Comments on: *Oishinbo a la Carte 6: The Joy of Rice — Recommended

By: The Drops of God Book 1 » Manga Worth Reading

The Drops of God Book 1 » Manga Worth Reading — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 19:30:15 +0000

[...] customer interest and thus industry economics. Additionally, I grew to love the Japanese food manga Oishinbo (which also did an alcohol volume), and I was eager to see more in that genre. Yet Drops of God [...]

By: Children of the Sea Book 2 » Manga Worth Reading

Children of the Sea Book 2 » Manga Worth Reading — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:40:38 +0000

[...] as part of his stay with some native islanders. Combined with the recent mention in a volume of Oishinbo, I realized that my attitude toward whaling (bad idea, risks extinction) is likely very different [...]

By: *Oishinbo a la Carte 7: Izakaya: Pub Food â€” Recommended Â» Manga Worth Reading

*Oishinbo a la Carte 7: Izakaya: Pub Food â€” Recommended Â» Manga Worth Reading — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 04:21:23 +0000

[...] and publishing in the US. It was one of my best manga of 2009, and each volume is better than the last. Oishinbo a la Carte 7: Izakaya: Pub Food [...]

By: Best Manga of 2009 » Manga Worth Reading

Best Manga of 2009 » Manga Worth Reading — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:32:32 +0000

[...] Oishinbo a la Carte — Pure fun and exoticism. Learn crazy details about Japanese food and culture while salivating over how good all the dishes sound. [...]

By: Johanna

Johanna — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 12:45:57 +0000

I'm sorry, I covered the rearrangement in the series in my review of volume 1 of the Viz release, so I didn't think to mention it again here. There are copious endnotes in every book, and that's often where significant character changes are mentioned. "This chapter takes place before X and Y were engaged", that sort of thing.

By: Jason D

Jason D — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 11:02:26 +0000

Thanks for that bit of enlightenment, Kevin. I’m not sure how I feel about this. Granted, narrative doesn’t seem to be Oishinbo’s focus but I do get the feeling that there is an emphasis on character development and relationships between some of the characters — particularly Shiro and his dad. Wouldn’t that all become jumbled if the chapters do not follow a linear chronological progression.

However, if this is the only feasible way Viz could do this, it is much better than nothing.

By: Kevin Lighton

Kevin Lighton — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 08:02:26 +0000

The series has been going for a long time in Japan (I think it was at 80+ volumes last time I noticed, and that was a couple of years ago), so Viz has been releasing volumes containing selected stories on specific themes rather than trying to release everything.

By: Jason D.

Jason D. — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 04:32:24 +0000

Are the chapters from the original manga rearranged for the U.S. release? That’s the implication I get from reading your review, particularly this excerpt:

“The first chapter of the book is an early episode from the long-running series that establishes key themes:”

Or is it a flashback? Sorry if this is an obtuse question, but I’m relatively new to Oishinbo. I only have the first 2 volumes and admittedly I’ve only read the first couple of chapters.

Great review, thanks.

By: Everyone’s A Critic: A round-up of comic book reviews and thinkpieces | Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources – Covering Comic Book News and Entertainment

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:02:14 +0000

[...] Johanna Draper Carlson raves about the sixth volume of Oishinbo: "I’m loving this series about the wonders of food, [...]

By: Johanna

Johanna — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:00:57 +0000

What a thoughtful analysis! Thank you so much for sharing that.

By: Mike Joffe

Mike Joffe — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:51:18 +0000

Oishinbo is great stuff that I really need to read more of. What I liked best was that it wasn’t always as easy as “pure and honorable Japanese vs evil foreigners who don’t understand the beauty of being Japanese.” Many times the story would feature a stuffy, pretentious Japanese antagonist who was either embarrassed by Japanese culture or simply out to make a buck and sometimes Yamaoka was even aided by a foreigner or Japanese descendant abroad with a passion for food or Japanese culture (such as a French food expert extolling the virtues of chopsticks to a disillusioned Japanese teen, or a Japanese-American senator forsaking empty spectacle in favor of simple tea in the countryside). As someone who lived in Japan, I enjoyed that because there is definitely a tendency among stuffy types in Japan to assume that all foreigners are either completely ignorant in all matters Japanese or gullible Otaku rubes. Another thing I noticed was that many people in Japan had no idea just how popular Japanese food currently was in the West. A surprising amount of Japanese people assumed that the rest of the world looked down on them, when actually Japanese culture has never been more popular (or romanticized). A lot of Japanese right-wing rhetoric is based on the idea that everyone else is out to get Japan, and sometimes that spills over into Japanese pop culture (America is the same way, we have a lot of accidentally nationalist pop culture and a lot of pundits with weird inferiority complexes). It was nice to see a well made comic that not only celebrated the wonders of Japanese culture and thought, but also celebrated Japan being a part of the world. If any Oishinbo was going to be about nation pride, rice would logically be it, and I can forgive any rice-based nationalism considering how progressive and thoughtful the other volumes have been.