Shokugeki no Souma: Ni no Sara

Having enjoyed the first season I was glad to hear we were getting more, but what we got wasn't more. In the 2nd season of Shokugeki no Souma they've chosen to abandon anything resembling story or character development and given us a cooking competition. The first 10 episodes are a series of duels with different characters we have no reason to care about and the final 3 episodes are "restaurant rescue" episodes.

Now abandoning a story isn't necessarily bad. I like cooking shows, I watch Beat Bobby Flay, Cuthroat Kitchen and many others, none of which have story or character development either. ... However much of what is said on Shokugeki no Souma is factually wrong and it's clear the writers of Shokugeki no Souma have never even seen a Michelin starred kitchen let alone been in one. With food that are "scent bombs" that can instantly fill a stadium with aroma and where every bite causes an orgasmic clothing-destroying explosions in the judges, this show has as much to do with cooking as a bullet dodging anime has to do with fighting.

So what are we left with given there is no story and what they're doing is reality ignoring make believe? We have a kid who is the best in the world kicking butt and saving adult run restaurants better than Gordan Ramsay could dream of. In other words it's a chunibyou power trip with the magic being kitchen knife wielding skill rather than a sword or a spell. But don't fret, huge breasted high school girls all admiring the main character are there too for people that want a touch of harem flavor in their otherwise flavorless show.

So in summary, there is really nothing here to watch. Give the second season of Chef's Table a watch if you want to see some of the best chef's in the world at work, or Beat Bobby Flay, Knife Fight, Cuthroat Kitchen etc. a watch if you want to see a cooking competition. Not only are they better, they're also real, not magical nonsense.

So much hype for such an overrated series that can't get proper development. I see how it is nowadays with people's liking (Not that my liking is any good, it's just a saying). Such mediocre and predictable storyline with many "serious" encounters that won't ever happen in real life.

Story. 5
- As for the story, i don't understand what's the point. From a realistic point of view, none of this could ever happen, from the fanservice that makes no sense to those serious glances.
There's no real story, it's just the main character trying to be a thug and one of the best chefs, by being ... slow. Everything is the same as previous seasons with the fact that first season had a more creative storytelling. At this point everything is about food battles with no real meaning and a bunch of almost if not nude scenes, resulting in 0 progress done, like what happened with that first half? Nothing?. Even those TV cooking shows have a better growth.

Art. 3
The art was horrible from a certain distance (Season 2 was worse, trust me). The animation was poorly done but at least you could get the idea of what was going on, i'll give props on that. Only on close shots you could see a certain progress compared to bigger shots with a lot of people or just a few.
Faces were the worst on trying to mimic feelings, i fully understand they wanted to give a proper sensation of them, but they are too exagerated that they were not funny but rather unpleasant. On the other side, i find it funny that Souma never changes his uniform, not for cooking, not for being in the house, not for anything. While everyone else respects the rules on that.

Sound. 5
I haven't been enjoying the OP and ED as much i would like, but it doesn't matter. The music is put on good placed and properly decreased the volume if someone was talking, but there is too much music in the show, of a 21 min. episode, at least 17 minutes have music in it. I don't really like that, i feel like they are trying to get me excited when i shouldn't be.

Character. 4
There was no real progress from season 2 for the main characters, but rather there's a bit of development for support characters. Some of them have changed, some don't even appear anymore, and some of them is like they didn't even care to give them a proper development, you get to see everything.

Enjoyment. 5

Overall: 4
This is just an overrated show that didn't deserve my attention, but still got it. It's far from being the worst i've seen but it's certaintly bad and extremely predictable. The ending was a cliffhanger, with again, predictable decisions. The idea of adding a bad guy that would get the support of superior people is not new and not enjoyable. The series just keeps going down and down for me, nothing i can do though.