“I can finally crush you. That makes me happy, Yukihira Soma.”
Impression
A real challenge has appeared! And it’s honestly as threatening as it appears to be. After all, only 1% manage to properly graduate from Tootsuki – and it’s not like they pick graduates from a pool of potential candidates. It’s because they’re the only ones who are left at the end of it all – their entire high school life is basically an eternally long, painful culling process. This is what I mean by Konishi being an odd second-year – he feels like someone who would be as worried as Tadokoro-chan has been thus far. Well, I don’t blame her… it’s a time where you largely have to fend for yourself, and Megumi can’t be particularly confident given her past grades before meeting Soma. So the training camp for first-years is far from being a method of building friendship and support – the take is a lie. It’s designed to cut the number of students, and immediate expulsion is not only a thing but is pretty much actively encouraged amongst the people who have the power to do so – the alumni.
I’ve really been looking forward to seeing the alumni! I was hoping they’d be just as I expected, and the reality generally lived up to my hopes – although Dojima did not have as deep a voice as I expected. I definitely remember that scene where Shinomiya expels a guy for using the wrong kind of hair products – it’s a very Shinomiya-like thing to do. At first sight, the alumni seem to continue the tradition we’ve seen amongst the students of being entitled and arrogant, but they’re more entitled to it than the current students are – because they’ve survived the process and have become the 1%. In saying that Dojima graduated at the top of his class, they’re basically saying he was the First Seat of the Elite Ten, which is Soma’s goal if he’s aiming to take the top of Tootsuki. And then you have people like Hinako, who is literally everything I imagined her to be. Her voice is also wonderful. I mean, there’s still a veteran chef underneath all the light and fluffy, but there’s a whole lot of fluffy to get though.
In terms of rivals, Takumi is almost a parallel to Soma – he also has skills, and has also worked as a professional in a restaurant. He too is pretty arrogant, although it’s played for laughs when his dramatic declaration of war was shot down by a Hinako who didn’t really care. I was about to say that he’s arrogant unlike Soma, but on second thought that isn’t really true. It’s a different sort of arrogant – Soma doesn’t look down on people, but there’s more than just self-confidence in the way he conducts himself and cooks. So far throughout the adaptation, he hasn’t met his match, and we’re going to get a whole lot closer to that at some point during this training camp.