Oishinbo: Sake, Vol. 2: 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 annualy 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 Biz 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. This second volume focuses on the alcoholic rice beverage very popular in Japan known as sake. "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. The characters featured in "OISHINBO" are: Shiro Yamaoka - A journalist for Tozai News who knows his food and how things are created but he is estranged from his father, a prominent artist and founder and director of the Gourmet Club. He despises his father because of the death of his mother. Yamaoka was trained from a young age by his father, Kaibara. Kaibara Yuzan - The father of Shiro Yamaoka is a prominent artist and founder and director of the Gourmet Club. Because of his prominent stature, all restaurants fear him and thus feel the need to create perfect food for him. Estranged from his son Shiro and despises him for destroying all of his paintings and pottery worth tens or hundreds of million yen. A man widely revered for his sense of taste and feared for his ferocious temper. He heads the "Supreme Menu" project for Teito Times, rival paper to the Tozai News that his son works for. Yuko Kurita - Knowledgeable about food and partner of Shiro. She learns a lot from him. Daizo Ohara - Publisher of Tozai News Hideo Tanimura - Director of Tozai News Art & Culture Department Tomio Tomii - Deputy Director working under Tanimura Tojin Toyama - A legendary ceramicist and gourmet Mantaro Kyogoku - A wealthy businessman and gourmet Seiiichi Okaboshi - Chef/owner of a sushi shop and Shiro's local hangout Tokuo Nakugawa - The head chef for Gourmet Club "OISHINBO" is broken up in chapters that related to sake. Here is what to expect from this volume: 1. FIRST FLIGHT - THE VERSATILITY OF SAKE - Tozai News Executive Editor Kyoichi Koizumi is upset that the newspaper company is pouring money into the "Ultimate Menu". He is tired of the excuses from the UM staff that he wants to make