The series centers around a young Chef named Komatsu who's dream is to become a master chef, in the 1st episode he tracks down one of the four Heavenly Kings, named Toriko, to enlist him for a mission from the International Gourmet Organization (IGO). Toriko relates Komatsu's dream to his own (fulfilling his full course menu), soon the pair become "bro's" & are off on the journey together.

Where my Toriko: Part Three review left off, we finally wrapped up the the Ice Hell portion of the Century Soup story arc, the longest arc thus far. On this set we get several more brisk story arc's that are a blast all the way through!

The first 2 episodes included on this set focus on wrapping up the Century Soup arc & Toriko at a healing spa after the grueling fight with TommyRod. After The Century Soup arc we get 2 brief arc's that total 3 episodes. The 1st is a nice relaxing episode where Toriko comes home to find his house gone (it was eaten since it's made of food.) So he hires a famous construction worker named Smile (who ironically has lost his smile) to construct a new domicile for him. It's a solid episode that gives us some fun moments with the characters.

The next 2 episodes on the set is purely a filler arc. A wealthy manager of a famous restaurant chain, named Bohno, is best friends with with a Seven Colored Nessie named Chris (think a multi colored dragon, who resembles Icarus from DBZ but bigger.) For some reason Bohno can't get Chris to eat anything he prepares, so he holds a competition to find the best possible food for Chris to eat. He enlists Toriko, Komatsu, Sunny, Coco & even Zonge to find out what's bothering his beloved pet. It's an endearing couple of light episodes, that were fun to watch. The best parts of it were seeing the competitiveness between the 3 Heavenly Kings (& Zonge in drag!)

The next 5 episodes on the set is a solid story arc called the Ozone Grass arc, i will commend a show for being entertaining as hell when the main focus is to find a specific grass! The 1st episode of this arc introduces us to Ichiryuu, the President of the IGO, & also Toriko's (& the other 3 Heavenly Kings) adoptive father. Ichiryuu reveals to Toriko that he is about to enter the Gourmet World (which sets up the next arc), & wants Toriko to come with him. To make sure he's ready he gives him a list of rare ingredients to capture & the 1st on the list is the Ozone Grass. After a brief fight to test his skills (where Toriko proves to be no match at all for Ichiryuu), Toriko is off with Komatsu to Vegetable Sky to find the Ozone Grass.

The following 4 episodes pertaining to the Ozone Grass surprisingly are very enjoyable. It proved to be a great character development arc where Toriko & Komatsu finally solidify their partnership together (the Ozone Grass is a test for partners to see if they're compatible.)

The next 2 episodes are the Reality of the Gourmet World arc, Toriko decides to test his strength by heading off to the feared Gourmet World, where only 1 person has ever been known to go in & come out alive. These couple of episodes really shows just how much Toriko still has to come, & grounds him as a character. I really enjoyed this arc as it shows that the main character of the series is not invincible or the strongest like in most of the Shonen genre.

The final episode on the set starts the Melk Stardust storyline. Komatsu's favorite knife created by A renowned craftsman, Melk, is broken in the process of preparing Toriko a meal. So Toriko & Komatsu embark on another journey to track down Melk in hopes he can create a new knife for Komatsu.

Dub Cast: Ian Sinclair continues to put on an amazing performance as Toriko. Truly one of the better dubbing actors currently out there. It was a welcome to hear Aaron Roberts perfect work as Sunny again, who hasn't really been seen since the middle of Part 2 He pulls off the role perfectly. Josh Grelle & Jarrod Greene are both very good as usual. I personally love the dubwork on Toriko, when the show was first casted, many of the actors were slightly unknown, but over time have made these roles their own. Can't wait to hear more from these guys in the future!

Positives: Another great 12 episodes of Toriko, we finally wrap up the Century Soup arc in a satisfying manner, & get 4 more short arcs that are a blast all the way through! The set wraps up nicely with a tease of whats to come that will definitely make you want to watch more. Negatives: None, another solid Toriko dvd set all the way through.

VIDEO
The 1.77:1 aspect ratio works fine. The color of the animation was vibrant & is surprisingly good for DVD.

AUDIO Toriko comes with 2 language tracks. Option 1: A 5.1 Surround English dub. Option 2: Japanese Stereo with option English Subtitles. I always prefer to watch anime dubbed, so i viewed it in English only. The dub cast is top notch.

EXTRA'S For Extra's, this time around we get a nice litte addition, Feast with the cast of Toriko! Which is a video commentary on episode 42. We get our regular Staff/Cast commentaries on episodes 40 & 46. Standard FUNi trailers, Trailer for the dub of Toriko, & Textless opening/closing themes. The commentary participants are:

Episode 40 - Ian Sinclair (Toriko) & Jarrod Greene (Coco), nice to see Jarrod finally do a commentary since he's one of the major leads in the show.

Episode 42 - Feast with the cast of Toriko! - Again, this is not a standard commentary, this is a video commentary, it features Ian Sinclair (Toriko), Morgan Garrett (Tina), Aaron Roberts (Sunny), & Jarrod Greene (Coco), basically it's them gathered in the recording booth eating food inspired by the show.

Episode 46 - Ian Sinclair (Toriko), & Josh Grelle (Komatsu), I really love to hear these two together, because you can just tell how much they love this show, it's gotta be love when you go to the studio to record this show for hours, then go home & watch it for hours out of free will.

OVERALL
With the last volume of Toriko that has been released thus far reviewed, the painful wait for Part 5 is gonna kill me, I absolutely love this show, hopefully more episodes are licensed & it continues to get the dub treatment. The wait is gonna be way too forking long! (I had to atleast make 1 pun...) HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.