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happy five years to the quote that half-resurrected a fandom for a show that was never popular to begin with <3

Toriko: I’m invoking the “no judgements” clause of the family.

Coco: Oh for the love of everything Acacia discovered, WHAT DID YOU DO?

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So. I'm not sure if y'all know this. But on uQuiz I can see the number of people who got a certain answer.

That said, on my Toriko Heavenly King Personality Quiz, here are the four Kings ranked by popularity:

Zebra - A little over a third of you got him.

Toriko and Sunny - Tied! About half the quiz takers got one of them.

Coco - Apparently very few can relate.

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Sunny: We can't lose. Because we have this. *points to his chest*

Komatsu: We have heart?

Sunny: Heart? No, me. I'm pointing at myself. I'm going to win this for us.

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Coco: Well, I think-

Sunny: No off topic questions.

Sunny: No.

Sunny: Just no.

Sunny: Permission denied.

Sunny: That’s an off topic question.

Sunny: You have been stopped.

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Have you ever wondered why Toriko characters have such weird names? | Part 2

My last post focused on Toriko & Komatsu (and Komatsu's chef buddies). Who wants to dig into some SIDE CHARACTERS?

MAJOR SPOILERS UP TO THE END OF TORIKO

Joie (ジョア)

Joie's name is often spelled 'Joa' in fan-translations. Because it's actually pronounced joe-ah in the anime (that Katakana is "jyo + a"). So why spell it Joie?

Well, jyoa is the Japanese pronunciation of what it should be. It's meant to be pronounced /ʒwa/, because 'Joie' is the French word for 'joy'. (Thank Acacia for the Canadian education system)

Now, it's easy to chalk it all up to 'he looks like a jester' or possibly that he's a mockery of the joy that should've been felt when Froese was 'revived'. But it goes deeper than that when we take a look at Froese herself...

Froese (フローゼ)

This struck me as really, really weird because Froese is an actual surname... but the origin is actually German. But hey, if Shimabukuro was willing to whack out the French dictionary for Joie, why not?

I can't find a reputable source on this, but it seems that the origin of the surname Froese (in the real world) is commonly believed to be from Old German meaning 'joyful' or 'cheerful'.

Wait, go back. Joyful.

Joyful. Joy. Joie.

Teppei (鉄平)

This is... an actual Japanese name. The first Kanji in his name means 'iron', like the element.

The second Kanji in his name... well... this is a little odd. If you look it up, the definition will come up as 'flattened', which is true. But it can also mean something mediocre/common, or a person of a low-rank (novice, freshman, etc).

Maybe Shimabukuro was just picking random names for some characters. Maybe there's something to say about Teppei's iron-clad focus (when he's actually getting a chance to be a badass) but he's still a novice at his skills, or a novice at 'getting in the zone' considering his tendency to get distracted/go on tangents. I'm just spitballing these last ideas.

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Okay so like let me make one thing very clear: I am not actually Buddhist either. Yeah, Buddhism is widespread in Japan, but... not in my family.

That said! I think this ties more into the Shinto (the indigenous religion of Japan) influences of Toriko? Shimabu uses a LOT more Shinto-based worldbuilding than Buddhism-based worldbuilding. (For our purposes, I call Shinto a "religion" for the sake of being understandable. But there's a whole can of worms I'm not opening around that terminology, which I'm not getting opening on Tumblr of all places)

Shinto is a heavily nature-centric religion. Death and corpses are considered impure (unholy), but it's still understood that death is natural.

In fact, that's why the Toriko characters "give thanks" at the start of every meal. Although "itadakimasu" is often translated as 'bon appetit' or something similar, notice how in Toriko they build onto it, saying:

"I give thanks to all the ingredients of this world, itadakimasu"

it's not a gimmick or a children's show morality lesson. It's a kind of prayer. Just not a formal, solemn one like is common in the West (a lot of informal Shinto 'prayers' have a more casual vibe). As we see in Chowlin (Shokurin) temple, the Toriko world values gratitude... because gratitude is a core principle of Shinto.

Think of the GT Robots. Fighting---killing, especially killing with no intent to eat---without ever risking death. It defies the natural order. And at its core, Shinto is all about nature.

Toriko considers himself a hunter, a natural omnivore. He talks about eating and hunting and the 'beauty of the wild', and even when he thought Terry was going to die in BB Corn, he accepted that hunting means risking your life because that's the way nature is---not every hunt is successful, and every hunt risks death. But the GT Robots resist this law of nature. They hunt without risking death, it's unfair to the prey and unnatural for the hunter.

It also shows cowardice. They're afraid to get their hands dirty. Yes, death is 'impure', but there's a courage to facing that impurity, it makes the heroes more relatable. The Gourmet Corp could be seen as a representation of nobles, fighting wars without risking the impurity of death by having someone else fighting for them. Toriko (& friends) are the underdogs actually on the battlefield, facing the impurity and the danger with courage instead of cowardice, like the soldiers being sent out from the high and mighty nobles who will never get their hands dirty.

I guess we could also go into the circle of life in Buddhism but that's... a whole thing that varies drastically depending on who you talk to and where you are and culture so... I'm not qualified to talk about it either.

One of the many things I love about Toriko is that the biggest thing that sets apart the good guys and the bad guys are their views on death, which is reflected in both how they act and how they treat food.

When Rin “dies”, whenever Komatsu is in mortal danger, any time anyone on Toriko’s side is in that position, the statement is that they all knew it was a possibility. The good side as it were are aware of the risks, they accept that death is a possibility, and should any of them die of natural causes while in the pursuit of an ingredient (killed by an animal, poisoned by improperly prepared food, what have you) they would accept that as tragic but not a cause for ire or vengeance.

In a similar vein they show respect to the food they eat. They kill it, and they see it the same as if it had killed them. It wasn't done from malice, and they wouldn't disrespect the animal that died by wasting any of it. They thank it. Death is part of a cycle; it need not be feared or hated, but it must be respected.

On the other hand, the bad guys fear and disrespect death.

They fear their own--hence the use of gt robots. Toriko says as much in his fight with Starjun in the Regal Mammoth: Rin came and "died" nobly knowing that was a possibility. Meanwhile Starjun cowered behind a robot, separating himself from the world in order to avoid his own peril.

They disrespect the sacrifice of the animals they eat by killing more than they intend to eat, and not using all of what they do kill. They don't see death as a noble sacrifice but as a pathetic loss; losers die, and they deserve it if they do.

In essence: The difference is that our protags see death as a part of a universal cycle and those who it befalls to be respected; the antagonists see death as an end to be feared and those who suffer it mocked.

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Toriko: One day, you're going to look back at this hunt and laugh.

Coco: I guarantee you, every time I look back on this hunt, I will personally fly to your house and smack you.

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Komatsu: Coco-san, you're smart. Tell me something I don’t know

Coco: The past tense of William Shakespeare would be Wouldiwas Shookspeared.

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The world is in the Gourmet Age...

Welcome to the delicious world of Incorrect Toriko Quotes! A full course of classic fandom-blog shenanigans served up by yours truly.

THIS IS NOT EXCLUSIVELY AN INCORRECT QUOTE BLOG!!

"Incorrect Toriko Quotes" has slowly become a slight misnomer. Originally it was exclusively an incorrect quote blog, but since I seem to be the longest-running relatively-active Toriko blog, it's become your one-stop shop for all things Toriko!

HELP/ABOUT | SEARCH BY CHARACTER | BLOG LORE

Posts about:

Incorrect quotes (obviously)

Memes

Theories!!

Polls, tournaments, quizzes, etc

Videos, namely of dubious Toriko recipes.

Other Toriko-related stuff. Reblogs, asks, random musings, the very very rare piece of fanart... cringe culture is dead and I'm serving it up at Hotel Gourmet!

Always open to question/answers, submissions, sharing other people's theories, etc! The inbox is always open to everything you've been cooking up!

This blog has a lot of running jokes - check the "Blog Lore" section to catch up! Nobody shall be excluded from this table!

Won't post about:

Ships. I try and keep shipping out of my blog so that it's open to all hc/interpretation (with the obvious exception of offhanded Toriko/Komatsu mentions because... obviously.)

Look, y'all. I'm an internet fandom veteran. I don't do callouts, drama, fandom/shipping wars, pro- this or anti-that... this blog is just for stupid memes

Based on...

Mostly the arcs that overlap between the anime/manga

But SPOILERS ABOUND for everything up to the end of the manga so block spoiler tags as needed

Also I think I like, once made a post about the movie.

I don't post about the crossovers. I'm not 100% opposed to it, I just don't feel like it.

I've introduced myself briefly many times, but it's easiest to access if I pin it.

Some years ago I was nicknamed "Mod Chef", but you can just call me "Chef" if that's easier. I'm a he/him but like. not picky about it. If you need to switch it up to make the joke land that's cool. Normally mod nicknames suggest multiple mods, but not here! It's just me, some random Japanese guy who won't let this fandom die.

I started with the anime and graduated up to the manga. I've also seen the movies/crossovers. I do try and keep most of my posts understandable for anime-only and manga-only fans (ie the overlapping arcs), but not always.

So let's give thanks to all the ingredients of the world and dig in to some authentic, home-cooked anime nonsense!

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Coco: I personally don't think it's possible to come up with a crazier plan.

Toriko: We could attack them with hummus.

Coco: I stand corrected.

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Toriko: The Four Heavenly Kings (Analysis)

Why on Earth are they called the "Four Heavenly Kings" when they're not actual Kings, not exactly 'heavenly', and there's only four of them on a good day?

(Very very long explanation & very very abbreviated Buddhism crash-course below the cut)

The Japanese writing for the Four Heavenly Kings is 四天王 (Shitennō). This comes from the Four Heavenly Kings of Buddhist tradition. To grossly abbreviate, the Four Heavenly Kings are four gods in Buddhism said to each watch over one cardinal direction of the world.

It's a little hard for me to explain this, since in my experience as a half-Japanese, this story barely ever came up (my family was not particularly religious, and more Shinto than anything).

The Four Heavenly Kings (in Japanese Buddhism) are as follows:

Bishamonten/Tamonten:

Direction: North

Season: Winter

Element: Earth

Colour: Black

Represents: One who "hears all", always listening

Often depicted as: Warrior, punisher of evildoers

Note: He's often depicted separate from the Four.

Jikokuten:

Direction: East

Season: Spring

Element: Water

Colour: Blue

Represents: The Guardian of the Nation

Zōchōten:

Direction: South

Season: Summer

Element: Fire

Colour: Red

Represents: Spiritual growth, wisdom

Kōmokuten:

Direction: West

Season: Autumn

Element: Metal

Colour: White

Represents: One who "sees through evil", or has a third eye

Often depicted as: Carrying a brush and scroll

Further reading: Here's the Wikipedia page.

Now. This doesn't sound at all familiar, right? (Sarcasm sarcasm)

...

My initial connection was that each of the Toriko Kings are based off the Shitennou. After all,

Toriko was born in spring (25 May), has blue hair, and seeks to guard the world from war by capturing God. Also, where was he after Froese sought to protect him and Star from Acacia? On a boat, in the water | Spring, blue, guardian, water = Jikokuten

Coco was born in autumn (29 October), when he goes through his character transformation his hair turns white, he can see things nobody else can and is defined by his incredible sight, and is generally the more diplomatic/planner of the group. This may be a stretch, but his poison travels in his blood, often associated with metal due to its iron content | Autumn, white, sight, scroll, metal = Kōmokuten

Sunny was also an autumn baby, but earlier than Coco (therefore closer to summer). More importantly, his name is Sunny. On top of that, he focuses on growing his 'intuition'. | A stretch, but sunshine and wisdom = Zōchōten

Zebra was born in winter (9 February), is often separate from the group (it takes him like half the first arc to join the crew and is generally distinct form the group). Much like Coco and his eyesight, Zebra is defined by hearing everything. He's considered 'war-like', but punishes those he considers 'cocky' (his version of immortality). The first time we see him, it's an underground arc (Mellow Cola) | Winter, warlike, punisher of evildoers, distinct from group, ground/Earth = Bishamonten

This was part of my theory on how they got their names, initially. Toriko is the exception (as discussed in a previous post), but:

Coco's name should technically be romanised as Koko, possibly a diminutive/derived from Kōmokuten

Sunny's name, possibly a connection to Zōchōten's association with summer

Zebra... yeah I've been trying to figure this one out for years and I still don't get it.

But there's... one massive problem with this immediate connection.

And you probably caught on as soon as I mentioned the four cardinal directions...

Obviously, the Four Beast was meant to allude to the four cardinal directions that the Shintennō must guard, as each limb came from one cardinal direction.

Let's recap:

GAOH: Fang King - Toriko's beast, from the East (the lion-like thing)

INVITE DEATH - Coco's beast, from the North (the poison one)

KING OCTOPUS KONG - Sunny's beast, from the West (the pink slimy octopus that made him squeal)

MOUNT TURTLE - Zebra's beast, from the South (volcano turtle)

Now, I'm mostly not looking into the actual limbs themselves for symbolism. Why? Because they were audience submissions.

But let's look at what we've got.

Toriko, the spring Guardian king, is guarding from the EAST

However,

Coco is guarding from the NORTH (Bishamonten's direction)

Sunny is guarding from the WEST (Kōmokuten's direction)

Zebra is guarding from the SOUTH (Zōchōten's direction)

But... why?

It's entirely possible I was completely out to lunch looking at the superficial birthday connection.

After all, Coco and Bishamonten are both associated with black (Coco wears all black and has black hair), Coco was born close-ish to winter, and Coco is rather standoffish and could be considered separate from the other Kings (being the only one who actually quit Hunting). Sunny has partially white hair, and was born in autumn as Kōmokuten is associated. Zebra and Zōchōten, aside from starting with the same letter, are both red (Zebra has red... ish hair and wears a dark red, if you squint) and rather fiery. Plus, Zebra fought a Volcano Turtle (fire).

Unfortunately, this would also put me back at Square One trying to decipher their names.

Then again, it's also entirely possible they weren't all meant to represent one, singular King. We've established that Shimabukuro will play loosey-goosey with tradition, since it's a silly kid's show after all. He might've gone "I'll call them the Shitennou because there's four of them" and later went "AND the Four Beast will come from four different cardinal directions!" Maybe the connections were superficial and nothing more. After all, it's definitely odd that Toriko isn't modelled after the 'stand-out' Shintennō in any way. Or maybe I'm missing something huge (entirely possible since I'm not Buddhist)

TLDR:

From a superficial standpoint, it seems, at the very least, we can pin down that Toriko's symbolism was likely inspired by Jikokuten, the Heavenly King of Spring who guards from the east.

The other kings could be viewed in two different ways:

One, the superficial view:

Coco represents Kōmokuten | Why: Eyesight ("third eye"), temporary white hair when he 'levels up', autumn birthday, poison in his blood | Possibly his name was a diminutive from Kōmokuten (his name is technically Koko)

Sunny represents Zōchōten | Why: Sunny = summer connotation, intuition may represent wisdom | Possibly named for the summer connotation

Zebra represents Bishamonten | Why: Hearing ("hears all"), winter birthday, war-like and a punisher, often separate from the others

Two, the Four Beast view:

Coco represents Bishamonten | Why: Invite Death came from the North, Coco has black hair (and wears all black), and is often separated from the group for being the only one who quit Gourmet Hunting

Sunny represents Kōmokuten | Why: King Octopus Kong came from the West, Sunny has white(ish) hair, and was technically born in autumn.

Zebra represents Zōchōten | Why: Mount Turtle came from the South, Zebra is a fiery personality, and has red(ish) hair and wears (dark) red, and he fought Mount Turtle which is a turtle with a volcano on its back.

So I'll leave it up to y'all which you choose to interpret. Or as something else entirely?

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“After two hours of dramatic emotional breakdown and a cup of ramen later I realised that I was in fact hungry and not sad.”

-Gourmet Hunter Toriko, probably

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The favourite arc has been decided

The 2025 Toriko Arc Tournament has come to an end! Thanks so much to y'all for entertaining me on this silly little poll.

Just in time for Toriko Day, here's the winner of the Tournament!

The fan-favourite arc, by popular vote, was the MELLOW COLA ARC!!

(More Tournament ramblings below the cut)

The closest tie of the tournament was between Century Soup / Puffer Whale (approx 54:46), with Meteor Garlic / Cooking Fest close behind! (approx 56:44)

The least-popular arc, somewhat surprisingly, was: Melk Stardust! (6 votes, losing 25:75).

But this was probably because it was up against Mellow Cola. After all, Bubble Fruit was the runner-up least popular (7 votes) and it was up against Meteor Garlic.

In the future, if I were to run this again, here's what I'll change:

The pictures for each arc. Admittedly, I took the first pictures off Google for each arc because I was lazy, but I realised in the Final Round that the 'coolness' of the picures wasn't exactly equal when I compared the seemingly empty bowl of Century Soup to the Salamander Sphinx crying cola

Match the relative 'scale' of the arc for the first round instead of pitting them against their neighbouring arcs. Toriko generally follows a pattern of Major Arc / Minor Arc / Major Arc / Minor Arc so it's probably unfair to put Reality of Gourmet World next to Ozone Herb, and probably skews the popularity of certain arcs WAY lower. Or maybe I won't!

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hey i dunno if i ever mentioned this Fun Blog Backstory, but i actually wrote like, 95% of the first three years of content while on a camping trip with my family. and i just... saved all the quotes to a notepad file.

anyways, it turns out the document is 96 fucking pages long.

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Time to dig in... to the Final Round of the 2025 Toriko Arc Tournament

Representing the first half of the Human World, we have the

CENTURY SOUP ARC!!!

and representing the second half of the Human World, we have the

MELLOW COLA ARC!!!

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WHO WANTS MORE SHITTY FANDOM PERSONALITY QUIZZES?

I caved and made myself a uQuiz account because on the outside I may be a grown man but deep down I'm a 2010s Tumblr fangirl. I also have no idea if I did this right because I made it in like an hour because I was bored and hungry and one of my roommates was hogging the kitchen.

I don't know if I ever actually shared it here but I also made this Toriko knowledge quiz like five years ago. I think I might have to start making more because cringe culture is dead and every fandom needs its shitty personality quizzes.