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This post is by guest writer Adeline Zhang.
Cookin’ It Up
What kind of cooking warrants a five-star rating? The shounen kind. Shokugeki no Soma (Food Wars!) brings shounen excitement to the kitchen with delicious cooking and breathtaking animation quality. If you’ve ever watched Top Chef or any other intense cooking competition, you’ve seen a reality version of Shokugeki no Soma, except less engaging. After all, it doesn’t matter how good food looks on TV if you can’t make it and try it for yourself. Luckily, Shokugeki no Soma’s recipes come directly from a famous Japanese chef who knows how cooking works. Now, you can make some good food and watch students of the culinary school Totsuki Academy battle each other at the same time!
Episodes 1-7 Review
Shokugeki no Soma was a little slow to start up. The first few episodes kind of turned me off and at first, I didn’t want to watch beyond the second episode. Quite frankly, I did not appreciate how overly dramatic the anime was. Maybe I just lack experience, but I have never seen someone knocked out from eating imitation roast pork made out of bacon and potatoes. Also, it’s understandable that chefs have their own specialty, but not so much when it’s taken overboard. For example, the meat specialist Nikumi was all over her grade A5 beef, stroking it and talking to it as if it was her lover.
In spite of the over-the-top reactions, Shokugeki no Soma thoroughly impressed me with its animation quality. The dishes that are presented are so detailed and refined that they look real and incredibly delicious. The meat glistens and shines with stunningly attentive details and shades that truly reflect the supposed deliciousness of that juicy piece of meat. However, this quality is not limited just to food. People, clothing, tools, and even backgrounds are vivid and crisp, but not so in-your-face that it feels overbearing.
The shokugeki system is very reminiscent of shounen action.
Although I felt a little repelled by the dramatics of Shokugeki no Soma, these first few episodes were still overall very engaging. To me, this anime was very appealing because it took the shounen genre and applied it to cooking — an everyday aspect of life that many, if not most, people participate in. The shokugeki system, a system at Totsuki that allows students to battle each other for something through cooking, is very reminiscent of the action aspects of the typical shounen anime. Shokugeki no Soma also engages its audience by thoroughly explaining recipes and cooking techniques, making it much easier to try and imitate these incredible fictional chefs.
Episodes 8-14 Review
From episode eight onwards, Shokugeki no Soma really comes into its own as a shounen anime about cooking. The characters that I used to think were outrageous grew to become the characteristically unique and slightly odd personas that are a must in any shounen anime. For example, the main protagonist Soma’s typical foolish-but serious-when-it-counts demeanor is much like Luffy from One Piece. Similarly, shounen anime always have the main cast fighting against injustice. In Shokugeki no Soma’s case, this means beating people like Shinomiya, a Totsuki alumnus who failed a student for changing his recipe to accommodate for low quality ingredients.
The plot itself was also quite shounen-like in that it contained elements of tension as well as fun and excitement. For example, the training camp that was the focus of these seven episodes challenged the students with gruesome cooking projects where failure meant on-the-spot expulsion. The camp’s strict requirements brought stress to most of the main characters, but we also see their passion for cooking as they continually try to better themselves and push their creativity; they even use the challenges as an opportunity to battle with other students in friendly competition.
One aspect of Shokugeki no Soma that I thought was much better than your typical shounen though was the pacing. There were enough cliffhangers to keep the audience engaged and wanting more but nothing dragged out, unlike most sports anime. The final challenge of the training camp spanned only one and a half episodes; it was just enough time to showcase its intensity without dragging it out until it gets boring to watch.
Episodes 15-18 Review
Shokugeki no Soma continues to excel as a shounen anime with a clear plot continuum. These episodes reminded us about Soma’s main objective when his father suddenly came to visit the school dorm Soma was staying at. Soma immediately challenges his father to a cooking contest and loses. This loss showed Soma that he still had a lot to learn in order to beat his father and that Totsuki was the best place to gain the skills to do so.
Furthermore, these few episodes only had three new characters, one of which already had a cameo in episode one, and another which was heavily foreshadowed to become a major antagonist later on. Rather than shoveling in a bunch of new characters every chance it gets, Shokugeki no Soma only introduces a few key characters and continues to build on the existing ones, giving the anime an easy-to-follow consistency.
There’s something more to the story than just students learning to cook.
Similar to the first point, these episodes, although seemingly only fillers, were key to furthering the plot. We learn some things about Soma’s mysterious father that even Soma didn’t know up until now. For example, his father had attended Totsuki and graduated as the second best of his class. The fact that Soma’s father’s identity remains a big enigma and that he is Soma’s final objective shows that there is probably something more to the story than just students learning to cook. In addition, the Karaage Wars Arc introduced the current 9th Seat, the seventh strongest student at Totsuki, and set him up as a will-be major antagonist. He had lost to Soma indirectly in a sales showdown between karaage (fried chicken) stores and intends to get revenge, something he tries to do in the next arc.
Episodes 19-24 Review
Like with the previous section, the Autumn Election Arc was a perfect chance to cram in new characters since the Autumn Election is a competition between the 40 best freshmen. However, there were only two new characters and most of the time was spent developing all of the existing characters. Secondary characters like Soma’s dormmates took center stage in their respective episodes as the competition highlighted their specialties and unique interpretations of a common theme like “curry”. Not to mention, most of the finalists were characters that we have already seen multiple times throughout the series.
I have to praise the consistently beautiful animation quality.
Because this is the last arc, where most animation studios tend to get sloppy, I have to praise the consistently beautiful animation quality of Shokugeki no Soma. Every scene Soma was in, even the silly chili-style ones, had his hair highlighted and shadowed with much detail. Even the forest behind the board that announced the contestants of the Autumn Election was lush and vivid in color. Truly, the animation was one of the best parts of Shokugeki no Soma as it perfectly brought out the beauty and deliciousness of the dishes presented and the high stakes world within Totsuki Academy.
I have to say Shokugeki no Soma was one of the best anime I have ever watched. Although it was a little strange at first, especially with the ecchi-style taste-testing reactions, I felt that Shokugeki no Soma was close to flawless. The animation quality was superb and beautiful and the plot was sufficient enough to keep me attentive and engaged — without being overwhelming, confusing, or too slow and draggy. I also appreciated how Shokugeki no Soma kept the cast limited and just built upon the already existing characters.
Overall, Shokugeki no Soma was not only appealing because it brought shounen flair to a daily aspect of life that most people participate in, but also because it outdid most anime when it comes to the basic building blocks of anime: the plot, the characters, and the animation.
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