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「夜明け前の卵たち」 (Yoake Mae no Tamago-tachi)
“The Eggs Before Dawn”
Eggs again? Not that I mind (because I personally love eggs) but it’s ironic that Souma would be forced to use egg as the main ingredient again. Not to mention that Erina is literally everywhere this episode and even cooking beside him on the morning of. There’s no doubt in my mind that Souma would blow this challenge away; he’s creative and most of all, resourceful of what he has around him. Maybe I haven’t been to enough “fine-dining” hotels for brunch and breakfast, but I normally find that their eggs are just scrambled… or even worse, made out of powder (ever been on a cruise?). I often see omelet stations as well, but clearly no one is doing custom orders for this task. The first samples that Souma made looked delicious, but to elevate scrambled eggs can be a tough task. His vision of doing a soufflé omelet looked amazing and definitely much more unique than something like a frittata on a salad (sorry Takumi). That’s why it shocks me to see that he’s doing literally nothing at the end while Erina is done serving her 200 guests. How can that be?! What’s going on inside his head? Maybe he hit a roadblock – like how writers hit writers block – and suddenly he can’t find the inspiration to go on. I doubt it’s because Erina intimidates him; after all, Souma has so much self-confidence that it’s blinding. It’s probably some internal struggle that he’s having with his dish…
Souma’s poor performance was probably the cliffhanger and pivotal point in the episode, but a lot of other stuff happened too. Every other episode seems to introduce someone new for Souma to beat and challenge… and this week was actually Erina’s cousin – Nakiri Alice (Akasaki Chinatsu). This isn’t explicitly stated in the anime yet but I figured that people would’ve guessed by her surname and appearance by now. She does look intimidating (I think it’s the red eyes!) but not anymore than Kurokiba Ryou (Okamoto Nobuhiko) whose only job is to stand beside her and look tough? He’s probably less scary than he looks but still a worthy competitor when it comes to being a top student (then again, everyone is). I’ll admit that Alice’s egg dish doesn’t look the most appetizing, but who knows what happens next episode when we see crowds swarming her station. Maybe she has a lot of charm or personality to allure people to her? Or perhaps she steals someone else’s idea? No clue – but I’m not a particularly big fan of her right now. All she seems to do is walk around and talk smack.
Everyone else is doing fairly well at this challenge though. Megumi seems to have found her voice and is relying less on Souma by creating something more home-y and rustic. I love oden and her use of quail eggs rather than chicken eggs is ingenious! Takumi made a frittata… which I find less creative just because I make frittata as a way to “use up all the leftovers in my fridge”. I find it to be a cop out solution. Eggs benedict is another mainstream and typical breakfast item to me. Perhaps it’s because I live in America, but eggs benedict is such a common brunch/breakfast item here that I can’t imagine how it can be any better. It is what it is; even if you put salmon roe in it. Honestly, I can sit here and criticize the dishes that these students put out, but I would personally not do any better. When I think eggs, I think of baking – I can make soufflés for sure, or pate a choux or some sort of egg custard for dessert but that’s where my brain stops. I should give more credit to the mangaka, Tsukuda Yuuto (or Morisaki Yuki who provides the recipes to Yuuto) for even thinking outside the boundaries of typical cooking. Especially when you’re featuring dishes that aren’t just Japanese inspired, but French, Western and European. It amazes me that even though I love eating and I eat a lot of varieties of food, there’s still so much I have yet to see or try. Shokugeki no Souma is definitely an eye-opener.
P.S. I loved seeing the shots of Satoshi and Fumio randomly enjoying their alone time together. It’s like they’re saying ”Don’t forget about us!”
Preview
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End Card
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“Marry my Grandson!!” 🙂
It was so awesome to see this part animated!
https://randomc.net/image/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma%20-%2013%20-%20Large%2003.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma%20-%2013%20-%20Large%2002.jpg
“You are already fed.”
HIDEBU!
I remember the shock when I got to know who this girl is. That’s why I feel sad for the readers who didn’t read the manga for being spoilt like that. Please at least reconsider editing it while the post is still fresh.
Agreed. Cherrie, please do not spoil us. Or even indicate that you’ve been spoiled. It really makes reading your review posts very distasteful
Her bio is also on the official website: http://shokugekinosoma.com/character/alice.html
As such, I treat this as public knowledge since it’s not considered a spoiler by the creators.
Thanks Krono for mentioning it below too.
Reading Random Curiosity is fun because readers can trust the site. They can trust the bloggers that they won’t get spoiled just by reading the posts. It’s a great asset that serves as an advantage of Random Curiosity against other blogs and reviews from sites like MAL, with which there’s always a risk.
This way even if you don’t consider the spoiler a big thing, it’s still a problem, because it shakes the base of that trust.
Was that really an important thing to mention who that character is? There was no comment on how the fact that she’s who she is changes how we look at her actions, so it didn’t really serve any point in this post and could just wait for the time when the character is introduced officially in the story.
Please, at least if you run on such a situation again in Akagami no Shirayukihime (I’m very happy that you picked it up), consider thinking of it twice.
There’s also the fact that in Japan Shokugeki is a well-known manga, published in a widely popular magazine. Viewers more often than not know the original material for Shounen Jump stories, so they’re familiar with the characters.
That thing is pretty different for western audience. There’s a great amount of people who watch anime but aren’t into reading any manga at all. And even if they are, shokugeki doesn’t have the advantage of being published in Shounen Jump for them, because they read scanlations anyways.
Her name is in the credits, and on the official website. It’s very difficult to call it a spoiler at that point, as anyone that reads the credits, or checks out the official website, or follows any news announcements on the series, already knows.
But the website is optional media to view, so any viewer who hasn’t gone to the official site would still be in the dark. Also, unless there’s a picture of the character in the credits (in Japanese, which I’d guess many readers of RC can’t read), having the name doesn’t spoil things because at this point in time the character hasn’t been named to put a face to the name, so they wouldn’t have for sure known who Alice was, just that there was an Alice. It’s still awkward to spoil something yourself because you’ve made assumptions that the viewer has already been spoiled somewhere else because they follow the show in a media other than, say, watching and reading the recaps on Random Curiosity.
@mongoose22
It would take a particularly stupid person to read “Nakiri Alice” in the credits, and not connect it with the only newly introduced female character with a substantial role this episode.
And yes the credits are in Japanese, but it’s also rather silly to declare something a spoiler because the translation is incomplete. Furthermore, if a character’s name isn’t given in the episode, it’s not unusual to check the credits to try and learn who they are, especially if you’re trying to write something about the episode.
This is just one of those things about an episode of anime. Once a character speaks in an episode, their name appears in the credits along side the name of their voice actor. Once that happens, it has to be assumed that people know the name. If the series truly intended for it to be secret, there are ways around that. However if they don’t try and get around it, it can be assumed that the character’s name being mentioned is of no great importance.
Given that this is a blog in English and credits are rarely translated, I don’t think it’s at all a silly consideration. But leaving that aside, the credits are, again, not part of the episode as a whole, and you shouldn’t expect viewers to watch them. I can’t be the only one that just fast forwards to the epilogue, no matter how catchy the ending song is, and I doubt every viewer is going to read the every name on the cast page before it’s wiped for the next page of credits. But now I’ve realized I’m an idiot and must translate every line in the credits to make sure I’m not missing an important plot point. 😛
Anyway, this isn’t an earth-shattering spoiler by any means, but in the future, I think it’s best to just assume for recaps that the viewer doesn’t know more than what’s given to them in the episode proper, even if the information is easily accessible if you can read the cast credits or look up the information online. I love coming to RC every week to read the Shokugeki recaps after watching the episode, so this is just a suggestion should this kind of situation come up in the future. Otherwise, keep up the recapping and food porn!
I can see your point and I’ll keep that in mind for future posts. I’d like to think RC can provide more than just recaps though, especially in situations where folks can’t read Japanese and they’d like to know more. In this case, it’s just unfortunate that the website itself has spoilers that I wasn’t aware of (since I don’t read the manga either).
Probably 90% of the time I watch the episode from start to finish with the OP and ED (even before I started blogging). You know never know what they might change or reveal… did you know that every ep of Shokugeki no Souma has a different scene in the ED? It’s just one shot but still, those minor differences show the effort that the animators put into the series. I don’t expect everyone to sit through the credits or OP/ED every week… but with a new character introduced and as someone who does have to blog about it after, I don’t see why it shocks people that I would naturally want to know more about her. Sharing what I think is readily available information by translating it doesn’t seem that harmful.
“If you’re trying to write something about…” – but the casual viewer doesn’t try to write a blog post. The fact the blogger read it doesn’t mean the rest of viewers does.
I don’t know if people notice, but one of the things RC strives to do is to provide information to the viewers that they can’t find elsewhere – info that isn’t considered a spoiler. It’s a value that we try to provide to make us different and unique.
That said, I’m sorry that people consider this a spoiler even though it’s stated on the official website who she is. People that can’t read Japanese may find it a surprise later on, but to the people that can read it, is that a spoiler? Would they blame the website for ruining it for them?
Since I haven’t read the manga myself, I went to the website to see what I could find out about Alice and there’s a good deal of info there that I thought could be shared with others. After all, all I’m doing is translating. How is a reader supposed to know if that’s a spoiler if it’s not stated on the site either?
I also went to read the manga afterwards… and although it is a cliffhanger when her identity is revealed, it’s really who she is and what she does that’s the interesting piece; not exactly her relationship status.
That spoiler about the new girl is unusual for a recap. There’s no spoiler tags you can use?
As for Souma, it’s not that he’s doing nothing, it’s that he’s got nothing to do, because he’s got no customers. One, because Erina is soaking them all up next door, and two, Show Spoiler ▼
Well… I don’t wanna spoil the reason why Souma’s dish didn’t attract many tasters. But it all make sense onced it is explained. Nakiri Alice and Erina already knew that he will fail when they saw the dish that he’s going to serve.Oh well… too bad somebody spilled it.
Anyways, Souma’s down the wire comeback will be a sight to behold.
https://randomc.net/image/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma%20-%2013%20-%20Large%2020.jpg
Love Alice! Her chibi animations are the cutest, especially the eyes.
This recap has so many guesses and predictions…. it’s refreshing to see an anime viewer POV.
After what Souma said, I like to call her Snow White(and no, I don’t care that her name is Alice!). She’s certainly…adorable in a intimidating way =03.
Hmm. It’s episode 13. No sign of the world [END] in the blog title. And what’s this?? No sign of any story closure? ……. how long IS this anime?
It’s a 2 cour anime so it will continue ingo the summer season. Just to let you guys know. And i think the spoiler in this post is going to be problematic for those who didn’t read the manga. You should hide it .
Alice seems interesting.
https://randomc.net/image/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma%20-%2013%20-%20Large%2017.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma%20-%2013%20-%20Large%2018.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma%20-%2013%20-%20Large%2029.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma%20-%2013%20-%20Large%2030.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma/Shokugeki%20no%20Souma%20-%2013%20-%20Large%2033.jpg
I must go, my stomach needs me!
yeah, with this Pictures, i also became hungry or want to try this out myself.. But i have two left hands for cooking
I’ve never even heard of it before, but this episode makes me want to try Egg Benedict… I need to learn the recipe and learn how to cook it methinks.
I’ve tried making souffle omelet couple of times after watching this episode and have to admit, it’s really tasty and has nice structure (even without the anime fluffiness). And as someone who’s never made a souffle, I was surprised how easy this one was to make (though I’m guessing that the omelet variant is simpler).
A couple of words about the other dishes: I’ve never seen an egg benedict in my life, so with nothing to compare it to, Erina’s does look quite majestic and fitting of a grand hotel. I’ll have to agree with you on Takumi’s frittata though, it doesn’t look that special, even if you mix it in salad. It mostly reminded me of a crouton tbh… I’m not exactly sure what Nikumi made, but it’s nice to see that despite all her complaints about joining, she’s actually learning something from the Don RS. Megumi’s oden looks simply tasty and makes me think I should try making oden sometime.
Really didn’t appreciate the spoiler. Think about it – if you’re someone who just watches the show you’re not going to know this information ahead of time. And in the manga, it isn’t revealed until after the challenge is complete.
Cherrie~ I don’t know where I’ve been since Death Parade~ So glad to see you blogging this show because I only recently found out about it after my husband randomly picked it out from CrunchyRoll. We watched like 10 episodes straight while eating a bag of chips–the taste pales in comparison to the food on the screen! 😛 Personally I didn’t appreciate all the nakedness but it’s so ridiculous it’s funny, I guess… haha
Anyway, appreciate your entries as always, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the Shoukugeki no Souma’s recipe book!!!
So glad you decided to pick it up too! =D
I try not to watch this too late at night because then I find myself snacking too =(
Some of the recipes are easy enough to try and replicate, especially the don that Souma made with steak and onions… mmmm… =9