The prince of apples?
Impression
As this is a shounen, there are certain things you can predict – and one of them is that it was very unlikely Soma would win against Jouichirou this episode. If we describe it in terms of power levels, Soma is way weaker than the current Jouichirou – who isn’t only a former Second Seat, but rather a former Second Seat who’s then gone out into the real world and developed his cooking so much more. He was simply not gonna win, although it’s pretty amazing that Soma still has that much enthusiasm after a win-loss record of 0-490. Rather, Jouichirou wanted to see how much Soma had grown since coming to Tootsuki – in the manga, he actually remarks that an apple risotto isn’t something the past Soma would have thought of. Soma is a long way off, but the day he beats Jouichirou for the first time will be a major turning point in the story and for Soma’s development as a character.
As usual, these episodes end up making me hungry – especially the apple risotto, which had a hilarious Snow White foodgasm scene that reminds me of one of the ones Hinako had back during the match between Soma and Takumi. I also had a short-lived desire to try recreating the dish (which can be found here) until I realized I’d probably mess up on the apple cubes somehow and end up with them soggy. Having Fumio, Isshiki and Megumi all act as judges made it feel like a Shokugeki though, which is kind of what these face-offs between Soma and Jouichirou have actually been – basically a contest to see who can cook the better dish. Some of them are slightly different (like the one from the first episode, which had them both make fried rice) but Soma has practically been having Shokugekis since he was a kid, and against a disproportionately strong opponent to boot.
As for the preview – it looks like we’ll be getting the Karaage arc animated. It’s a minor arc from the manga that I thought we were going to skip, as it’s supposed to have happened right after the training camp. I have to say it’s not one of my favourite arcs, and it’s not really that important at all in the long run, but I guess it provides for a full experience – and J.C. Staff will be upholding their modus operandi for this adaptation with this, which is basically to not skip anything and animate it all at a decent pace. If that follows through though, it’s strange that they’ve revealed so much of the Autumn Election in the OP, because there’s no way we’ll see the end of that arc at this rate. A second season, maybe?