美味しんぼ（１３） (ビッグコミックス)

by Tetsu Kariya, 花咲アキラ (Illustrator)

とある鯨料理店で、山岡たちと海原雄山がたまたま同席してしまう。雄山は冷凍の鯨の刺身を出した店主を叱責するが、その時、店に捕鯨反対団体が乱入してくる。意外にもその中には山岡たちの友人、ジェフの姿があった。かねてより捕鯨禁止運動に憤りを感じていた山岡は、ジェフを説得するため、ひいては日本の食文化を守るために立ち上がる。

211 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 17, 1987

About the author

雁屋哲
Manga writer and essayist extraordinaire Tetsu Kariya graduated from prestigious Tokyo University. Kariya was employed with a major advertising agency before making his debut as a manga writer in 1974, when he teamed up with legendary manga artist Ryoichi Ikegami to create Otoko Gumi (Male Gang). The worlds of food and manga were forever changed in 1983 when Kariya, together with artist Akira Hanasaki, created the immensely popular and critically acclaimed Oishinbo.

Reviews

[Lizzy B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay…can’t talk about this book without talking about the whales. Do you think people should hunt and eat whales? I thought I didn’t…except for the Inuit of course, since their consumption is sustainable…but what about the Japanese? Their consumption would certainly not be sustainable, so no whales for them…well….This volume was published right as the Japanese world-pressured, self-imposed whale ban went into effect, and I was shocked when this author’s five-parter addressing it had both the main character AND his archrival speaking up FOR whale hunting!

Even though the white blond villains (Greenpeace stand-ins) were too cartoonishly evil, the story’s arguments have kinda convinced me of the pros of (sustainable!) whale hunting in Japan. (Will never be for unsustainable fishing because I want fish available for me to eat!) The author basically says:

—If you’re vegan/vegetarian fine, but if you eat meat why only not eat whale? (He draws some unnecessary and ugh-worthy racism parallels, as he was talking to the white American character who could be persuaded)

—Japan has cultural whale cuisine traditions that would be lost with the ban (I agree this preservation is important, even if I wouldn’t want to eat probably any whale stuff myself)

—Greenpeace (er, the stand-ins) is only using the Save the Whales campaign to:

—get money for less-glamorous causes! (didn’t really convince me, like, yeah? Is that a problem?)
—stick it to the grrr technology-better car-producing out-competing Japaneeeessseee! (This was published in 1988….and y’know what, the racist undertones of the Save the Whales campaign origins had never occurred to me)

So, despite going in worried that I was going to think less of the author for those views, he did end up convincing this real white American that sustainable! whaling should be allowed for Japan. It’s pretty unusual for a book to convince me of such a concrete view, so truly, props to it.

Also, the other stories were great. Senior love? Humbling a food painter? Yamaoka helping a pro athlete, providing recovery food for a picky hospitalized person, and getting hit in the head again? Good stuff