Comic Book / Get Jiro!

Set 20 Minutes into the Future in Los Angeles, California, the city has become an oppressive town where the food industry is king.

As a Japanese man named Jiro opens up his sushi establishment in a strip-mall, he is driven to kill a foodie for his bad manners. This catches the attention of two of the most powerful food icons in the city — International and The Farm — who move to recruit him for his skills. What follows is an odyssey that will determine the culinary of the entire city, with just a pinch of ultra-violence for dessert.

Get Jiro! is a 2012 Vertigo Comics graphic novel written by Joel Rose (Kill Kill Faster Faster and Hungry Ghosts) and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain (Kitchen Confidential and No Reservations). Get Jiro: Blood and Sushi acts as a prequel to the story explaining Jiro's origins.

An Animated Adaptation is currently in the works for [adult swim].

---

This comic provides examples of:

• Ambiguously Trained: While Jiro's backstory is explained in Get Jiro!: Blood and Sushi, here his origins are left completely ambiguous. He is a masterful sushi chef whose ingredients and supplies are 100% authentic and genuine — right down to having genuine hinoki wood for the sushi bar's counters — implying that he has connections to international supplies that he can afford by himself. He is an excellent sushi chef, but he is more than capable of using his cutlery for violence, having severed a guy's arm (without even touching the bone) with a tuna knife faster than the eye could see it. When a prostitute he is seeing has him remove his shirt, his chest, back and shoulders reveal an intricate tattoo depicting a samurai fighting a dragon, something he seems weirdly self-conscious about.
• Angry Chef: If you ask for California rolls or mix your wasabi with soy sauce, Jiro will not hesitate to kill you.
• Author Appeal: A world where chefs are the real power? Bourdain isn't even trying to be realistic; he's just wallowing in this.
• Author Avatar: Bob looks an awful lot like Bourdain and shares his taste for classic European cuisine. Why is he a villain? Bourdain never fooled himself into believing that he was a good guy.
• Author Filibuster: A brief one. Jean Claude lets us know why Tony Bourdain thinks that the International (who are ultimately just thugs) are the Lighter Shade of Black than the Farm:
  Jean Claude: In many ways [the Farm] are the more dangerous, I think. If history teaches us anything, Jiro-San, it is that one must be very careful of those who would make us happier on the farm, yes? I think sometimes Rose would kill us all to make us happier.
• Bald of Evil: Manny, the Giant Mook for International, isn't necessarily more "evil" than his fellow gang members, but he is more violent and abusive, continuing to attack Jiro when the rest have stopped fighting, and he doesn't have a single hair on his head.
• Berserk Button: Jiro takes sushi and sushi etiquette very seriously. He regularly kills customers for their bad manners — asking for California rolls being the nail in the coffin in these cases — and when he sees International customers eating sushi, he can only gawk in horror.
• Big Beautiful Woman: The prostitute that Jiro visits early on is nowhere near the size of some of the women out on the street, but is definitely soft and curvy.
• Big, Fat Future: Seems to be class-related. "Immigrants and service workers" have normal physiques, presumably because they're doing physical labor. Gang members and the elites who eat at their restaurants are similarly normal, possibly because they're eating reasonable amounts of good food instead of massive amounts of junk food. The "Average American", on the other hand, gorges on junk food and candy until they're actually spherical. The culture is so obsessed with food that pushers on the street sell Twizzlers, low-class prostitutes call "Got those sweets" out of slum windows, and a Karaoke singer sings about "gravy and potatoes in a good brown pot", and no, it doesn't seem to be an Unusual Euphemism of some kind.
• Book Ends: The story starts with a trio of customers with bad sushi etiquette asking for California rolls prompting Jiro to slash off one of their heads. The final scene is set at Jiro’s new restaurant when someone asks for California rolls, and Jiro promptly takes his knife out.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: While Jiro is perfectly fine with beheading people for having poor table manners, he is otherwise proven to be a very humble customer when it comes to other people's food regardless of the "quality" of the kitchen it was made in. He enjoys Jean Claude's authentic European cuisine in spite of how filthy the kitchen is and enjoys a street vendor's gyro at a bus stop.
• Bullying a Dragon: Manny. The whole reason they were investigating Jiro in the first place was because he'd effortlessly dispatched someone they knew could take care of himself. Then Manny tries to bully him like any other helpless shopkeeper. It doesn't work out well for Manny.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: In addition to a straightforward beating, Bob and his goons force feed Jiro low-quality rice and an "unpalatable" meat substitute, and leave his fish out to spoil (which may seem like Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking, but for someone like Jiro, it's more like Forced to Watch).
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • Jiro is established working his simple, strip mall sushi establishment by himself, with customers and the cops familiar with him as though he was a celebrity. When the customers break sushi etiquette, he snaps and decapitates one of them with his tuna knife. This establishes him as a Humble Hero who treats sushi as Serious Business and is badass enough to reap vengeance for it.
  • Bob is introduced making Blanquette de veau as a demonstration to his staff, waxing poetic about the simplicity and purity of the recipe (including its monochrome aesthetic) before devolving into his hatred for people who "fuck with" classic cuisine. Then when he hears about Jiro beheading one of his suppliers, he gets the idea to recruit him when he hears about Jiro's high standards for quality fish. This establishes him as a Wicked Cultured traditionalist with high-standards.
  • Rose is introduced talking shop about fruit and vegetables as though they were dealing drugs. When Jiro enters the conversation, she kicks upstream the idea of recruiting him just so Bob couldn't have him and then twists the idea of what "local ingredients" mean to justify having him. This clues us in that she reaches far more into the dirtier side of their business and treats their Bourgeois Bohemian lifestyle as more of a brand than a way to live, having no real standards of her own.
• Establishing Series Moment: The comic opens with a trio of foodies entering Jiro's sushi establishment. Their sushi etiquette proves to be so poor (eating them with chopsticks, dipping them directly into the sauce, mixing soy sauce with wasabi and asking for California rolls), he snaps and lops one of their heads off with his knife. The cops sees the head roll out into the parking lot and, rather than arrest Jiro, remark that this has happened before and offer to get a Cleanup Crew for Jiro. This clues us in that this hyper-violent, John Wick/Sin City-esq world sees the food and restaurant industry as Serious Business, as well as establishing our protagonist Jiro as a Chef of Iron with a Code of Honor who is perfectly capable of killing if the need arose.
• Fancy Dinner: Jiro manages to stage False Flag Operations at a fancy dinner for both International and The Farm.
  • Jiro manages to secretly record and livestream Rose preparing and eating duck dishes at a dinner party, horrifying her vegan clientele. He then frames her husband for the act.
  • He would later use his sushi knife to kill various International global affiliates at a special dinner, all of whom were tricked into covering their faces with cloth as part of a traditional serving of ortolan. He would then leave a message for Bob written in blood that frames The Farm as the culprits.
• Faux Affably Evil: Unlike the Wicked Cultured Bob, Rose and her husband Jerry are much rougher when it comes to their mafia-like practices, often imposing Cool and Unusual Punishments for minor sleights, like killing one of their own chefs and feeding their bodies to their pigs for serving a tomato dish in January. It's even stated that they tend to change whatever "cause" they try to represent constantly, using positive brands (environmentalism, civil rights, etc.) purely to draw in business.
  • Bob and the members of International are on their best behavior around Jiro through much of the book as they try to recruit him. Then he crosses them (and to be fair, he crosses them in a major way), and they stop being so nice.
• Food Porn: Despite being a brutal takedown of trendy cuisine, this comic is a love letter to food and the preparation of food, even the food it mocks. Everything from home French cooking, roadside tacos, and of course, sushi, is treated like high art.
• Gang of Hats:
  • Bob runs International, a chain of rich, high-dining restaurants that values efficiency, minimalist design and "international cuisine." All of their employees wear traditional chef hats and jackets and have very high standards when it comes to "authenticity", one of their hitmen taking the time to shame a taco vendor for using sour cream and cheddar on their tacos.
    Jean Claude: The Global Affiliates. They are more powerful. The Second Ring... most of the Big Boxes... are theirs, so that they are better capitalized. And there are more of them, too, of course. They have no principles to hold them back. They are only about business and... pleasure. Their own pleasure.
  • Rose's establishment The Farm is a Bourgeois Bohemian vegan establishment that (allegedly) grows its own produce. They all dress in casual wear (mainly hippie shirts, shorts and gardening attire) and all have some sort of piercings on their person.
    Jean Claude: Rose? The vegetable people... the healthy people... the locals, the communists, the survivalists... the fruitopians... the freegans... the organic whatever... the farmers... the hippies. They don't even know what they are from one week to the next. All they have in common is hate — of Bob and what he represents — and fear.
• Giant Mook: Each major gang has one. International has Manny, while The Farm has a nameless red-bearded guy in coveralls.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Bob has a scar on his upper-lip and he runs a chunk of the L.A. service industry as though he were a mafia don.
• Hypocrite: While Rose and Jerry present themselves as vegans, it's revealed that Rose enjoys and prepares Fancy Dinners with duck dishes in secret. They are also known for their appeal in using "local ingredients", though Rose makes the meaning of the phrase "local" so that it means whatever she wants it to mean.
• Karmic Jackpot: After Jiro kills a table of International affiliates and frames The Farm for it, he is able to smuggle Bob's sous chef — who Bob used as nothing but arm candy in a skimpy outfit — away to Jean Claude's restaurant, claiming that Rose kidnapped her and is using her as a hostage. She clearly prefers working at Jean Claude's humbler establishment and nurses a wounded Jiro back to full-health after Bob discovers that Jiro was behind it. After successfully overthrowing Bob and Rose's culinary empires, she helps him rebuild as co-chef at his new sushi restaurant.
• Kick the Dog: Immediately after Bob's messenger has a peaceful, polite meeting with Jiro, the story reminds us that International really are bad guys by showing them beating up an old Vietnamese restaurant owner who apparently resisted their "suggestion" that he buy a different sauce this week.
• Lightning Bruiser: Jerry recognizes Jiro as such and tries to warn his allies. It doesn't help.
  Jerry: Watch him! Watch him! He's fast!
• Pet the Dog: A veteran member of International is shown patiently explaining sushi etiquette to a "young'un" in the gang. This doubles as Pragmatic Villainy, since they're trying to recruit Jiro and don't want to hit one of his known Berserk Buttons.
  • Jiro himself immediately runs to the aid of the old Vietnamese restaurant owner after Bob's goons Kick the Dog, establishing that he has compassion beneath the violence and fanatical professionalism that has been the majority of his on-panel behavior to that point.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Bob clearly considers sexually harassing his sous chef to be just another perk of his position. Small wonder she prefers to work at Jean Claude's and ultimately Jiro's restaurant, where she's treated as a true student and colleague.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Manny, the Giant Mook for International, is shown sipping tea or perhaps espresso from a tiny, delicate cup and saucer while the gang is scouting Jiro's place. With his pinky raised. No one acts as if this is unusual, and perhaps for a gang of Wicked Cultured foodies and sous chefs who fight with weaponized cooking utensils, it isn't.
• Riches to Rags: At the beginning of the story, Bob and Rose are two of the most powerful people in L.A., running bourgeois cooking empires with nothing on their minds but their hatred for each other. By the end, the both of them are forced to flee the city with nothing but each other for company, the only food available being street vendor fish tacos.
• Rōnin: While Jiro wasn't a Samurai, he has some of the hallmarks associated with the ronin. He once implied to have fought for a "Master's" cause and vowed not to do it again. His skills are desired by both ruling mobs in the city, but instead he works on behalf of himself and the populace that suffers under their rule. He even wields a moguro bocho^* a 60-inch fish-cutting knife as though it were a katana.
• Serious Business: Restaurant etiquette is such Serious Business in this setting that when Jiro murders someone for a breach of it, the police just call emergency services to clean up the body and the man's partners in crime don't seek revenge. The killing is considered that justified.
• Slobs Versus Snobs: The Farm makes up the slobs while International are the snobs. The Farm is made up of punkish, faux-revolutionary vegans who prefer instilling fear and brutality in both the populace and its members. International are high-class establishments set in colorless, minimalist and modernist establishments that believes fanatically in traditional cooking.
• Stout Strength: At least one Giant Mook for each of the major players. Jean Claude might have had this in his youth, if that really is him in the boxing gear in the picture on his wall, but unfortunately for him, he no longer has it by the time of the story.
• Title Drop: Rose's final order to Jerry is for him to "get Jiro".
• Totalitarian Gangsterism: Much of the conflict in the setting centers around how International and The Farm have monopolized real estate and resources for all of the other restaurants in L.A., creating what is essentially a Protection Racket. After Jiro manages to turn their cold war into a free-for-all, one of Jiro's friends who had suffered under their rule bring the oppressed masses into a revolution against them.
• A Truce While We Gawk: When Mooks sent by International and The Farm duke it out, Jiro tries to calmly diffuse the situation. When an International mook tries to attack him, Jiro manages to slice off one of his arms with one of his sushi knives faster than the eye could see. The battle reach to a halt to admire his cutlery skills (having been able to slice the arm off carefully enough not to touch the bone), even allowing the man to bleed out as they do it.
• Truce Zone: Jean Claude's restaurant, to a point. Several people at different tables look like they might be International or Farm gang members who aren't wearing their gang colors. Bob doesn't hesitate to invade later on, however.
• We Used to Be Friends: Possibly. There's a picture on Jean Claude's wall that looks suspiciously like a young Bob and a young Jean Claude with their arms around each other's shoulders after a boxing match. Neither mentions it during the story itself.
• Weapons of Their Trade: The International use weaponized kitchen utensils, while The Farm uses farming implements. Jiro uses sushi knives, including one large enough to be used as a sword.
• Wicked Cultured: Say what you want about Bob, but he clearly has an appreciation for the foreign cuisine he specializes in. His first scene shows him preparing Blanquette de veau as a demonstration to his staff, practices proper sushi etiquette at Jiro's establishment (which has been established as Serious Business to Jiro) and bemoans to him that it's the kitschy establishments that keeps his businesses stable.
• Writer on Board: It's clear that both Bob and Rose are villains and that our true sympathies should lie with the independents that they trample between them. It's also clear that between the two, Bourdain considers Bob to be the Lighter Shade of Black.
  • The story also positively drips with contempt for the immensely fat "average Americans". Stout Strength can be respected, and a bit of a belly is just a sign of a chef who enjoys his own food, but those who gorge on quantity to the point of obesity instead of enjoying quality get no respect from Bourdain.

---