Crazy Food Truck Volume Two starts to slowly develop the story surrounding Arisa, as well as provides a brief bit of development for Gordon.

Crazy Food Truck Volume Two
Written by: Rokurou Ogaki
Publisher: Shinchosa Publishing Co.
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: September 20, 2022

The beginning of Volume Two resolves the conflict that started at the end of Volume One. However, both this event, as well as some other things that happen to Arisa early on in this volume make sure to emphasize to the reader that Arisa is not a “normal” girl.

From a conversation Major Kyle has with one of his superiors, we learn that Arisa is a “doll” who is acting unusual because she’s protecting another person. After this conversation, the superior assigns a “doll” to work with Kyle: Arisa’s eight-year-old sister, Myna. In a later conversation, it’s mentioned that Arisa and Myna both come from a lab, and that’s where Arisa escaped from. The only other thing we learn about the “dolls” is the fact that they receive comprehensive compressed learning at the lab from a young age. Outside of that, the reader doesn’t get any more information about the “dolls” or why they were created. We also get a couple of important scenes of Kyle and his assistant, Sergeant Tanaka, interacting with Myna and seeing how capable this “doll” is for an eight-year-old. Personality-wise, Myna and Arisa are as different as night and day.

After setting up Myna, a lot of the volume focuses on Gordon and Arisa finding new ingredients for new food to make. For one of the stories, Arisa finds snails at a small oasis, and it turns out some of the snails contain something valuable. Previous to Arisa finding these snails, we get a scene of a professor finding one of these important snails and killing the men and woman who accompanied him. His research is all about finding as many of these valuable snails as possible so he can sell what’s inside them and become rich and not share credit for the discovery with anyone. Gordon and Arisa have a run-in with this professor after Gordon cooks up the snails. Of course, since Gordon is the protagonist, he has the upper hand during the confrontation at the end of this story.

In another story, Gordon and Arisa try to shoot a camelpig for its meat, but Arisa’s grumbling stomach lets it know they’re nearby. Gordon falls ill shortly after, and he has a flashback while he’s asleep of when he was still in the military. When he wakes up, he finds Arisa trying to get the pig. While they ultimately kill it and get the meat, it’s done in a comedic fashion. This chapter also marks the first time that Arisa cooks something herself, and Gordon teaches her how to season with salt and pepper.

The final two chapters finally continue the storyline for Kyle, Tanaka, and Myna as they try to find Arisa. Arisa wants sushi, and the only place Gordon knows of that might have the fish they’re looking for is in the Principality of Towata, an area that’s independent and has no qualms about using weapons and violence to keep others out. The military is trying to get the principality to cooperate with them, but after soldiers there recognize Arisa when she and Gordon are stopped at the gate, they capture Arisa. The prince of the principality knows the military is desperately wanting to get Arisa back, so the plan is to use her in order to get the military to leave them, as well as what the principality is hiding, alone.

After Arisa is kidnapped, Gordon encounters Dylan, someone Gordon served with during his time with the military. After they have a reunion, Kyle takes his group to see Dylan… and discovers Gordon is with him. It looks like the stage is being set for Kyle and his group to have to team up with Gordon in order to rescue Arisa.

After being disappointed in the first volume of Crazy Food Truck, I have to admit that I went into this volume with lowered expectations. However, I have to say that Volume Two ended up surpassing the lowered expectations I had for it. While this isn’t one of my favorite manga series that I’ve sampled, it did get a little better. Introducing Myna and starting to build the overarching story of the military trying to get Arisa back shows that there’s more to this series than a gluttonous young woman traveling with a former military man who now has a food truck. And this volume explains why Arisa (as well as Myna) have such large appetites. Although, I have to say that by the end of Volume Two, Myna is a more interesting character to me than Arisa is.

Unfortunately, Arisa is still being used for “fanservice,” which includes panels of her being topless. After a comment was made in Volume One about Arisa being 17, nothing was said at all in Volume Two about her age. Therefore, nothing has been said or shown that Arisa is older than 17. Because of that, I do have problems with these “fanservice” panels of Arisa, because these panels are sexualizing a minor. If something is said in a later volume to clarify that her age was mis-stated, then I wouldn’t have such an issue about this.

If you enjoyed Crazy Food Truck Volume One, then I feel confident that you will also enjoy Volume Two. If you’ve read the first volume and, like me, weren’t terribly impressed with the series, you might appreciate the story a little bit more if you give Volume Two a chance. While this volume is better than the first one, this is a series I’d rather read through digital review copies rather than trying to chase down on my own through the library. Hopefully, I can read the next volume at some point and see if the quality of the series continues to improve.

The reviewer was provided a review copy by VIZ Media

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