A N I M E / O T A K U : PART 6

Chuuka Ichiban

Other Title:

Chuuka Ichiban!

Synonyms:

Cooking Master Boy

Type:

TV

Aired:

April 27, 1997 to September 13, 1998

Source:

Manga

Genres:

Action, Comedy, Drama, Shounen

Synopsis:

The story takes place in 19th century China during the Qing Dynasty, where the Emperor was weakened and the country was close to chaos. It is also during a fictitious era called "The Era of the Cooking Wars". It was an era in which top chefs with different cooking styles tried their best to improve their skills and to become the best chef in China. It is a country where insulting a high-grade chef or fooling around with cooking could land a person in a jail, and impersonating a top-chef is as good as usurpation of authority. Chefs compete with each other in order to gain respect and even power, but also with the risks of losing everything.

The country of China has four major regions: Beijing, Szechuan, Shanghai, and Guangdong.

The beginning of the story takes place in Szechuan, Mao's birthplace.

After the death of Mao's mother, Pai, who was called the 'Fairy of Cuisine', Mao becomes a Super Chef in order to take the title as Master Chef of his mother's restaurant. However, before he takes his mother's place as Master Chef, he continues to travel China in order to learn more of the many ways of cooking, in the hopes of becoming a legendary chef, just like his mother. During his journey, he meets great friends and fierce rivals who wish to challenge him in the field of cooking.

Characters and Voice Actors:

- Main:

Mei Li Chou

The 16 year old daughter of Chouyu. Originally, she was a helper at the Yang Spring Restaurant. She fell in love with Mao after seeing how much he loves cooking and how he also cares about others. She only knows a little about the cooking field, but she's useful when it comes to little facts and often tries to help Mao with various other things. After finding out that Mao was leaving the Yang Spring Restaurant to travel China, she was heartbroken since she thought that she could live a life with him. She eventually made up her mind and decided to also leave the restaurant, in order to travel with him (In the manga, she did not accompany Mao in his journey around China). Mei often gets into arguments with Shirou and always ends up slapping or hitting him. She also gets very jealous every time another woman gets near Mao. An example of her animosity towards women that gets close to Mao is when his sister, Karin, visits him to bring their mother's cooking materials; she says that Karin will never be good for Mao, that is until she finds out that she is his sister. In another occasion, when the female chef, Anzu, finally realized the way of making singe cuisine, she kissed Mao as a sign of gratitude, but Mei Li became angry and began to express her anger by hitting Shirou. Although, she says that her number one rival for Mao's heart is his love for cooking. She's a spitting image of her deceased mother, Meika.

- Yukino, Satsuki (Japanese)

- Mun, Seon hui (Korean)

Lan Fei Hong

A handsome 16 year old genius chef. Although he is considered to be a more knowledgeable chef than Mao, he is the one chef that could be considered as Mao's true rival in cooking. Unlike Mao, Fei is a calm and collected chef who can always do things in an organized manner. He was first introduced as one of Mao's opponents during the Super Chef tournament. Even though he was an opponent who seemed to have a cold personality, he helped Mao a few times during the competition. He, along with Mao, made history when they both passed the Super Chef test at the same time. It turned out that he knows about Mao's mother, and that he sees her as his savior.