Food Wars is suffering from the Escalation problem, and the SAO problem, yet it's still this highly rated?

Zelev said:
Literally every scene is a panel zooming in or zooming out. Sometimes you don't really notice it, but then there's times where it's so awfully obvious.

I don't understand this. This season has GOT to be the WORST season of Food Wars by a fucking long shot. Not only is the plot for this season more cliche than Sword Art Online was in its entirety of its first season, but it shares the same broken internal logic that it had, and tries to cover it up with absurd humor that ruins the experience tenfold.

It's suffering from the Escalation problem, the same problem that all shounen have to face after coming out of a huge tournament ark, but unlike My Hero Academia, it looks like Shokugeki didn't know where else to go. This new villain drastically raises the stakes so fucking high, that I lost all suspension of disbelief in mere moments of his introduction, began to despise Erina tenfold in comparison, and lost faith in Soma for being any sort of believable character and not just some Deus ex Machina for the plot.

Of course, the cliche plot can be overlooked by good execution... BUT THE EXECUTION IS FUCKING TERRIBLE! (I sincerely apologize for my abundance of cursing)

But it is. I understand that the pacing "works better in manga format", but the retards at J.C. Staff turned the already fast pacing up to 11, letting all the comedy crash into the moments of tension and explode faster than Uchiage Hanabi crashed in the box office. They not only sped up the scenes and dialogue, but there's always some kind of soundtrack playing in the background, and the song feels like it changes EVERY 30 SECONDS TO A MINUTE. Needless to say, IT'S FUCKING ANNOYING.

Just to be clear, I understand comedy is subjective. For example, a show with polarizing opinions to its comedy airing right now is March comes in like a Lion. I can understand why there are diverging opinions on how that show handles comedy, because the whiplash effect created by Rei's depression taking the spotlight then it transitioning to the lighthearted comedy moments can be jarring for those who can't relate with his mental state. I don't necessarily agree, but I do understand why it would be considered an issue for most, BUT FOOD WARS IS JUST RUINING EVERYTHING IT SETS OUT TO DO WITH ITS COMEDY. Every single time it tries to create tension it is bombarded with chibi art ripped straight from the manga, even when the music is trying to make my adrenaline pump. It contradicts itself, unlike March comes in like a Lion, and there's nothing anyone can relate to for consistency.
At least for those who hate the comedy in March, they at least acknowledge that the dark elements are fascinating in its own right, but in Shokugeki's case, if one hates the comedy, there's really nothing else to like. Let's just see Soma stick it to the man! That'll get fans HYPED! *rolls eyes*

Back on topic.

So not only is the production incompetent from an editing standpoint, but the animation looks like a powerpoint presentation that was ripped straight from the manga. The art is riddled with derps, and the camera has a bad habit of sliding across the frame to try to distract from it. You know what anime has the same exact problem?
I'll give you a moment to think about it, unlike Food Wars...
The answer is:
Berserk 2016 and 17, and the original 90s anime also looked like a powerpoint.

Also, the exposition is fucking atrocious, even if I was trying to take notes on what the fuck the characters are cooking, between all the other problems the series has, I can't breathe long enough for me to comprehend what the show is trying to get at, both in terms of the on-screen Shoukugeki's and what the story is even trying to say at a conceptual level.

I hope my point that this season is insulting mine and everyone else's intelligence on so many levels is getting through to everyone here, because it is really aggravating me.

Who knows? Maybe I've just overlooked this problem from the beginning of the anime and only now am I starting to notice it and bitch about it.

Did someone say bitch? Yeah, Erina was a bitch in the first and second season, now she is a fucking stupid and weak damsel in distress that leaves me severely disappointed for she is supposed to be the MAIN FEMALE CHARACTER. What is she Asuna??!!
Megumi should have been the main love interest, instead of a tsundere with a god complex, for whom is also unreachable in terms of plot and has no logic to back up this stupid "ability" if you can even call it that. The whole point of Soma's and Erina's relationship was that Soma was supposed to reach Erina with his cooking, BUT HE ALREADY HAS since the first episode, so it defeats the point. Instead of just sharing a mutual growth and love with Megumi as time progressed.
You know what this means?
Shokugeki has been doing nothing but chewing the fat this entire time, and now it has finally backfired. It's the Masamune-kun problem! Someone call Digibro-senpai, for he will be proud of me!

Jokes aside, I hope I am not the only who sees how retarded this season is.

I feel passionate about this because Food Wars was a favorite of mine until this latest season. I don't remember this being a problem earlier on in the story, but I certainly know its a problem now, and I don't approve of it being the third highest rated show if the season. That's simply preposterous.

This season, to me, is just a half-baked, half-assed, and uninspired mess of a dish, and I feel ashamed that I expected more.

Before anyone calls me out on it, I forgot to explain that Azami is the most stereotypical villain character ever. I mean, disregarding the laziness of his design, what is even up with that backstory?

He brainwashed Erina to enjoy his tastes... Does anyone else realize how retarded and plain unrealistic that is? He couldn't have just educated her slowly on the refinement of quality cuisine, he had to brainwash her. Erina got tormented because she didn't throw out a meal, and then, all of a sudden, now she has a god complex and is paradoxically dependent on her father... Which doesn't even make sense, because she didn't even mention him in the entirety of the anime.

Azami overthrowing Grandpa Director-sama was the laziest asspull I've seen this year. It shouldn't be that easy for the Elite Ten to do a coup de tat against the FUCKING DIRECTOR OF THE SCHOOL. I don't care how much power the Elite Ten is supposed to have, but overthrowing the very man that owns the school is so unrealistic IT HURTS.
I never understood why student councils in anime were given more power than the teachers, but at least most shows had the decency to hardly include teachers or mentors in the narrative in the first place.
Furthermore, HOW DID HE EVEN PERSUADE THEM TO DO IT?!?!!? I doubt a goody-two-shoes like Tsukasa would agree, and I don't see any motives that anyone else would agree either, but I expect that to be explained to some capacity, even if it doesn't make sense.

Also, the Elite Ten are fucking retarded. Even before Azami fucked everything up, I couldn't understand the motivations of those fuckers, and I couldn't get invested in the mystery of those motivations either.
Tsukasa is basically characterized as amazingly good at cooking, but not at all confident in his cooking. It would make sense on a practical level, but NOT when it defines his entire personality. I guess he's also bad at paperwork.
The red-haired chick for whom's name I had to look up, Rindo, has motivations that are confusing as hell, if she even has any. One moment, she's cheering on Soma's "fighting spirit", the next, she's reluctant to do the villain's bidding, the moment after that she's more than willing to pummel the clubs that are showing their spirit and are trying to be free from the tyranny of CENTRAL. Did someone say contradictory? Because she is that. Usually, contradictions in their thought process can add to the believability of the character, but her contradictions are so paradoxical, that her personality nearly flips on its head when they do occur. They aren't subtle whatsoever, and they have even less meaning to it.
Next, we have loli chick, for whom's name I'm not going to look up because I couldn't care less about her. She is just supposed to be cute, but I guess she also hates people because STRANGER DANGER!
There's also the new fuckers that just got introduced that have no notable personality. There's Kuga-senpai, but he got shafted the moment he got actual characterization, thanks to the fact he only had one purpose in the plot anyway.
There's that asshole Eizan who's just an asshole, no matter how great a voice actor Sugita Tomokazu is at portraying him.
I already got into what a fucking mess of a character Erina is...
Then there are what? 5 other top 10 members? The only other one of note is Isshiki, but even his character got shafted because he believed that Soma would save their precious dorm. I guess he also tried his best to sabotage CENTRAL from the inside, but this only shows the one purpose he has in this ark.

AND WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH THIS "CENTRAL" BULLSHIT?!?!!? What is it supposed to be the CIA???? This is retarded even without considering the fact that it would be impossible to implement this new system in the time Azami did AND shut down every single club and DORMITORY by fucking force.

To add insult to injury, these orders can be disregarded if the students win a Shokugeki, which doesn't make sense. If these were orders from the school, then no matter how much the students bitch about it, they shouldn't be able to rebel. Why didn't Azami just ban all Shokugekis??? MAYBE BECAUSE THERE WOULDN'T BE A SHOW TO WATCH!!! This is bad. Really fucking bad.

However, by far the BIGGEST PLOT HOLE IN THIS ANIME IS:
If the school is now being run by tyrants that are restricting your freedom and hindering your education in learning how to cook...
WHY NOT JUST DROP OUT AND GO TO ANOTHER SCHOOL?

Better yet, just go to normal high school, and learn how to cook on the side. I think everybody forgets that these kids went straight in from Middle School and still haven't attended High School yet, but for what reason? So they can be 3 years behind in their education when they eventually do have to transfer back into the school system?

I am starting to think that this entire show was retarded from the beginning, but it doesn't explain why I gave it a 9/10 when I watched the first season. Maybe I should reevaluate my score sometime in the future.

Also, this season's method of adding characterization seems to be shoving flashbacks into our faces of scenes of the characters acting uncharacteristically for no reason, getting put down, then it somehow "develops" them into the present. Take Ryou for example, neither his personality nor his character changed whatsoever, but of course, we need a flashback of him being put down because he didn't win the Autumn Elections, and now he learned how to cook spices! Just because it wasn't his specialty beforehand, doesn't mean he couldn't learn how to cook spices from a textbook, but the show tries to pass this on as development. It would have been downright expected of him to do so, its just his personality and any other cook would do the same. Why this show INSISTS on trying to make that a huge development in his character is not only beyond me, but it just comes across as cheesy and melodramatic as a result.

Everything in this season is fucking predictable.
I know we all know Soma is always going to win, except in those rare instances, and I am not going to bash the show for that. What I am going to bash it for, is how he can even win when the judges are paid off, in the second most predictable asspull this show committed.
From the very moment this scenario was set up, I thought to myself "How is Soma going to win? He couldn't just charm the judges with his amazing cooking even though they were paid off and he's up against a member of the elite ten, right?"

For EVERY single plot turn, I kept asking myself, "How did I know this was going to happen?"

If you COULD prove me wrong, that would be much appreciated, but this season is just too bad to be defended, guys.

Only thing to respond to here is your comment about the humor in the show. It's been stated several times and it should be pretty obvious that opinions on humor can be pretty subjective, so if the humor ruins the experience for you, that is more indicative of whether you like the humor or not rather than the quality of the show itself. What I will say is that the way the show is set up and has progressed for two seasons already makes humor par for the course, so I don't find anything particularly wrong with this seasons use of comedy (disregarding any personal opinion on the comedy itself)

I will agree that Azami's introduction raises the stakes for sure, and I feel that its particularly jarring because the stakes have been risen slowly and steadily (exactly what a tournament arc produces during its run). Up to this point, expulsion was really only on the table during particular Shokugeki (and of course whenever Yukihira wagers it in exchange for something else). Also, with the exception of Shinomiya, the conflicts have really only been confined to student-vs-student, so having someone who isn't restricted in the same ways as students take sudden and massive control of Totsuki is a pretty intense and sudden ramp-up in pressure and intensity. When Azami is in control of the academy, it feels like being behind enemy lines, where any mistake or loss means losing everything, and conflict can come at any time since Azami sits outside of the normal restrictions of Shokugeki for students (for students, stepping out of line means having to answer to the administration, but Azami is the administration, so he only has to answer to himself).

I don't think that really makes his introduction and presence bad or unbelievable, however. As I said, it's quite interesting for a character to appear that is in such direct opposition to Yukihira's ideals and to also exist in a position where his previous methods of solving conflicts (directly confronting his opponents and challenging them to a Shokugeki to solve the problem) doesn't really work. Instead, he gets put on the defensive and has to fight a psuedo-proxy war against Azami's agents.

As for Azami's character itself, in the context of the show itself, I think he's believable enough to be able to suspend your disbelief. Characters in SnS are exaggerated and publicly exhibit their ideals and personalities much more strongly than most people would in real life (imagine meeting someone like Kurokiba Ryo in real life). Ignoring what your personal opinion of Azami's beliefs are, his ideals are something grounded in some reality. Wanting to reserve "true cuisine" for only those he believes are refined enough to truly appreciate it is certainly an extreme ideal that you'd be hard pressed to find in real life, but certainly not something completely unreasonable for a show about food and the various intricasies of cooking and cuisine itself. His introduction in the restaurant with Erina is actually pretty believable for how his ideology is portrayed. He views the people eating there as nothing (even straight up calls them animals), so his over-the-top villainy is just him expressing his views and beliefs so openly it feels unreal, like something no one would ever do in real life, but once you take into account the fact that he disregards the people around him as worthless, the room might as well just be empty to him while he's expounding his ideals.

I'll save Erina for a bit later (you talk about her in more detail later on), but I will mention here that I personally dislike Erina's character (not because I think it's bad for any particularly glaring reason, just a personal dislike). Something to keep in mind for later.

As for Yukihira being not believable and just a Deus ex Machina (plot device), I think this is just a result of the pacing and the fact that this is a shounen. Yukihira is the character we are meant to root for and support, and when the character everyone is invested in loses, its a morale blow for the audience if its not done right. Yukihira wins most of the time (if he didn't lose in the Autumn Election finals, I would probably actually agree with you), but he is not infallible. In fact, the show presents his glaring weaknesses in the aftermath of the Autumn Elections (the fact that he lacks a particular style or flair with his cooking that is truly his). What I will say is that in a shounen, the journey of following the main character and having them struggle and then succeed is a large part of the appeal. When characters meaninglessly lose, it just kills the momentum and drags the show to square one again. You brought up Kuroko no Basket later on, but another show I think is relevant to this discussion is Haikyuu. I did like Haikyuu overall, but the section in the middle of the show where the cast goes to the training camp with some other teams from far away was a grueling experience to watch. Karasuno consistently loses and gets destroyed and loses over and over again with very minor improvements in their play until they finally reach a point where they put everything they've learned into action and... lose. With shounen, watching the main characters struggle and win is thrilling because it is a departure from the somewhat jaded and pessimistic perception we have of life (whereby struggle is just a means to more struggle or just loss). Watching Karasuno lose over and over again with no perceived gain or end in sight is hard to be invested in, as the show has no momentum. In SnS, the problem stems from the fact that the show has a very fast pacing (ignoring the Autumn Elections), where every episode it finds a new set of characters to battle it out in a Shokugeki (and in a few cases that is the first time we are ever seeing those characters). This means that the show can't really afford much time to have Yukihira lose and struggle to work his way up (they do fit in several non-Shokugeki moments where he does "fail", usually by failing to impress Erina or something). The show wouldn't be nearly as interesting if Yukihira constantly went up against people stronger than him and just lost for the sake of realism. Fairly soon, no one would care about rooting for Yukihira because no one would have any confidence or momentum built up behind him. So will Yukihira win the vast majority of the time? Yes. Is he just a bullshit Deus ex Machina plot device? Partially. He is the shounen protagonist who's role it is to produce the desired effect of being entertained by a story where the "underdog" struggles against the odds and pulls out an unlikely victory. The problem is that there are so many battles in SnS that the victories stack up and make Yukihira feel like less and less of an underdog.

Seeing it like that, I have to agree with what other people here have said. With the pace of the show and the nature of the genre, if you watch this show expecting to see a masterpiece of storytelling with each individual episode, you're probably going to be disappointed. If you watch each week as specifically an entertainment investment, you'll probably follow the flow of the show better and get more enjoyment out of it.

I talked about this earlier, but I'll expand a bit on what I think you're getting at here. An example I'm going to use here (that will probably be somewhat unpopular, but w/e) is Kyoukai no Kanata. Admittedly I dislike this show, and the reason why is because it is a show that presents the premise of having a lot at stake within the story and characters, with most of the interactions being set up in a serious and dramatic environment with serious background to the conflicts and events. Yet, this flow is inconsistently diverted and cut up whenever the comedy of the show comes through. The problem is that the show goes from 600ft deep in the drama of the situation, then cuts to some stale character jokes that don't really add anything to the situation, and then the next second, we're thrown back into the drama, where we'd rather have just stayed in the first place.

In some ways, SnS does have this same problem (if you're really that invested in the action and intensity of the Shokugeki), but the show has set itself up in a way where that type of interruptive comedy is expected from the characters as presented. Yukihira is usually in a state of confidence and has little regard for normal social standards (and is oblivious in some respects), so him saying something out of place is to be expected. Besides this, the show very clearly has its intense and serious moments that they don't joke around with (i.e. Yukihira challenging Shinomiya to a Shokugeki to rescind Megumi's expulsion). That means that you can sort of get a feel for how the show will flow and utilize its comedic and serious elements. When the show cuts to Yukihira with a sharp glare and without his usual carefree expression, you can get invested in the moment because you feel that the show will not cut off the flow with a random act of "comedy". But during the rest of the show, you can freely mix the comedy and action together without being too jarring.

Again, I can't really speak for the music, as I don't really pay too much attention to it to be honest (I usually just listen to the OSTs outside of the show itself).

As for the 3-gatsu no Lion comparison, I can't weigh in completely (I haven't seen it personally), I do want to point out that essentially what it looks like you said is "I can understand why some people don't like the transition from light-hearted comedy to depression, but I can't understand why some people like the transition from light-hearted comedy to action/suspense/literally anything else". You essentially say that in the case of 3-gatsu no Lion, people can have whatever opinion they like on comedy in a not-strictly just comedy show, but that in the case of SnS, that same logic just doesn't apply (for some reason).

I'm not an animator or an artist by any remote definition of the words, so I'm definitely not qualified to say whether the animation itself is objectively "good" or not (whatever that would even define), but I personally have not found any major problems with the way the animation has been this season. SnS is a non-combat shounen, so the usual points of noticeable low-quality animation during any fight scenes don't exist, so it's possible I just haven't seen any glaring issues. I should also mention that I am a fan of the character designs in SnS, so that's mostly what I'm looking at/paying attention to.

I mean, unless you are familiar with and use the cooking methods, ingredients, and cooking terms that they talk about in the show, then you're probably going to be lost on that front. It is kind of a bummer that for a large majority of the show, the meaning I can get from the Shokugeki lies in trusting what I've been told by the characters, but that's not really a fault of the show. Realistically, the show could just not explain anything and just leave the intricasies of the food to the niche audience that has a great understanding of that kind of thing, but I personally appreciate it being more accessible by trying to explain a lot of concepts quickly. Either it wastes a lot of time giving you a true full understanding of complicated cooking concepts, or it shoots enough by you for you to get the jist and still enjoy the show.

Okay, a couple of points here. Remember that I personally share your dislike of Erina, but I wouldn't say that I'm super disappointed in her characterization in this season. With what little we know of her past with Azami, having some residual trauma as a result of the treatment she recieved from Azami isn't totally ridiculous. Another thing you have to remember is that Erina has been shown to rely on no one but those she trusts (like Hisako). So when faced with someone she believes she cannot stop (Azami), it kinda makes sense for her to shut down and fail to think logically about what she should do (like teaming up with Yukihira and Alice to stand up to him). Her past has convinced her that the thought "Stand up to Azami" is not a valid option worth pursuing. I still would like to see more of her development this season to make any final judgements on whether I think it was handled well though.

Also, her "ability" is not something that can be instrisically be called anything because it derives its value from outside sources. Her "God Tongue" is a valuable ability because it has importance placed on it by Totsuki and the culinary world. The "God Tongue" is powerful because people put their trust in it (if it pleases Erina's palate, it is good food). Erina's palate could be just kinda decent but the importance placed on it by the culinary world is what makes it powerful (seeing as how everyone's taste differs so one person's opinion on what's "good" or not couldn't ever really have truly universal application).

Well, try to convince someone that murder is okay by educating them slowly on the refinement of perfect killings. If someone doesn't believe in your ideals and has their own set of morals, its really hard to just "convince" them that they should think the way you do. It's fairly likely that Azami wanted to imprint his ideals and beliefs onto Erina while she was still fairly young and impressionable. Especially being her father, it would be very difficult for her to oppose the primary authority figure in her life. And I felt that it was clearly implied that her way of thinking wasn't changed by the single solitary event that we were shown. Like most "brainwashing", she was probably conditioned and influenced with Azami's way of thinking over a long period of time with many events like the one we saw culminating in her current state.

Also, is it really that strange that she hasn't said anything about her father for the whole anime? What about Nikumi's father? Isshiki? Why hasn't everyone just walked up to Yukihira and mentioned their father that they hate for brainwashing them to submit to their ideology of fine cuisine? Case in point: She hadn't mentioned him because he wasn't relevant or something she wanted to think about.

If you watched the scene where Yukihira talked with Sonzaemon after he got removed as the Totsuki director, you might have noticed that he seemed pretty... normal. Happy and relieved, even. I thought this was very strange until he revealed that he was tired out by holding the position as well as revealing his ulterior motive. As someone said earlier in this thread, he wouldn't have let Azami or the Elite Ten get away with what they did unless he wanted them to. He didn't even really fight it because he didn't want to. Totsuki under Sonzaemon operated under the philosophy that through conflict and struggle between themselves, those who survived would become strong enough to reach the top and be successful anywhere in the culinary world. With this in mind, it's clear that (regardless of whether you think it was the right move or not) Sonzaemon sees this as an opportunity for Erina, Yukihira, and anyone else who's willing to fight and struggle against a new and stronger obstacle in order to grow (Erina breaking free from her messed up mental state and Yukihira standing up and protecting his ideology of cuisine).

Okay, since (ironically) you didn't pay enough attention, I'll point out the reasoning behind Tsukasa's and Rindo's support of Azami. At the end of Episode 5, when Azami presents the message that the Elite Ten Council has removed Sonzaemon and appointed him as Director of Totsuki, Rindo says, "There's a new wave. Riding that wave feels like the most exciting possibility". Her goal is to seek out the most interesting possibilities in life. So when it seems like her actions contradict themselves, remember that her character is based on doing what will result in the most interesting path. When she's surprised by Yukihira standing up to Eizan, she cheers him on because she thinks the most interesting possibility is Yukihira defeating Eizan in a supposedly impossibly rigged challenge. She's reluctant to do the dirty work of Central because a)beating people in a Shokugeki that they are practically guaranteed to win isn't very interesting and b)its hard to find the most interesting option when someone else is telling you exactly what to do. She doesn't want to be tied down by Azami and Central's orders, but finds the resulting conflicts (namely Yukihira's challenge of Eizan) as an interested option that wouldn't have happened otherwise.

As for Tsukasa, it's apparent now after Episode 11, but that wasn't released when you wrote this comment, but I'll add it here for completeness sake. Tsukasa was shown to have complete confidence in the quality and supremacy of his cooking in Episode 5 when he didn't even bother asking if his guests liked the food, since he was 100% sure they would. In addition, it was shown that he has no confidence in pretty much anything or anyone besides his own cooking, as well as the fact that his cooking style involves removing himself as much as possible from the creation of his dishes, instead making the quality of the ingredients replace the passion of the chef. All of this combined means one thing: he would most definitely agree with Azami that there is a single proper way to cook gourmet cuisine (Tsukasa's way; he has no confidence in anyone else's way of doing things) and he would also probably agree that there are only certain people who can truly appreciate that level of cuisine.

For Momo, you're problem with her character is that she's cute and she's shy and dismissive around strangers. That's it? That seems like a you-problem rather than a problem with her character. If two traits of a character that haven't even been explained yet (and one of which isn't something she can really change willingly) is all it takes for you to just call her character bad and dislike it, then I don't know what to tell you.

You're problem with Eizan is that he's an asshole. Well, a lot of people are assholes. You don't have to like them. Doesn't make him a bad character. Just means you don't like him.

Isshiki did what he did because he had no other choice. If he tried to interfere with Central's operations more directly, they would have responded more directly to remove him from his seat. Instead, he trusted Yukihira to pull something off while he prepared to create a way for people to fight back against Central. If he hadn't done that and something different happened with Yukihira's Shokugeki, everyone else could have been completely screwed with no way of opposing Central at all.

The other members haven't had enough screentime to really say anything meaningfull about, but hopefully that will change at some point.

With the Elite Ten Council on his side, Azami can really do whatever he wants (with one minor exception I'll talk about next). Those who want to rise through the ranks of Totsuki and be successful in the culinary world (ideals and passionate cooking be damned) and those who actually agree with Azami (for their own personal reasons) would most definitely exist in a not-insignificant number and would most definitely be willing to follow Central's orders to get ahead.

What's so hard about filing paperwork and then giving the clubs the notice in person?

As many people in this thread have said, its because this is Totsuki. Just like how in Danganronpa Kibougamine Academy "all but guarantees success in life", graduating from Totsuki all but guarantees success in the culinary world. If you've ever thought that something you had to do in school was kinda stupid and bureaucratic, you probably still did it. Why? Because if you did it and graduated, the benefit would make up for that bit of annoyance. Same concept here. For most people at Totsuki, why make a big deal out of rebelling or leaving to a lower ranked school when you can just sit back, deal with some stupid policy changes and glide all the way to graduation.

Also, for most people, they have dedicated a lot of time to progressing in Totsuki, and leaving would not only put a blemish on the school record (in that they left and did not complete the course at Totsuki), but would also need to deal with transferring their progress to another school (which could have radically different requirements).

No, so that they can set themselves up for guaranteed success in the culinary world through an endorsement by graduating from the school that everyone in the culinary world has complete confidence in their ability to produce the best chefs.

I would argue that the difference between knowing how to cook with spices and knowing how to masterfully apply them to a specific dish in a specific scenario are two very different things. If you were suddenly asked to cook your best meat dish, would you decide to cook Filet Mignon if you knew what it was and vaguely how to cook it? Especially if your cooking was then going to be judged by respected food critics and people who could help influence your future career options, or if you didn't impress them you'd get expelled? I think most people would cook the best possible dish that they have complete confidence in making.

All this means is that previously in the Autumn Elections, Kurokiba hadn't yet mastered the ability to apply the intricasies of spices to his dishes in a way that he would feel absolute confidence in serving. Remember that everything they serve in a Shokugeki will reflect back on them and their potential future. Just serving up something with some spices thrown in because you read it in a book is probably not the best way to make a winning dish.

Also, you've pointed this out several times already, but the characters in SnS are still teenagers in school. I don't know about you, but I doubt that you could learn, experiment, and master all of the techniques you'd need to make a perfect dish for any occasion like they are expected to in this show all before they even turn 20.

Yes, Yukihira will always win. Except when he doesn't. Brilliant deduction.

I'll point back to what I said earlier about why Azami didn't just ban Shokugeki altogether to answer this part. Yukihira was essentially relying on the fact that Eizan and the judges would be so overconfident that they would just try his dish even though the entire Shokugeki was rigged. If they did, they would for sure realize that Yukihira's dish was better. Now this would lead to a scenario where the judges would know that Yukihira's dish was better but still ruled in favor of Eizan. This would completely break the reality where the Shokugeki is technically allowed but impossible to win, because everyone would know for sure that the judges were bought off, which would mean that the Shokugeki (which Totsuki's reputation and importance stem from) would be useless and meaningless, and Totsuki's influence would fall, as would Azami's. So Yukihira had to put them in a situation where they either had to lie and destroy Totsuki and Central, or give Yukihira the win and tell the truth.

If they just lied anyway, I bet that Yukihira was planning to have the rest of the students (or a small section of them) to taste both dishes and reach that same conclusion, turning the entirety of the student body against Central and destroying the school's reputation.