Sleep Is For the Weak

PG-13/16 for a celebration of food, anger, and sticking it to your old man; official series website

So, in my last review I waxed loquaciously, some would say…erotically…about how great Viz’s Signature Line series is. About a week after I wrote that article, Viz proved me right again with Oishinbo, THE cooking manga - the grand-daddy of them all. Going all the way back to 1983 and still ongoing, there are over 102 volumes of the manga out in Japan. There are two volumes available in English. If Viz brings out these volumes at the current rate, we’ll be caught up by, oh, June 2534. So Viz made a really good choice - they’re picking only the best issues and grouping them together in the volumes by themes. This means that we’ll miss all the horrible filler arcs and get only good stuff. Things are as they should be.

Each story arc in Oishinbo focuses on Yamaoka Shiro as he continues on (and occasionally digresses from) his now 26-year quest to write an article on the ultimate meal for his employers at a newspaper. Suffice to say, when that article goes to print, the good people at the Nobel Committee will be quite sad they don’t give an award for journalism. Standing in Yamaoka’s way is his own flesh and blood, his father Kaibara Yuzan, a virtuoso potter and a leader of Japan’s haute cuisine scene. He runs an exclusive dinner club for the social elites of the land, loudly and publicly denouncing those whose tastes are not as refined as his. Though Kaibara raised Yamaoka to be his culinary heir, the son rebelled against the father, rejecting his haughty and egomaniacal ways. But since Yamaoka is investigating the finest foods in the world and Kaibara serves most of them on an exquisite platter every night, they run into each other often and frequently.

It’s in those interactions between father and son that really set Oishinbo apart from the other cooking manga I’ve read. First is that the artist, Akira Kanasaki, draws the best “screw you old man” faces on Yamaoka. They’re genius. Every facial expression that he wears, even when not in the same room as his dad, is one of pure “screw you old man.” I wish we had a better word for it in the English language. Any German speakers know if there’s a 12-syllable equivalent? The second thing is that Kaibara actually wins sometimes! This is fairly rare in manga. Maybe the evil villain gets the upper hand for a bit, but by the end he’s on the bottom, the hero is on the top, and everyone’s learned a valuable lesson. But what I love about Oishinbo is that Yamaoka loses as often as he wins. In the first volume, he loses a rice-making contest because he didn’t show enough love and care for the rice and his guests by manually picking out the damaged grains. He learns the hard way if you dip your chopsticks more than 1 inch into the soy sauce, you might as well go all the way and murder the family of not only your host, but also of the poor man who hand-made those chopsticks for you, for all the disrespect you’re showing. Yamaoka gets humbled. He learns lessons. And most importantly, he gets fantastic “screw you old man” faces.

Okay, so I’m a fan of the manga…but it does have problems. The first is a result of how Viz is publishing it. I love that they’re only printing the best chapters and stories - God knows that with over 102 volumes, there’s going to be a lot of terrible filler (Yamaoka takes a trip to the cow farm, Yamaoka takes a trip to the rice paddy, Yamaoka takes a trip to the fork factory). I’m glad that they’re helping me avoid that. But it does mean that a lot of the story is missing. In one chapter, Yamaoka has a girlfriend. In the next, she’s his wife. Something happened there, but I don’t know what. It’s also a bit jarring when the art changes between chapters that are right next to each other. But I don’t see any other alternative that doesn’t result in several decades of filler material coming out in English.

The other problem is that the chapters have a habit of falling into a tired pattern, even after only two volumes. Step One: an outsider wants to join an esoteric brotherhood, maybe he’s an American who wants to make authentic Japanese sushi or something. Step Two: He’s denied this opportunity, often by Kaibara, who mocks his lack of culture and refinement. Step Three: Yamaoka takes that poor soul under his wing, possibly as a way of telling his father “screw you old man.” Step Four: Through a series of Socratic dialogs, Yamaoka leads his new charge into a world of culinary magic, whereby he explains that the only thing needed to truly appreciate even the most complex food is simply a love of life. Step Five: With this message of compassion, the outsider gains a new perspective on his craft and is welcomed, often begrudgingly, into a new community. Look, this is manga. A long manga. Of course it’s going to be repetitious - I expected that. But though I like this manga, it doesn’t mean I have to like that aspect of it.

Educated impression: Repetitive or not, missing bits or not, this is a great manga. Read it if only to screw the old man. (Bad Jew)

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