Shokugeki no Soma – 15
Her meatballs bring all the boys to the yard
I’ve been tricked! At episode 14, I had given up all hope of there being a new OP and ED. I’m not sure why they picked episode 15 to do it and why they needed that randomly timed hiatus. Maybe they’re still fine-tuning it, because I saw a hell of a lot of reused scenes from the first part of the season in the OP song. That’s kind of cheap. It’s better than nothing though so I’ll welcome this change!
I’ll be honest, this was kind of a dull episode. I’m not sure why they welcomed us back from a week-long hiatus with such a weak episode either. Let’s see, what happened? Well, first of all, there’s a lot of supposedly inspirational stuff about Soma being scouted in the future and a bus full of old people praising him. I say supposedly because I know that it wants to make me feel pumped up for Soma’s future, but I just can’t muster the enthusiasm. They’re asking me to do the wave and cheer when I just wanna sit in my seat and eat my popcorn. It’s so glaringly obvious that Soma is going to be successful (he already is) that I can’t find any room in my heart to feel happy when he’s being encouraged by others. Damn right he’s a prodigal, restaurant-chef! We already knew that!
…she should really get a doctor to look at that
I only really get excited when Soma faces a chef who could potentially be even better than he is. It’s when the higher chefs talk down to him that I want him to really succeed. The car ride with Erina partly provides that….but I’ve since grown tired of their banter. Ever leave the same song on loop for so long that you forget where it starts and ends or how many times you’ve listened to it? That’s how I feel about any conversation with Soma and Erina. There’s no chemistry. It’s the same schtick repeated ad nauseum with Erina being a bitch, Soma getting the upperhand out of ignorance or simply not giving a shit, and then Erina getting flustered.
Nothing new comes from their conversations except the occasional info dump from Erina as she tells Soma about some special Academy rule/tournament/chef/competition/whatever that he isn’t privy about. That makes the two come across as not even listening to each other since these interactions are almost always just for describing Academy regulations instead of building their characters. And that’s such a disservice to Erina’s role as a main character in the show. By all means she should be an awesome character. How could anyone named “God Tongue” be a bad person? Unfortunately, she’s either infodumping or being really bad at insulting people or being a spoiled brat. None of those are appealing.
Another thing that makes the interactions tiresome is the chibis, which I have consistently complained about because they are consistently being used. It’s getting bad. More and more characters are getting on my nerve as they try to crack bad jokes with derp chibi faces. This is the last time I’ll say it, I swear, and then you just know my dislike for them is implied from now on! …Although this vague sense of deja vu makes me feel like I’ve promised something similar in previous episodes. Oops.
Things don’t pick up with the reintroduction of Soma’s father either. Soma just tells us a bunch of stuff we already knew and some stuff I never really wanted to know. I wanted his dad to be this far-off, aloof shadow for Soma to chase – much like Gon’s dad in Hunter x Hunter. To even get a glimpse of his back, Soma should have had to have worked his ass off. But no, here he is, halfway through the season just chilling at his dorm without me even having the slightest desire for him to make an appearance. It takes away the challenge in a show where Soma already has very little difficult challenges to surmount at his skill level. I don’t think I’m going to eat my words when he cooks against his dad, because he could have just as easily been replaced with Mystery Chef X who is also very good at cooking and the message would be the same. It didn’t have to be his dad, who is supposed to be Soma’s ultimate goal.
There is a bright side here. I may be tiring quickly of some aspects, but this is a shounen show where new alleys are always being explored. There have been many shots of new characters wandering around such as Spice Guy, (Probably) Ramen Girl, and Stalker Girl. No clue what Stalker Girl would cook other than killing her victims and serving them up Hannibal Lector style, but there seems to be an interesting cast of characters that await. I would prefer that they gave a spotlight to some of Soma’s other roommates before dumping more people on us, but I’ll take what I can get. I just hope what I get is better than this episode because wow, info dumps are not fun. Neither is ripping on a show that I usually love!
Wow, that food must have been spicy…
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.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Yeah, this one seemed like a “let take a breathe and encapsulate”. But I do dig the girls in exotic dress….spicy is spicy…
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Arabian night style. Dibs on all three! You’re not getting any of them! 😛
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
…that’s cool…
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Very much so. Next week looks like it’ll be back to “normal” again though.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
No clue what Stalker Girl would cook other than killing her victims and serving them up Hannibal Lector style…
Those Tootsuki snobs are lucky this isn’t Shokugeki no Hannibal, otherwise 3/4ths of the alumni would be mouthwatering gourmet delights right now!
Although, I could see anime Hannibal manipulating Nikumi into becoming his sidekick by tempting her to discover the forbidden meat frontier. She’d be like Bedelia du Maurier, but with madder cooking skills!(ヘ。ヘ)
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
A Hannibal x Shokugeki no Soma crossover needs to happen now. Who will be the first person Nikumi eats…?
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
What’s more shocking is that Doujima actually had hair back then. Times really have changed…
*compares Jouichirou’s flowing locks to Doujima’s short lawn* (“^^)>
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Well, you got to look professional. 😛
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Maybe Yukihira can convince Dojima to grow it back and bring back the wild look…
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Dojima would probably say it’s a thing of a bygone era.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Delicious Meal-gao.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I give this meal 2 michelin stars!
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I don’t know why you’d take the new ED. It’s horrible. I wasn’t even a big fan of the old one, but the new one sounds like it’s sung by someone who shouldn’t really be singing, and mixed by an engineer who had never seen a mixing board before. It’s not even a joke ED like the Jinsei one. It’s just bad.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
I’ll have to agree with you here. It was actually okay during the instrumental lead-in. The rest… well… broken record is what I’ll use. x_O
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
I can almost get used to it…almost. But it ends up being the musical equivalent of the off rhythm snorer…
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I don’t even remember the ED song and I already deleted the video so that’s a bad sign lol. I need to relisten to it to see how bad it was.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
My assumption on waiting until episode 15 for the second OP is because it shows the series is going a new arc: The “Autumn Elections” Dojima talked about the last episode’s preview. The new OP is alright though preference goes to the first at the moment but the ED leaves a lot to be desired. I already miss the old ED.
I don’t see the hiatus as randomly timed. The schedule needed to be evened out. Shokugeki no Souma was one of Spring’s earliest released series and got an extra episode slot thanks the huge number of weeks during the month of May and even if it’s a two-cour, it needed to line up with the series this season that are on their third episode. If not for the hiatus, Shokugeki would’ve been on its fourth episode now instead of third (+12 episodes from Spring). It would’ve been the post for episode 16 this week and the series would end way ahead of the others.
The episode was decent thanks to the fact Soma now realizes his father’s been hiding a legacy from him (or Soma just couldn’t see the signs). I think most of us saw Joichirou having ties to Totsuki coming from miles away, just not to this magnitude. The former second seat of the Elite Ten with a history of accomplishments and Soma wants him to acknowledge his skills. Well, he’s got his work cut out for him and a lot to live up to. The reveal really shook him to the core. In the first episode, it showed the father and son would frequently have cooking competitions which Soma would casually accept with no reason to back down since there’s nothing at stake. Now that the cat’s out of the bag and he’s challenged again, there’s reluctance and intimidation in his eyes.
So Joichirou’s nickname is “The Demon”. Sounds fearsome and makes some sense to some of the OP’s visuals. Mainly the part where Erina is showcased as a goddess and Soma approaching her with black wings. He’s the Demon’s son. Oh, how I wait to see the expression on her face when she realizes her idol and rival are father and son.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I don’t pay attention to the schedule, I was only looking at the episode number. But yes, it makes sense if the show aired early that it would need a break. Thanks for clearing that up for me!
It was pretty obvious Soma’s dad was a graduate from Totsuki so I don’t know why they tried to play it off like it was a big deal. The most shocking thing this week was Erina posing with him in an old photo but I don’t even know what to do with this random piece of information yet so I didn’t even blog about that scene…
Soma’s dad is a demon but Soma is just a lil devil for now. But soon he’ll become a demon too, I’m sure!
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Like he said during the episode, Joichirou never graduated. My guess is he met the girl who later became Soma’s mother, Soma was born and he had to start providing for his family and couldn’t juggle that and continue to be a student.