Toriko Movie 1 Kaimaku Gourmet Adventure

Since I was stuck in One Piece’s Water Seven arc and haven’t moved on from there for several years now, I have put OP in the backseat and have been exploring other animé. Toriko is one such animé although I wouldn´t be too interested in it to allot time to watch the series, it being a far cry from my favorite cooking animé Cooking Master Boy and Yakitate Japan. These two really set the standards! I first encountered Toriko in a crossover special joined by the main characters of One Piece and Dragonball Z. It should be noted that one thing in common in these three series is that the main hero of each is a known glutton!

In Toriko Movie 1, a young village boy named Peck looks for Toriko to kill Gerold, a five-headed bird reminiscent of Pokemon’s Dodrio except with a scary monster look. The bird monster has eaten up the other animals and the village is in danger of being wiped out after an initial attack. Peck requests to be Toriko’s disciple to also learn how to hunt so he can support his village. His knowledge of the predators lead him to help Toriko out when they eventually fight the Elephant Bear, a giant creature that goes out of its cave only every 15 years. When it is outside, it just keeps on eating and eating, thus causing the other animals to flee.

seems like this creature was inspired by the Pokemon Dodrio

and this creature is just too ugly I wouldn't think of eating its meat!

What I find disturbing in this animé is that nonchalant killing of creatures for food. Toriko is not guided by any noble principle, his stomach being his boss. In this light, species extinction is not thought of as long as nature satisfies man’s appetite. He even remarks while fighting the elephant bear that humans may not have powerful claws nor sharp fangs, but that humans have tools for eating, human weaponry as he calls it. This brings to mind cultural anthropologists who have long recognized that what sets humans apart from animals is our extrasomatic adaptations wherein naturally we are not endowed with sharp claws and/or teeth, or other body weapons but that we are able to create tools that we can use to protect ourselves.