Toriko 342 Review: We're Skipping Stuff :(

Toriko, Chapter 342: Toriko, Switch On

Don't really have much to say about this week's Toriko. I've been saying it since we cut away from the cooking competition and the whole secret city of conspiracies of Blue Grill to suddenly just showing all the eight areas, all the eight kings, all the eight ingredients, the NEO, the Acacia, the Midora, the Teppei, the everything... it's clear something is going on behind the scenes in Toriko and it either is being told to just skip through all these possibly-formulaic arcs, or just wants to rush to an ending for whatever reason. And that's fucking depressing, since there's so much more that they could do in the individual areas! Although on the other hand I am kinda-sorta glad that we're not going to be dragging things out the way One Piece and Bleach did in the past year of arcs, and if Toriko's ending is going to be rush I'd rather it be on its own terms.

We get a short flashback to Toriko hunting down Komatsu during the timeskip period, and apparently wild beasts and whatnot avoid him because he's emitting his appetite demon troll aura and his smell is like super-awesome that he can smell things from the world and basically has a Komatsu radar. Midora also notes that the sheer amount of drive within Toriko would mean if the two of them did battle, not even Midora would come out unscathed. Starjun notes how the Toriko in the present day is undoubtedly the same power level that Midora saw before, and Toriko just tells Starjun and the Battle Wolf that he could smell what's going on throughout the world -- Acacia's full course all ripening -- and "God" is going to appear near them.

The Battle Wolf has a short monologue about how Toriko's heartbeat and awakening two years ago was what they all felt, and Toriko goes all "you're just the number two Battle Wolf. Come out, king." and out steps Wolf King Guinness, who is black-coloured and rather gigantic. Nowhere as large as Heracles or Mother Snake or Sky Deer, but still, pretty big, easily dwarfing Toriko and Numero Dos Lobos.

We get the two of them facing off each other with some honestly rather generic narration, before they get switched on by appetite and Toriko does a demon-punch straight to Guinness' face. And Toriko does this double entrende filled line that "the one that always flips my switch is... Komatsu!"

Komatsu calls Toriko, and we get a two-page spread showing the results of the Blue Grill arc. They apparently cooked "Another"... and what the fuck happened? Komatsu's got long hair. Yun Yun the penguin is gigantic. Warden Love is back, I think. Picnic Bomber, Asarudy and the rest of the masked chefs have their masks off and are smiling -- including Condor Window, who we last saw being eaten by the souls of the damned. And most importantly, a gigantic bearded figure that looks sorta-kinda like that Ganishka Emperor dude from Berserk. And he's apparently Don Slime's true form, and he calls himself a natural disaster filled with malice.

So, yeah, Don Slime versus Acacia Neo incoming?

Also sucks that we skipped through all that. Maybe we'll get a montage in the next chapter? Whatever. I'm not really happy about skipping stuff, but I can't say I'm particularly super-offended either. Goes without saying, though, that I'm not super-happy (though not exactly super-upset, just indifferent) that Toriko can somehow be on the level of Guinness after, well, not doing much, really, even though he stood jack shit of a chance against Bambina and Heracles (it was teamwork, Bambina dicking around and demon materialization that took the kings out) and now he gets this power-up to fight Guinness... simply because he is focusing his smell. That's weird.

Also there better be a big flashback next chapter, is all I'm saying. Just too tired to get pissed at this chapter. But I do think that I am. It's weird. Eh.