines with colossal balloon titties. (Their waists shrink as thin as a neck, but Jan's does too, so that comes across as a less bonerrific affectation.) The writing doesn't sully itself by following suit, and the character art is still cool-looking, so it's not a dealbreaker, but if you're not slowing down to actually make all these recipes, you're gonna end up less interested in the plot than in seeing just how big Saijyou is going to go with the way he draws racks. Spoiler: Startlingly big!

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Informative, entertaining and nice plot

by Miss Valentine
6 years ago

Rating: N/A

it is an old story and I can see that it won't fit that much with nowadays world condition (animal slaughter, even those rare ones), but anyway this story deserves my 9 rating. Some point I'd like to highlight:

the details, the author did good research for ingredients revealed here, from the normal ones to the grotesque ones, very entertaining for those with curiosity
the main character is not ordinary character who fights for good, or to make their customers happy, he simply loves winning, thats it. he's super arrogant too and has every quality to be a villain
the artstyle is typical artstyle of the era, though I'm honestly a bit uncomfortable with the proportional of the body, like everyone has too skinny waist and the girls have too big-chested, but overall, it is good
the judges reactions are pretty normal if you compare them to yakitate japan or shokugeki no soma

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Good one

by dearest88
15 years ago

Rating: N/A

The main cook guy is kinda heartless cook.
Well of course, being a cook, he has to kill animals. But he kills ruthlessly!
Anyway, it is a good read and makes you wanna imagine how 'this' Chinese food will taste like.

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awesome!

by aquamarinecharlotte
16 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

I'm not going to lie, I love a good cooking series, like Addicted to curry, or Yakitate!! Japan. This is-so far, somewhat like the DBZ of cooking, the art in similar, but much cleaner, and more expressive. Altogether I thoroughly enjoy the first volume, and can't wait for more!

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