Toriko, Vol. 36: Deployment!!

I'm certainly enjoying this volume much more than I did the Area 7 arc. There's a glimpse of things in the earlier days that made Toriko enjoyable. So while they're partying over at the Birth Cry Tree, the two groups of “supporters” (chefs and other characters who've appeared throughout the series) caught up with them. A bonus scene that I loved was that we finally get to see Zonge's true purpose. That was fun.

So after they're all caught up, they head into Area 6, the “Ocean World” basically. It's interesting that it's actually this area that contains the toughest of the Eight Kings. I had expected that to be Area 1? But without spoiling too much, there's a bunch of crazy weather and crazy ocean conditions, as you can expect from this series. And then the entire party gets split into Heavenly Kings paired up with a chef each, while Komatsu stays with the rest of the cast. Each pair heads off into a different area, while the main group stays in area 6. All this because of new plot revelations that required them to speed things up.