First Impressions / Shokugeki no Souma

「翳りゆく食卓」 (Kageri Yuku Shokutaku)
“The Darkening Dinner Table”

I’m really enjoying the pacing of Shokugeki no Souma so far. It’s not too fast, not too slow; it keeps me entertained just the right amount without being too rushed. It could be the nature of the manga as well, but since I haven’t read it, I have nothing to compare against. All I know is that last season seemed to focus all on two events (of which the second one was completely sped through) and it wasn’t my cup of tea. With the Moon Festival over (the last day was pretty anticlimactic), I can appreciate how quickly it moves on. And building upon the actual characters they recently introduced, they show more personality from the other Elite Ten members. There are several ones we already know, but Kobayashi Rindou (Itou Shizuka) and Tsukasa Eishi (Ishida Akira) are new ones we’ll need to keep an eye on. Personally, I don’t really know what to make of them yet since all I know is that they the number 1 and 2 spots in the Elite Ten, plus Rindou has a very extroverted personality. She rather eat all the food than set up her own booth and she’s pretty close to Eishi too. Eishi is… confident in his cooking abilities as Souma witnesses, but asides from his perfectionist personality, I can’t gauge if he’s “good” or “bad”. What is their agenda and what do they hope to achieve with their positions? I’m sure we’ll find out sooner rather than later.

I’m not an Erina fan, as many people who have been following my Shokugeki no Souma posts for a while may know. She not a very nice person to say the least and she definitely has a superiority complex. This is probably the first episode where I felt a bit more sympathy towards her, because she’s being shut down by her father. Of course, her father is painted as the villain right now without a backstory so that doesn’t really sit well with me either. Nakiri Azami (Hayami Show) seems to treat himself as a high-and-mighty individual, but where does this come from and why is everyone so scared of him? Why now, is he coming back to take charge of the school? And funny enough, I’m most curious to see why 6 of the Elite Ten voted for him. Do they want a change in management? Were they bribed? Everything is still such a large mystery to me since I don’t know the relationships between the characters nor their history. Azami must’ve done something horrible in the past (in the world of cooking?) to get him kicked out of school; not that I can think of any taboos at the moment.

There wasn’t that much food, as there was drama this week. I think the few dishes that we did see were all from Eishi and all very creative looking, but I’m not exactly sure what it’s supposed to taste like. There weren’t a lot of details that went into the composition of the dish so all I can say is – it looks good, it looks expensive and I’m sure it tastes better than it looks! It’s also a 9-course meal which to me, looks like it’s composed of all the best sourced ingredients and all the dishes are tiny. I think the challenge isn’t what you can do with great ingredients, but what someone does with average/everyday grocery-store quality ingredients. If you’re willing to pay for the best stuff, and you know how to combine your flavors and food, anyone can probably be an amazing chef. What I’d like to know is what makes Eishi special. Does he have interesting combinations of flavors? Can he prepare a high-end meal while having no budget? Maybe that’s where Souma will shine in comparison.

End Card

15 Comments

  4. Ah, the hell arc.
    We’ve finally caught up to it in the anime.
    Honestly I’ve been looking forward to this point in the anime because pacing becomes a HUGE issue for folks in the manga and I think the anime will properly pace out the arc in a way that maintains the excitement/suspense without dragging things out to hell.
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Kabble
    Reply

  5. Ugh, I hate this arc. I get that a good villain is one that you love to hate, but his presence kills my suspension of disbelief. The attempt to apply authoritarianism into the maelstrom of free markets that is the restaurant industry so ludicrous that i can’t have fun with the concept. The result would break the image of the school as anything more than a collection of elitist pricks that have no grounding in reality. People crave innovation & variety in their food. This would spawn competition more than anything.

    GuardMonkey10
    Reply

    1. I think a good villain is one you sympathize with… which, given his introduction and antagonistic nature this episode, has horribly failed to do =0\. Mimasaka was a good villain… or rather a good antagonist because they introduced his characteristics beforehand. His types of characters lead to the worst(as in badly depicted) villains in a series, so I’m not looking forward to the events that’ll proceed from this =0|.

      frubam
      Reply

    2. My problem is less Azami (he’s pretty cool, and he has a warped but still kinda interesting perspective on food) than the fact that if the Elite Ten vote on something, apparently they can do stuff like installing a new dean. What is up with anime giving their student councils carte blanche to run the school?

      Guile
      Reply

  6. … is it me or is what is supposed to be the biggest twist in the manga’s history really just poor writing? I thought only the headmaster was above the Elite 10. When did all THIS happen??

    Also we already had a supreme white-haired, calm student chef Soma had to defeat. Why introduce another one?

    starss
    Reply

    1. Well, Eishi has kind of the opposite of Alice’s bombastic impact, but he’s kind of funny and it might be neat to see what a chef who deliberately avoids having a specialty (or even being noticed) can do.

      Guile
      Reply

  9. Erina isn’t exactly nice, but she’s not “mean” either. We already seen that she treats Hisako as a friend, and Megumi with respect. Her only problem is with Souma,lol. Luckily we’ve seen in past episodes this season that she’s toned down a bit towards him and is willing to give him advice on his match with Kuga. He was even surprised that Erina said he needs to focus on beating Kuga. So I liked that subtle development there.

    Mikidee
    Reply

  10. Megumi
    – Introduced as a nice girl with good personality
    – Has no hateable traits
    – Get a lot of character development and screen time

    Erina
    – Introduced as a bitch with shitty personality
    – Hads lots of hateable traits
    – Lack of character development and screen time

    The characterization is obviously unfair and imbalanced from the get go despite Erina being one of the 3 main character. Erina has more flaws than Megumi did and yet the one who get development after development is Megumi. I feel bad for all characters out there who has hateable flaws. They’re being hated and condemned while nice girls are being loved.

    Flawed character>Nice girl

    dracoconnie
    Reply

    1. Yes, what a poor Erina-sama, continuing to be an easily hate-able tsundere while Megumi contains all that is good and pure.

      Why do people dislike her just because she’s unlikable and mean!

      Guile
      Reply

    2. I thought Erinas character flaw comes from her being a rich girl that always got her own way growing up. She’s clearly someone who hasn’t had a taste of the real world outside of her little bubble. Funnily enough people like her aren’t rare. Plenty of people exist with toxic personalities like that.

      They’re not lost causes though.

      Lyfe
      Reply

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