Oishinbo

A manga about culinary journalists Shiro Yamaoka and Yuko Kurita as they explore different foods and recipes to create the Ultimate Menu for the Tozai newspaper. Their search puts them at odds with Yamaoka’s father, the grand gourmand and artist Yuzan Kaibara, who is creating the Supreme Menu for a rival newspaper.

We’ve discussed this manga on a previous episode.

This is THE food manga. An absolute juggernaut of a franchise that has been synonymous with manga about food, this series ran from 1983 all the way to 2014. This is an all ages manga that even my parents liked and bought. My brother and I would often eat meals while reading a volume in one hand and chopsticks in another.

I’ve been revisiting the series ever since the Mangasplaining podcast covered it. I wasn’t aware of the controversy regarding the Fukushima nuclear disaster that led to the series going on hiatus. Rereading it I notice a lot more conservative political takes throughout the series. Some of them are just products of the times but the series stance on defending whaling for Japanese culture is pretty hard to stomach.

Oishinbo is available in English from VIZ but they are nonlinear. Assorted chapters from different volumes are collected and wrapped around a general theme, such as sushi or ramen. I do wish we could just read all of the series but I understand why this was a much more financially viable choice for publication.

~dakazu