My problem with Toriko right now
so the author's idea for World Building was….. make IGO the center pillar of the world, a ridiculously huge organization with some of the most powerful people we've ever seen/heard of, who act as mentors for the good guys
the logical next step was to give them an enemy that was as powerful as they were, that would pose an extreme threat to them, the dark side of the series..... so enter the Bishokukai
so far the world building has been really good, not every series can have the ridiculous amounts of organizations and secret organizations all filled with different moral spectrum, from being pure evil, to having deranged thinking (such as I am God), to retaliation over years of oppression from racists and a world government that has such a moral grey area, with intrigue and mystery abound their true nature, as One Piece has seem to have so brilliantly made....
so yeah Toriko isn't trying to be that though (for now), it's got the good guys and the bad guys, it has top elite in each group and a trio of highish ranking officers who seem to be perfect match ups for our heroes both personality and power level wise (zebra hasn't been introduced yet), you've got the guy who hates gross things vs the guy who creates gross bugs, The super plain main protagonist and the super plain main antagonist and the best match up of all.... Turbans vs Bandana's
they may break through ridiculous capture level barriers with increasing ease, but they've built up their own hax saiyanesque power up system as to why they always get stronger..... but it ties in perfectly with the main characters objectives and how the story progresses, they go out to capture and cook rare ingredients, which begins and ends each story arc, and their entire world is based on food so it makes sense to grow their power levels when they eat amazing ingredients
so far everything is perfect
but I think the real problem came when they added NEO and JOA
so we've got a new group that appears suddenly, who we've never heard of before. which is made up of the richest men in the world, who control just about everything, and can afford to buy anything.... but the problem is, after building up both IGO and the Bishokukai, and showing they have the elite of the elite in there groups and seeing that weaponry (stuff money can buy) can't compare with good soldiers, we need something to make them more of a threat and quickly since the be all end all war is looming in the corner.... so the author adds that they have spies in both camps. good idea, but with just knowing they have a few spies in two gigantic organizations, a bunch of old rich guys who's power we know nothing of. all we are truly left with to gauge there power, is just knowing JOA is super powerful.... but again, the other groups have accia's three disciples, the strongest men in the world.
so how can a few spies and one guy who's not on the three disciples level be enough..... the answer is of course, it can't. The author knows it, and decides to pull some crazy stuff. Guess what, NEO had hinted that a few of the characters were spies, and we have rising suspicions of Ichiryu that the guy he sent to cooking fest may be a spy, so he sends a spy after him and we have a plot twist where they both end up being spies.... and then the author just makes everyone a spy, he's a spy, she's a spy, there all spies,
Ichiryu and Midora may have finally settled there debate with fists of love and tears but pure addultured manliness, but NEO the group that we just met before cooking fest (who too the authors credit was vaguely foreshadowed... i repeat vaguely) turns out to be the big winner here. Because instead of just making them a credible threat, he makes them THE THREAT!!! Which sucks because we don't know any of them!!! we haven't had time to build the emotional attachment that they are the final villains of the series, in fact we just spent 99% of the series on the idea that the Bishokukai were to be the big bads, this is literately just thrown at the reader like a super cluster fuck, that was obviously trying to be some amazing game changing twist and just wasn't and was underwhelming
and the problem with the spies.... the majority of the spies they picked were character we knew nothing about, and cared nothing for. The Big Bads of the series were all hoping to see have final showdowns with the main characters, just got swept of there ass and put in second place for the torikoverse villain convention
Midora: "Damn guys how'd we get second place at villain fest this year"
Starjun: "Poor writing and judgment on the authors part"
and even the spies they did pick, the ones that created some what of a genuine shock, were like.... okay A: we still hardly know them and the really big point B: we find out they are being mind controlled, the whole shock value of Ichiryu's number one, right hand man and wing partner being bad, or that one guy we still know very little about but love anyways, Teppii, or that random board guy who's name most of us don't even know and never thought of as a fighter but looked damn badass betraying IGO, none of that really sticks to your gut in the sense of how could they betray them…. cause, they really didn't they are being completely controlled
and then instead of Midora for a final villain (who I'm still mad doesn't look like some kind of monster) we get JOA who turns out to be the cook for Accia, who turns out could be evil and the final villain.... WHAT!?! really!?!
I'd rather Midora back please.... so author understand this and makes a flashback.... that's 99% about midora, builds him into the most well developed character in the series and really gives you insight on why he is the way he is, and how far he will go to get what he wants.... but the whole point of the backstory should be making Accia and JOA be somewhat evil or give us reason behind there true intention and why evil is necessary to accomplish it... instread we get what we would have expected of them from what we first heard, they are great people, nothing bad about them.... so instead of dissociating Midora as the true villain and making leeway for the new big bad(s), it does the complete opposite, tell us nothing new on there behalf and makes Midora an even more solid candidate for the final big bad..... and oh yeah, JOA is a zombie version of Frohze... we think.... hell I didn't know it would be posible to know less about a character and there true intentions after a flashback.... I think this is a first
AHHRGGHZZF!!!
so basically all I'm looking forward to are big awesome fight scenes now and descriptions of Food that makes me hungry... I mean let's be honest it was always about the food and fights in the first place right.... right guys.... guys..
and these last few chapters manage to take my already shaky outlook of how the rest of the series could go.... And destroys it with a Bazooka..... we don't have an emo con for that yet
first of all for the first of the mystical, ridiculously hyped, final goals of the series, Accia's food course, we get maybe the most underwhelming explanation, I loved how when I read the jewel meat arc, the food might have looked great and made your mouth wet, but it was that ridiculously awesome description that really made your mouth drool
I've ben looking forward to his description of one of these awesome foods for a long time.... and it just wasn't what I was expecting... totally undersold it
next, IGO's former number two guy, is gonzo after one punch, on the first island, the guy who's literally the most powerful guy after accia's three disciples and Joa (and most likely Setsuno) just got offed by the main character in a single hit in the most anti climatic way possible... damn
that's the equivalent of Luffy passing his First isalnd of the new world, Punk Hazard, and having Akainu be right there staring him down as a cliff hanger, and then having Luffy do some super semi-haki transformation (not even a full one) and knocking him the fuck out and killing him in a single hit, with no damage done…
Who's left to fight now.... cause that's only one arm, and he'll most likely get more power and appendages with each and every one he eats.... but I can't think of a single character outside of Midora and Joa, who can stand up to Toriko right now... or would want to. and he's in a group with three other guys as powerful as him (in the same range) you could possibly get the entire NEO team and for all I know Zebra could kill them no problamo
I mean toriko took out two guys who were one level below the strongest Bishokukai member, and since they seemed fine fighting the 0th biotope guys (who's power hasn't been built up at all), and again I can't stress this enough, Ichiryu's number two guy, who I'm sure we were all assuming (and I still am) was stronger than the 0th biotope members, just turned out to be chump change
and we've got other good guys with them for who knows how long.... ehh :sad:
So basically I'm not expecting many good people vs people fights... but we still have the eights kings right!! not big into that, don't get me wrong he can make awesome fights with animals but they never have the same feel as a character with personality and purpose and goals... and speech. Fighting a wild beast is awesome, but I was much more hoping for the Bishokukai...errmm... NEO fights
so, goodbye storyline... and even awesome fights and food descriptions are looking lacking for possible future... I'll try to keep my hopes up and not expect a downwards spiraling series... but I can't promise you anything.....stupid demon arm ruined everything