@kewl0210:
Well, I'm glad at least some people have gotten the whole "This is a purposeful subversion of tropes" thing. There's no rescue Komatsu arc because that's obvious. There'll obviously be some explanation as to what's gone on. I loved this chapter for how original it all was. Especially the "everyone's got new haircuts!" followed by them cutting it back to how it was. I really don't get why someone has a problem with a "timeskip" of just a year and a half… It's not like, important. It's nothing, it's just indicating that time has passed and certain events will be shown in flashback. It doesn't mean like... anything magical.
Part of why I love this series so much is for its original story telling in that regard. Shimabukuro always comes up with surprises. Villains don't always get defeated, not everything strong has a big fight, not everything that's mentioned is important, weak characters have strong moments, strong characters have weak moments, some stuff's shown, some stuff isn't shown, things that don't have a major effect on the plot go by quickly even though they could be really drawn out, sometimes there's a double-bluff but it always has a logical explanation. It's also very planned out in that way, because it has tons of foreshadowing. As opposed to like, Naruto or something.
You're free to disagree with me, but I'll never understand all the posts that happen once in a while in this thread for "There was no reason to do this", "it was supposed to go like this", "you can't do that" or "it was setup for this to happen so now it has to happen" when it's trying to be subversive or original by not doing a cliche.
If you don't get Shimabukuro's love for that sorta thing, it really comes out in Seikimatsu Leader Den Takeshi. That manga is like a full-on parody of battle manga, yet it has tons of heart to it. It's got all kinds of trope-breaking and shit, but it's way less serious than Toriko. I'm hoping some year I'll have time to translate it.
Subverting tropes is one thing. But building up hype for something with no payoff isn't a subversion. It's a poor writing decision IMO. Skipping that year in a half where Toriko was first in the Gourmet World undermines all the training/expectations of the Gourmet World that was built up for the past 100+ chapters when Toriko first entered. Though you seem to think otherwise which is fine.