First Impressions / Shokugeki no Souma

「極星の聖母」 (Kyokusei no Maria)
“Maria of the Polar Star”

So we’re finally introduced to the rest of the cast and this rounds out the remainder of Souma’s table-talk crew. The introductions came really quickly and I’ll admit that I only remember one or two of their names (without looking it up). Luckily they all have very distinctive personalities that will make it easier to differentiate the secondary characters. I find that for the most part, they all specialize in a type of cooking style or use of ingredients. This is unlike Souma that seems to be very well-rounded and resourceful in his cooking in general. I’m not going to bother listing out all the names and seiyuus this episode, but perhaps they’ll each receive an episode dedicated to them and their “issues” or background stories later on. Hopefully then they won’t feel like stereotypical archetypes in shounen series. Right now I can’t say much about any of them. They all seem nice and accepting of Souma which is a huge contrast to last week’s episode (where everyone seemed to hate him in class). They might all be highly qualified students though which makes them feel less threatened by Souma’s abilities.

All except Megumi… who seems to still lag behind the other students. Although the others didn’t indicate how long it took them to be accepted into the Polar Star dorms, three months seems to be an extremely long time! Where was Megumi even living in that time? Outside?! I know that I shouldn’t compare the world of anime to real life, but if I had to audition to get into a school… then find out that I actually failed a lot in class, plus I didn’t have a dorm to live in..?? That would just plummet my confidence in my abilities. Not only that, but I’d just give up and do something else with my life. In this school, if you can’t be the top 10% of the class, what good does it do for you if you can’t graduate? Unless you’re really just here to learn; but that’s a lot of hardship to go through. I’m saying all this because Megumi has this huge uphill climb ahead of her and normally I would expect someone of her personality to give up sooner. I’m glad she hasn’t, because she probably has a lot more to her than meets the eye, but it’ll still be interesting to see how she overcomes all these obstacles. Oh and by the way, if it wasn’t obvious before, I’m definitely on the Megumi ship now. I normally love the tsundere/MC pairings, but that’s only when the tsundere lacks something which the MC helps them develop or grow. In this case, Megumi is not the tsundere, but I can still imagine Souma being that figure that helps her build confidence in herself.

The last thing of importance that I noticed this week was this concept of the “Elite Ten”. The Elite Ten are composed of the top 10 students at the school and obviously Erina occupies one of those seats. It’s revealed that Isshiki Satoshi (Sakurai Takahiro) is also a member (on the seventh seat) and although he “seemed” friendly towards Souma, he also challenges him at the end. Fortunately I can’t imagine Satoshi being an antagonist for long because you see him sitting right beside Souma in the ED. I simply wonder how they become better friends and what Satoshi does with his position within the Elite Ten. Is this something that Souma strives for in the future? Will he end up on a seat within the Elite Ten? For now, I don’t think it’s something that he’s capable of, but we’ll see when the other members are introduced. Perhaps Souma has to prove why he’s better than each of them one by one… with Erina sitting at the top.

Bottom Line – @RCCherrie: I think this settles it, I’m on the Megumi ship! It can’t get any more obvious than being neighbors! So many new characters, I can barely remember their names, but at least they’re all distinctive ^^ #shokugeki_anime

Full-length images: 07, 09, 11.

 

Preview

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34 Comments

  5. I wonder what happened to Fumio in her younger days. Both of them were wet so…
    https://randomc.net/image/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2007.jpg
    https://randomc.net/image/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2008.jpg
    Than again, maybe it is best not to know anything seeing as Fumio is older now.
    https://randomc.net/image/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2010.jpg

    Megumi also looks good with her hair down.
    https://randomc.net/image/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2011.jpg

    ichigo
    Reply

  6. https://randomc.net/image/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2021.jpg
    Kayano Ai once again together with Matsuoka. They sure are together most of the time. I ship these two secretly.

    https://randomc.net/image/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2032.jpg
    Sakurai Takahiro plays a villain most of the time to Matsuoka(Buddy Complex, Absolute Duo) so it’s nice to see them as buddies. Or rivals as Souma just learned of his position.

    https://randomc.net/image/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2029.jpg
    Some service for the ladies to balance things out.

    belatkuro
    Reply

  7. Lol, if I’m correct, Isshiki is sitting where Judas was sitting at The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci.
    http://www.lisashea.com/hobbies/art/images/lastsuppernames.jpg
    http://i.imgur.com/FYVMl0P.png

    But man, fk all that foreshadowing. All I know is that FUMIO WAS HAWT!!! https://randomc.net/image/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2009.jpg
    GODDAMMIT WHERE IS MY TIME MACHINE?! EL PSY CONGROO!!! THIS IS THE WILL OF STEINS GATE!!!

    DaBanzaiFish
    Reply

    1. 24 eps to get all the way up to the Autum election? given the OP it seems like it should cover at least unto there. At the pace they are going though, I’m not sure if that’s enough, unless they will cut some of the lesser arcs

      Juan
      Reply

      1. Show Spoiler ▼

        Shadow
        Reply

  13. As much as I enjoy seeing Souma’s crazy brand of cooking, I must admit that I always preferred Isshiki as a cook (work attire notwithstanding) – he’s made the simplest and down-to-Earth dishes in the series and gotten equally good reactions as all the shocking or elaborate ones.

    Which relates to another point I wanted to make: Shokugeki might beat Koufuku Graffiti in many things, but I found the latter to be better at inspiring me to cook. I bet it’s the home-cooking and experience of eating with others against the whole elite school thing that does it.

    Erimaki
    Reply

    1. I definitely agree with your comparison between this and Koufuku Graffiti. They’re both very different types of shows though… Koufuku Graffiti is definitely more SoL and down-to-Earth while SnS is so so overexaggerated and meant to be fun. I don’t expect to ever recreate something from SnS because the dishes are meant to be complex and imaginative. Maybe some of Souma’s dishes aren’t too difficult, but everyone else has skills I’ll never possess o_o

      Cherrie
      Reply

  14. Tosh’s artwork mixed with the brand of comedy and over-the-top reactions from Shokugeki is brilliant. I’m in love with Ryoko’s anime design and the depiction of shoujo Fumio who later ‘turns back’ into the elderly one was great hilarity.

    Megumi, of course, continues to win the hearts of many viewers. I find it challenging to leave the SomaErina ship even, and it’s not just the development both of them have (and will have in the future, for non-manga viewers), but also her character. It is indeed the characters who struggle and fail but succeed in the end through encouragement and diligence that endears themselves the most to the majority of the viewers. Her hilarious reactions help very much too, of course. :p

    Looking ahead, I’m pleased with how they reduced the invincible aura of Soma in one fell swoop. Erina, who obviously is much more knowledgeable than him and capable in her own right, is ONLY the lowest ranking of the Elite Ten, the ones Soma had boasted indirectly he would face to be the top. Isshiki (God bless his hadaka apron and tight gluts XD) drew an immediate reaction out of him with his simple dish, and he’s only 7th seat.

    What this means is that Soma really has a long way to go, and that in itself is an exciting concept because it means there’s that much more room for him to develop as a character, an important part of being an interesting protagonist.

    Lastly, I love all the Polar Star Dorm characters for their quirks. Isshiki is really quite funny and I couldn’t get over how every single one of them got drunk on ‘Rice juice’. This show is just so much fun!

    Owaranai
    Reply

  20. Awww! Don’t lose faith in the Erina-Soma Ship!!!! I still feel they are the best ship haha, (Well maybe some of us have given up… Since their relationship has still practically undeveloped even in the manga now…) Come on authors throw me a bone here!!! It’s hard to be a shipper now-a-days hahah. Don’t give me a boat but no wheel to steer it with!!!!

    Kevin
    Reply

  21. The only non-anime cooking show that I liked is the Iron Chef.
    This anime translation is “The Spirit of the Food Halberd” according to the internet.
    Is another show was translated as Cooking Master Boy. and if Halberd is a weapon. and from the iron chef show I remember game of thrones in which iron is mentioned many times. Weapons are made from iron as well. and since souma equals spirit; another translation could have been: Cooking Souma. or: Cooking Spirit. or: Cooking Iron Spirit. yeah I like this one better. and then they can make a movie or ova called: “Cooking Iron Spirit! the north remembers”.

    tendo
    Reply

  22. I am so hooked on this Manga/anime. I watched the first few two episodes and decided to to go read the manga chapters it covered to see if there were any major differences. Well now I’m about 10 chapters away from being caught up with latest chapters. I just couldn’t stop reading it and now I have spoiled the anime for myself. This manga/anime is so engaging, from the characters, the comedy, the progression, the battles and Last but not least the foodgasms. I’ve known about this manga for a while but the plot never interested me. Now this has become one of my favorite anime/manga.

    CoJo
    Reply

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