Komatsu

Komatsu is the Head Chef working for the now ten-star restaurant in Hotel Gourmet, a hotel owned by the prestigious IGO and is the secondary protagonist of Toriko series. He is Toriko's ever enthusiastic yet timid chef partner, who despite his weakness is greatly interested by what he finds in his travels with Toriko. As a result, he tries to overcome his fear and does his best to help. At the beginning of the series he was only a five-star chef of little to no recognition but upon making many gourmet achievements he rose to the rank of six-star and has made it into the prestigious IGO Chef Ranking at number 88, thus being recognized as one of the best chefs in the world.

In the AWA fics, he is part of the AWA and works as the Head Chef of the school's cafeteria.

Appearance
Komatsu is a short, thin, and light-skinned young man with short black hair, large black eyes, and a rather wide nose with large nostrils. He generally wears khaki shirts and pants while traveling along with Toriko, though his clothing may vary given the conditions of the surroundings, like wearing a rider suit to Ice Hell and Vegetable Sky, and wearing a full body bullet proof suit in Death Falls. He also wears underwear that has a print on the front (either a knife or cooked meat). When at work, Komatsu wears a white chef uniform with a large toque and an apron.

During the Meteor Garlic Arc, he briefly became very muscular for a short period of time after eating the Meteor Garlic.

After having been kidnapped by the Gourmet Corp., Komatsu's nose was drastically changed, becoming smaller, thinner and more pointed. He also became slightly taller, but not by much. He also briefly grew his hair out during his stay in Gourmet World, but was cut back to its normal length by Toriko.

Personality
Komatsu is a very friendly young man who cares deeply about his friends and his cooking, and always does his best to stay cheerful despite his natural cowardly disposition and highly emotional personality in most situations, because of this he often comes off as childish and innocent and some may even mistake him for a young child when these traits are combined with his small stature, but he always does his best to be brave and strong despite his nature. He also tends to break out in tears very easily even over simple matters or when happy, a clear sign of how emotional he can be. Because he is otherwise normal, he'll write a will whenever he comes along on one of Toriko's hunts. As time went by, he became braver with each new adventure, to the point where he was willing to fight Starjun even though the Sous Chef fought against and defeated Toriko.

He is shown to be a very calm and humble person who always tries maintain his composure when not in dangerous situations, but he is frequently surprised or shocked by Toriko's behavior, such as when Toriko always eats all of the food during a meal (a recurring gag in the series) and usually reacts in a rather comical fashion when he is shocked. He is influenced and inspired by Toriko and he is shown to have a goal of becoming the best cook, which is his motivation for going on adventures with Toriko. Despite appearing scared at times, he is actually very brave, brave enough to face life threatening beasts and will stand up for himself even in the face of death, such as demanding that Starjun give him his knife back and blatantly claiming that he believes Zebrashouldn't be pardoned so easily after bringing several species to extinction (albeit, before knowing they were all dangerous ecosystem destroying creatures) while knowing full well that Zebra could hear him.

It is shown that he is a highly skilled and competent chef, capable on carrying out delicate procedures such as the removal of a Puffer Whale's poison sack. He is also able to create delicious plates from any food given to him, and he has such a large knowledge of foods that he knows which foods would work well together. He is also very observant, being easily able to discover edible organisms in the area. He has also demonstrated the unique ability of making specially cooked ingredients easy to eat and make, showing his excellent talent in hearing the "voice of ingredients".

He has managed to impress all of the "Four Heavenly Kings" and all four have protected him and looked out for his well being. Toriko noted he has skills even higher than five-star chefs, Coco was surprised and stated that Komatsu's skill is most likely world class, Sunny seems to be in love with the way Komatsu works as a chef since it produces the "harmony" in food that Sunny holds in such high regard and even once tried to make him his combo partner, and Zebra is impressed with Komatsu's willingness to tell the truth despite being so afraid of him (as well as the food he cooks). Due to his overall open personality and honesty, Komatsu is one of the few people who is able to get along amicably with all Four of the Heavenly Kings, despite their differing opinions and ideals. In fact, three of the four have already shown interest in forming a combo with him, (Toriko, Zebra and Sunny). Toriko also stated that there is a possibility of the Heavenly Kings going on adventures together, but only if Komatsu is there with them. He also has managed to impress several people who have famous/infamous or legendary status with his skills as a chef and many have even acknowledged his great skill, such as Setsuno the Gourmet Living National Treasure, Ichiryu the President of IGO, Melk the First (not yet in person but through his knife) and Melk the Second, Smile the top class gourmet architect, even Starjun, one of the vice head chefs of the Gourmet Corp., Livebearer, the former boss of the Underground Cooking World and even some of the top 10 chefs in the world who have outright called him a genius.

As well as his skills as a chef and his courage in the face of danger, another strong factor of Komatsu's personality is his genuine kindness and consideration, he willingly came into close contact with Coco despite knowing of his poisonous body to alleviate Coco's sense of isolation, and showed to a self-conscious Melk the Second through his culinary skills and her knives that she was living up to her father's name as the world's best sharpener.

He is also currently the only chef to successfully recreate the Century Soup. He keeps a baby Wall Penguin which he has named Yun as a pet that contains the key ingredient for the soup in its saliva and he deeply cares for the little one like family.

In some ways, Komatsu is quite similar to Froese, with both always welcoming everybody to eat together.

Abilities
Komatsu, at first glance, is a normal person. Indeed, he has no super-human abilities, of strength or any other sense that most Bishokuya and quite a few top ranking Chefs have, and is quite meek, attempting to hide or run away in the face of danger. Before meeting Toriko, Komatsu was thought to be a decent Chef, working at the five-star Hotel Gourmet as the Head Chef. However after meeting and adventuring with Toriko and experiencing the Ingredients in their natural environment, his true abilities blossomed, eventually turning his 5-star Hotel into a 6-star, and then gaining 88th place out of 100 in the IGO Chef Rankings.

His skill as a Chef is acknowledged by each of the Four Heavenly Kings, and though he has formed a Bishokuya-Chef Combo with Toriko, two other Heavenly Kings (Zebra and Sunny) also wish to form a Combo with him. Furthermore, many legendary people like his peers among the world's top 100 Chefs, artisans (Melk 1st and 2nd), and Bishokuya (Jiro, Chin Chinchin, and Ichiryu) have recognized his skill.

Indeed, Livebearer states that Komatsu's genius far surpasses those of the Heavenly Kings, while the Kings themselves believe his skills are greater than those of Brunch, the world's 3rd best chef. Even the Gourmet Corp. boss, Midora, a massive gourmand who regularly feeds on top-class Gourmet WorldIngredients, willingly admits Komatsu's food is delicious, after eating a banquet made by Komatsu using low-class Ingredients. In fact, Midora actually laughs aloud after consuming the feast, something even the original Century Soup is incapable of causing.

Setsuno, Toriko, and several others attribute this not to skill or experience but to his strong ability to hear the Voice of Ingredients, an innate ability to love and be loved by the Ingredients in turn. As such, his skills have risen to the level that in his very first Cooking Festival, he managed to make it to round 4, a feat considered to be exceptional for any first time participant.

Even Condor Window, one of the Five 10-Shell Cooks of Blue Grill, admits that he honestly take the hat off to the incredible way Komatsu prepares AIR to achieve 120% flavor.

Trivia

 * Komatsu is the first Toriko character to be introduced in the AWA fics.
 * In the AWA, Komatsu has taken Mine and Satsuki Yotsuba as his students.
 * In the anime, Komatsu is depicted and voiced as a prepubescent boy; whether it is a medical condition, or this inhibited puberty is a feature of his genealogical line, is not disclosed.
 * Komatsu scored 1 in Power, 1 in Speed, 5 in Intelligence, 5 in Appetite and 4 in Special Abilities on his Capture Ability Data of Volume 4, by the events of Regal Mammoth Arc.
 * "Matsu" is kanji for Pinaceae, it is one of "Three friends within winter" of chinese culture along with "Take" - Bamboo and "Ume" - Plum blossom, which represent strong characters and life force even in tough situations. They are also one of the ranks of japanese cuisine. This might be a reference to his friendship with Otake and Nakaume in the story as they survived many lethal situations as chefs.