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... Paradrop Labor. But he doesn't. ⏎Toriko ⏎ Rating: 4 (out of 5) ⏎ Review: Toriko can perhaps be best summed up by the lyrics of the show's opening song: ⏎ “GUTS! CHOMP! GUTS! CHOMP CHOMP!” ⏎ Our eponymous hero is a hunter, tracking down and killing WITH HIS BARE HANDS some of the world's rarest animals to turn into delicious dishes. He's approached by trainee teenage chef Komatsu to bag an ultra-rare and dangerous Galala Crocodile for a feast he is preparing for a tense summit of world leaders. In other words: world peace relies on the delivering of some prime crocodile steaks. Yes, that's right readers: quite literally THE STEAKS ARE HIGH. ⏎ Sorry. ⏎ Toriko is that kind of insane, ridiculous genius that only anime can produce. It's one of those uber-manly shonen shows that tick all the required boxes: huge monsters, transformation sequences, crazy landscapes and a big dose of putting its tongue in its cheek. It also uses RPG/card game tropes to good effect to mesmerize its target audience, giving it a slight Monster Hunter vibe. ⏎ Sure, if you're a vegetarian this might not be your bowl of lentils - but even as someone that finds the concept of real-world hunting for sport tasteless, I didn't once feel any qualms at watching Toriko. Mainly because this is so far from real world hunting it's hard to draw any kind of parallel between the two. For a start the creatures are so over the top and ludicrously named (‘Friday Monkeys’! Brilliant!) and the way they are taken down is so unbelievable that it resembles watching a series of video game boss battles rather than someone shooting clueless deer with a high–powered rifle. There's a real sense that our heroes may be in danger when tackling these beasts – something that one-sided modern hunting sadly lacks. Similarly the eating scenes are so ridiculous – imagine the dinosaur steaks from The Flintstones – that it's hard to see how this could be glamorizing meat eating. Although I must it it did make me hungry, but that may be just because I was watching it on an empty stomach. ⏎ I'll it I don't watch many shonen shows at all, as most of them seem unable to hold my attention. But Toriko's brash style and above par production values had me gripped and giggling for its whole duration, and left me satisfyingly full and my mouth watering for a second helping. ⏎ Steins;Gate episode 2 ⏎ Rating: 3 ⏎ Review: Okarin's mental state is no clearer by the end of Steins;Gate's second episode, and neither is exactly what is going on. The girl he thought he saw brutally murdered earlier in the day is now alive and well, and all traces of the alleged time traveller he re spending years researching has disappeared not only from the Internet but also his bookshelves. It's clear either someone really is manipulating time in order to re-write history, or his paranoid delusions are becoming increasingly convincing. ⏎ Steins;Gate drops a point from last week for a couple of reasons. Firstly the creepy, reality twisting atmospheres of the opener seem to have been toned down, with the whole show feeling a lot more conventional in its presentation. It's perhaps not that surprising, but certainly disappointing. Similarly the show's content feels far more conventional this time around. Instead of the ‘what the heck is going on’ exposition-less approach of the first instalment, most of this episode seems to be filler, spending a little too much time introducing some pretty uninteresting and generic new characters. There's even a scene set in a Akihabara maid café, which could have been lifted from any number of dull otaku shows of the last decade. The overall effect is less than satisfying, with the show threatening to become far more run of the mill than my previous Satoshi Kon comparisons may have suggested. ⏎ All that said, the overall premise is still intriguing, and the production values still seem quite high – if also lacking the hint of experimentalism the first episode promised – meaning that it hopefully will be worth giving it a few more instalments to see what happens. ⏎ Steins'Gate is available streaming on Crunchyroll. ⏎ Tiger & Bunny – episode 2 ⏎ Rating...