Ranked #1335

Iron Wok Jan (Manga)

Let’s say it straight out, if you don’t like tournament -mangas you won’t like Iron Wok Jan. Period. If you do, this will be a feast. The whole series is composed of 2 major tournaments with the rest being stuffing to fill pages and a chance for the characters to show off their cooking-skills even more.

The story kicks off with Jan Akiyama, strong-willed guy who will do anything to reach his goals and with the motto “cooking is about winning” who have been sent to Japans no.1 chinese restaurant, Gobancho. At this restaurant he meets, aside from the general staff (who instantly starts to dislike him), Kiriko Gobancho. Kirko is the granddaughter of the owner and a kind girl with an equally strong will but her motto is “cooking is about heart” which quickly causes her and Jan to clash and an rivalry forms.

Since the series is tournament based you can guess that during its course, there will be several opponents. They all have their own quirks but more often than not they have an attitude just as bad as Jan and will not stop at anything to get to their goal. The real antagonist of the story isn’t an tournament opponent though, it’s the food-critic Nichido Otani with the self-proclaimed “tongue of god”. After being humiliated and getting his judgment questioned by Jan he begins an campaign to crush him and thus he becomes an judge at the “Chinese cooking competition”. Sadly, with this (and many more) interesting personalities there are nearly no development, what you get from the start is what you will see. Even the dishes get’s more developed as you often get to see the entire process of making it. Of course that last part is a great remedy for underdeveloped characters since it takes the focus from them to the food itself.

When it comes to the art it can’t be mentioned without first asking: Who the heck taught this guy anatomy? I mean seriously, most of the female characters have boobs that take up 50% of their body. No joke. They are so ridiculously huge that it’s not even perverted or sexy, it’s just odd. What’s more odd than the sheer size is that only once during the series is there a mention about them, after stuff like Love Hina this is a “huge” relief. The other art really fits the series, Jan never ceases to look vicious, the side-characters are all unique, the crowds at the tournaments are often really detailed and the food looks well-drawn. It’s artistically pleasing apart from that one flaw mentioned.

What about enjoyment then? Well, this is where the series shines the most. Seeing how Jan, unchanged, acts like the world’s biggest Jerk just to prove himself to be the best for ~250 chapters is nothing but a joy to witness. So is the food that he and the other characters in the series produces, everything from blood-eggs to ostrich is on the menu and since the description of the dishes are so thorough and the art to graphic you immediately imagine how it will taste. This can either get you to feel nauseous or hungry, a manga provoking such real life feelings are quite rare (then again, I have never read an cookingmanga before). Another thing I like about it is the way that Jan and his rival Kiriko interacts, they are enemies but still friendly at times you can sense that they care for each other. It's not a tsundere deal though and love is out of the question.

Without spoiling too much I must say that the ending was really disappointing, while the manga as a whole felt awfully dragged out the ending was abrupt and rushed. The" extra ending" didn’t add anything more then a few laughs. However, I must give the series credit for not involving that much romance at all and thus not pleasing a large chunk of what manga readers are looking for. The focus stays on what it’s supposed to and what the manga does best: cooking.

To summarize: the whole series is nothing more than a flamboyant measuring of penises about who will come up with the weirdest dish. Nothing more nothing less. I don’t find this to be an entirely bad thing though, it has its moments and unexpected plot turns but it all boils down to variety. Iron Wok Jan has none and for me a, 27 volume manga simply about cooking with seemingly no character development, it just isn’t enough. Darn enjoyable though. read more