Oishinbo: Fish, Sushi and Sashimi, Vol. 4: a la Carte

The long running manga "Oishinbo" (which means "The Gourmet") is a popular best-selling manga series published by Shogakukan which has been ongoing since 1983. The series have sold 1.2 million copies per volume annually and have sold more than 100 million volumes as of Jan. 2009. Written by Tetsu Kariya and art by Akira Hanasaki, the series has won multiple awards and has had a successful anime TV series run from 1988 through 1992. And now the series is being released in the United States from Viz Media through their Viz Signature. Because there have been so many volumes, Viz has selected chapters from the popular manga and will separate each volume release by cuisine topic. The first volume in the US which was well-done and captured the heart of Japanese cuisine, the last (third) volume focused on ramen and gyoza and now the latest version of "Oishinbo A la Carte" focuses on fish, sushi and sashimi. "Oishinbo" revolves around the employees of the newspaper Tozai News with its employees commissioned to create the "Ultimate Menu", a model meal that embodies the pinnacle of Japanese cuisine. Both Shiro Yamaoka and Yuko Kurita are in charge of the project and throughout each chapter, the series is broken down to several types of dishes or food related items and how each dish is created. Meanwhile, his father, who Shiro has had an estranged relationship for years after his mother's death, the world renown founder and director of prestigious Gourmet Club and Japanese pottery creator, Kaibara Yuzan heads the "Supreme Menu" for a rival newspaper. So, both Shiro and his father are known to butt heads many times. With Kaibara looking at his son as a person with a lacking knowledge of cuisine but Shiro, never to stand down against his father, proving that he knows more than his father thinks. "OISHINBO A la Carte" is broken up in chapters that related to fish, sushi and sashimi. Here is what to expect from this volume (spoiler-less summaries): 1. FIRST COURSE - LIVE FISH - Both Shiro and Yuko are invited to the President of Dainichi Electron, Kuroda Morio's home and a lesson of eating live fish. 2. SECOND COURSE - THE RARE FISH - Kaibara Yuzan wants Shiro to prove his claim that chub mackerel sashimi is one of the best fish for sashimi. 3. THIRD COURSE - HOME OF THE SWEETFISH - Kyogoku-san is hospitalized and wishes for Shiro to make him sweetfish once he gets out of the hospital but in typical father son fashion, Kaibara and Shiro end up in another food battle of who can prepare the best sweetfish dish. 4. FOURTH COURSE - AN INTERESTING KARAAGE - Shiro tries to find a way to save an orphanage from closure through his preparation of the head of a tiger blowfish. 5. FIFTH COURSE - AN ILL-FLAVORED FISH - Shiro visits a restaurant that serves freshwater Goby Kanroni. 6. SIXTH COURSE - RIGHT EYED FLOUNDER AND LEFT-EYED FLOUNDER - Shiro tries to teach a young boy a lesson about life through fish via the right and left-eyed floun