Shokugeki no Soma, is a cooking oriented anime that focuses on the growth of our main protagonist Soma as an aspiring chef who goes from working in his family dinner to enrolling in an upper tier cooking school. Now you might be thinking to yourself: "great another boring high school slice of life show with a hint of cooking in it". Now that is where you would be terribly wrong. When this show was first announced (being an avid reader of the manga series) I was with one of my friend and I almost slapped him for not being excited over its adaptation's release. Luckily
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this show almost completely avoids the slice of life genre and instead adopts the much hated ecchi shounen wombo combo. However instead of being a train wreck like most of those shows end up being, it instead leans more towards comedic scenes that have some hints of ecchi thrown into it, but the amazing thing is that none of it takes away from the cooking aspect of the show, which is what 90% of the show is based around, awesome and epic cooking. Whether it be traditional cooking techniques, the integration of gastronomical sciences in modern cooking styles, or theoretical cooking sciences, this show has it all; and for people such as myself who very much so enjoy cooking as a hobby, this show is a breath of fresh air for the many lack luster cooking anime out there. Now let's get on with the review!
!WARNING! (stop reading if you don't want to be spoiled about anything at all)
Characters: 9
Character Development: 9
To start off, a quick look, at the large cast of characters is my favorite place to start. This show, like my previously reviewed show Nanatsu no Taizai (check it out if you don't recognize the name) has a large cast of colorful and fun characters. Some of them will make you laugh: Isshiki Satoshi, some serve as the tsundere archetype: Ikumi Nito, you've got your goofy and possibly stupid rival: Takumi Aldini, and plenty of other characters who are all tons of fun and interesting. In fact while Soma, the main character, is a pretty good example of character development. I personally find that he shines more as a catalyst to other characters development and change. It's thanks to him that Tadokoro Megumi grows so much as a character, going from being down on herself and believing herself to be a terrible chef, to becoming one of the more likely characters to maybe even outshine Soma himself. Similarly with Erina Nakiri, while she might not seemingly change all that much, the truth is that her character is supposed to be stubborn and set in her ways, so in changing even slightly we see in fact a huge development in character. Soma practically breaks her confidence bubble which she is able to maintain around anyone else, and forces on her the desire to seek further achievements than what she thought possible in the past. Soma is more than just a main character, he is the fuel that feeds the flames burning in many of the characters, he gives them more life and makes them more vibrant.
Plot: 8
Pacing: 9
As for the plot there isn’t much that I can really say without spoiling too much, or without sounding like a broken record. I mean as much as I like cooking there is only so much you can use from the field while still managing to hold the viewers’ attention. The show is about cooking so you can’t really expect anything huge in terms of plot twists, it’s not like there is going to be any huge political commentary on how cooking is bad or wrong as that would not fit the atmosphere of the show. Which means that I am happy with where the story is at, and am not going to ask it to do anything more as it probably couldn’t. Pacing has the same regard. Not sure how it could be improved if at all possible, however it wasn’t executed perfectly either, almost though. Normally I would have an example however it’s more of a feeling I got from the show rather than something I observed if that makes sense. Maybe it’s just something that this type of show just can’t fulfill do to its style.
Art Style/ Art Direction: 9
Music/ Sound: 7
I find that the art choice fit well with this type of show, while it was nothing life changing it was very well executed and definitely made me want to eat whatever was served as I got to see the juices bubble, the steam rise off of freshly cooked meals, and the see the crunch of fresh vegetables and the fatty marbling of high grade meats. It was very visually appealing and definitely deserves props for its execution if anything else. The music sadly was the most disappointing part of this whole show in my opinion, most of the soundtrack was pretty standard and didn’t really offer me anything to add to my current list of favorite songs, the only exception to that was the very first ED (if you haven’t heard it yet definitely check it out). That was the song that I listened to fully every time after all of the episodes, and was even saddened when it was no longer used in the second half (obviously knew it would change though).
Enjoyment: 9
Final Score: 86/100
Unfortunately the scoring system doesn’t allow for decimal points so the score I’ll give this show is a little lower than I’d like to give it. However this show in my opinion does not deserve a 9 in the slightest no matter how good it is. Which is why I rounded down instead of up.
Thank you very much for reading my review, if you have any questions, comments, or just want to say hi just shoot me a message I’ll gladly respond. I hope you have a nice day.
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Nov 2, 2015
Shokugeki no Souma
(Anime)
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Shokugeki no Soma, is a cooking oriented anime that focuses on the growth of our main protagonist Soma as an aspiring chef who goes from working in his family dinner to enrolling in an upper tier cooking school. Now you might be thinking to yourself: "great another boring high school slice of life show with a hint of cooking in it". Now that is where you would be terribly wrong. When this show was first announced (being an avid reader of the manga series) I was with one of my friend and I almost slapped him for not being excited over its adaptation's release. Luckily
...
Nov 1, 2015
Nanatsu no Taizai
(Anime)
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PSA Warning:
Out of concern for your eyes, if you are allergic to stupidity do not read my review. This is my first ever review and is therefore bound to suck. I have never been much of a writer either. However if you still wish to continue you have my condolences. SPOILER FREE REVIEW Nanatsu no taizai is an action adventure oriented anime with a lot of light-hearted humor to kind of gloss over the serious tones that the show throws at us every now and then. The show is good for a fun watch as it doesn't provide much in terms of character development, with such a ... Previous - |
