I've been slowly reading through "Toriko" lately. It's a series about a world full of animals which are massively dangerous, people who REALLY want to eat them as a delicacy, and the gourmey hunters who bring them down.

I picked it up because it was recommended on several sites for people who liked One Piece and as anyone who knows me can attest to, I LOVE One Piece. It has its missteps, but I'm utterly invested in the characters and stories. And I'm having a hard time seeing the reflection of that in Toriko.

Maybe it's because I've been with the characters in One Piece for so long that I can no longer remember what it was like in those early days, when I was first stepping into a world full of pirates who get superpowers by eating magical fruit, like some sort of Garden of Eden roulette. But it feels like Toriko is actively bludgeoning me with how weird it is, whereas the weirdness of One Piece was sort of woven into a more relatable narrative.

Or maybe I'm just getting tired of the tropes and actions of this style of manga. I've been a long-time reader of such things, but maybe there's only really room for one One Piece style thing in my life right now.

Now, I want to be clear - I don't dislike Toriko. I enjoy each volume of it I read, and I think the author does a good job with characterization. I'm just not driven to get the next volume the way I am with manga I really like. I've been picking it up at a rate of one volume per trip to the library, which means one every week or two. Its not a bad pace I don't think. :)