Shokugeki no Soma 08-09

Thanks for the meal~

I can’t believe the week flew by so quickly! I’ve been writing a lot, but I ran out of time to write for Shokugeki no Soma on time. I figure this isn’t such a bad thing since 8 and 9 were two-parters covering the Takumi vs Soma showdown. Now the entire battle is in one cohesive post. Let’s pretend I planned this all along.

Being a restaurant chef often means you’re far removed from where your ingredients actually come from. No, it doesn’t just appear in the boxes your suppliers ship to you. A lot of this stuff is just waiting in the wild for an opportunistic passerby to take advantage of it! As long as you don’t trespass on farms, that is. So while foraging may not be the kind of thing Gordon Ramsey does everyday for his restaurants, it’s still good to know where food comes from. It gives you an appreciation for all the magical stuff in pre-prepared boxes you get, makes you think on your feet with what you have at hand, and makes your dish feel all the more meaningful since you battled off angry chickens just to cook it. There are a lot of indirect lessons to be learned here…and I’m pretty sure I’d fail all of them by picking a poisonous mushroom and killing someone. But that’s why I’m not in this chef school. I’ll leave the nature stuff to these guys.

No chickens were harmed in the making of this dish…probably.

I find it amusing that most of the chefs were scolded for being unoriginal and using fish when I (personally) think randomly catching a fish is super impressive. How did everyone figure out how to use a fishing rod so quickly? Was this part of their training? Anyways, the foraging task was certainly a fun change from the usual classroom cooking challenges or Shokugekis. In addition to that, we’re introduced to Soma’s newest rival: Takumi.

I feel like Takumi is a great rival for Soma because he also has confidence…and also has the skills to back it up. I like that Shokugeki no Soma has these cocky characters, but you forgive them for being so showy because they’re genuinely skilled. In fact, they could probably stand to brag a little more with talent like that at their ages. As another “diner” type chef, I’m really curious to see if he gets the same sort of negative treatment as Soma. Do other chefs scoff at his simpler dishes and refuse to try them? Is he considered a lesser chef because of his pedigree as well? Or is he spared from the teasing because he isn’t as vocal about his roots (and plans for schoolwide domination) as Soma? The two could actually be great friends, and it looks like their rivalry is actually a relationship that will bring out the best in the two of them. It will give Takumi his passion and Soma a broader view of the world that’s always existed outside his father’s diner.

Watching Takumi and his twin(????!!!) brother cook was a treat. It was flashy and punchy, hitting all the right notes in terms of making the food look good and portraying the brothers as being deviously talented. Watching them cook was hands-down my favourite part of the 2 episodes. After that…it got a little stale. This is the first time I wasn’t excited seeing Soma cook. By episode 9, it felt like the animation direction was going downhill at a rapid rate. Almost all of the backgrounds were moving blurs of colour. It was so much I actually started feeling dizzy or that I was moving in the opposite direction as the background. It was bad. The overuse of chibis also harmed more than it helped, making the humour seem more childish on top of looking like ass. The bright side is that quality is never spared on the food, which always looks delectable. I guess we know where all the money is going here.

The training camp is really fun so far, and I like the addition of Takumi to the cast. He makes the same grandiose statements as Soma, but he easily gets embarrassed about them when Soma calls him out. It’s sweet. It means he recognizes that it’s a little overboard to declare war so openly. Despite knowing it’s silly, he realizes that a fiery rival is what he needs to hone his skills.

Ok but for real, what’s up with these backgrounds?

I like the way this show approaches the issue of confidence, defining the line between being haughty and having a healthy level of self-esteem. Soma and Takumi are confident because they have the mad skills to back it up. Erena crosses the line and seems more haughty because although she has the skills, she overestimates the connotations of having these abilities and assumes it grants her power over every living thing she comes across. Not cool. Then there’s Megumi, who I’m not quite sure of yet. It seems to me she believes in her cooking despite being timid. She thinks it’s good, but just isn’t the type to brag about it. I think she just beats herself up over being timid more than not being a good chef, although I’m sure she has her doubts every now and then given her grades. But deep down, Megumi knows this is the path for her and I don’t think she would ever want to give up her dream. In a way, Megumi is actually a quiet and confident chef who could be a dark horse of the culinary arts.

I forgot almost all of the new chef teacher characters they infodumped on us suddenly but I guess they’ll be cool to see later???

What have I been cooking? Well, I made fried rice, the Gotcha! pork roast, and Chaliapin steak donburi all in my cooking post for Metanorn’s 7th year anniversary. So yeah, no time to cook anything else quite yet. But for now you have 3 recipes to consult, modify, and make your own for the sake of delicious food. Enjoy~

About Overcooled

A neuroscience graduate, black belt, and all-around nerd. You'll either find me in my lab or curled up in my rilakkuma kigurumi watching anime.