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8 January 2014 1 Comment

Oishinbo, A la Carte: Fish, Sushi & Sashimi

Oishinbo, A la Carte: Fish, Sushi & SashimiAuthor: Tetsu Kariya
Illustrator: Akira Hanasaki
U.S. publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781421521428
Released: July 2009
Original release: 2005
Awards: Shogakukan Manga Award

With over one hundred volumes, it is very unlikely that the award-winning food manga Oishinbo will ever be licensed in its entirety in English, especially considering that the series is still ongoing at this point. However, seven volumes of Oishinbo, A la Carte have been released by Viz Media under its Signature imprint. These volumes are thematic collections which select stories from throughout the series proper. Fish, Sushi & Sashimi was the fourth Oishinbo, A la Carte collection to be published by Viz and was released in 2009. However, in Japan Fish, Sushi & Sashimi was actually the fifth volume in the series and was published in 2005. As a lover of both food and manga, it probably shouldn’t be too surprising that I enjoy Oishinbo immensely. And I’m not the only one. The series, written by Tetsu Kariya and illustrated by Akira Hanasaki, has been in serialization since 1983 and in 1987 the creators received a Shogakukan Manga Award for their work.

Because Oishinbo, A la Carte is a selection of stories from Oishinbo, the overarching story of the original series is obscured. Instead of the ongoing plot, the focus of Oishinbo, A la Carte is very much on the food itself. Fish, Sushi & Sashimi collects eight different stories centered around fish. Sushi rolls are probably one of the first things that come to many people’s minds when considering Japanese fish dishes, but not a single one will be found in Fish, Sushi & Sashimi. Generally, the fare tends to be simpler and fish the primary ingredient. The fish specifically featured in Fish, Sushi & Sashimi include white trevally, chub mackerel, sweetfish, tiger blowfish, freshwater goby, flounder, salmon, and shinko, many of which are considered to be some of the best and most desirable or delectable fish in Japan. There is also a wide variety of preparations shown, everything from raw sashimi to fried tempura.

When dealing with fish as a source of food, freshness is key. This is true for most seafood, too, and is something that most people probably know. However, Fish, Sushi & Sashimi shows that there is much more involved in the freshness of fish than just how long it has been since it has been caught. Fish are very sensitive to changes in the environment in which they live. Simply put, quality fish come from quality waters. The healthier and less polluted those waters, the better the fish. Additionally, the same fish can taste significantly different due to seasonal changes, where it is caught (and how far it has traveled afterwards), or when in its life-cycle it is eaten. As is often the case in the Oishinbo, A la Carte stories that I have so far read, Fish, Sushi & Sashimi emphasizes the importance of locally sourced and sustainable foods, which is particularly true of fish.

One of the highlights of Oishinbo, A la Carte is Hanasaki’s artwork. The people tend to be stylized but the food is always realistically drawn. The catching and cleaning of the fish, the steps in the various dishes’ preparations, and the skilled knife-work employed are all important to Fish, Sushi & Sashimi. Because Fish, Sushi & Sashimi focuses on aquatic life both in and out of its natural environments, Hanasaki also has the opportunity to beautifully illustrate Japan’s oceans, rivers, and other waterways. Another thing that particularly struck me about this volume of Oishinbo, A la Carte was how many young people were included in the stories. Family drama has always been a part of Oishinbo with the intense father-son rivalry between Kaibara Yūzan and Yamaoka Shirō. It’s extremely entertaining to watch them battle it out over and with food, but it’s also nice to see some more wholesome family relationships in the series, too.

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25 May 2012 Leave a Comment

Random Musings: Oishinbo and the Romance of Food

Way back in my undergraduate days, I took an anthropology class that was simply called “Food and Culture.” It ended up being one of my favorite courses (pun entirely intended), and not just because we ate in class almost every week. I found the subject matter to be absolutely fascinating. I became more consciously aware of how important food is. Certainly, we all have to eat in order to survive, but the symbolic and ceremonial uses of food are an essential part of culture and society. Almost every major life event or celebration has food associated with it in some way. Sharing food is a way of bringing people together, creating ties and developing relationships among individuals and communities, and it can strengthen connections and traditions that already exist.

Of course, as can be seen in Oishinbo, food can also drive people apart. Yamaoka and his father are barely on speaking terms because of Kaibara’s demanding palate. But at the same time, it’s because of food that they still have any interaction at all. So far, I have only read three of the Oishinbo, A la Carte manga collections: Japanese Cuisine, Sake, and Ramen & Gyōza. While rereading the volumes for the Oishinbo and Food Manga Moveable Feast, I noticed something—there are an awful lot of couples in Oishinbo who a hook up, and in some cases are even married, either directly or indirectly because of food. Granted, Oishinbo is first and foremost a food manga, so it’s not at all surprising that significant story and relationship developments are going to have something to do with what people are eating.

Although at first there may seem to be an overabundance of romantic intrigue surrounding the cuisine in Oishinbo, and as a plot element it almost becomes expected in the many of the stories, the more I thought about it the more I realized that it was a fairly realistic addition. (Even if Oishinbo can be a little over-the-top with it on occasion.) Eating a meal or having a drink together is an extremely common aspect of a date and frequently occurs when pursuing a relationship. A specific example of this in Oishinbo is “French Food and Ramen Rice,” which is collected in Ramen & Gyōza. What I like about this particular story is that it shows that while planning an elaborate dinner will help form a connection with another person, the sharing of common and familiar food may be even more meaningful.

In fact, out of all of the stories in Ramen & Gyōza, only one doesn’t include a couple that has been brought together or has otherwise had their relationship saved because of food. I find this particularly appropriate for a volume that largely focuses on what basically amounts to comfort food. Sharing a fancy meal with a potential partner is all well and good, but establishing more casual fare that is mutually acceptable is also important for a successful, long-term relationship. I know that personally I am much happier when I am well fed. I’m confident that is true for most people.

At its very core, eating is a matter of survival. It may not be a particularly romantic way of thinking about it, but by sharing food and drink with someone else those involved prove (even if it is subconsciously) that they can help to provide sustenance, that they have enough that they can share, or that they are willing to sacrifice some of their own resources. Any of these things can be a very welcome characteristic in a prospective match. Because of this, it makes sense that such a basic need as food would be incorporated into the rituals involved in courting another person. Food may be a practical necessity, but there’s still room for a little bit of romance, too.

This post is a part of the Oishinbo and Food Manga Moveable Feast.

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23 May 2012 Leave a Comment

Oishinbo, A la Carte: Ramen & Gyōza

Author: Tetsu Kariya
Illustrator: Akira Hanasaki
U.S. publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781421521411
Released: May 2009
Original release: 2005
Awards: Shogakukan Manga Award

Oishinbo, written by Tetsu Kariya and illustrated by Akira Hanasaki, is an incredibly successful and well-loved manga series in Japan. The manga began serialization in 1983 and is still ongoing; more than one hundred volumes have been published so far. In 1987 the series won a Shogakukan Manga Award. Oishinbo, A la Carte, the only version of the manga that has been licensed in English, selects stories from throughout the original series to create thematic collections that focus on a particular food or cuisine. Oishinbo, A la Carte: Ramen & Gyōza was the second of these collections to have been published in Japan and was the third volume to be released in English by Viz Media, following Japanese Cuisine and Sake. As a bit of a foodie myself, I have really been enjoying the Oishinbo, A la Carte collections. I was particularly interested in Ramen & Gyōza because those foods, although Chinese in origin, were my introduction to Japanese cuisine. I’m finally getting around to reading the volume thanks to the Oishinbo Manga Moveable Feast.

The basic premise of Oishinbo is fairly simple: Yamaoka Shirō has been charged by Tōzai News to create the “Ultimate Menu” of Japanese cuisine. In response, their rival newspaper Teito Times has hired Kaibara Yūzan, who happens to be Yamaoka’s estranged father, to develop the “Supreme Menu.” The father-son relationship between the two men was already strained; the menu projects give them yet another reason to come into conflict. They can’t help but challenge each other, Yamaoka constantly trying to show his father up and Kaibara constantly trying to put his son into his place. I find the six stories collected in Ramen & Gyōza particularly interesting for a couple of reasons. Although ramen and gyōza have been incorporated into Japanese cuisine, they were originally developed from Chinese cooking traditions. Additionally, both ramen and gyōza are everyday comfort foods and are therefore frequently considered to be low-class. It amuses me greatly that Yamaoka and Kaibara, who are so concerned with finding the pinnacle of Japanese food culture, can get into fights even over dishes that they had both at one point written off as not worth their time.

It should be fairly obvious that Ramen & Gyōza is about ramen and gyōza, but there was another theme that I particularly noticed in this volume of Oishinbo, A la Carte. Importance is placed on the quality of the ingredients used in a dish, although it is not the only factor needed for it to be successful. Yamaoka and the other characters, especially his father, emphasize the need for a safe and sustainable food culture, free of chemicals and ideally locally produced. This is certainly a notion that I personally support, but Kariya has never been subtle with his characters’ opinions in Oishinbo. In some cases their apparent activism can be somewhat distracting from the story while at other times it is expertly incorporated into the narrative itself. Of course, the fact that the characters get so worked up over food is one of the reasons that Oishinbo is so entertaining. Take away their ranting and raving and suddenly the series would be much less engaging.

Because Oishinbo, A la Carte: Ramen & Gyōza only collects selected stories from the original Oishinbo manga, it is difficult for readers to get a good sense of the overarching plot and chronology of the series. However, the six stories in Ramen & Gyōza make good selections because they stand on their own rather well. Any important plot points that aren’t immediately obvious are explained in the translation notes. Ramen & Gyōza is actually mostly about ramen and other Chinese-style noodles. I was a little disappointed that gyōza was only featured in one of the stories, but at least it was the longest one. Perhaps because ramen and gyōza are so common and familiar, the manga didn’t go too in depth into the particulars of the specific foods but focused more on people’s interactions with them instead. For some reason I didn’t find Ramen & Gyōza to be quite as compelling as the previous two volumes of Oishinbo, A la Carte, but I still enjoyed myself immensely and look forward to reading more.

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15 June 2011 2 Comments

Oishinbo, A la Carte: Sake

Author: Tetsu Kariya
Illustrator: Akira Hanasaki
U.S. publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781421521404
Released: March 2009
Original release: 2007
Awards: Shogakukan Manga Award

Oishinbo, A la Carte: Sake, written by Tetsu Kariya and illustrated by Akira Hanasaki, is the second volume of the Oishinbo, A la Carte collections to be released in English by Viz Media’s Signature line in 2009. Originally, Sake was the twenty-sixth volume in the series when published in Japan in 2007. Oishinbo is a very popular and successful manga in Japan. It began serialization in 1983 and is still ongoing even after more than a hundred volumes. in 1987, the series won a Shogakukan Manga Award. The Oishinbo, A la Carte collections are thematic compilations of story arcs taken from throughout the regular series. I had previously read Japanese Cuisine, the first volume of Oishinbo, A la Carte to be released by Viz, and thoroughly enjoyed it. So, I was looking forward to reading Sake as well, especially since it was a subject I wasn’t particularly familiar with.

In the West, “sake” is generally used to mean Japanese rice wine, or nihonshu. However, in Japanes “sake” tends to refer to all drinking alcohol in general. Appropriately enough, while the main focus of Sake is sake, the volume also explores wine and champagne, shōchū, awamori and kūsū, and briefly mentions beer, cognac, bourbon, whiskey, vodka, and brandy. I was somewhat surprised so little time was spent on whiskey since Japan has recently gained some notoriety in that realm. Instead, Sake examines and celebrates the authentic and traditional Japanese alcohols and delves into the good and the bad of the sake industry. Many of the drinks and breweries mentioned in Sake actually exist.

I found Sake to be a little less interesting art-wise than Japanese Cuisine, mainly because it is more difficult to visually convey the differences between liquids than it is for foods. However, Hanasaki still does a lovely job and the bottles of alcohol in particular are beautifully rendered. For the most part, Hanasaki’s style is very simple until the real stars of the show, the food and drink, appear and are captured in photorealistic detail. One of the things I found especially interesting in Sake is how closely Kariya equates sake with Japanese culture. There is a certain amount of intense pride and confidence in sake and in Japan exhibited. The failings of the sake industry are also seen as a failure to treasure what makes Japan, Japan. Throughout Sake, Kariya’s characters express concerns about the over-Westernization of Japan and mourn the resulting loss of respect for Japanese food and drink cultures. But at the same time, they show that Japan still has a lot that is unique to offer the world.

Kariya is not afraid to use his characters to tear into Japanese businesses, people, and governments over the poor state and practices of the sake industry. They have no patience whatsoever for “fake” by-the-book gourmets and do not hesitate to express their opinions. But it is their enthusiasm and passion about food and drink that makes Oishinbo so engaging, even when the manga occasionally becomes a sequence of talking heads. So far, I love the Oishinbo, A la Carte collections and find them to be both highly entertaining and educational. The only real problem that I’ve encountered is that I immediately want to go out and try all the food and drinks mentioned in a particular volume—something that isn’t really very feasible. Still, I’m looking forward to reading the next book, Oishinbo, A la Carte: Ramen and Gyoza, very much.

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31 December 2010 Leave a Comment

Oishinbo, A la Carte: Japanese Cuisine

Author: Tetsu Kariya
Illustrator: Akira Hanasaki
U.S. publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781421521398
Released: January 2009
Original release: 2006
Awards: Shogakukan Manga Award

Oishinbo, A la Carte: Japanese Cuisine, written by Tetsu Kariya and illustrated by Akira Hanasaki, was the first Oishinbo collection to be released by Viz Media’s Signature line in 2009. Oishinbo, which began publication in 1983 in Japan, is a long running manga that is currently up to one hundred four volumes and is still going. In 1987, the series won the Shogakukan Manga Award for General Manga and it has remained very popular throughout its publication. The Oishinbo, A la Carte collections are basically thematic “best of” compilations. While Japanese Cuisine was the first volume to be made available in English, technically it is the twentieth volume in the A la Carte series and was originally published in 2006. Between 2009 and 2010, Viz released seven of the A la Carte collections and the series received a nomination for the 2010 Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia. I believe it was this nomination that first brought Oishinbo to my attention and when I learned it was about food there was no way I was going to pass up on the manga.

Japanese Cuisine collects ten stories exploring elements of Japanese food culture as well as brief commentary on the subject from the author Tetsu Kariya. The compilation focuses on elements of Japanese cuisine that make it distinct from others, extending beyond just the food itself to the entire dining experience and skills used in and needed for preparation. Japanese Cuisine features knife techniques, different styles and types of sashimi, rice, and tea, the importance of the food’s presentation, proper etiquette, and the use of chopsticks among many other things. This variety makes for a good introduction to Japanese food culture and Oishinbo itself. And while fish is a prominent component in many of the stories—understandable since it is also a fairly prominent component in Japanese cuisine—the collection never really feels repetitive. The Viz edition of the manga also includes recipes and practical applications of the subjects covered.

Because Japanese Cuisine is a thematic compilation with stories taken from throughout the Oishinbo series, it is sometimes difficult to get a good feel for the overarching plot of the story and the book can feel a bit disjointed at times. However, each chapter or “course” selected fairs pretty well as short, mostly self-contained vignette. The editor’s notes are also very useful in helping to keep the reader oriented and provide further enlightenment on the subjects addressed. In fact, the manga as a whole is both very informative and engaging. The creators’ enthusiasm for food is obvious through the characters’ own passion and the attention and care given to the portrayal of the various dishes. The amount of detail included in the food’s illustration is one of the highlights of Akira Hanasaki’s artwork. While I frequently find the character designs appealing, it’s really the food that stands out—appropriate and certainly important for a manga about cuisine.

I’m not sure that Oishinbo would initially appeal to readers who aren’t already interested in food or Japanese culture but it does make the subjects very approachable and for a foodie like me it’s simply fantastic. In addition to all of the food talk there’s plenty of drama (oh, the drama!) and it is amusing and thrilling to see people get so worked up and emotional about the things they are passionate. Granted, Shirō (the main protagonist) does come across as a bit of an ass much of the time, but he’s nothing compared to his father who may be brilliant but who is a complete bastard. While Oishinbo is primarily a food manga, it is also about the intense relationships that the characters have with food and with each other. I really enjoyed Japanese Cuisine and learned quite a bit reading it in addition to being entertained by the story. I look forward to picking up the next volume, Sake, very much.

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