Houchou Mushuku Shoubu Tabi

Battles of a Wandering Chef follows in a long tradition of wandering chef cooking manga. The tropes were well established by The Chef (1985) and we've all seen almost all the elements of Battles of a Wandering Chef before.

First off, I enjoyed Battles of a Wandering Chef in the same way you would enjoy turning on the TV on a Sunday afternoon and catching a spaghetti western. You know what you are getting, a wandering stranger is about to blow into town and solve all the townsfolk's problems, then blow out again.

Unfortunately the pacing of Battles of a Wandering Chef is quite glacial. Instead of the more usual 1 or 2 chapters per struggling restaurant, BoaWC spends 10 or more chapters on each. The hero's "tragic" backstory which is usually only implied or shown in flashbacks in this kind of manga takes the first volume and a half. And it's not that compelling. Yes, we learn why he's wandering and why he hates the New Japan Culinary Association, but it could have been done with far more impact if we had just started with the second arc.

I spent much of the second arc wondering if we were ever going to get a flashback about the original wandering chef that owned Musashi's blade. And wishing I didn't have to watch quite so many suppon (soft shelled turtles) get butchered. The third arc about blowfish seems rushed and then the manga just ends, so I guess the publisher got tired of the pace as well.

Does Battles of a Wandering Chef live up to its potential or even have an overarching theme that could elevate it beyond Sunday afternoon entertainment? Not really, but I enjoyed it for what it was.