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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.

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Toriko Arc Tournament: SEMIFINALS

The second round of semifinalists are up! Let's see which arc the Toriko fans prefer!

The semi- and final rounds are available to vote for longer!

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Komatsu: You'd believe I didn't do it?

Zebra: Kid, you’re the last good person on this planet. I‘d believe cartoon birds braided your hair this morning.

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Toriko Arc Tournament: SEMIFINALS

Welcome to the Semifinals! These rounds (and the finals) will be up for one week instead of three days!

Which arc was your favourite?

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Dig in, it's time for the SEMIFINALS!!

I could be doing literally anything else and it would be more productive...

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

Well too bad! I did. And you're gonna read about it!

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR TORIKO UP TO THE END OF THE MANGA

Some background info you need...

The Toriko world uses a mix of Japanese and English. Like... a really striking mix. It's a Japanglish world, and that's especially true of names. Lots of characters with English names turned Japanese (like Tom or Tina), characters with word/either-or names (Sani/Sunny and Coco), characters with pure Japanese names (Ichiryuu, Jirou), and the occasional complete wildcard (Zebra).

I've mentioned it offhandedly, but I'm mixed Japanese/Canadian. Toriko uses a LOT of Japanglish, especially in the names of characters, so I like to think I've got a pretty good grasp of what's going on.

HOWEVER! You all need to get a crash-course in Japanese lettering really quickly. I promise I'll keep it short.

Japanese uses 3 writing systems: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Hiragana and Kanji are for Japanese-origin words (with Hiragana being an alphabet and Kanji being entire words and therefore a bit more meaningful), and Katakana being for loanwords (not just English-origin)

GOT IT? GOOD!

TORIKO & KOMATSU

Toriko (トリコ)

Toriko's name is written in Katakana, so we know it's a name originating outside of Japanese. In Japanese, the word 'toriko' means 'tri-coloured' (tri-co). NGL, this took me a while to realise because my whole life, I'd only ever used the word 'tri-co' to refer to calico cats.

Toriko (the character) has three appetite demons: Blue Demon, Ogre, and the other one. Blue Demon is, obviously, blue. Ogre is red. And the other one is white. Toriko is named 'tri-coloured' for his three appetite demons. This is also probably why Gourmet 134 misspells his name as 'Torico' on the cover.

Komatsu (小松)

This is almost hilarious. Komatsu is an incredibly common surname (yes, that's probably his surname and not his first name, but referring to people by surname is quite common in Japan). The Kanji for his name basically means 'small pine-tree'.

BUT! There's a weird niche of Japanese culinary knowledge that's probably lost on the Western viewers, that I'm here to share.

To make a LONG history short, there's an icon of New Years called the Three Friends of Winter (松竹梅). You may notice that first character is the same as the '-matsu' half of Komatsu's name. That's because the Three Friends are Pine-Tree (matsu), Bamboo (take), and Plum (ume).

Matsu. Take. Ume.

Komatsu. Ootake. Nakaume.

The Three Friends of Winter are more than just New Year decorations, though. They have culinary significance too.

The Three Friends are often used as a tier-ranking system, with Matsu being the best quality and Ume being the lowest quality. This can be (albeit somewhat archaically) used to describe ingredient/dish quality. That is to say, if you ordered a Matsu-quality dish, you'd be getting a dish made of higher-quality ingredients (and usually at a premium price) compared to Take or Ume.

Let's take a closer look at each of the three:

KOMATSU

Pine trees are evergreen and can survive some pretty tough conditions, and though exact translations vary, the Matsu generally symbolises strength and longevity in Japan. They're set up around doorways for New Years to welcome the New Year Kami into Shinto homes. Perhaps there's also some symbolism in Komatsu's persistence and strength, despite his apparent cowardice, or how he's "welcoming" new beginnings and good fortune into Toriko's life through his Food Luck.

OOTAKE

Bamboo is the fastest-growing plant in the world (and therefore a symbol of growth in Japan). And Take's character revolves around always aiming for the sky, always striving to be the best... even if he has to result to dishonest actions to achieve that. Perhaps a bit of symbolism there, too.

NAKAUME

Plum blossoms in the spring, often overshadowed by cherry. Ume often represents perseverance, spring (and rejuvenation, new life, etc). And let's be real, Nakaume goes through a lot.

So next time you remember those three little chefs and their World Chef Rankings... well... keep that in mind.

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ROUND 2: Toriko Arc Tournament

Which arc is your favourite?

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I can't express enough how much the pilk ask continues to haunt me. It's still in my inbox.

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Ichiryuu: We’re kind of missing something, guys.

Sunny: Cohesion?

Toriko: Teamwork?

Coco: A general sense of what we’re doing?

Ichiryuu And Zebra is not here.

Sunny: Oh, and that, yeah.