If you've read any of Tsuchiyama's other gourmet manga, you know what you are getting. This is probably his most successful merging of some shounen tropes like a novice with potential being instructed in a new sport by a sempai with food. Even though it should be disgusting (Meshinuma, I'm looking at you), there is an exuberance in freely connecting competitive eating with Shinto rituals and post-war celebration of not starving.

The art makes the food look good and the exuberance of the character's reactions carries the plot along. For once the villains are not the Restaurant Association, but the Kansai league's devolution into winning by any means necessary, scoffing food without tasting it.

The MC is your classic gourmet salaryman, although not as feckless as Yamaoka from Oishinbo, he shares some of the "haha, he's broke until payday" gags. I am not sure if he can sustain this high for more than 200 chapters, but I've just scarfed down two volumes worth in a hour and I'm willing to go along for the ride.

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