Shokugeki no Souma: Shin no Sara

It is obvious that after 60 episodes, as a viewer, our expectations change according to the story, the characters and their development, their evolution. The first seasons were entertaining with its intense battles, its appetizing dishes which always made you want to snack and of course the famous foodgasm. But does the series still manage to satisfy spectators four seasons later?

This season continues the battle between the Tootsuki rebels and the Elite Ten led by Azami Nakiri. It is obvious the main characters are affected by this confrontation, in particular Erina who decides to firmly oppose her father since the last season. Regarding Erina, I can generally say that at this point in the series, I am very satisfied with her development and evolution. Behind her haughty appearance, she is a girl like the others. She learned a lot from spending time with Souma and his friends and with this human experience, she is now ready to lead rebels against her own father.
Her relationship with Souma alternates between surprising complicity and incessant arguments. Despite evident oppositions in their cooking style, the two characters complement each other in their skills.

Let's move on to the other characters, most of them have been excluded. Their main role will be to comment on the duels and it is regrettable these characters such as Hayami or Alice are only used to fill the backgrounds. Characters like Nikumi or Hisako have long been forgotten and you won't get much except the usual fan service. However, I will be dishonest to say all secondary characters are forgotten. Takumi Aldini has a decisive role in the middle of the season. Since third season, he opened his mouth only to talk about his revenge against Souma, it was a bit childish. but this season has shown him in another way. Some characters like Subaru Mimasaka or Satoshi Isshiki will have some key moments in the action but don't expect much either.
Also, more promising characters like Megumi will shine slightly but it is always disappointing to see how much the character seems to be on the verge of crying (her trainings with master Shinomiya were pathetic). However even if her role is minor, she remains a notable character.

If I were to mention the Elite, it is obvious that its characters are for the most part disappointing. For the most part the development can be summed up as a flashback which has no relevance in the main plot. Do we need to know that Momo is an incredible girl because she is able to detect the cutest cuddly teddy? Yes and no. It would have been especially relevant to understand why all these characters decided to support Azami. If you think you are getting clear reasons, let me tell you that you will soon be disappointed.
Kobayashi Rindou and Eishi Tsukasa are probably the two most memorable members of the Elite. Their interactions are relatively funny and although I don't notice a connection as developed as that between Souma and Erina, I feel that these two characters have a solid friendship.
Rindou was rather intriguing in previous seasons and honestly I was waiting for more interesting revelations about her. As for Tsukasa, since he holds the first place, I thought he would be a less passive character. But unfortunately Shokugeki's storytelling seems above all to highlight the battles but not enough the development of the characters.

Moreover, at this point in the series, we expect an ideological confrontation between the discipline wished by Azami against Souma and Erina's freedom desire. Azami's ideology could be defensible but the series has obviously taken Souma's side since the start of the season and gives no nuance in this opposition of ideologies.
The main oppositions are especially noticeable between Satoshi and her childhood friend and Azami/Erina, but beyond that we especially have a basic shounen thought "Cooks must live freely". This idea of freedom is obviously very frequent in the shounen, it is not original but it is an idea which could be nuanced and particularly Azami's ideology could have shown the limits of this freedom.
The writing is generally lazy which makes the outcome extremely predictable. Erina is a character who has a successful development after 4 seasons, but if you want to look for more, you won't get much.
Writing is so lazy that everything is predictable. You can easily guess the result of cooking "battles" because the script is written so that it must highlight Souma and Erina.

Do I really have to comment about art?
JC Staff continues to offer dynamic slideshows with its Windows Media Maker effects, the camera is in constant motion but the images aren't animated. I am quite impressed to see that this visual is not catastrophic. (Nowadays, I have to lower my expectations so that I can be able to find Shokugeki's visual almost acceptable. Damn.) I don't really get bored when I watch Shokugeki, the soundtrack amplifies the intensity of the battles. Even if the animation is almost nonexistent, I think we don't lose so much dynamism thanks to the voice actors and the soundtrack.

The last season is coming soon, I hope we can get a decent conclusion even if I don't have much hope when I read the script. JC Staff could offer us something else... maybe.

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Another Plate, another panning shot yet the culmination of one of the best character arcs yet!.

So Shokugeki no Souma Shin no Sama leaves off right where the Totsuki Ressha-hen season in where the tournament for the fate of the rebels contines and well it's roughly what you'd expect but LA will note this season did improve slightly even if they continue to use panning shots though utlize it when they can't think of any new way of showing the transitions which is most of the time unfortunately.

The 4th Plate visually is the same with some flourishes in the Shokugeki's here and there but where it lacks in animation, the characters gets some well deserved mentions, from Megumi, Takumi, Rindou, Tsukasa, Isshiki and finally ERINA having the the best character resolution to her rebellion to her father with this arc.

Though her rebellion started during the Totsuki Ressha-hen, once Erina steps up to the plate (PUN) she not only develops as a character but since this season is much more about the rebels and their camaraderie AS well as the Elite Ten Council and why they cook the way they cook and in some instances how Azami influenced them into his side, you'd thought it was SOUMA who would get the glory of this tournament, no we forgot how this all started and with Erina being the face of the rebellion like daughter to her overbearing father, what Erina cooks for him at the final bout not only shows off Erina's trust in her friends, but shows off her rebellion in full force and all the hopes and dreams that will crush Azami's authoritarian take on cooking and just MAN does that final bout delivered, LA KNEW investing into Erina (from what LA remembered LA started getting invested at the tail end of the third plate) was worth it and culminated and essentially exploded here in all of Erina's glory.

This season though the payoff was great, does still have it's flaws, one LA well get into a bit later. The pacing of the tournament bouts if anything seemed really rushed, from Isshiki and Tsukasa's bout to Rindou vs. Takumi is glossed upon (showing no prep to give us a hint to hows it's made etc.) and the thing is most of the bouts this season was or would have been interesting if not for it's rushed pacing, though the pacing doesn't ruin Erina's final bout, but everything leading up to it...LA can't ignore it and yes does sorta ruin elements of those season much like the previous 2 or 3 seasons before it.

And now for the elephant in the room and that is animation. Well it was done once again by JC Staff and welllllllll yeah the panning shots isn't going away and admittedly uses it the majority of the time, but where the panning shots are prevalent, the battles and especially the focus on the food (not so much on the prep anyways) is still great and of course the foodgasms were great and expected for Shokugeki no Souma for all manner of reasons. Overall same as Totsuki Ressha-hen, not much has changed for animation which is a damn shame since the plot and it's characters is now holding this season up while the animation is inbetween lazy to "trying".

The voice cast is back and LA will give the MVP's here as there isn't much to say considering the voice cast is pretty much intact and hasn't changed "as much". LA will give out the obvious, being Hisako Kanemoto as Erina, Miniami Takahashi as Megumi, Shizuka Ito as Rindou and Show Hayami as Azami.

The 4th Plate was essentially the payoff season or in culinary terms, the main dish for LA and man besides some messy side dishes of elements, the MEAT of this season was excellent with great character development seasonings, great battles though slightly underpinned by rushing the sauce and the presentation was PANNED as per usual and of course great aftertaste at the end.

There's another plate?...SIGN LA UP!...

Erina best girl, can't change LA's mind.

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Out of all the anime that have come out this year, I think this was the biggest disappointment for me. After 3 seasons of slowly diminishing quality, I was worried that this season was going to be a slog to get through. When I say that though, I was still hopeful. I mean, they were going to tackle an arc from which I had heard was a decent arc. It could've been good but J.C Staff really went out of their way to make this one of the cheapest and lazy productions I've seen in a while. I hate saying that for a show I used to love. I loved the characters, I loved the foodgasms and yeah, the animation wasn't the worst, but it at least looks decent enough.

This season, I truly think J.C Staff didn't care about this show. With the last three seasons, there were some production issues, but there was at least solid music and some good shots here and there. With this season? If feels like they got out a powerpoint presentation template and just stuck the clips of the show they had into said template. Hell, I can break down a good amount of episodes of this season with bullet points.

- We are introduced to the main competitors

- We see the main ingredient

- Some words from the peanut gallery

-Some trash talk

- A flashback here or there to one of the totsuki ten because the shows forgot to develop literally any of them minus Tsukasa and Rindo, I guess.

- More words from the peanut gallery

- Chefs show off their dishes

- Judges eat and foodgasm

- More words from the peanut gallery about said food and what makes it special

- Judges choose the winner.

- Some more words and repeat the cycle.

The biggest problem with this repetitious cycle is that you slowly see the flaws within it. You realize that no matter what Soma will win his food battles because he's main protagonist. That would be fine if they spaced out the food battles but they don't. You're supposed to watch all of these food battles happen with the same repetitious cycle and it's just a bore. The show ended up this year as background noise for me. Just like how the peanut gallery was this season

Let's talk about that peanut gallery because if you wanted any characters like Mito, Ryo, Alice, Hisako, and anyone apart of the dorm anything this season, well that sucks. Literally all these characters do this season is sitting behind literal character jail and spout out stuff about the food they make. It's probably the worst crime that this season does because the main strength of this show is its characters and them interacting off one another. It's insanely stupid and for a solid eleven episodes, it's just sad to watch characters that I love as Hisako do jack for the majority of the season.

This then leads into the actual team rebel squad who consists of Takumi, Soma, Erina, Megumi, Kuga, Isshiki, Mimasaka and some random guy. Yeah, this show decides to use this arc to introduce another new character and instead of giving more interest in any of their other characters. "Yeah Mito and Alice haven't done much in a while and some characters like Ryo who are rivals to Soma have done zero anything with Soma but who cares! We need more one off characters!" - Some guy that works on Food wars. I also realized that in this show, I don't believe Megumi has one a single food battle that wasn't an election. In actual food battles, she has won none. That is stupid and something that pissed me off while watching her getting beat by some girl that uses cat paws as oven mitts.

Yeah, let's talk about the Ten because they're all forgettable. The only ones exempt from this are Tsukasa and Rindo, I guess. Thier not funny and Tsukasa's whole thing is dumb. I only liked Rindo to an extent. Azami is stupidly evil to the point where he ruins the tone of the show and while he does add to one of the more positive things about this season, he's not that interesting of a villain. Eizan was better.

As much as I have been complaining about this season for its soulless production, for its constant amount of throwing characters into the show without thinking about the characters in literal jail or even the diminishing quality of foodgasms and backgrounds which are generic to letter, there are some positives. Erina's whole arc is finally done with and it feels satisfying. While Megumi still hasn't won a single food battle, Takumi has and that was cool. The music stays pretty solid and the OP was solid, though a little samey.

Overall, this season was a big disappointment. Flat production, waste of characters and the constant adding of one-offs and this overall feeling of emptiness. It's sad for a show that had such solid first and second seasons. While season 3 wasn't great, it was still fun to an extent. This felt like such a waste of time. It's a shame. I can't wait for the fifth season because it apparently gets worse.

Story: 5/10
Art: 3/10
Sound: 6/10
Character: 6/10
Enjoyment: 5/10
Overall: 5/10

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War for the elite ten seats has continued. As we know, Yukihira Souma and his friends now have to fight the central members to fight over their obligations as totsuki school students. As you sow, so shall you reap. That adage is suitable for this season, a group of students who want to know the wider culinary world ... They are a polar star residence.

This season took a long time to reach the point where Yukihira Souma achieved her ambitions. We already know that now the polar star residence must fight Azami's ideology of food that it does not recognize is rubbish. Yukihira Souma and her friends have to fight Azami but they get the role of rebels, they get insults from all school students but they ignore it because they know that their actions are the right thing.

Watching this season proves that Yukihira Souma's abilities have also improved from previous seasons. Spending time developing each food recipe, fighting with unequal opponents to the point where he has to get lost in the current storm of confusion, even they have to sacrifice the principles they believe in but all for one thing is to be greater than previous.

Like the previous seasons, you will witness many exotic foods. The short list includes a food theme that is determined by fate, even though it is not their cooking skill but they are required to cook the dish because otherwise they will be eliminated and expelled from school like some of Yukihira Souma's friends who have been expelled from the previous season. This season is different from before, the judges taken to do the assessment are not taken from just anyone but they are the chosen people who have experience in assessing a food, they are called WGO.

As a fan of this series, I say this season is a season full of battles between great chefs. It became aware that this season was very tense. The seconds of Yukihira Souma's goal will soon be reached. Are they able to reach that point, and instead they will reach the peak they want so far.

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