Before I left Manila, I gave a good friend a copy of Anthony Bourdain's first graphic novel - Get Jiro. It tells the story of a Japanese sushi chef, caught in the middle of a culinary war in Los Angeles.
The character is loosely based on sushi master Jiro Ono, who owns a highly-regarded 3-Michelin Star sushi restaurant in Tokyo. Fans of Bourdain, the world's beloved badass chef-turned-writer/travel show host/enthusiast, could easily identify that, along with other Bourdainisms peppered through out the comic book - an instruction as to how to properly eat a sushi and other snarky quips on Western food culture.
There's only a knife-wielding hero here, so those who would expect a typical DC or Marvel storyline would be in for a surprise or disappointment even. But its very impressive graphics may remotely remind you of a Tarantino film. If you are into such tasteful bloody spectacle, Get Jiro might be right up your alley.I am not sure however, if my friend enjoyed it as much as I did. But I can assure him that I did not 'browse' through his present, even if I was really itching to.Thankfully, I was able to buy another one at Fullybooked Cebu last month. It was a rather impulsive purchase, I must confess, but I left the bookstore with less guilt than I would like to acknowledge.
