Anime/Manga ► Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma [Season 3]

[KingdomKey]

I have no idea where to begin and I'm dying to know what the council ten were bribed with, because it was mentioned again in this chapter! This is like the calm before the storm in literal terms. I did not see two major things coming and need the next chapter so damn bad right now. Azami you bastard. I cannot believe you fired Hisako to get to Erina! What did you do to her? Seriously, you couldn't leave her be at all with your come back? God, you're a slimy bastard with that speech. I can't stand you at all. Then there's the matter of the former Dean. All I got to say to that is my mouth dropped slightly open, and boy, there better be a [I]whole lot of explaining to do [/I]for the next following chapters.

 

[Mite]

This is definitely the calm before the storm when it comes to most of the students. Things definitely aren't looking good for Erina. #AzamiForBestVillain

The general student body and other people not in the know might see this as fine right now, and Azami plays it off perfectly, but I still see him sweeping through the school purging it of clubs and people he finds to be unworthy. I'm already going to guess the Don Bowl Society will be one, and probably even the Polar Star Dorm too.

Erina's getting it bad though. Azami getting rid of Hisako is going to be rough, because he's now isolating Erina from the one person she would consider to be her friend. Her being so timid and obedient to her father is only going to lead to bad things, especially if someone likes him gets to control her and mold her to his liking. I can already imagine her being twice as bad as she was at the beginning of the series, if not more with his guidance.

I was wondering what would happen to Senzaemon after he was fired as the dean. Didn't expect him to show up shirtless in Soma's room, that's for sure! Good thing seeing Dojima in the bath prepared Soma for such an occasion. (I love this series. xD) But beyond that the plot thickens! Quite the bombshell that Senzaemon is the one to convince Jochiro to have Soma attend Totsuki. I can only assume right now that it was part of some plan to influence Erina. Jochiro's cooking had a big impact on Erina when she was a kid, so maybe having her go to school with Soma was part of the plan to continue to help her grow, and shake off Azami's bad influence? So much I need answered!

Food Wars has expanded and gotten so big in the past few weeks. It's crazy to see a main villain get introduced, and already it's having so much impact on so many characters and setting up future conflicts so quickly.

 

[Mite]

Felt like posting this because... well, at least then it'd sorta feel like someone other then KitKat and I were talking about how good this series is! *sobs*

[video=youtube;Zrv24IU_zrQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrv24IU_zrQ[/video]

 

[KingdomKey]

Episode 24: Ended on a good note and has so much potential for more. I like how the reveal of Hayama's dish came out on top despite Yukihira's efforts to make his curry the best dish for the judges. If only they kept going, because it would've been epic to see a three way shokugeki. Plus, I was really hoping we'd see Yukihira go up against the copy cat chef, because that had the most hilarious food orgasm ever. I really hope they do a season two, but if not, season one of Food Wars was phenomenal to watch.

Manga Chapter: They're really pushing Azami to become the main antagonist of the series. Seriously, I wouldn't of expected him to be brain washing Erina with her god tongue being used in such a way. I really love how Yukihira is being set up to be her savior, because it shows these two will have more panel time together. However, I doubt it'll be easy with Azami in the way and most likely purging half of the school. And I'm really curious what it was like for Joichiro and Gin being on the previous council ten seat with him. I really hope Erina finds a way to dodge Azami before getting brainwashed again.

 

[Mite]

In a way this manga is still kinda amazing with how over-the-top it can be. In context, the big bad guy of the series is essentially the worst a-hole food snob you'd ever meet in your entire life. But also add how damn creepy he is, and his brainwashing a little girl, and that goes WAY beyond that. Heck, if there was another villain in Shonen Jump I'd say he's equal with, it'd be Doflamingo from One Piece. They both come off as the most evil, creepy people you'd ever meet.

I really liked the beginning part of this chapter. I was hoping we'd get more Dojima again, and eventually get him meeting up with Soma's dad again. Of course, Joichiro being Joichiro, it took Dojima meeting Soma first to know his friend wasn't dead in a gutter somewhere. Learning that Azami was the third seat on the council of ten behind those two was a really cool reveal, and I'd love to see the both of them now get pulled into this conflict and have to try and deal with Azami themselves in some way.

I had to reread the chapter because I missed it, but Azami must have married into the Nakiri family and took his wife's last name since his was Nakamura. Which would be the reason why it was easy for Senzaemon to disown him from the family for his brainwashing of Erina.

Now we have the big overarching challange for the series: saving Erina from a crazy food critic that will brainwash her into being an even possibly greater a-hole food critic. ...good luck to ya Soma! I would find it hilarious though, if the easy way to break her brainwashing in the future is if Soma just fed her one of his horrible food experiments. One squid tentacle covered in panut butter later and Erina's back to her usual self, because her food critic self can't comprehend the horrible thing she just ate.

 

[Mite]

So, I think I'm running out of ways of saying how much of a super a-hole Azami is... but he still is. Suprise! xD

Evil thing he did this week: Told his daughter she didn't have to go to school; instead has to taste food.

He's evil I tell you, EVIL! How dare he endanger the academic success of his child by taking her out of classes! But seriously, it's just another way he's controlling every aspect Erina's life and isolating her from her friends. I did really like that Alice came to the rescue to bust Erina out, she just needs to have a real plan that's not lifted from a movie.

I do hope we get to see Erina have to interact with the Polar Star Dorm kids next time. I bet they'd all annoy her to no end with their antics. Or better, I bet she's never seen Ishiki outside of their Council of Ten meetings. Seeing him in his natural environment might be the biggest shock.

 

[Mite]

I quite enjoyed this week's Food Wars. It kinda seemed like a snapshot of what Erina's life could be like having lots of friends and not being under her father's control. There's no way this peace is going to last for her, and it's likely that her just being there is going to get Polaris targeted by Azami, who is finally going to start setting his master plan into motion.

I also picked up volume 8 of the manga recently, and the cliffhangers drive me crazy! Finished the preliminaries of the Fall Classic in this volume (where the anime season ended), then stopped short of finishing Soma's quarter-finale match. I want volume 9, dang it!

 

[KingdomKey]

Well, we did see some of this coming. I'm not sure if Azami is a genius or freaking insane. I HOPE YUKIHIRA DOES SOMETHING WITH THEM THREATENING TO TEAR DOWN THE POLARIS DORM! HE HAS THAT LOOK! Anyways, I don't really know what to say because, damn, this was one helluva chapter. I really hope Jun will be okay, and Hiyama can come to her rescue too.

 

[Mite]

And the hammer finally drops on Azami's plans. This does seem to be the most perfectly constructed plan that goes in total opposition to the previous administration, and to the values of the main characters.

So the trade-off of Azami's school system is that the students won't be sacrificed and expelled for the sake of improving the select few to graduate from the academy, BUT, to stay, they have to essentially be slaves to Azami's way of thinking and cooking. That means no more cooking clubs (like the don bowl society), and no more food research societies (like the Shiori institute). I can see some students liking the idea of not being tossed aside for the sake of the few, and wanting to be taught the best cooking techniques, but at the same time all of them will now learn the exact same things and not create anything new, just the same "high-end gourmet" that Azami wants. That would make for a lot of the same boring generations of chefs.

I'm not sure that the Polar Star dorm falls under the same category as any other school club. I mean... it's a dorm. Kids stay there because their homes are too far away from the school to commute, so they live on campus. Not to mention the dorm is autonomous from the school and doesn't seem to need any funds or anything from the institute. But I suppose this needed to happen to ignite the major conflict of Polar Star and its supporters vs the new regime.

 

[Mite]

Well then.... they're screwed. xD


So much for their one big way to save the dorm. Kind of easy to get rid of anyone you want when you can be corrupt as fuck under the new council's regime. And skewer guys is gone now! I don't even remember his name, but I want to know if he taught Soma is awesome skewer techniques like he promised! xD

This'll definitely be the biggest challenge for them now, especially if it's guaranteed that they can't win Shokugeki's. Having that a-hole Aizon be the main antagonist for this one was a good choice. I do hope that the obvious way out of this doesn't happen, where Erina sacrifices herself to her father so that Polaris gets to stay. I'd much rather have her be proactive and try to help Polaris out of this herself, but it might be too soon for her to do that in her growing character arc.

 

[KingdomKey]

Each chapter seems to grow more and more worse for Yukihira and everyone at the academy. I forgot about how we're seeing the changes being made in this chapter where you can't cook the way you used to. I wonder if people will voluntarily drop out if they can't adjust to the new ways of cooking? It still bugs me how we haven't seen Isshik during all of this because, you'd think he would've done something by now instead of sitting back and letting the dorm be taken away. I still think there's a tiny chance he could've been bribed unless he shows up in the following chapter. Again, the council of ten were split on this and we still don't know what happens to those who opposed the vote on these changes? I mean, you can't really call it a council if only half of them get a good deal out it. Maybe Azami will get rid of them or try to appeal to them another way?

I guess at this point I'm theorizing about what could potentially happen. We know Azami got what he wanted but, there has to be more to it than this. And I'd like to see if Yukihira is able to make the bribed judges eat his food in order to win the Shokugeki. And we still haven't seen Akira or June yet.

 

[KingdomKey]

Oh hell no! I cannot believe this is the trick Eizan is getting ready to use! Yukihira better wipe the grin off of his face. However, I will say I'm impressed with how well Eizan is fulfilling his role as a secondary villain too. However, I think Rindou suspects Yukihira might win? Something about her demeanor interests me and she mentioned Kuga again. I do think Kuga might be somewhere around watching the Shokugeki too. OR what would be freaking awesome is if he, Ryo, Alice, Hiyama, Takumi, Isami, Hisako, and Subaru come to defend the dorm. Unless Gin and Joichiro show up to save the day... but I think Erina will either be found out and be forced to go home unless she defends the dorm in her own way as an Elite Ten. Seriously, this is hyping up to be big in some shape or form. I need the next chapter so damn bad right now. I think Isshiki is most likely held up somewhere... seems odd he still hasn't done anything. D:

 

[Mite]

Well, Eizan being a sneaky, underhanded so-and-so was to be expected. Have to build up the tension!

Yet Soma remains calm and just points out that his victory would reverse it all anyway. So it somewhat renders that whole eviction plan pointless if Eizan loses. It was kind of amusing that Polaris has all of those defense measures though. Definitely helpful for raids, like right now! Lol. I do like that Soma was able to actually draw him into an actual competition though. Now we'll see if he lives up to being the 9th Seat, and this could lead to his ultimate downfall.

But it seems like they're figuring out that Erina is hiding out there. If Soma does win this match then I'd expect Azami to step in next and be even worse then Eizan if it means getting her back.

 

[KingdomKey]

^ I thought Azami was going to wait for Erina to return on her own? In any case, it is hilarious to see the Polar Star Dorm fight back. I was hoping Yukihira could draw Eizan into an actual cooking battle, because it kind of reminds of when Shino went up against Megumi. You'd think not cooking and doing business all the time would make your skills rusty. Therefore, I'm curious to see what dish Eizan makes.

 

[Mite]

Been a while since the last post. The past couple of weeks have been building up Eizan as an actual serious cooking threat, which I've liked a lot. It would have been too easy to think that Soma could pull out a win if we thought Eizan was just the mob boss-type who didn't do any actual cooking himself. From the way he operates, the title of "Alchemist" is well deserved for him.

The ninth volume of Food Wars (digital) came out today too. Finished up Soma's bento cook-off with Alice, Megumi and Kurokiba's quarter-final match was after that, and ended with Arato and Hayama starting their burger match.

I forgot how good the Megumi/Kurokiba match was. An overpowering ramen match that would make Naruto proud! Their ramen fight is so intense that it personified as a freaking JoJo's Bizarre Adventure-style fight with a Lobster vs Scallop stand! I think the dean even dressed a bit like Jotaro during it. Lmao, I love this manga.

 

[KingdomKey]

I've loved every chapter we've had with this face off against Eizan. Yukihira has them eating out of the palms of his hands on this, because damn, the way he goads them into without missing a beat by convincing them to try it is off the charts! The score board seems to be enough indication that Yukihira will definitely come out atop of this. And oh my gosh, Erina is so dang cute. <3 I want to squeeze her and hug her, because she's growing fond of the polar star dorm kids, and learning perfection isn't everything and there's more ways to cook a meal than not. I'm really pleased with how Food Wars has been going. I guess all we have left to wait on now is seeing what Asami does next, if he hears about this later.

And if no one has heard about it yet, there will be a season two for Food Wars! And the next manga volume comes out in May. (If I remember that right.)

 

[Mite]

Season two hype! YES! Really glad there'll be a second season. Would have been kinda cruddy to leave it right when they finished the preliminary round to the fall tournament. Looking forward to seeing those main tournament matches get animated. Those got pretty crazy at times.

Spoiler Show

HA! In your face, Eizan! (Even at the end, he still had the best facial expressions.) I think Soma was due for a big win here. He's had plenty of small victories, or ties, or just barely missed winning, so it was great seeing him succeed in something big like saving his dorm. When this match started I wasn't sure Soma was going to outright win, but I sucked everyone into his cooking and delivered a knockout blow with his pot stickers. ....which I totally wish I were eating right now! Damn you Food Wars and your delicious food that I can't cook!

I think this arc did a really good job of building up Eizan. At first he just seemed like the shady mob-boss type who just controlled things from the shadows and didn't do any cooking at all. Heck, even Rindo calls him as much multiple times during the match. But if you thought Eizan didn't have the cooking skills to back up his schemes then he really showed how dangerous he really was, and that it wouldn't be an easy fight for Soma.

Now that Soma's won though, I really interested in seeing the fallout from this. Soma just defeated a rigged system and seemingly opened up shokugeki's to be fair again after humiliating Eizan. The 9th seat wasn't up for grabs during the match, but I wonder if Azami will even allow Eizan to keep his position after this? Mostly though, I wonder if Aizami will now go after Erina himself finally, since they seem to know she's hiding out at Polaris?

Erina had a good moment in the chapter too. Being around the Polar Star dorm kids seems to be helping break her out of of her single-minded ways of cooking.

 

[Mite]

Well, it's certainly been a while since the last post. So it's time to sum up what happened after Soma's shokugeki with Eizan.

Spoiler Show

Soma won! Eizan's plans were beaten, and now fair and honest Shokugeki matches can happen again, and the Polar Star dorm is safe. Sounds like an all around victory. As such, party at the dorm! Erina and Arato's reactions to finally seeing Ishiki's naked apron was priceless.

BUT THEN AZAMI COMES KNOCKING! Still the creepiest mofo in shonen jump, and I challenge anyone to say otherwise! I figured Azami would come by himself eventually, but this was quite different from what I figured he'd do (forcibly bring Erina back with him). So he lets Erina stay because he figures his "training" is so ingrained in her that she'll come back on her own eventually. (brainwashing your own daughter... still creepy.)

But then Fumio reveals Azami's background as a former Polar Star dorm member! Little by little we get to know more about Azami: former dorm member, third seat on the council of ten in his first year, then the first seat in his second year, and then married Erina's mother and took her more prestigious last name of Nakiri and made a name for himself in the culinary world until he was banished from the Nakiri household. (Again, brainwashing your daughter... not good.)

The most interesting tidbit came after that though, because freaking creepy as heck, gonna rule the gourmet world with an iron fist Azami actually respects and greatly admired Soma's dad. I don't think I can properly convey in this catch-up how intriguing that is with what we know of the two men. Regardless, Soma ACTUALLY GETS TO SAY THAT SAIBA IS HIS DAD WITHOUT GETTING INTERRUPTED! (I emphasize this because reading manga has so ingrained in me that these kind of character connecting revelations are usually cut short until more dramatic moments in the future.) Soma gets to say who his dad is, and even Erina hears it! Her reaction was hilarious as her world crumbles around her, realizing that she's been insulting and trying to get expelled the son of the chef she so admired. Azami quickly puts together that all these character connections are more then sheer coincidence, and goes off, excited to show Saiba-senpai's son the world of true gormet he wants to create, and take revenge on the one that ruined Saiba in his eyes.

As for the more immediate problems everyone will be facing after the most recent chapter: Well, Ishiki, Kuga and that third seat that opposed Azami's administration are officially out of the council, and now the remaining council members and other members of the Central organization are going to go out hunting down clubs/societies that want to challenge them keep from disbanding. Me thinks that there are going to be a lot of clubs destroyed and students expelled from this.

The other interesting aspect comes from who Azami will pick to fill the three empty council seats. Unless they introduce three new characters, the only character from the series I can figure maybe joining would be Hiyama. Since his research society is gone he could join Central as a way to continue his own research. It'll be interesting to see how that shakes things up.

 

[KingdomKey]

You don't suppose Yukihira's mother could have anything to do with Azami wanting revenge on whoever ruined Saiba eyes on cooking, do you? It was something that occurred to me during our conversation about it the other day. It's rather far fetched, except we know next to nothing about her and it could very well be a plausible theory. Unless there's someone else we've yet to meet who has anything to do with it. OR maybe it's Gin?

Then there's also the available seats. I do agree on it being Hiyama, because he cares a lot about Jun and the combinations of spices she tries to make. It's just that I imagine Jun may or may not want Hiyama getting mixed up with whatever Azami plots, because obviously Azami is the bad guy within this series right now, and there's no telling what kind of price Hiyama may have to pay to be on the council seat. Furthermore, there's also the possibility of what Kurokiba will think of him taking the seat too. I mean, they're somewhat rivals just as much as Yukihira is. I imagine each chapter is going to keep escalating until we get a break or something. xD

 

[Mite]

You don't suppose Yukihira's mother could have anything to do with Azami wanting revenge on whoever ruined Saiba eyes on cooking, do you? It was something that occurred to me during our conversation about it the other day. It's rather far fetched, except we know next to nothing about her and it could very well be a plausible theory. Unless there's someone else we've yet to meet who has anything to do with it. OR maybe it's Gin?

Right now I'm leaning towards a no on that, but maybe?! xD The way Azami said it, it seems like he's more so trying to take revenge on the "cooking world" that ruined Saiba to him. Thus why he's trying to change the cooking world to what he sees as being "true gourmet." I think the way the story will play out is that something changed Saiba and the way he viewed cooking from the way he used to, and stopped being the kind of chef Azami admired. This change in cooking philosophy is likely the thing that lead Saiba to leaving the school without graduating and traveling the world. At some point he likely met Soma's mom on his travels and settled down to have his family and start his little restaurant. So I don't think Soma's mom directly influenced him into changing. Maybe....? We don't know a lot about her, so the possibility is still there. PLUS, Saiba did try to tell Soma early on that the way to become a better chef was to find someone you really wanted to cook for every single day (or something like that). Which likely an allusion to him becoming better because he wanted to cook for Soma's mom.

Then there's also the available seats. I do agree on it being Hiyama, because he cares a lot about Jun and the combinations of spices she tries to make. It's just that I imagine Jun may or may not want Hiyama getting mixed up with whatever Azami plots, because obviously Azami is the bad guy within this series right now, and there's no telling what kind of price Hiyama may have to pay to be on the council seat. Furthermore, there's also the possibility of what Kurokiba will think of him taking the seat too. I mean, they're somewhat rivals just as much as Yukihira is. I imagine each chapter is going to keep escalating until we get a break or something. xD

I'd still say Hiyama is the most likely candidate from the current cast of characters to get a council spot based on cooking talent alone. Jun was a former Polaris alum as well, so she likely knows how bad Azami is and wouldn't want Hiyama involved, like you said. Things are really up in the air as far as those open seats are concerned.

Ya know, the way things are now, we really are getting into the "food-wars" of the Food Wars manga. xD