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NEWS: Iron Wok Jan! Chinese Cooking Manga Gets New Series




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Lemonchest



Joined: 18 Mar 2015
Posts: 1771
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 1:12 pm Reply with quote
Now that's a rack ill suited for knives.
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Animechic420



Joined: 25 Sep 2012
Posts: 1727
Location: A Cave Filled With Riches
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 1:36 pm Reply with quote
Must that girl's chest be so damn huge???? It looks stupid!
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2545
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 2:43 pm Reply with quote
I'm of two minds about this news:

First... OH HELL YES!!!! IRON WOK JAN! IS BACK AGAIN!!!!

Seriously, this remains one of my favorite manga of all time, mainly because of how crazed it was. Without a doubt, if you thought that Food Wars was the most over-the-top & crazy cooking series out there, then you have never read IWJ!, because the characters, concoctions, & general mood of this manga is simply insane. In essence, Iron Wok Jan! is the cooking manga equivalent of the J-Metal band Maximum the Hormone. Sure, it can be traditional & more "popular" in execution when it wants to, but it just revels in psychotic insanity, all lead by Jan Akiyama, who's just the perfect main character for a series like this. It was awesome to see Jan! return back in the 00s with Jan! R, and I thought that was enough, so seeing a new series (starring a new lead, it seems) is awesome. Really, anyone who's curious should just read Jason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga article about Iron Wok Jan!, because he described the manga perfectly there.

However, I am sad about this, simply because I know that I'll never be able to experience properly, i.e. with an English translation. Iron Wok Jan! was never a good seller for DrMaster (the manga went through a new translator or editor seemingly every few volumes, & was only finished because the staff loved the manga that much), and not was Jan! R never licensed for release over here, but it wasn't even fan-translated at all. Therefore, I don't see us ever being able to properly read Jan! 2nd, especially since it relies on Chinese cooking, so it's not like the food being cooked will be easily identifiable to most people.

That being said, if this is essentially a new start for the series & is starring a new lead for newcomers to get into, then maybe (just maybe) we might get Jan! 2nd. It's nanosized, sure, I guess anything can happen.
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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 5920
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 2:54 pm Reply with quote
Lemonchest wrote:
Now that's a rack ill suited for knives.


Don't worry they're bulletproof.

Animechic420 wrote:
Must that girl's chest be so damn huge???? It looks stupid!


That's shocking.
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xzy123



Joined: 07 Sep 2015
Posts: 143
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 3:45 pm Reply with quote
Lord Geo wrote:
I'm of two minds about this news:

First... OH HELL YES!!!! IRON WOK JAN! IS BACK AGAIN!!!!

Seriously, this remains one of my favorite manga of all time, mainly because of how crazed it was. Without a doubt, if you thought that Food Wars was the most over-the-top & crazy cooking series out there, then you have never read IWJ!, because the characters, concoctions, & general mood of this manga is simply insane. In essence, Iron Wok Jan! is the cooking manga equivalent of the J-Metal band Maximum the Hormone. Sure, it can be traditional & more "popular" in execution when it wants to, but it just revels in psychotic insanity, all lead by Jan Akiyama, who's just the perfect main character for a series like this. It was awesome to see Jan! return back in the 00s with Jan! R, and I thought that was enough, so seeing a new series (starring a new lead, it seems) is awesome. Really, anyone who's curious should just read Jason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga article about Iron Wok Jan!, because he described the manga perfectly there.

However, I am sad about this, simply because I know that I'll never be able to experience properly, i.e. with an English translation. Iron Wok Jan! was never a good seller for DrMaster (the manga went through a new translator or editor seemingly every few volumes, & was only finished because the staff loved the manga that much), and not was Jan! R never licensed for release over here, but it wasn't even fan-translated at all. Therefore, I don't see us ever being able to properly read Jan! 2nd, especially since it relies on Chinese cooking, so it's not like the food being cooked will be easily identifiable to most people.

That being said, if this is essentially a new start for the series & is starring a new lead for newcomers to get into, then maybe (just maybe) we might get Jan! 2nd. It's nanosized, sure, I guess anything can happen.


but food war look great
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AsuraTheDestructor



Joined: 24 Dec 2013
Posts: 466
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 8:25 pm Reply with quote
Animechic420 wrote:
Must that girl's chest be so damn huge???? It looks stupid!


Boobs are boobs. No big deal.
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Fronzel



Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1906
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 10:17 pm Reply with quote
Animechic420 wrote:
Must that girl's chest be so damn huge????

The answer is "yes".
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Kikaioh



Joined: 01 Jun 2009
Posts: 1205
Location: Antarctica
PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 3:19 am Reply with quote
Iron Wok Jan was a well-told manga that unfortunately suffered from a lot of issues. The beginning was strong, and some of the early cooking stories were a lot of fun to read - Jan was a complete asshole, but you could respect his strong will when it came to cooking. It also really brought to life Chinese cooking, and was pretty compelling/suspenseful, at the beginning anyways.

Eventually, though, it ran out of ideas --- the series started to overly rely on cooking tournaments to progress the story, and the author seemed uncertain how to top some of the insane antics Jan constantly employed in order to oust his opponents. Fanservice started to increase over time, and the enormous chests of the women in the manga ballooned to laughably ridiculous sizes. Worst of all, the ending was a complete mess, awkwardly jumping from one story progression to the next, and ultimately fizzling out without direction or fanfare.

That all said, I enjoyed the manga for most of the series, until it started to fall apart in the latter half from a lack of ideas and a slipshod ending. The characters were interesting and likable, and it was neat to learn about Chinese cuisine. Not sure I can say I'd look forward to a new manga series tbh, but maybe I'll keep an eye open for it.
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Kadmos1



Joined: 08 May 2014
Posts: 13552
Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP
PostPosted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 3:29 am Reply with quote
Animechic420 wrote:
Must that girl's chest be so damn huge???? It looks stupid!

If you are wanting to appease a shounen or seinen demographic, that is almost a requirement for many female leads. Also, often these buxom girls are somewhat smart, caring, and independent.
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