First Impressions / Shokugeki no Souma

「氷の女王と春の嵐」 (Kouri no Joou to Haru no Arashi)
“The Ice Queen and the Spring Storm”

This episode of Shokugeki no Souma wasn’t the most exciting one, but I thought it was very informative and gave us more context to school challenges and tournaments. I now know why it’s called Food Wars! in English! It’s because that’s literally what the students are doing. They’re using their food as a means to compete for… whatever it is that they want from the other individual. The concept is definitely interesting and unique to the school, but it makes me wonder how much “learning” there’s going to be; as opposed to people just challenging one another. The week didn’t give away too much about the actual cooking taking place (and didn’t show us Erina in action either) but we get the general idea. Both people have to put up something of equal value on the line; the competition has to meet certain criteria; and then you’re on your way. It doesn’t seem too difficult if the stakes aren’t too high… but I doubt Souma will be betting low whenever his turn comes up. Everyone at the school seems to be making deadly wagers so I’d like to see if Souma even has anything of value to put on the line. Expulsion seems almost too straightforward.

One of the aspects of this show that really make it sound out is definitely the imagery and hyperboles experienced by the characters. When I first started blogging, I thought “Wow… that was different.”, but as the weeks went on I can’t say that I’ve been terribly shocked by what Shokugeki no Souma has to offer. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the scenes have gotten pretty tame, or perhaps I’m just growing immune to its awkwardness. It’s not until I see Megumi’s expressions that seeing a naked man’s butt in your face is supposed to be atypical. I mean, did your friends never just take their clothes off in front of you? I guess that’s just me then… >_> Anyway, the only scenes that make me laugh these days are Erina’s exaggerated scenarios of what she eats. I’m sure it’s never that bad, but with her taste buds, I’m probably wrong. I don’t really see the appeal to her unflawed character just yet, but I’m willing to be more open-minded if I actually saw what she’s lacking in development. If she’s truly who Souma is meant for, she needs to do a better job convincing me that they’re good partners and not just rivals at school.

I haven’t talked about the food prepared in each episode recently and I thought this as a good chance to do so with all the different dishes that we saw. I mentioned last week that Souma doesn’t seem to have a “forte” or “special method” of cooking that makes him stand out. Instead, he’s just very resourceful and knowledgeable across all cooking methods (a jack-of-all-trades). This is likely because he’s actually run a restaurant with his father and learned a lot from him as a result. He might not know the technical terms that you learn out of a textbook, but he knows how to actually cook from instinct and that’s not a skill you can teach. We’ll have to wait and see how well Souma actually measures up to Satoshi because Shun seems to think that Satoshi is still superior. As for dishes that Erina and Sumo-boy (whom I don’t recall his name) prepared… one thing that I find unfair is how they both get to just create something – anything. They don’t need to cook the same ingredients which I find unfair because you’re comparing apples to oranges. What if the judges just like shrimp more than lobster? Or if you prefer pasta to soup? Cooking can be very subjective when you’re leaving it up to the students without a theme or star ingredient. I guess you can also say that Erina’s ravioli was just that much better! But who am I to say when I can’t try it either. I would really love a smell-a-vision for situations like these.

Bottom Line – @RCCherrie: Overall, #shokugeki_anime wasn’t too packed this week. It has toned down a lot since ep 1 but that’s not a bad thing. So #FoodWars seems to be an appropriate title for #Shokugeki_anime now… But needs more battles in the future eps =9

Full-length images: 20, 35.

 

Preview

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30 Comments

  1. @cherrie :

    I read the manga of this and it’s a bit further down the line than the anime. I can answer a couple of your thoughts

    1) There will be a lot of “learning” here. The manga does a good job of mixing in the Shokugekis and the actual classes/trainings

    2) With regard to Erina, even the manga hasn’t reached her dere portion but it’s kinda obvious with the interactions the two have that it will eventually reach that point. Actually the anime in this part includes Soma remembering their past interactions that doesn’t acutally happen in the manga

    3) I’ll spoiler this because it is kinda a spoiler Regarding Soma
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Juan
    Reply

    2. With Erina, I’m kinda fearful what will happen. There’s a certain reveal coming up (eventually) that I think they’ll use to hit her “dere” switch, but I hope they’ve thought it through cause I feel like it’ll just make her “feelings” feel cheap instead.

      I’ve never considered her a “main” heroine (leave that to Megumi and Ikumi), and this was the point where I stopped thinking of her as even a final-boss. Bashing the club president for going by tradition and saying results are all that matter? When she hates Soma for not having pedigree or “proper” middle-school experience and being a great chef? Hello hypocritical mid-boss logic.

      Aex
      Reply

    2. I’m guessing Hometown Kaarage Fight (just before Autumn Election). Seems like a good stopping point, and since some chapters are literally just dish descriptions I think the anime can make up some time there.

      Aex
      Reply

  3. https://randomc.net/image/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2009.jpg
    Scenes like these are the best reasons to watch this show.

    https://randomc.net/image/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2019.jpg
    This fight may have been trying to up Erina’s cooking cred and explain the Shokugeki system. However, Erina pubstomping some no-name side character only seems to detract from her heroine status. Also, Worf effect is not effective here.

    https://randomc.net/image/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2035.jpg
    Time for some MEAT (Nikumi)!

    Ptolemaios00
    Reply

  5. Erina certainly has an… overactive envisioning when it comes to her God Tongue evaluating food. I’m waiting for the day she tries one of Soma’s “failure” squid recipes. Her brain might explode with the force of 50 galloping zebras. With rhinoceros riders.

    mongoose22
    Reply

  6. As for Erina’s shokugeki, I wonder if the anime got it wrong. I could’ve sworn in the manga she made ravioli aragosta, so the ingredient of choice for both dishes would’ve been lobster.

    mongoose22
    Reply

    1. Given that they were more than happy to go to the places they went on ep 1’s Peanut Squid react, I get the impression that that patch is staying firmly afixed to his crotch come home video.

      ConanThe3rd
      Reply

  10. Cherrie: Not sure if “unflawed” is the term I’d use on Erina. I’m a big fan of her (in my opinion, the Souma/Erina scenes are the undisputed highlights of the show), but hell yea is she flawed. Arrogant, cruel, vindictive, dishonest – and still, seeing Souma mess with her is simply wonderful. In fact, it is _because_ she displays these vices that having Souma troll her feels so GOOD.

    For the future, I think it’s better to see her as Souma’s punching ball than romantic match. Maybe eventually, after a few hundred more chapters. Not now 🙂

    Mentar
    Reply

    1. I wouldn’t call Erina dishonest per se. She’s usually very straightforward in her dislike/like of something, the one exception being when it involves Souma. In which case, that’s more of her Tsun side, which may be a charm point, depending on who you speak to.

      It’s a shame we don’t get to see Erina do much tasting overall, because I like the anime taking the opportunity to show her non-foodgasms. It’s nice to see that apparently every dish gets a reaction, not just the good ones.

      Blue
      Reply

      1. Don’t get me wrong, I _like_ Erina, she’s a great addition to the show, with Souma being her perfect foil.

        Still – when it comes to anything related to Souma, you’ll hardly be able to contest that she is dishonest. And yes, the fact that she usually doesn’t need to be dishonest comes across as amusing tsun to me, too.

        Mentar
        Reply

  16. It is assumed that these judges are high quality enough to judge impartially.
    And some of the Shokugekis do have themes. For example, one with beef is coming up soon. There’s been one in the manga that has to feature a very specific ingredient. There’s been one based on cooking for a buffet as well

    nyanlol
    Reply

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