Think of the chickens!
Impression
It really isn’t Soma’s day, is it? His loss to Shinomiya was bruising (quite literally) but he’d gotten over it by the start of the episode – and almost straight away, he’s plunged into another crisis. It really is his fault this time though, and is the result of a genuine mistake he made instead of being an un-winnable battle – so he’s digging himself out of a hole he created. Even so, I don’t really feel like there’s a true sense of urgency and panic, primarily because Soma is a shounen protagonist and is practically insured from irreversible failure – you don’t have to be a manga reader to know that. All the students in general are shown to be freaking out, and we as viewers are reacting more like the teachers and alumni, calmly sipping tea while hoping they’ll be okay. So what will be interesting next week is not whether Soma gets around his mistake at all, but rather the way in which he does so. If you’re familiar with soufflés and pair that knowledge up with the fact that it’s a buffet-style meal they’re supposed to be serving, you can probably guess why Soma isn’t doing well at all – but I had no idea until they revealed it in the manga!
Did Erina-sama steal all of his customers? Well no, not really. It’s true that Soma will suffer from reduced attention as a result of everyone prostrating over the royal glory of her Eggs Benedict, but that wouldn’t explain why he’s got less than 10 servings when Erina-sama has already hit the required 200 mark. If his dish was good enough, then there’ll be people around him too, even if they happen to be milling around in fewer numbers due to Erina – after all, there are lots and lots of customers there. So, it’s a problem with the dish itself, and both Erina and Alice have indicated as much (not to him, though). If you were expecting a competition between Soma and Erina in the aftermath of the transfer student test, you won’t be getting one – instead, it’ll be all about Soma overcoming this challenge and fulfilling his 200 servings requirement within the meagre time limit he has left. I love how they emphasized the difference between the egg dish Erina cooked and the dishes everyone else cooked – Takumi got some of the staff to foodgasm in a risqué scene, and the three food dons were appeased by Megumi. But in front of Erina, everyone prostrates in awe. So much gold it hurts. The connotation is that her dish is undoubtedly better than the rest, and is fit to rule over them all as something created by a Nakiri and one of the Elite Ten – as you would expect from Erina-sama.
As for best girl… well, she really is best girl after all, as promised. Aren’t those red eyes sexy? I won’t say too much more about Alice since it’ll be revealed in due course, but she has some beef with Erina, and her chibi face is too cute. I love how she initially expressed the makings of having a stuck-up and bitch-like attitude, then winces adorably once she accidentally runs into Kurokiba, complaining about him having lost the balls she’d given him so they could look scary together. It was… interesting that Kurokiba ended up with the more intimidating introduction, though – in fact, his imposing presence almost felt like it overshadowed Alice completely. Both seem great seiyuu-wise so far, although it’s probably not the best time to judge – they’ll be appearing much more often soon enough.
