Apr 9, 2010
Toriko is a new manga from Shonen Jump about Gourmet Hunters and has become a huge success in Japan. The manga will begin here in the states this June and after reading the first three chapters through Shonen Jump Magazine, all I can say is that I'm really looking forward to reading more. Before the t.v. series begins, the pilot episode was shown at the Jump Super Anime Tour last Christmas and can be seen on youtube, and here's what I have to say about it.
The plot is an adaptation of the first two chapters of the manga. The story of the pilot is about
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a famous gourmet hunter named Toriko who has been hired by a timid head chef named Komatsu to obtain a creature known as a Garara Gator for an upcoming festival. Toriko accepts and he departs, with Komatsu coming along in an attempt to see how Toriko succeeds. As I said before this is an adaptation of the first two chapters of the manga so don't expect too much, but it atleast does a fine job setting up what to expect in the t.v. series. However I felt the manga did a better job explaining Toriko's mission than this pilot did.
Once again, since this is on the first two chapters, so not many characters appear (though a few of the other main characters from the manga appear in the credits), so I'll just review the two main characters. Toriko as an excellent protagonist and is instantly likable from the start. His carefree and courageous personality does make the character shine. Komatsu is your standard side kick character, but from what I've heard, he develops quite well throughout the course of the manga.
The art and animation are pretty good. The coloring is great and the detail is excellent for a pilot.
The voice acting, while little, is quite good. Takashi Kondo, who is best known for voices like Train from Black Cat and Faust from the Guilty Gear series suited Torko perfectly, and Daisuke Kishio also did an excellent job as Komatsu. Kenjiro Tsude (known for voices like Kaiba from Yu-gi-oh and Mifune from Soul Eater), who voices the boat man Tom also did a good performance despite what little dialogue he has. The music also captures the mood of each scene very well and the ending (which I can't find the name of) is jamming and very catchy.
Overall I found the Toriko pilot to be quite good. It's an excellent way to get you interested in the series and it does a good job setting up for the upcoming t.v. series. Just make sure the video quality of your computer is good enough to see the fight scene. The Toriko pilot gets an 8 out of 10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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