The Story
With no time left to finish preparing the ingredient, Toriko takes the Nitro Cherry from Komatsu and eats it raw. The explosion damages his organs, but thanks to his gourmet cells Toriko is able to start recovering. Coco trades for a high level ingredient, thanks to the Nitro Cherry’s joker status. They overtake Livebearer, but he is able to eat the Electric Banana and take the lead again, leaving Toriko and team with no way to catch up.
They keep going, eating three of the four remaining ingredients, leaving Livebearer with the Poison Potato. He thinks they are trying to get him to quit, but claims that he can eat anything in the casino. Before Livebearer can start preparing the potato, Coco tells him that he ate the ingredients in the wrong order, and that if he eats the Poison Potato it will be the last thing he ever eats.
The Review
Even though this arc has suffered from far too much exposition, and not nearly enough action, the game has been interesting enough to keep me watching. Fortunately, even though Toei does seem to be stuck in the old style of shonen action series—where stories dragged on far too long—this arc is approaching its climax. It’s always satisfying to see when a plan comes together, and next week we get to find out if the plan makes any sense in the first place.
Livebearer is probably the most horrifying thing I have seen in this show. And trust me, if there’s something Toriko is good at, besides showing delicious food, it’s producing nightmare fuel. And the repulsive expression Livebearer gets as his addiction to memories grows more pronounced, coupled with that hideous tongue, make him a prime candidate for tonight’s nightmare.
The main downside of this episode is that because this arc is wrapping up there were no new, interesting ingredients to be seen. Very little time is focused on the ingredients themselves, instead the focus is on how hopeless Toriko, Komatsu, and Coco’s situation is.
If there is one thing Toei is good at, it’s making shows that take the same amount of time as any other anime, but somehow manage to have far less content. I know it’s the curse of an ongoing anime adapted from an ongoing manga, but that doesn’t change the fact that almost every Toei show I’ve ever watched has the worst pacing of any anime I have ever watched. Which is nothing but a shame, I love series like Toriko and One Piece, but their anime are almost impossible to watch at times. Writing about them is difficult just because there is so little to write about. So, as I start my reviews of Toriko again, and I will catch up with One Piece again, do keep in mind that when these reviews are short it’s mostly because there just wasn’t enough for me to say.
The Grade
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