#toriko rewatch

Like Toriko shows up and you know he and the others are the Four Heavenly Kings and you THINK this means they're the Most Powerful Dudes Ever right but turns out that, no, they're literally just the IGO darlings because they're a bunch of orphans raised in the public eye and they ARE powerful, regular people understand that, but people don't get that they're STILL the IGO darlings -- at the beginning of the show none of them would stand a chance against Ichiryu or any of the other higher ups.

They're still very much seen as Babies and this is driven in when they reveal OHOHO there's a whole gourmet world out there that most people can't survive five seconds in--and guess what the 4 heavenly kings are NOT among the number who can. Gives them a goal, something to work towards.

ALSO usually the worst thing to do in a fantasy world is start throwing arbitrary power levels on things (7 deadly sins, DBZ I am looking at YOU) but Toriko does it and it works because they give a basic, easy meaning for each unit (capture level 1 means it would take 10 normal people to get it or something) and then it sticks to that (I think the highest we ever see is the Final Boss of the manga with a capture level of 30,000 which is a ton but sure is evocative)

And this isn't just done with the fighter people either! Komatsu gets this just as much, and it's probably one of my favorite world building things because they use our knowledge of the real world against us as readers to achieve it. Komatsu is introduced as a cook in a five star restaurant and obviously we're like "aha so he's a very good chef" only to reveal several arcs in that, in this food-focused world, the cap is actually ten stars and Komatsu is actually a solidly mid ranked chef at the start.

Toriko: immune to some poisons so he can eat more food, a conscious decision that he made, probably chose the most common poisons and did them to cover his bases

Sunny: immune to some poisons because the foods/products that carry them are beautiful and he Will Not Be Denied Beauty even if it kills him AND because being poisoned really isn’t a good look on anyone so better become immune to avoid the embarrassment of that happening

Coco: immune to most every poison and creating more by the day because he’s got some crazy fascination with death and also he’s such a little freak about only finding things fun if his life is in danger and he took that a bit too far and now Can’t Die because his gourmet cells really took to Improvise Adapt Overcome in a way that killed his thrill seeking ways

Literally all the other 4 kings meet Komatsu and within, like, one day are like I would die for this man is there literally anything I can do to steal him from Toriko, meanwhile Toriko is over here like "yeah we've been working together for months at this point but it never occurred to me that you were helpful until vegetable sky"

Like dude, worst boyfriend ever. Please sir Komatsu deserves everything in the world and your brain is so dead you can't even appreciate him

Toriko: Long, scientific explanation as to what Autophagy is and how it allows a starving creature a last hurrah before consuming its own cells

Me: Sure yeah I accept that without question

Toriko Mangaka: It gets a lot of excess glucose and stores it in a gland there--Just like sea turtles in real life have evolved specialized secretory glands located in the corner of each eye to remove excess salt, which is why they appear to cry.

So I'm in the middle of rewatching toriko, at episode 50 now but since I'm posting now I figured I'd share some rewatch thoughts