Shokugeki no Soma Episodes 22 + 23

“It’s finally feeling like a competition!”

Episode 22

I should really stop watching these episodes late at night – I get way too hungry, and it’s too late to do anything about it! I’d like to have fried rice that’s been ovened inside a hollow pineapple sometime in my life. Oh, and pasta with a layer of cheese in between – that sounds like it’d taste unreal. I initially reacted just like all of the judges when I saw Takumi and his curry pasta – it’s been a while since I’ve read the preliminaries in the manga, and all I remembered was that he made it through to the tournament. Shokugeki no Soma likes to surprise people a lot though, especially when food looks suspiciously plain – I guess no-one expected that Takumi would pull out anything less than stellar given what we know of him so far. I love how all the critics went all-out with their fancy monikers they gave each high-ranking student.

I think the main substance of these recent episodes comes from the suspense in seeing exactly which of our long list of over-qualified first-years actually make it through – because other than that, it’s basically a running commentary on lots of different dishes involving curry in some form, with a foodgasm scheduled for the end of each one. It’s fast-paced, too, which can be seen in two ways. It’s good because we have a lot of contestants to get through (usually the organ music goes on for longer, and there’s a proper extended foodgasm). But on the other hand, a lot of the new characters like Nao or Houjou get hardly any chance for development – and they won’t get any more chances in this season at least, given that neither of them are now through to the main tournament. What we know of them so far is more an introduction than proper development. It must be pretty heartbreaking to have gotten a great score, but then have to just sit there watching yourself get pushed down the ranks whilst unable to do anything. The same goes for poor Yuuki, whose cheerfulness made me smile – a lot of the Polar Star members are in the Autumn Election too, and we don’t really know much about them beyond their cooking specialities and personalities. For characters like legal wife Megumi or best girl Alice though, it’s a chance to continue the long game – getting through is another step for Megumi in her path to world domination. For Alice, this was yet another small insight into the bizarre yet effective dishes she makes, and the main thing it does is to present her as a proper threat befitting a Nakiri. She was the only one to do better than Hishoko!

…But seriously, is that actually food?

Episode 23 

I think a good rule of thumb is that, the longer and more detailed a foodgasm is, the better a cook a competitor is. Nikumi did seem to get a stronger reaction than Kurokiba though – her dish, along with Marui’s and Ibusaki’s were the ones I wanted to try the most from this episode. Note that Kurokiba is basically playing the same role Hishoko did in B Block – so far, he’s dominating above everyone else as the only score in the 90s, but is going to face a challenge from Soma and Hayama, rivals who have both yet to have their dishes judged. Hayama, in particular, is doing an Alice in making something which looks very bizarre for the curry theme they’re supposed to be working with – just like Alice and… whatever her one was, Hayama isn’t producing a standard fish head curry but rather something which contains a fragrance bomb inside what looks like a muffin. It was really cool how both he and Soma ended up making extra to give the other a chance to taste it, too.