“I lost…”
Impression
I like to think that an actual victory in a Shokugeki comes when you can get the opponent to admit that your dish was good – it validates your win, in a way. It also means more foodgasms.
I found it really funny how Konishi’s last Shokugeki was a tiny affair in a small room with no spectators – it really adds to his image of being the most unlikely second-year at Tootsuki. As for Soma, his maiden Shokugeki is more akin to a live performance than a private showdown! I can think of several reasons – one being the Nikumi fans, and another being the Soma haters. I suppose Urara’s presence helped as well, she’s fantastically rotten. It’s not too surprising that Erina-sama and Hishoko came to watch – in fact, I suspect that she used whatever influence she has to increase the turnout even more. She came to watch Soma lose pathetically, after all, and having him taste defeat in front of a large audience is a very Erina-like thing to want.
I don’t think there was any real doubt that Soma would lose – at this stage in the story, it’s not time for him to run into his first major challenge yet, despite the fact that Nikumi is undoubtedly a very good cook. It was hilarious how he used standard half-price meat from the supermarket up against Nikumi’s high-grade marbled beef, but there’s a lesson to be learnt behind all that – it comes back to what I mentioned last episode about this Shokugeki being one about dons. As Soma said, dons are completed in one bowl – and they tend to be cheap anyway. It’s one of the characteristics of a don, and this Shokugeki was about who can make the best don – not who can buy the fanciest ingredients. A lot of the students at Tootsuki feel very entitled, and like Nikumi did this week they fall back on the quality of the ingredients they can procure, instead of focusing on creativity and unique mixes like Soma did – the first argument Nikumi made against him after the judges loved his don was that she had the better meat. She did, but that’s not the be all and end all.
It isn’t a recurring problem by far, but I didn’t like the judges in this Shokugeki. I’ve forgotten a lot of the details from when I’d last read it, and in retrospect these judges were pretty incompetent. It’s one thing for the students around Soma to be prejudiced against him, and it’s another for supposedly impartial judges to do the same. I know he’s new, but that doesn’t justify a tone that made it seem like they weren’t even going to give his dish the time of day. It’s good that this doesn’t really happen later on, but it was just a small something that annoyed me about the episode.
I guess it’s a good thing that Erina-sama is as merciless as she is, because it looks like Nikumi is now crushing on Soma. Imagine if someone in her faction was secretly in love with the enemy! It won’t all go like this, as I’m sure you know. Soma has been breezing through this adaptation, but there’s a limit, and he’ll be running into it soon enough.
