Toriko 303 Review: What in the fuck just happened

Toriko Chapter 303: the Moment of the Encounter

It's kind of a short chapter, but what the fuck, man.

First three pages are just wordless reaction shots and another panning shot of Bambina approaching the group. The fourth page is Toriko reflecting on how he didn't try to measure Heracles' power level, and wanted to make sure this time.

Bambina is apparently quasi-sleeping with a doofy grin as he's standing there, and Toriko uses the capture tongs or whatever, and immediately we get a full page of Bambina just screaming. Sani looks at the iPad-looking thing and Bambina's level is apparently 6000, and the next page is another full-body shot of Bambina with the full name and capture level and shit. And he's one ugly-ass monkey.

Bambina's just pulling a goofy face, and apparently Zebra immediately entered battle mode, and in response to that, Coco and Toriko got into support stance. And as Sani tries to compose himself, he blinks.

And I do like how they did these series of pages, even if it's a bit wasteful.

First, we get a single two-page spread of darkness with a barely-opened eyelid-shaped light creeping through, and some words talking about how blinking only lasts 0.1 seconds but it is horribly fatal... and then we get Sani's eyes as they open and what the fuck happened. We've got Zebra's decapitated head flying out, we've got at least two legs without any bodies attached to them, and at least an arm that either belongs to Toriko or Zebra. There's also a fucking ribcage that's kind of shattered, though that may have came from the ground.

Then we get another two-page spread of Sani's shocked expression and the terrain... some big explosion shit's going on that I don't know what to make of.

And Sani, of course, screams. I would scream if I saw that. Bambina's apparently gone and so is Komatsu, and we get an establishing shot of Sani looking at the torn-up limbs and Zebra's head. And then Sani cries in regret for lowering his guard in front of the Monkey King, and just screams.

What the hell just happened?

I don't know. But it certainly is hella effective in portraying how fucking dangerous the Monkey King is, just like the Heracles-snorts-once-and-creates-a-crater scene where half of Toriko gets blown to nothing back then, except this is hella more brutal and more awesome. I hope it isn't a fake-out, and the Zebra parts we saw blown apart isn't just a poison doll or an illusion or a ultimate routine thing or anything, because that will leave an absolutely sour taste in my mouth, but in the same vein I don't want Zebra to die.

But fucked if I know what just happened in this chapter.

Need... next... chapter...