Last year, we wrote an article introducing Liu Mao Xing, the protagonist of "Cooking Master Boy!," who was tragically executed after losing a cooking battle against villains in the new work "Cooking Master Boy! Kiwame."
Unexpectedly, more than half a year later, the manga directly started the "Underworld Arc"—as soon as Liu Mao Xing entered the underworld, he started cooking right next to the Sanzu River at the entrance. Judging by the plot development, it seems he intends to fight his way out of the underworld through cooking battles.
Readers unfamiliar with the plot of the new work "Cooking Master Boy! Kiwame" probably have a lot to complain about after reading the above: Isn't "Cooking Master Boy!" a gourmet manga? Is being a chef such a high-risk profession? When did Little Master die? How can he compete in a resurrection match after death? Where do ingredients come from in the underworld?
So, here is a summary of the previous context for everyone (although you might still be confused after reading the recap)—
"Cooking Master Boy! Kiwame" is a completely new work created by the original author Etsushi Ogawa in 2017, nearly 20 years after the original ended, continuing the story from the ending of the second work, "Shin Cooking Master Boy!"
At the end of the second part of the story, Little Master Liu Mao Xing defeated the boss of the villainous "Dark Cooking Society," bringing an end to the world's conflicts. But unexpectedly, at the beginning of the third part, Little Master suddenly learns at his father's memorial ceremony that his father "Maliu" is actually alive, and that Maliu has deep ties to the Dark Cooking Society. Thus, Liu Mao Xing embarks on another journey, searching for his father while combating another villainous force in the cooking world, the "Taiji Cooking Society."
So, in short, the story of "Cooking Master Boy! Kiwame" is "Little Master Looking for Dad."
The cooking battle where Liu Mao Xing was executed took place on his journey to find his father, against Ding Taifeng, the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King of the Phoenix Eight Immortals from the Taiji Cooking Society.
In the cooking battle, Liu Mao Xing made a dish that could simultaneously offend both Chinese and Italian people: "Cream Baked Garlic Chili Bean Paste Macaroni Cabbage Broth Stuffed Dumplings." It was precisely this bizarre dish that led many netizens to comment that Liu Mao Xing's execution was "well-deserved."
If the macaroni-stuffed dumplings were just unlike something humans would eat and could theoretically be replicated in reality, then Ding Taifeng's dish is purely a magical product, and he himself no longer resembles a human—the dish he made is a huge "Macaroni Pipe Organ" that can be used for musical performance and rejuvenates those who eat it.
In the end, Liu Mao Xing's macaroni-stuffed dumplings lost to Ding Taifeng's macaroni pipe organ because they violated the essence that "macaroni must be hollow." According to the pre-match agreement, Liu Mao Xing was blasted to pieces, turning into ash, and thus fell, a generation of special-grade chefs.
Thus, we have explained the cause of Liu Mao Xing's death. Reading this, you might want to complain again: "The protagonist just went offline so abruptly? What about Little Master's teammates? Save him!"
In subsequent chapters, his teammates indeed tried to resurrect Little Master, even going so far as to prepare a high-class "Whole Lamb Banquet Dumpling" and invite the high-status "One of the Four Emperors," Dijiang, to help complete the resurrection ritual.
But Liu Mao Xing had been directly decomposed into atoms by a beam similar to Vel'Koz's ultimate ability. Only after Dijiang finished eating the Whole Lamb Banquet Dumplings did he belatedly state, "Sumimasen, Liu Mao Xing's particles are too scattered; it's impossible to resurrect him." So his grand entrance was just to get a free meal.
After saying all this, we finally return to the beginning of the article. His teammates in the living world thought Liu Mao Xing's fate was sealed, but little did they know the head chef was warming up in the underworld—it turns out he has to fight his own resurrection match.
Thus, you can see the manga plot starting to develop along the lines mocked by netizens back then—"Cooking Master Boy! Kiwame" Underworld Arc, now serializing!
And the first hurdle for Little Master to fight his way out of the underworld is how to enter it.
After Liu Mao Xing died, his soul arrived at Sai no Kawara. In Buddhist legend, children who die young are sent to Sai no Kawara. Due to insufficient merit in their previous lives, especially failing to fulfill filial piety, they cannot cross the Sanzu River and must pile stones at Sai no Kawara to atone for their sins. There are also ghosts at Sai no Kawara that interfere with the children piling stones. Therefore, Liu Mao Xing, as a teenager (yes, still a child after more than ten years of serialization), also has to pile stones at Sai no Kawara to atone for his sins.
But who is Liu Mao Xing? He doesn't feel pressured by ghosts at all. Without the ghosts even noticing, he piled up a three-hundred-layer stone tower in one go. Even the ghosts were shocked.
Even more bizarrely, the stone tower built by Liu Mao Xing doesn't collapse even when stones from the middle layers are removed. The two ghosts worked hard for a long time, but could only slowly pull out the stones from the bottom of the tower one by one, like playing Daruma Otoshi.
You ask how this was even possible? The answer is—this stone tower is a dish made by Liu Mao Xing.
Oh! So it's cooking, that makes sense. Since Ding Taifeng could make macaroni pipe organs that play music, it becomes reasonable that Liu Mao Xing, as a Dragon Chef who won the national cooking competition, could casually build a three-hundred-layer stone tower dish.
As the height of the stone tower decreased, everyone finally saw the full appearance of this dish—the upper layers of the stone tower were piled high with hamburger patties. While building the stone tower, Liu Mao Xing also casually built a clay oven to bake buns, combining the buns with the hamburger patties to make hamburgers to treat all the children at Sai no Kawara. Good heavens, is this still Sai no Kawara? People who don't know better might think this is the Tustin Underworld Branch.
If you think Liu Mao Xing instantly building a stone tower was impressive, just look at the effects of the dish itself: a child starving to the point of being skin and bones takes one bite of a hamburger and transforms directly from a skeleton soldier back into human form, bursting with endless energy. One can only say that Changshu Arno's Power of the Nine Dragons doesn't compare to even a single strand of this hamburger.
So how did Liu Mao Xing start a fire to roast the ingredients?
Although he is in the underworld, which science cannot explain, the principle Liu Mao Xing explained sounds quite scientific—the far-infrared radiation emitted by the stone tower provides heat to roast the ingredients.
It is indeed very scientific, comparable to the cosmic magnetic energy silk quilt my second great-uncle bought along with the free eggs he went to collect.
Regarding the ingredients, Liu Mao Xing chose to source locally, fishing eels from the Sanzu River for the meat filling. As for why there are eels in the Sanzu River, whether the eels in the water are considered alive or dead, and if they are considered dead, what they become after being killed again by Liu Mao Xing, these questions probably require more professionals to debate.
Aside from the eel, the other ingredients were picked up by Liu Mao Xing from the house of the elite monster "Datsueba." This naturally angered Datsueba—wait, isn't Liu Mao Xing from Sichuan?
Thus, the first chapter of the Underworld Arc in "Cooking Master Boy! Kiwame" comes to an end. As for how the plot develops next, I think it's quite easy to guess. Most likely, "Datsueba" will confront Liu Mao Xing for stealing ingredients to cook, but will ultimately be moved by his cooking and let him enter the underworld. Then, Liu Mao Xing will defeat various ghosts and monsters through cooking, finally fighting his way out of the underworld.
For a "gourmet manga" in the public impression, super developments like the Underworld Arc still feel somewhat inconceivable.
After all, most people first learned about this work through the adapted anime imported by domestic TV stations. Although the anime already featured clearly fantastical elements like the "Legendary Cooking Utensils," it was still largely set in the real world, revolving around gourmet food and cooking battles. Therefore, everyone's impression of "Cooking Master Boy!" remained stuck on the relatively realistic plot and worldview seen at the end of the anime.
Adding to this, the original author Etsushi Ogawa posted late last year saying that after Liu Mao Xing's death, he didn't know how to continue the plot and even considered consulting AI for opinions, making the whole situation even more absurd.
Perhaps many people will question whether the Underworld Arc fits the tone of "Cooking Master Boy." I can only say: the work actually entered a high-martial arts worldview with god-like battles long ago. It's just that the adapted anime imported domestically covered earlier plots and didn't show the subsequent absurd operations to the general audience.
For example, in the later plots of "Shin Cooking Master Boy!," the villain character "Aron" could ignite the entire Yangtze River to cook. And Liu Mao Xing was no less impressive, using the Great Wall of China as a cooking utensil and sunlight as energy to cook dishes.
In the recent plot of "Cooking Master Boy! Kiwame," there have even appeared bizarre dishes like "Marijuana Sedative Pu'er Tea" and "Poppy Seed Desserts," which can control people's minds.
Unexpectedly, the memes mocking the exaggerated portrayal of cooking in the anime back then have actually become reality.
It can be said that power inflation is a common ailment in many long-running manga series. As the story progresses and to avoid aesthetic fatigue, authors need to constantly introduce more shocking and visually stunning scenes, ultimately leading to the absurd situation where everyone becomes superhuman.
For instance, in the sports manga "The New Prince of Tennis," various non-human entities abound, including giants and immortals who can control the power of black holes. The outcome of matches has long departed from tennis rules, depending entirely on whose superpowers are stronger.
Looking at it this way, the "Macaroni Pipe Organ" and "Far-Infrared Stone Tower Hamburger Meat" in "Cooking Master Boy! Kiwame" aren't too absurd.
For author Etsushi Ogawa, apart from "Cooking Master Boy," he has had no other successful works to date. Since "Shin Cooking Master Boy!" ended in 1999, he sequentially released two other works, "Toriko Double" and "Angel's Frying Pan," but the fame and popularity of these two works were far inferior to his debut work, "Cooking Master Boy." Perhaps this is why he picked up this IP again after nearly 20 years to start the serialization of "Cooking Master Boy! Kiwame." And "Cooking Master Boy! Kiwame" had to continue the power inflation of the previous work, ultimately leading to the current situation of starting the Underworld Arc.
As for Etsushi Ogawa saying he didn't know how to continue the story, it's more likely just a gimmick. After all, manga serialization is a team effort; it's not entirely up to the author to draw whatever comes to mind. Everyone from the editor to the management layer has to check Everythinggj, so they wouldn't casually release developments that would ruin the work. If Etsushi Ogawa's actions during this period, including starting the Underworld Arc, were truly to attract readers' attention and generate buzz for the manga, then he certainly succeeded.
Judging from the plot development of the Underworld Arc, the subsequent story of "Cooking Master Boy! Kiwame" will likely not have many issues. In fact, many cultural works feature protagonists entering the underworld for training, increasing their power before returning. Even if Etsushi Ogawa really couldn't conceive the plot, he could just follow formulas from other works.
So, I think instead of worrying about whether the Underworld Arc is reasonable here, it's better to relax and enjoy watching how Liu Mao Xing fights his way out of the underworld.
