Oishinbo: Fish, Sushi, and Sashimi, Is about Yamaoka Shiro's search for fish recipes for the Ultimate Menu. Yamaoka works for Tozai News, who has decided to celebrate their 100th anniversary by creating the Ultimate Menu, which is to represent Japanese cuisine.
Yamaoka and Kurita Yuko, his partner on the Ultimate Menu, are invited to go to the opening of a powerful company's new guesthouse. The owner of the company has prepared a nice meal for his guest. The first dish consists of Ikezukuri, which means "prepared alive". The dish is served and is praised by all but a little boy and Yamaoka. They both think the dish is tasteless and that he can make a better Ikezukuri. Thus Yamaoka leaves to get his better fish. When they return, they prove that you need to know your ingredients in order to make good food.
This same basic principal continues throughout the manga. The first couple of chapters are all their own adventure, then the last couple are parts of two bigger ones. All of the mini-stories are about fish as cooking ingredients.
There is an official recipe at the front of the book, but that's about it when it comes to actual cooking. The manga part is more like chiefs talking about cooking as if it was the weather. Mostly, the discussion is about the main ingredient, and what makes is better from normal. For those who well versed in cooking rhetoric (such as myself), the dialogue doesn't flow very well. Luckily, there is a section in the back that explains some of the terms.
The characters are fairly strait forward, but not to the point of predictably. There was some twists that I didn't see coming, which were quite enjoyable. The mimi-stories weren't bad at all, but when it got to the more important stories, there was a lot of unnecessary repetitiveness. It almost got to the point of ruining the whole manga. The story "Salmon Match! (Parts 1-3)" was the worst of all the stories, just because there is one whole chapter spent on a minor subject, which was explained at least twice, and discussed deeply about three times.
Overall, Oishinbo: Fish, Sushi, and Sashimi, was entertaining enough to keep me reading, but didn't make me want to buy more. If you like to eat fish, you might really enjoy this manga, but I would suggest that if you are interested in this series, then I'd get one on the food type that you enjoy most.
ComicsOnline gives Oishinbo: Fish, Sushi, and Sashimi, 3 out of 5 Tiny and Delicious Kohada's Shinko.
