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「旬を巡る戦い」 (Shun no Meguru Tataki)
“Battle of Seasonality”
It’s rare to see an episode dedicated solely on the cooking part of Shokugeki no Souma rather than the competition. I was expecting a break before the big finale, but this episode showed a lot of Souma’s weaknesses compared to his opponents in this final battle. In the past, we’ve always seen Souma pull through but this time we actually see his lose to Ryou when preparing senma sashimi. I guess it’s a huge eye-opener for him because he never doubted his ability until this point where he finds out that there’s so much about fish he doesn’t know. He probably knows more than the average Joe *coughlikemyself*cough but certainly not more than Akira and Ryou – one that has a keen sense of smell and the other has lived with seafood his whole life. You can really see him struggle to keep up with the two when he realizes that he cannot compete with the amount of knowledge they have regarding Pacific Saury. But! On the flip side, Souma takes another approach to choosing the best fish and instead, focuses on aging fish to bring out the unami flavor and also relying on his friends to help him prepare. With Megumi by his side, it just tugs all the right ship-strings.
There are many ways to flavor a fish like senma since it’s probably very absorbent of any type of seasoning put on top. That’s probably why there are such strong unami flavors that come from aging it with rice malt and smoke. As a foodie, I’m interested to see how Akira and Ryou prepare their dishes since we already know that Souma will probably prepare an aged fish dish based on his preparation. When he hugged Fumio, I thought that he might’ve gotten the idea of prepping his fish by pickling. You notice all the vegetables that Fumio had laid out? They didn’t seem very distinct, but I swear, you can probably pickle fish somehow someway… and I figured that Souma might go for the traditional grill and lemon/lime method of seasoning (maybe with a twist or two). We’ll have to see how he actually prepares his fish next week. As for Akira and Ryou, they’re much more like the wildcards because I have no idea what direction they’re going to take with senma. I didn’t even know you could eat them raw! I’ve only ever had saba, so senma sashimi would be entirely different. You’d have to fillet it very well I’m assuming since it has a lot of tiny bones in it. Besides those two methods though, I haven’t heard of many recipes featuring this seasonal fish – perhaps a soup/stew dish? Or deep-fried like smelt? Or maybe even steamed and served whole? I’m not the most creative when it comes to innovative dishes unfortunately.
Most importantly next week is who is going to win?! That’s the question that I’ve been wondering since the inception of this season! It was clear from the OP who would be competing at the end, but who is going to win? I’ve always doubted that it’s Souma – even though he’s the MC, he’s not going to be the best of the class right off the bat when he still has a lot of growing to do. Akira probably has the best chances of winning; he’s even the favorite to join the Elite Ten… although he’s a bit too perfect in my mind. I’d like to see Ryou win since he’s such a secondary character and has been taking a back seat all this time (until now). We’ve always seen Alice as the stronger competitor (also a favorite to join the Elite Ten) and to see Ryou emerge as someone “better” than Alice is different. He’s a bit crazy though so I’m a bit hesitant to say that he’s an outstanding model for a winner of Autumn Elections. Amongst the judges next week will be Gin, the headmaster of the school and surprise! Alice’s mother, Nakiri Leonora (Ohara Sayaka). That was unexpected if you ask me because I never even imagined where Alice got her skills from – but it turns out that it’s her mother. Her Japanese is hilarious though as you could’ve guessed, it’s not supposed to be her first language. It’s amusing to hear Japanese seiyuu fake a “bad” accent; that’s like asking me to fake an accent when I don’t naturally have one – it’s hard!
Bottom Line – @RCCherrie: A whole episode about the theory of good fish and cooking is rare in #shokugeki_anime but I actually learn so much from this anime. Sashimi senma?! Never had that before… but I love saba/mackeral so I’d love to try this =3
End Card
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Leonora’s accent though ahah.
Gaijin accent is one of my favourite cheap comedy bits and this is one the best scenes to use it.
https://randomc.net/image/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma%20Ni%20no%20Sara%20-%2008%20-%2009.jpg
Wait, you can eat raw fish?! What kind of preparation should I do before I can eat raw fish?
Dress it up all pretty?
http://img1.10bestmedia.com/Images/Photos/330005/Sushi-Hana-from-web-site_54_990x660.jpg
Look for sashimi recipes. Google it.
I don’t care who wins. When is Megumi x Soma?
Too bad, but I don’t think is happening soon.
Show Spoiler ▼
Aw, that’s cute. It’s a shame the anime skipped over that chapter in like 15 seconds. That first episode really was too fast.
In a way, this is the moment in Food Wars I been waiting to see more than anything else: Souma actually having to LEARN something new in a face-off! Finally! He no longer comes on as this perfect naturally-gifted ace I can’t ever relate to! He has to be a f***** human being for once and ask his friends for help! Yeeees hahahahahahaa FEEL Failure, Young One! Bask in its routineness! Wonderful! But it’s kind of hampered by this season’s usual nauseatingly quick pacing. Everyone, DO NOT watch this with a headache! You’ll be begging the staff to just animate a character’s movement for once instead of getting in bed with Camera Pans!
… how long were Souma and Ryo at the market?? They were allowed to prepare an entire dish in the middle of the path where people are supposed to walk?? I’d reject their plea in a second if I were in charge of that booth!
Also, what’s this about having Ryōko’s kickass body in lingerie and only showing it for 2 seconds!?
“Dedicated solely on the cooking part”
https://randomc.net/image/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma%20Ni%20no%20Sara%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2024.jpg
Something’s cooking all right
Alice’s mom looks like a literal snow queen lol.
Soma trolling just as hilarious as in the manga.
Akira is such a dick I honestly wish Erina would get upset because she’s being out-smugged and just beat him to hell in a shokugeki.
This whole season has felt like it should had been added onto the end of the first. It hasn’t really felt much like a second season at all, it’s been more of the same of the first. Also, I’d be disappointed if we don’t get more after the finale.
13 episodes just isn’t enough.
If you’ve read the manga, I think the next arc or the Stagiere arc is one of the better ones in this series so I hope we get it mashed in. They definitely don’t have enough time to cover the entire arc, but if they focus on Souma only, I think they might just make it
Doing the math and assuming they keep to this break neck speed and cut out all except the Souma part of the Stagiere arc,we might just make it to the end of that…. *well one can hope hehe*
Nakiri actually has ties with the Einzberns.