Shokugeki no Souma

One positive thing I can say about Shokugeki no Souma is that it's an anime that knows exactly what it is - a ridiculously over-the-top sports/battle shounen with cooking as the centerpiece.

In the beginning, the plot seems familiar, but inviting - our hero Souma is faced with his first opponent - an aggressive businesswoman looking to put his father's humble diner out of commission to make way for her development plans. We all know she's simply a stepping stone into the universe of this anime. Predictably, she agrees to step down if Souma can impress her with his cooking. And, of course, he defeats ... her with relative ease.

It's an amusing start, and you know there's a much larger story and far more formidable opponents on the road ahead. Unfortunately from here on out, Shokugeki no Souma slowly stumbles into mediocrity as it attempts to constantly out-do itself.

The visual gags in SnS are the primary source of its "ecchi" tag, which mostly consist of its infamous food-induced orgasms, complete with clothes being torn asunder and physics-defying breasts superimposed on dreamy foodscapes. Funny the first time, but it gets old fast.

Though these scenes don't exist simply for humor, but also to beat you over the head with expository dialogue as to why the dish they're eating is just that good. Imagine your typical anime action battle scene - a combatant suddenly realizes their opponent's "secret technique", and inexplicably begins to blab out loud what is happening, as if they knew we were watching.

And that is SnS in a nutshell - every shounen trope you can imagine, but with food. This by itself isn't inherently bad, it's simply what it does with them that makes SnS very predictable, tiresome and - despite pulling out all the stops to be as epic as possible - ultimately boring.

STORY - 7/10

The story of SnS plays it relatively safe. We are all familiar with the archetype of the unexpected hero and his hometown roots. He's young, highly competitive and determined - albeit a bit naive and a sore loser. Trained under his mysterious and skilled father, he sends him off to a prestigious academy for aspiring chefs. Surrounded by peers of elite and privileged upbringing, he sticks out like a sore thumb - something that sometimes comes to his advantage. It is here Souma will face one greater challenge after another as he fights for the chance to be the very best that no one ever was.

It's a tried and true classic plotline. It can be inspiring, motivational and relatable in all kinds of ways. It's meant to resonate with the average viewer, and that's great! But there's little reason to be invested in - even if the stakes are high - if we don't care about the characters. Unfortunately, SnS fails in many ways to create compelling characters.

CHARACTERS - 2/10

One glaring issue with SnS is that the main character is almost too perfect. Souma is basically a "Marty Stu", or an idealized self-insert that just so happens to excel at everything he does. He seems incapable of doing wrong, making mistakes or showing weakness. Women fawn over him, think about him constantly and even spite eachother in order to win his affection, though he seems blissfully unaware or uninterested in any of it.

While Souma is capable of learning things and growing as a person, we don't ever really see it happen - we only see the results of it. And sometimes it happens literally overnight.

Souma's flaws are merely personality quirks, nothing really stops him from reaching the next plateau. His struggle is almost non-existent because of this, and it rarely adds any tension or excitement to his story.

Secondly, there are far too many supporting characters that overlap eachother. In 2 cours of SnS we are introduced to over two dozen supporting cast with some kind of backstory and motivation - mostly sharing at least two of the following attributes: 1. the desire to be the best in the academy 2. obsessively competitive and self-righteous 3. the desire to best Souma as a chef - and, as an added bonus, may possibly have some kind of unrequited affection towards him. Granted, not all supporting cast follow this example (for example, the far more compelling and likable Miyoko Houjou), but there are few and they get painfully little screen time.

On the whole, a lot of the supporting cast is generally flat and unlikable outside of Souma's dorm mates. True that many are merely rivals, but this doesn't mean that the character can't be complex and interesting. Sometimes the rivals and villains of a story can be even more compelling than the characters we're supposed to be cheering on.

The only character that comes from truly humble beginnings and experiences real growth is the female lead Megumi. Her flaws are human, her character is believable, and her struggle is familiar on many levels. Souma is so sickeningly idealized that it makes Megumi stand out even more, and it's hard not to cheer her on. However, with so many other characters competing for screen-time, she is sometimes absent.

ENJOYMENT - 3/10

SnS is constantly trying to reach new heights of epic showdowns with the same set-up in every arc. It goes something like this - a new character or characters are introduced, Souma encounters them, and they appear in the next "cooking battle". There's monologues, wide-eyed moments of revelation, montages and of course ecchi. They all generally end the same way, though - with Souma edging his way to the next challenge and stunning his seasoned rivals.

The problem lies in that literally every cooking battle ends in the same way - those judging the food are seen as jaded and impossible to impress. Yet that illusion is instantly shattered as Souma and his peers unexpectedly blow them away every time to the shock of onlookers. But when the audience is shown this over and over from the get-go, it's anything but shocking and the tension is artificial.

By the time you get to the 6-episode cooking battle finale, you already know exactly what's going to happen. Watching it unfold is hilariously predictable and the whole arc falls flat. There's not much of a resolution either as the manga is ongoing, so the ending feels more like a lull than anything.

One positive thing to say about the enjoyment factor is that the pacing of SnS is fairly well done. Many anime struggle with pacing, but SnS manages to pack in a lot without seeming rushed or taking too much time here or there. Unfortunately what's happening on screen is not awfully compelling.

ART & SOUND - 7/10

Not much to say here besides "good". This is by no means an animated masterpiece, but the animation is generally solid and consistent. The art style is also aesthetically pleasing. The only complaint regarding the animation are the sometimes poorly animated bouncing breasts - if you're going to do blatant fanservice, at least do it right. At times the breasts bounce as if they were being flopped around in an exaggerated video game physics engine with no rhyme or reason. Also, the art can sometimes go overboard on the blush with soft red gradients topped with white highlights all over the body. They look like awkwardly large pimples when they're not done subtly.

The paintings and animation of food are nothing short of stellar. You won't see food this detailed in many other anime. But at the end of the day it is just food and doesn't do much for what's happening in the story.

The music is well done and the sound effects will make you hungry (if the food on screen isn't already).

OVERALL - 5/10

At the end of the day, despite its many flaws, there are much worse anime than SnS. In this case, it's the cast of SnS that drag down a story and premise that had potential, and the result is something decidedly mediocre. While SnS never loses its focus, it shows all the cards in its hand too quickly, leaving the audience with no surprises left to look forward to.

This anime is a disappointment.I'm a big fan of the manga and was thoroughly saddened by this poor adaption.

It starts out well enough but slowly deteriorates into a pile of anime cliches, poor comedy, and agonizing slowness.

While the anime stuck to the basic plot, it changed many important scenes from the manga.Serious scenes were made into cheap comedy, comedy scenes were cut out, and they added a few tiny details which completely neutralized the effect of important character development scenes.Then, the pace was reduced to that of a snail and every scene was elongated more than necessary.

The character development that was supposed to happen ... wasn't covered properly, and the few changes that happened were cancelled out immediately by inserting useless comedy.

The Art is the only thing good about the anime.Fantastic.


Overall, While it did have a good start, it progressed down into boredom.The general storyline is pretty good though, and it's funny despite the useless extra scenes.It had potential, but ended up wasting away.

Culinary prowess has taken a decently large foothold in the world that we know today. With many a aspiring chef coming to showcase their culinary chops, we follow the story today of an anime character named Souma, and his road to culinary greatness in, Shokugeki no Souma, Food Wars! Let's dig in!

Story: Yukihira Souma is the son of the man Yukihiro Junichiro, a man who owns only but a lowly diner. Being an aspiring chef, Souma wishes nothing more than to best his father and proudly take over the diner as its head chef and owner. After being confronted by some ... pushy buyers for the land that the diner is on, Souma valiantly protects the diner that he treasures, and successfully pushes the buyers away, he is then told by his father that for his years in high school, he will be going to the a cooking academy to learn how to cook. BUT THIS ISN'T YOUR AVERAGE COOKING ACADEMY! It is Tootsuki Academy, one of the most prestigious cooking school with a graduation rate of apparently, only a literal 10 people successfully passing through the third year of school.

Shokugeki no Souma acts a lot like your average tournament anime/manga, only this time, there's cooking involved in the battles rather than sword fights, magic fights, or what have you. With each group of episodes, one or more characters participate in some kind of battle since the setting, Tootsuki Academy, encourages fights between the students in order to hone their skills called Shokugeki. (Basically, food war. Hey, that's the title of the series!) With this concept in mind, each character as a result acts as a different opponent to our main protagonist Souma, each of whom bring their own "weapon" with them like a general tournament anime with the "weapon" being each character's own cooking style and specialty in the culinary world.

The downfall of this story, especially in part due to the time constraint of a general length of an anime, is the fact that that's really all the story has to offer. Every episode or small group of episodes is devoted entirely to a specific battle within the series, with the possibility of prompting some character development in some select people. (Usually, it's the generic rival declaration or enemy turned friend sort of deal.) Plus, due to the show's entire devotion to food, there is a lot of tasting that goes on in this series to the point that they devote entire episodes solely on just tasting one dish or two dishes purely because there are characters that have so much to say about it.

As for the show's comedy (since this show does actually have a bit of a comedy factor to it), Shokugeki no Souma mostly draws this from Souma's extremely nonchalant and sometimes innocent attitude towards things. If someone is challenging him, he'll just brush it off as a joke and wish them luck in the next confrontation. If someone is saying he'll fail, he'll just sit their silently, cook, then prove them wrong with a straight face. Several characters also do this style of nonchalantness, thus adding to it, but no one comes as near frequency as what Souma does in this series.

In the end, Shokugeki no Souma is your typical tournament anime, just with food as its battle of choice rather than a bloodbath in an arena, or what have you. The issue I have with the ending in particular is the fact that they don't end it at the end of an arc, rather, just stopping in the middle of one. This as a result puts a sour taste in my mouth because this is essentially a "read the manga" ending. (Damnit J.C. Staff. Not again!) They don't resolve it in as comfortable place as I would like it to be, and as such, is a bit of a disappointment in that regard. But, you get to learn a lot about food as you're watching this show, so that's a plus.

Overview:
+ Food-based anime (Because there honestly aren't a lot of these.)
+ Casual comedy
+ Food learning
- Generic tournament based anime
- Open ending (Ending in the middle of an arc is a fatal error for an anime IMO.)

Characters: Shokugeki no Souma's characters as well follow your same traditional style of tournament anime characters. Each character acts as either an ally or an enemy for our main protagonist, with each of them equipped with a different cooking style to separate each of them from one another.

Up first is our main protagonist, Yukihira Souma. As mentioned before, Souma is a very nonchalant character, completely confident in his abilities as a chef and never backs away from a challenge. This in turn, creates a bit of a arrogant feeling to his character as he in the series, continuously showcases his cooking prowess and his style of "Yukihira" cooking, which is basically adaptive cooking, to put it in simple terms. In the show, Souma doesn't particularly change all that much. You get a sense of him as a character as he goes through the various battles in the series, but there isn't any real growth to him as a character. He's very nonchalant as he goes through whatever situation he's in and as a result of his sort of "beginner's luck", doesn't really change because the outcome is always favorable to him.

Then we have Tadokoro Megumi, the sort of sidekick to our main character. With "home-style" cooking as her main weapon of choice, Megumi is the shy girl in the corner who always tries to hang in there by a thread. As a result, Megumi serves a lot of the time as the cute, shy girl who always tries her best in cooking better and becoming more independent. As the series goes on, you get to see Megumi progress through the various challenges that she goes through, which ends up creating some rather nice character development. As a result of this, she is actually more of a developed character than Souma is in the show, regardless of the fact that she appears less often than that of the main protagonist.

And finally, we have Nakiri Erina, the "high and mighty bitch-like" character in the series. With regal or elegant cooking as her forte, Erina reflects that by being one of the currently best talents that the Academy has to offer in its 92nd generation. Acting like more of a side character for the series, Erina acts like that one character that you just love to hate. She doesn't do much in the series aside from stand in the background and criticize what, especially Souma, is doing, and as a result isn't a phenomenal character at all. She lacks in simple involvement in the series so there's that as a flaw for her even though she was one of the few characters showcased in the series.

The rest of the cast as I have mentioned before are various "warriors" in this tournament style anime, that serve as both allies and enemies of Souma. We have Yuki, a master at game cooking, Ryoko, who specializes in fermentation, Shun, who loves a good smoking, and so on and so forth. Most of these characters act as either fillers for character roles, or obstacles for Souma. The is in part because of the tournament style of storytelling because the ones who are considered as "allies" don't show off as often, and inversely, the "enemies" or "rivals" on the other hand, do, since they pose a threat to our main protagonist.

Overview:
+ Some character development for select characters
- Main protagonist stays very static throughout the whole series
- Side characters mostly act as plot devices to progress the story

Art: Produced by J.C. staff, Shokugeki no Souma uses a very bright style of animation where the colors just pop out at you with relatively good detail. The characters themselves are nicely detailed, and the overall animation doesn't particularly change all that much for the series, except for three different areas that I suppose, make Shokugeki unique.

The least exciting of the three is the comedic areas, where the characters are simply just drawn in a simpler aspect with less details and occasional slight chibification. As such, there's not a particularly large amount to say about it since it's mostly just all exaggerated expressions and a couple background changes.

Then we have food. Out of every area of art in the series, Shokugeki's food is some of the most fantastic animation I have seen out of it. Because the series puts so much emphasis to the dishes that the characters make, J.C. Staff has done good by devoting a crapload of time and energy into making the dishes look like literal pieces of art. They look very good to the point that you just sort of want to reach in and take a bite.

And of course, we have the animation that this show is famous for, the food porn. Yes, you heard me right, food porn. (I waited all the way till now to talk about this.) The concept of a foodgasm is very common in this anime in particular. Because the show involves a lot of tasting of dishes, in order to encapsulate what the characters eating the food are feeling, Shokugeki no Souma always puts in some kind of imagery in order to create something in order to explain the feeling of bliss or what have you when eating the food. As such, the food is so good that in their foodgasm fantasies, clothes rip off, people sometimes get violated by tentacles, and there are quite a few lewd-like screams. And with the way most of the girls in this series are drawn, oh boy, they took advantage of the opportunity. This...creates a very interesting dynamic for the series and one of the main draws of the show. Because apparently, getting violated by yogurt and squid after eating a horrible concoction of those two ingredients equates to you getting violated by said tentacles in your mind. There's also manservice too for all you ladies out there, so it's equal, probably.

Overview:
+ Good animation
+ Great looking food
+/- Foodgasm ecchi scenes (This of course, varies on how you view ecchi.)

Sound: The soundtrack of Shokugeki no Souma consists of two sets of OP's and ED's. Outright, the ED's really aren't all that memorable. Sure, they're fun little tracks that bring the joy of just eating, but there really isn't much substance to either one of them, which is a shame because the openings are pretty good.

Inversely, the two OP's of the show follow two completely different tones. A casual and joyful tone for its first OP in order to illustrate the beginning of the journey and the beginning to the road to greatness, and the second OP which follows the more "serious" side of the anime involving Shokugekis and other food wars to settle differences between characters.

Overview:
+ Good OP's the reflect the show
- Average ED's in comparison

Personal Enjoyment: So, all in all, did I enjoy food wars? As someone who doesn't actively search tournament style anime, Shokugeki no Souma was a rather interesting experience. It followed the anime portion that it covered to the letter, and put everyone in their right places in terms of where they come in, how they come in, and how they interact with each other.

Did I enjoy this anime?

I in fact, did. There was always that sweet satisfaction of Souma confidently presenting an odd dish before earning high praises because of how casual he is to just about everything. There were also a lot of characters that I particularly liked regardless of their lack of any proper roundness of a character, and I just simply liked how hungry the series made me. (I think I made myself something eat after each episode after at least every other week.)

What didn't I enjoy about this anime?

My biggest complaint about the series from my standpoint, is the fact that it ends in the middle of an arc. I always find that to be a dangerous call because the creators end it in someplace that doesn't tell the whole story of what's going on, leading to some unanswered questions, questions that shouldn't be left over since it doesn't give the show a proper explanation for them. (And it doesn't look like there's going to be a season 2 any time soon.) Some of the scenes also made me a bit uncomfortable to watch. Since the original mangaka used to be a hentai artist, well...you can see where I'm going with this.

Would I recommend this anime?

If you're a fan of both ecchi and tournament anime, man do I have the anime for you. Shokugeki no Souma is a series entirely devoted on cooking various dishes and comparing them to each other via Iron Chef style in order to prove which one is better; that's literally the entire series. As a result, if you're not a fan of linear plotlines like that, then you may reconsider watching this. But if you don't mind that, or the ecchi and sheer talking that this series is somewhat plagued with, then give it a shot, you might just like it when you try it.

I typically do not go into new anime shows with any sort of expectation mainly because it would limit my perspective of the show. A lot of talk about food wars went around and it was time that I watched the show. However, Food wars is not an exception to the expectation rule I use. As with any show that I start with, I am always looking forward to an enjoyable show until it comes down to whether I decide to write a review on it. Food wars happened to be within this criteria and was very enjoyable to watch, yet there were many lacking ... elements to the show.

There were many ways to interpret the story of the show. Ranges from guy who wants to be the best chef for the sake of being the best to guy who is looking to be the best to surpass a role model of his. I decided to interpret it as the latter and it overall lead me to believe that the show had a really vague conclusion. In hindsight, the show didn't seem to follow a linear story line, rather focus on the lot of characters that we are introduced to. However the intended interpretation was of this anime, it was executed nicely with detailed script. It was like watching one of those reality tv food shows where competitors are shown capabilities on the outside while delving into the philosophical elements of them as well. Well done story line even though there wasn't an overlying climax to look forward to.

The biggest fall of this show were the characters. I try not to compare anime within reviews but I felt that there was a big flaw within the show that another show had. After some cooking scenes, we get to see a snippet of a character's backstory as to why and how they learned to cook the way they do. Is this what it means to give meaning to a character and make us give a damn about them? I do not think so, this is what I call the Akame ga Kill! effect. It is cool to learn about the character's through their past, but if its just for a moment and is disregarded towards the end of the show, then its meaningless. Even our main protagonist is not interesting, he sorta gives off the tatsuya vibe from Mahouka. Being the phenomenal star of the academy, lots of competition involving him does not provide the feeling of suspense, because one way or another due to plot convenience, he will come out on top. He does have redeeming qualities though, pretty much defying all the shounen type protagonist we see in shows lately. Arrogant, confident, and funny to boot.
Also the focus of characters seem to shift wildly. The first few episodes gives off a feeling that the chick on the front of the cover photo for the show is our main antagonist, but shes just plot armor'd to no avail. Then we have the shining gem of the show, another effect I like to call the Megumi effect. Seems in some anime I watch, the Megumi girl is always the most developed and the shine of the show. She seemed to have most of the screen time above all other characters besides the protagonist. It was certainly a breath of fresh air watching her because she stands out from the crowd of professional heir's, being borderline failure and timid at that. By the end of the show, she really is something and the best characterized character of the show by far. All the other characters suffer the akame ga kill effect and are really not memorable. There were interesting qualities in some of them, but they dont expand upon them like they did with Megumi.

Animation; oh boy. This a mixed bag for me because while the food looks very appealing and detailed, the ecchi scenes were just out of place and over the top. The biggest problem with these foodgasm scenes is that they take up so much screen time and are really drawn out to the point its just a nuisance and obnoxious. Yes the food is good, all the side characters with different colored hair are going to have good food. We don't need 3 minutes of screen time of them orgasming over it. It really took away from the feeling of achievement you get when you see a character succeed. However, I really love the miniature figures of characters in comedic scenes and the white eyes. I seem to have a guilty pleasure for that type of animation and it fit the script when it was used. But the drawn out scenes of glorifying the food was a no no for me, after the first 5 episodes I was no longer able to stomach it.

Sound is forgettable. Both openings are mediocre and the 2nd ED was as well. However, the first ED is by far one of my favorite ED's out there in anime, and I believe that most people tend to only remember openings rather than endings. This one was able to catch my attention and was unskippable for me. Soundtrack wasn't memorable at all. The supposed suspense filled scenes didn't have any music which was a bonus since that's what makes it suspenseful. Besides the recycled instrumental theme of the ED/OP's, soundtrack was mediocre.

Overall, a very fun watch. I applaud the writer of the show since it was very informative, bar some unrealistic traits to some cooked meals. Character interactions are funny and story is good. Lack of tension limited the story though since the main protagonist was really strong. Many characters were one dimensional, many were disregarded, and u think a 24 episode series would justify having well developed characters but even throughout the show, new characters just kept popping up and making prior ones even more forgetful. Animation is a hit or miss for viewers, miss for me. But despite all of it, I recommend watching it since its addictive. Who doesn't like watching the production of food?!

megumi wifey material :)

After hearing about this show from multiple people, I decided to give it a shot. I've actually read the first couple volumes of the manga so I kind of knew what to expect coming in. Honestly, I probably should have just read the manga instead since it would have been much faster and maybe more enjoyable.

Art
Let's start with the positives. The animation for this show looks amazing. Not the best I've seen but definitely up there and deserving of an 8/10 rating. The way the animators made the food shine really impressed me and if I were fast-forwarding through this (which I kind of did ... towards the end), I would still pause at the moment each dish is first introduced.

Sound
The songs are also pretty good. I wasn't a fan of the second opening but the rest were pretty decent in an above average listen-on-youtube-every-once-in-a-while kind of way. There were also a couple of recognizable recurring themes that would come up in the middle of the show so overall the sound was pretty well-done.

Character
I liked that there were a lot of characters and they're pretty easily distinguishable. You could easily tell that a character would be at least somewhat important based on what they're wearing (the normal students all look the same otherwise and actually wear the uniforms). I guess this is a common thing but I kind of appreciate it. I also like that each character has a specialty (hey it's the rice wine chick!) because I definitely didn't know a lot of their names until the end.

I originally was going to give characters a 6 or 7 rating but the more I think about it the more I realized that might be a little high. I was pretty annoyed that every character in the show just wants to be the very best ("I'm coming for that #1 spot!"). Success doesn't have to come this way. Sure, no one wants to be bad at things but some variety would be nice at least. Also, none of the characters went through any sort of growth except for maybe Megumi, our female co-protagonist. I don't think it'd be too controversial to say this is not a character-driven show.

Story
The ideas are there, with the camp and the Autumn Elections. However, the execution for the last couple of episodes was pretty terrible in my opinion. It was the same shit for so many different people. They introduced characters that did nothing for the rest of the show save to present a dish at the Autumn Election like the girl who made chinese food. Sure, there might be payoffs later but this is not the right way to introduce a character. I ended up fastforwarding through the last two-three episode just to see the scores for each student and the food that they made. It's like watching Master Chef except all the reviews are good (which, if you've seen master chef, the best parts are when the judges shit all over the food) and it's just boring and hard to watch. This is a shame because I enjoyed how they introduced different parts of the world earlier in the season (training camp, different clubs, different dorms, etc).

Enjoyment
This 7/10 pretty much comes from reaction/over-reaction chibi shots. I'm just a sucker for them and they always make me laugh. This show had no shortages of reaction shots which was great.

The food orgasms were pretty annoying. I prefer the real thing.

Overall/TLDR
Funny, original show with great visual, good sound, a meh story and memorable-but-don't-do-much characters. I don't hate my self for having spent the time to watch this show's first season but I will not be watching the second season. Too many other animes out there to watch still!

Story: it's a Nekketsu with food. There is literally nothing else to say about the story. Characters meet, they fight(with cooking), hero wins(with cooking). If hero loses, it's just so he can come back and win stronger.

Art: For a 2015 anime it's fine.

Sound: For a 2015 anime it's fine.

Characters: it's bad.
It's really boring and bad and uninteresting. I watched 24 episodes and the only character I ever rooted for was Megumi Tadokoro. The rest barely kept me interested.

Enjoyment: Well, does this "review" look to you like I'm just trying to drop this thing harder than an unpinned grenade? If not, then I haven't hammered enough ... how this isn't worth talking about.

You see Shokugeki isn't good. It delves into several modern trends that really should all die:

-Girls are ridiculously eroticized so we they don't have to write well, orgasms will convey emotions instead of good characters
-Abuse of flashbacks at the worst times
-Too many characters
-Harem slowly being built around a main character that of course will never realise all the girls want to bang him
-Too many stereotypes that aren't done any better than in many other shows

The general feeling when watching a Shokugeki episode is that it's predictable, it's generic, it's uninteresting, and it's not even done right, nor does it have anything about it that makes it stand out at all. I recently called Kiznaiver a standard anime with standard anime characters, but Shokugeki doesn't even deserve the title of standard, it's a generic anime filled wth stereotypes, a fairly wide cast of anime people that have no depth and just aren't well portrayed at all.

In the entirety of the 24 episodes I think two or three moments were sort of good, all of them with Megumi Tadokoro. Without these moments this would've earned a 4.

This show isn't just filled to the brim with boring, overdone stereotypes that make it ultra predictable, it's also a cooking show, and I just have to compare it for a second with the far older and far funnier Mister Ajikko.

Ajikko and Shokugeki start in a small diner. A big, important character eats their food and realises that they are sublimely talented. They both start a campaign to prove to the world that they are the best cook ever. They both face many challenges with many opponents and very diverse styles and origins of cuisine. They both meet villains and have to prove them wrong with their cooking.

The difference is, while Ajikko is a dried old 90s thing with everything wrong with the 90s in it, it manages to keep you watching without needing to shove boobs in your face or make yet another harem of girls who'll never reach those pants. And Ajikko has the merit of being so bad it's genius. The over-the-topness makes it very fun, because characters taking themselves ultra seriously before doing the dumbest things is always fun.

Shokugeki isn't fun.
It's generic nekketsu protagonist + harem of needlessly sexualised girls + generic nekketsu situations where EVERYTHING is predictable + large cast of undevelopped characters. And the result is a completely uninteresting anime.

Yes the dishes look great and yes the explanations are veeeeeery complex, to the point that the food fights just last too long, but the poor storytelling with characters constantly talking and explaining is also to be added to the pile of things that make this too generic, too impersonal and too dull.

Overall: It's just mediocre.
Consistently mediocre with Tadokoro Megumi being sort of the superior part of the series. It's watchable alright, I mean I gulped down all of it in two days, other animes have been more boring or worse. But even when I look back to somewhat boring shows like Himouto Umaru-chan or really boring ones like Dagashi Kashi, I remember that these shows had a certain charm or style or something to themselves and I felt like I'd like to see them again someday.

Shokugeki is more like eating a supermarket sandwich. It's edible and it'll quench your hunger, but damn will you want something with more taste. You can watch this if you want "an anime", but there is so much better out there.

I remember stumbling upon Food Wars on Netflix during my freshmen year in high school. Now, admittedly, I was initially interested in the show because of its borderline hentai ecchi and as a freshmen in highschool I was horny af so it automatically had me hooked. With that being said it didn't take long for me be more invested in the story than the ecchi.

Souma Yukihira, our main character, is a very hard-working, determined, and reckless individual who's dream is to inherit the family diner his dad currently owns. Out of no where he is sent to a world-renowned cooking school, by his father, immediately ... after graduating middle school. The school is very harsh with its education. For example, simply using a brand of hair conditioner that interferes with the aroma of your cooking can get you expelled and your dreams of being a famous cook are basically thrown into hell. This was the part which truly dragged me in this show. The intense nature of the school combined with the reckless nature of Souma Yukihira creates some pretty crazy situations where he basically has to find a way to preserve or hes just fucked. For a good part of the show most of the school denies his abilities and the process of him proving them wrong is very satisfying to watch. The situations Souma puts HIMSELF in can be nail-biting because you just have no idea how he's gonna pull it off. As the show progresses the challenges just get even more intense and the story takes a controversial shift, one that I personally enjoyed.

I HIGHLY advise to wear headphones while watching this show because sometimes the ecchi can come outta no where really fast and make everyone around you think your just watching hentai and they'll look at you with digust and shake their head (I have experienced this). However, the show can be very technical and precise, especially when they're talking about how the food was prepared in stuff which I personally enjoy. THIS SHOW ISNT FOOD PORN SO DONT LISTEN TO ANYONE WHO SAYS THAT, GIVE IT A TRY BUT JUST REALIZE IT ISNT FOR A LOT OF PEOPLE.

I marathoned season 1 in one day, so maybe that's affecting my review more than it should, but here goes (there are some spoilers, fair warning)...

Story: 6
Predictable, but I guess a food tournament doesn't really need a super inspiring plot. It is what it is. Boy enters food academy chasing after the dream of beating his father. Boy largely succeeds with almost no challenge because the skills his father taught him were basically god tier. My problem with it is once they get to the main tournament it's basically a continuous monotonous stream of judge reactions and food explanations.

Art: 8
Pretty good. Never gets sloppy, doesn't ... require a lot of animation so I guess I can't complain. The fanservice bits are a plus I guess.

Characters: 6
Honestly this is where this show should have dumped all its resources into. Megumi seems to be the most developed, and she's sort of likable if you like the super innocent type with self esteem issues. Souma is the stereotypical down-to-earth boy whose biggest challenge is getting second place once or twice (boo hoo?). Erina is the aloof tsundere girl who love/hates Souma (WAY overplayed in this series). Souma establishes the standard "every girl has a crush on the hero" relationship with most of the girls in the series, but never really gets to any concrete relationship beyond "hey you're a friend in need, so I'll cheer you up and help you out but nothing more because cooking is my life!" Maybe all that changes in the later seasons, but now there's basically no character development beyond Megumi. All in all, they come out okay I guess.

Enjoyment: 7
It's a good show for what it is. There isn't really any emotional investment on the viewer's part to most of the characters. Losses aren't really losses. It's just an exhibition on Souma winning. The comedy is good on about half of the stuff, but once you hit the tournament it's pretty forced.

Overall: Not as entertaining as Yakitate Japan, but you can watch it and get some enjoyment.

2:45 min into episode one: the first instance of tentacle sex.

And this isn't hentai. This is a cooking anime. I laughed out loud, but not in a good way. This wasn't what I was watching Shokugeki no Souma for. I was watching it because it is highly rated, and because it has a couple of my favorite seiyuu. The first episode was mostly cringe-worthy, and I nearly dropped it. But I tend to give anime more than one episode if it is highly rated, and I managed to get through the whole thing. So, does it deserve ... this high rating?

Not in my opinion. It is undoubtedly due to the high incidence of ecchi, so if ecchi is your thing, you can take the rating as guidance; you will get your fill here. If ecchi is not your thing, this show can still be enjoyable, but you have to make allowance for the surfeit of ecchi in form of foodgasms any time anyone eats anything, which gets repetitive and annoying. The show tries half-heartedly to provide a little male nudity as well, but that's nothing compared to the amount of boobage present. I personally am not a fan of huge boobs, and here nearly all women have oversized udders, and it's a little gross how much they push themselves into the forefront of most scenes, not just the dedicated ecchi ones.

Story (4/10): Quite simple -- Yukihira Souma has helped his father in the diner since he was small, and has become quite the competent cook. One day his father packs up his duffle bag and heads out into the world without so much as a preparatory warning, and sends Souma off to Tootsuki Academy, an elite finishing school for chefs where only the top 10% graduate. Souma, coming from a humble diner doesn't quite fit with the elite student body, but that doesn't faze him, because he is very confident in his skills. These skills will be tested a lot, since the school specializes in "shokugeki" -- cooking battles with the competitors staking something of value on the outcome.

This is basically a standard shounen battle anime, except the battles are fought over food, and knives are used to attack ingredients, not opponents. Extra tension is added via especially high stakes -- many battles are used to weed out students, who're kicked out of school. Goodbye, you are the weakest link.

Anyone looking for romance here, there is none. Oh, there are harem possibilities, and no doubt many will ship various girls with Souma, and even some guys, but there is no hint of him actually being interested romantically in anyone; he is aromantic and asexual; his mind is on cooking and cooking alone. It's actually kind of refreshing.

Art (7/10): Lovely, lovely food. Characters are easy to tell apart (at least those who matter; the others are undistinguished, and you can pretty much tell who to pay attention to by that alone). Animation is alright, nothing outstanding, but it doesn't really need to be any better because the art is so good that you don't really notice how often it doesn't move. The 3DCG doesn't blend very well, but it's not really horrible either.

Sound (6/19): I liked the first OP and Ed, not so much the second. BGM is well done. Voice talent is appropriate, occasionally over the top as is typical for shounen.

Character (5/10): This is where the show fails the most. Souma is quite a pleasant protagonist for a shounen show; he's merely justifiedly confident instead of a conceited brat, he does not take offense even at outright provocation (this is played very well for humour because he defuses most situations that would normally end in a fight). He's even nice to some of his competitors. I like him a lot better than the usual shounen protag, whom I tend to find annoying. But Souma has minimal character development. He is this way from the very start, and while he grows as a chef, his character seems set. He's probably a bit too perfect, he doesn't have to really struggle either, not in comparison to some of his fellow students.

The character that undergoes the most growth is Tadokoro Megumi who comes from humble beginnings and is even more of a fish out of water at prestigious Tootsuki than Souma because she completely lacks any confidence at the start. She makes the most progress during the show.

All the other characters, while clearly outlined, are not particularly interesting, and experience limited growth; usually by confrontation with Souma whom they want to beat (and for the girls, whom they are attracted to), and who learn one or another lesson by losing.

Enjoyment (7/10): The show grew on me. I mostly enjoyed the food, and the explanations about it -- you won't learn cooking from this show, but your love of food might increase, and you will definitely learn some things about food preparation you didn't know before. It helped that I liked Souma. I could have done without the ecchi which detracted from the show for me, but I enjoyed the food enough to watch the second season. Oh yeah, point deduction for ending in the middle of an arc; I feel for the people who actually watched this as broadcasted. Since I am binging after the 2nd season finished airing, I can go straight into that.

Total (29÷5): 6

Okay. Where as some people shit on this anime, whilst others totally love it, I fall somewhere in the middle.

Story - 8/10:
The overall 'plot' doesn't deserve an 8/10, but it's more the concept that I like. The idea of a cooking anime, which is a very unique sort of 'sports anime', intrigues me. It was executed well, on top of this, despite some of the major flaws I have with the anime as a whole.

The plot is good -- the fanservice can get insane at times, and actually managed to make me skip portions of the anime, as I was legitimately grossed out ... by what I was looking at and hearing. As a guy who enjoys horror anime, I'm not easily grossed out, but the borderline disgusting fanservice in this anime managed to push me over. If you can look past this, though, the story in general is pretty good.

Art - 7/10:
The art wasn't really anything special for me, but it didn't look bad whatsoever. Animation was smooth, so... yeah.

Sound - 5/10:
I didn't particularly care for the soundtrack, especially regarding the OP and ED. It wasn't horrible, for sure, but it just wasn't that great.

Character - 5/10:
I really wanted to like some of the characters more than I did. It's unfortunate that they didn't really flesh out the characters enough, something I'm deeply hoping they do in Season 2. This is most likely a result of them introducing a shit load of characters, and then having no fucking clue what to do with them.

The only character which I enjoyed the development of was Megumi, even though her character development wasn't the strongest. It was good by the end to see her working on her own, and not needing Soma to help her quite as much. Otherwise, characters like Takumi were relevant for 1-2 episodes, and then for the rest of the time were pointless background characters.

Soma didn't really go through any character development whatsoever. He came in with the goal of graduating and being the best chef, and he maintained that goal, without any real obstacles. Though he goes through some brief development after losing to that-one-graduate-guy, it's not enough to redeem the lack of character development on his part.

Enjoyment - 9/10:
Despite the lack of character development, I really enjoyed watching Food Wars. I finished it in about 4 days, which is the third fastest I've ever watched a 24+ episode anime (Mirai Nikki and Parasyte being 1st and 2nd respectively). If you enjoy watching characters compete, especially if you enjoy cooking at all, this anime is very fun to watch.

Overall - 6/10

*English is not my first language! Review will be edited... eventually!*

So, yeah... Food Wars was a total wreck! Tasty wreck, but a wreck, nontherless!

Like many others before me, I honestly cannot say, nor comprehend, why oh why this has such a high ranking! Or rather... I do understand, since I gave it above average-rating, but I'd like to think myself as better than a mind that gets so easily entertained.

One can dream...

And entertained I was! Shokugeki no Souma was - at the very least - entertaining! There's food, and there's boobies - all the goodnes in the world combined!

No, but honestly... I really ... did like core consept of this anime - food, chef vs chef, and the brainwork, talent and effort behing every single spoonful! Unfortunately... the core of the show, was just as bare, as were those who ate the said food - lucky bastards!


Story: 3


The story of the SnS ended, before it even started! The consept, the basic idea, was introduced to us in the very early on - as it should be - and there was even some kind of conflict happening in there... somewhere, before it kinda lost itself into... itself.

A young boy, only son of a legendary chef and a talented one himself, gets - forced by his absent father, through neglection - to attend this best-of-the-absolute-best cooking school, where only the selected view gets to even spend the first night, before permanent life-long elimination, and only a handful will graduate in the end! Powered by the desire to finaly succeed his father, both in talent, passion and in skill, the boy-what's-his-face, finds himself as an immediate underdog, and an irritatingly talented blockhead, who angers some blond bitch for some reason, angers the entire school against him for no reason, and... spoiler-ish?! But wait! The Sequel!!

Yeah, so... the story isn't obviously finished yet, due to the second season and all, but... is it still worth the rating it gets?

No. Not by a mile stone!

It was pretty obvious to see very early on, to whom this show was originally aimed for, and that the story itself didn't spend even nearly so much time on a writing desk, than the cells of the bouncing boobies, buttocks and steaming bowls of deliciousness. For young boys, this show is ideal, since the plot is actually bigger, than the actual story - fight with food - and not much brainpower is needed to understand, what is happening, and how much jelly those ladies have in their massive, underaged bosoms!

Like I said before, the story of a SnS isn't really a "story" per say, rather than a core-consept, that just keeps moving forward - not up, or down... just forward. No matter how many efforts this show takes trying to put something satisfactory on the table, the overall tone of the show is really monotonic, full of repeated gimics, traits and gags, and if I would be reviewing this anime, based entirely upon just the story alone, I would waste no time to rip this sucker a new one! The story was there, in the beginning... all the nescessary ingredients were there, ready to be used, but, in the end, there were just too many, or not at all... and none of them used properly, in the end!

It was like a mediocre-buffet- table, with no order, nor clear picture of what it was actually trying to be, to appeal the hungry eye. Is it fancy? Is it tacky? Is it comfort? Is it even worth the risk? Who knows - it's a mystery-buffet!

Characters' motivations... the consept, the idea of a plot... characters developing by actions and enviroments... backstories, defeats and triumphs... Those are all ingredients that the SnS uses, more or less. Those should make a average to decent story on their own, but... something is still missing.

Where's the conflict? Where's the goal? Where's the direction?

It all feels... rather empty, by heart. In the end, story of the show is just what the name suggests. Food Wars - battles with food... and nothing more! Maybe nothing more is needed, but still... I was left feeling of wanting more.


Art: 9


Boobs do not jiggle like that!
Good food does not melt off the clothes!
Is it really nescessary to be able to see that... that pubic bone-bump, that you can see, peeking between the legs, when girls are wearing pants?
What drugs are these people on?!

So... those are just some of my favourite pet peeves, while watching the show. The colors are vibrant and powerful, and the art alone really does illustrate the taste of the foods relatively well. Too bad for some, that there will be some naked skin, occasionally... In every episode... Expecially lady-skin... And some tentacles...

Yes, the art is lewd. And I loved it! Deal with it!


Sound: 6


I can swear I heard some of my favourite hentai-VA's in there, somewhere...!


Character: 4


And here is where the bad taste starts for me.

All the characters were mediocre, at best, and unbearably implausible, at worst! I can get behind a fifteen-year-old boy, who knows atleast something about high-class cooking, given his roots and his upbringing, but give me this tsundere-blond-bitch... naturally born girl with a "God Tongue", or a boy with a super nose, and I will literally scream you out of this planet!

Maybe I shouldn't be so harsh against gimicks that'll keep the show even mildly entertaining and/or interesting - because the "story" sure as Hell doesn't do it for me! - but sorry-not-sorry, I am!

These people aren't really people, more than they are just some hilariously implausible tropes or gimicks, and that's almost the very same problem that plagued the "story", almost from the very beginning! Yes, all the characters are unique, but almost none of them really stand out for me! They're really just a over-grown, grey, lumpy mess, with little actual individualism! I literally cannot name, nor remember any of the characters on their own, based upon their personalities, traits or motivations... just some jiggly boobs, and the "things" they did! That's it! It's all just... this weird blur of actions, but very little or no characters attached to them! Maybe, this is just my own problem, but, to me, it's a hellawa big one!

The characters aren't deep, nor complex - just "good" enough... collections of some comon anime-traits, some "new" gimicks and some "bouncy bouncy" nudity. None of them are nothing that I haven't already seen on some other shows, and only a selected view of them we get to see actually developing, while the... "story" progresses. Any development, that does happen, is still... relatively plausible and passable in my books, if not so masterly executed, but... given that the whole idea of the show was just to entertain us with some awesomely implausible food battles, the characterization and the charater development are doomed to be left in the shadows - in a role of the spices, not the main course.

Prehaps, I will be proven wrong on the next season... Who knows...


Enjoyment: 8


Despite all the major, major flaws this show has, I still really liked it. I liked the vibrant and powerful visuals, and the battles were entertaining, as to be expected. Even though everything else was rotten, the core - although still very bare-boned and simple - was that strong-enough hook, that kept me with the show from the beginning, to the bitter end, with no intention to ever drop it, or put it on the hold, for some other titles. That alone should be a accomplishment!

Sadly, the entertainment-value is higly a subjective matter. I have nothing against nudity, so if you're a prude of any kind, you should already be well aware that you won't nescessarily find any worth watching from SnS! There are no great plotlines, no big conflicts, and very little actual heart-to-heart- moments for the romantics - harem-fans, be damned! Only some over the top, OP wanna-be-chefs, making food and measuring each others dinguses, and very little anything more. If the subject of the food wouldn't be so intriguing to me, I would've ended up passionately hating this anime for ever existing, so... the Enjoyment-rating was in the end just a lucky fluke for me.

Food Wars! is stupid... it's shallow, and it's riddiculously over-the-top, but that's also it's appeal - mindless fun, strong visuals, and some imaginative cooking. Expect absolutely nothing more, and you'll leave satisfyed.


Overall: 6


Nothing great, but fine, if you're not looking much in the first place. The art was nice to look at - colorful, vivid, and lewd - and the enjoyment-value is subjectively speaking uncanny, so... give it a shot, and see yourself, what you think of it.

There's always the season two, and even that seems to - so far- hold some relatively impressive rankings, so... better luck on next time, eh?

I'm gonna keep this review short and simple, just as my time spent watching this anime was. I may not have all the information necessary to craft a thorough review because I couldn't go beyond the sixth episode. At first glance, I really enjoyed the main protagonist, his personality as a whole, the dramatic set around the theme of cooking which was enjoyable at first but then just got repetitive. When I found myself watching just for the sake of watching in order to know what would happen, I decide that it wasn't entertaining anymore, so I just dropped. So far it feel too predictable ... that I dare to say that I know how this story will go to the very end, cause everything so far was too cliche in terms of anime. We got the positive, never give up, I'm gonna make it to the top protagonist that impresses everyone around him despite his history, the know-it-all, I'm the best, I'm a goddess, everyone bow to me female....Erm, antagonist I'd say, who I also dare to say is gonna eventually fall in love with the protagonist, because of plot, and while at first the huge number of characters didn't bother me at first, added to the rest of the things I said didn't help me push through. So I just stopped watching and don't feel at all like finishing it.

* do not worry this review doesn't contain any spoilers*

At first I really liked this anime. Art was great, protagonist was interesting, story wasn't bad... But when the anime started to open itself to me I felt like ''hmm so the only interesing thing left in this anime is ? what?'' This anime contains girls with boobs. Thats it. There is no such thing as character development in this anime. The only thing that this anime contains other than girls with boobs is tsundere chraracters. There are so much of them.

But I have to say this: this anime was quite funny. I laughed many ... times. When i hit the 19th episode of this anime, i was like ''i really don't need to know the ending because i know that some girl character won't admit that she likes (checking the character names i don't really even recall) Souma and the girl who dresses like she is going to beach won't confess that she likes him too.''

This anime can only offer you boobs. Thats it. While i know that ecchi animes are like this i wanted to see some action with character development.

Same shit happening again, again, again, again... Some random character (a teacher or Souma's friend or some1 like that) eats someone's food and goes into the orgasm section.
Where something covers the girl's (who eats the food) lady parts and in the background we see some beautiful sights. This shit got old pretty early but i withstood it.

Keep in mind that i am new to animes. This was my 25th(?)anime and second ecchi anime that i dropped. Guess i am not the person for this genre.



Tl;dr: If you want to see some boobs with some food orgasm this is your anime.

At first, I nearly quit this anime - the fan service was just. too much. It was all over ever episode and was just really distasteful. I really hate fanservice. But! If that's the only reason you won't watch this anime, just get passed the first few episodes! It really cuts down significantly, and let me actually enjoy the anime.

Honestly, this anime isn't "great", it's not the next big thing, but it was really enjoyable! It's fun and has some really neat food facts! If you like Good Eats and you like anime,it's worth checking out! I liked the art, I liked the character ... designs and the characters themselves. The specializations in cooking was really interesting too. Basically, I just had a really good time watching this :)

Here is a dish that combine cooking, youthfulness, and ecchi-ness into one plate. There are already many reviews that said many things about SnS S1 as a dish - and here, i write what i couldn’t find in those reviews based on what i tasted. And hopefully we can take a look at this dish once again.

Story : 8/10

I won’t say many things because there are already dozens of reviews that talked about it in a more polished way. But it’s definitely a classic shounen storyline. What i find interesting is the way the story get affected by Souma’s personality and his way with words ... – exactly like what Isshiki said in the earlier episode.

Art/Graphic : 7/10

It’s good. We can feel the shounen atmoshpere from the art and graphic. But there are also things that can be considered as “cooked in a wrong way”. Those are the miss-cooked ecchi-ness and the over-abundance of abstract backgrounds.

It’s not about the over-used of ecchi-ness, but instead it’s about the approach. This anime, like its original version, has realistic and dramatic/hyperbolic approach to all of its genres, including ecchi. In this anime, however, the ecchi genre was taken differently from where it should be – and instead of each character’s unique sexiness and natural charm, we can feel “jello all over the place”.

In the matter of abstract background, it’s being used too much for its own good. Instead of giving impact to its context, it’d be seen as non-proper animation.

Sounds : 7/10

The sounds aspect is good, that i agree. But I found one thing that disturb me : the seiyuu’s compatibility.

The seiyuus played their work well, i think that’s true. But some of them are incompatible with the character they played. The most noticable example is Hayama’s. Hayama’s seiyuu has this sound of an old man even though Hayama is a young man and is experiencing its youth. Junichi Suwabe would be more compatible if he had played Gin’s role, and Hayama should be played with a seiyuu that has younger voice. There are many examples for this incompatibility, but i’ll end it here.

Character : 7/10

A big number of characters is a potential on its own. But just putting them there without enough attention, it’s nothing more than decorations. But nevertheless, all of the characters are quite, if not very, enjoyable.

Enjoyment : 3/10

I couldn’t enjoy this anime even though i love its manga version. There are some ingredients that have been cooked in a wrong way and ingredients which are incompatible with the dish itself. Those resulted in a downfall of my enjoyment. This title has many potential, but as an anime, in my opinion it fails to deliver those potentials.

ok so I just started watching this anime so dont expect a decent review and im also not gonna go in depth with the plot or anything.
My brother told me to watch this like 1 year ago and I always told him: bro how good can this be, its an anime about cooking, sounds kinda weird.
now, one year later i just finished the first episode and i gotta say its really cringey. Sounds and voices when they taste the food remind me of a hentai and the visuals are not short of it. I dont really have a fetish for food but I bet this ... would be the perfect anime for those of you who do.

It's ok and here's why.

BAD parts:
Everything is terrible. The plot is terrible because the MC isn't capable of critical thinking and is as dull as a rock, he hasn't had a romantic with any of the girls he's surrounded by, and really, everyone but the MC is interesting (still extremely shallow). Ameribra "MEAT" Milkduds had more going to her but died near the end of the episodes. SPOILER: MC does literally nothing to push the story forward, and instead it's the script at work.
MC is the biggest waste of a creampie on this god given earth.

GOOD parts:
I like cooking shows so this is a ... pretty nice add. I watch food network everyday and cherish my own packet ramen recipes. So that's cool. Furthermore, although the MC is junk, the surrounding characters each have a unique flavor to them. You could say they're really the main ingredients to the show. The doujins are great too, check them out on exhentai.org.

In the end, placing an MC like this in what could have been a potentially good cartoon is just a recipe for disaster.

Shokugeki no Souma is a comedic cooking anime that does have a lot of enjoyment to it but some flaws that prevent it from being great. Now I have read the manga version of this I am aware as to what is to come into the future, but I still believe that somethings could of been tweaked to help make it great.

7/10 Story: The story has a easy premise to follow, a high school wanted to surpass his father in cooking. That is an easy concept to follow, but what helps push it further is it's comedic tones and some good ... tense that gets me drawn into the moment. However, it is really just setup to be used at a later time. There are good moments, but no on the seat moments to push it on the knife's edge. Am sure that it'll be good in a later season, but nothing major happens here.

8/10 Art: The art is clearly the highlight of the show, and when it focus on the food, it is beautiful. Like it is something I actually want to eat, unless it is intentionally disgusting, but everything else I would love to give a try. When it isn't focus on the food, it still fun to look at. Everything does have a unique enough look to it and I do enjoy seeing when it over exaggerates for it jokes. Makes it a bit refreshing.

8/10 Sound: Truth be told it is kinda the same thing with the art, when it focuses on food I was able to hear the cooking bits, and when it wants to show that it is going to be a good dish, they'll add more to it that really doesn't overshadow it but heighten it. No real complaints to the art and sound areas.

5/10 Characters: Now, this is what I felt like was the shows weak's point. The characters, as said in my story bit, this was really just buildup for later. I felt like no one, outside of the main and a few side characters, had any growth. Sure, they say people skills improved since they first started, however, if it never was soon as to what it was before they you can't prove it. Also, no real character interaction outside of the main character and a few side characters. It is very clear that the show, or at the very least this season, they only wanted to display a select few. And near the end they just kept on adding more characters, it started to feel crowded. Hopefully the next season expands upon the characters that'll push the anime to better heights.

9/10 Enjoyment: Despite the major character flaw, I still had a lot of fun with this. Able to re-watch it with ease, so it is doing a few things right.

The stuff about competing chefs was awesome, but the gratuitous fan service detracted considerably from my enjoyment. Additionally the main character was a bit of a Mary Sue; he would have moments of weakness, but they were always followed by some miraculous success, which itself was often conveyed as a sign of his genius. He has little to no character arc and always, always finds a way to be great and impress everyone with his ingenuity. It detracts a lot from the story to know that whenever he seems to be struggling, he's guaranteed to have a moment of pure inspiration to thoroughly and abruptly ... turn the tide in his favor. Again, the concept of aspiring chefs battling it out is a fantastic draw, but the execution leaves much to be desired.

The story is told from the perspective of a young boy, Souma, though it shifts to other characters multiple times for brief moments. The episodes fit in well together and didn't feel stretched or rushed. No episode could be considered "filler" - they all contributed to the overall storyline. The story itself wasn't complex but neither was it predictable. It had a simple charm that kept the viewer on their toes and wanting more.

The art style was well-done - it definitely reeked of higher quality than most other anime I've seen. The characters were drawn out to be seductive, especially ... the females. I believe the goal of the director was to create a "sexy" anime by visually working through the characters' personalities and physical dispositions. The style and quality of the anime remained constant throughout the show.

The voice acting felt odd initially - almost as if many of the actors clashed directly with the characters they voiced. Over time their voices settled in and "grew" on the characters at hand. The background music as well as both the intro and outro fit in with the theme. The sound effects of the food being cooked was uncannily realistic - this was something that caught me off guard.

The characters weren't well-rounded but they weren't basic either. The show made an effort to highlight their feelings and thoughts. It definitely succeeded in doing that. However, none of the characters seemed to evolve personality-wise. The show focused too much on their evolution as master chefs and failed to keep their personalities in check. Over time their thoughts and emotions took a repetitive and boring turn for the worse.

This was an enjoyable anime to watch, generally speaking - very humorous and enticing. Some scenes of this anime were close to being NSFW which may hinder its reach to younger audiences. However, I'm confident many anime and non-anime viewers will enjoy this show. If I have time in the future, I may rewatch Shokugeki no Souma - it's intriguing enough to pique my interest a second time. If you're looking for light humorous entertainment, this is the show for you.