Image: Funimation, Toei Animation, and Fuji Television
Netflix’s licensed anime library continues its incredible hot streak. Over the past few weeks, we’ve learned that Toei Animation’s favorite culinary action-adventure series is Toriko Netflix is officially headed to multiple regions this March. best of all? A special crossover episode with a piece Coming shortly after in April, which, along with the recently released Season 2 of the live-action series and multiple seasons of the anime streaming, makes it a timely movie to watch.
If you’ve been keeping track of the Netflix anime roster lately, you’ll know that the streaming service has been making a massive effort to acquire the rights to classic shonen properties. Over the past few years, we’ve seen massive declines for shows like Naruto, My Hero Academia, Black Clover, and of course One Piece.
Now, another Toei animation heavyweight is joining the menu. We can confirm that Toriko will be arriving on Netflix in multiple regions starting March 15th.
As far as regional availability is concerned, licensing currently covers most major English-speaking regions. We can confirm that all customers in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada will receive the series. (As always, keep an eye on your Netflix app, as regional availability for licensed anime can sometimes move up at the last minute!). The series will continue to stream on other platforms including CrunchyRoll in most regions and Hulu in the US.
What is Toriko?
For those unfamiliar with the series, Toriko is a shonen anime based on the manga of the same name by Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro, which ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 2008 to 2016.
Set in the “Gourmet Age”, the world is completely obsessed with gastronomy. The taste and texture of food is paramount, and the world’s elite make every possible effort to obtain the most attractive, delicious ingredients. Enter the Gourmet Hunters – mercenaries hired to track down rare animals and ingredients.
The story follows Toriko, a heavily muscled gluttonous hunter with inhuman appetite and immense strength, and Komatsu, a timid but highly skilled chef. Together, they travel the world fighting incredibly dangerous (and delicious) animals as Toriko seeks to complete his final “full course menu of life”.
It’s essentially Dragon Ball Z meets MasterChef, and it’s an absolute blast.
A special One Piece crossover will be coming in April!
If a hefty helping of Toriko episodes weren’t enough to satisfy your hunger, Netflix is serving up a very special dessert a few weeks later.
On April 1st (and no, this is not an April Fool’s joke), Netflix will add the highly requested Toriko x One Piece crossover special. He will be joining Netflix with the Dragon Ball x One Piece crossover, which Streaming started a few years ago.
Given that Netflix has essentially positioned itself as the global streaming home for all things One Piece – including the live-action series, the upcoming One Piece remake by WIT Studios (more news on that this year), and a large portion of the original Toei anime – adding this famous crossover to the platform makes perfect sense. Seeing Luffy and Toriko together at a huge feast is something anime fans won’t want to miss.
At the moment we don’t have confirmation on whether the series will be available with both an English dub and a Japanese sub option, but given Netflix’s track record with Toei licenses, we expect both audio options to be available upon release.
Are you excited to see Toriko when it arrives on Netflix this March? Will you be tuning in for a One Piece crossover? Let us know in the comments below!