This is a very good anime but too many reviews here don't take into account the tedious parts of the story line or the predictability. My review will concentrate more on the negatives - especially since most of the reviews here already concentrate on the positives.
Most of all - don't get me wrong - it is a very good anime! It's just not "10" worthy.
Story - 8/10
The anime revolves around Soma Yukihira, a teenage chef, whose only real desire is to surpass his father as such. The anime follows Soma to Totsuki Academy where he joins other high caliber teen chefs looking to learn and make a name for themselves. There are battles between the students but the majority of the time you'll be watching teachers and judges reactions to the foods these chef's create.
This is where the "tedious" part came in for me. Towards the end I was finding myself skipping through the "reactions" just to see the end results. You already have a sense that specific characters will outdo other ones and that there's really no need to watch the reactions for some of them.
Further into the story I found myself asking why the judges didn't actually Subtract points from certain characters (the Italian brothers for example) for not showing any ingenuity with their dishes. No Japanese chef ever thought of combining Italian and Japanese dishes before? Just a small problem there, for me, in the belief department.
There are no surprises. I expect a couple of surprises but it seems the story line is very predictable. There was nothing in the story that I found unpredictable and found myself bored more than a couple of times.
Also - while there are supposedly battles between these young chef's - we only get to see a handful of these battles over the 24 episodes. The battles are there to reward the winner and punish the loser but there's only 1 real battle that I can think of that showed this to any degree.
Art and Animation - 8.5/10
The animation is very good - better than some. There is no worrying about mixing up characters as they are all very different from one another. I did notice that some animation sequences were used again in different episodes but in new parts of the story. I don't care to see the same animation again unless it's a revisit scene to the original. There's a couple of places that it was apparent and the animation itself wasn't anything brilliant. The lines are clean and the animation is well done.
Sound - 7.5/10
Having just finished watching "Detroit Metal City" I can say that the soundtrack music is nothing extraordinary with this animation. It is better than some but it's nothing ground breaking. The sound is clean and the music is okay.
Characters - 8/10
A large cast that all have their own characteristics that really separate them from the rest.
Soma Yukihira is the protagonist and has a big chip on his shoulder when it comes to his father. The problem I have with him is that even he doesn't have much of a backstory. He just ends up flashing back to all the time he and his father were cooking. He doesn't know squat about his father's history and he'd never bothered to ask him about the calls from people using different languages?
Megumi Tadokoro is clumsy, adorable, and has a strong will to succeed. At first you can see her using Soma as a crutch but as the story moves forward she really starts to shine on her own.
Erina Nakiri is the ultimate "Tsundere". To a point that she's more irritating than interesting. The probability that her character could exist in the real world is almost zero. If she's the "Golden Tongue" and eats a meal that's fantastic then in real life she'd want to know "why" it's better. In this story she's only interested in pedigree and her ego is bigger than her "Golden Tongue". While it may be normal in some instances in real life it's definitely not normal for chef's who go out of their ways to find the best foods - no matter where they might be located.
Pros :
1. It has some good comedic moments
2. It's entertaining
3. The character interactions are fun to see
Cons :
1. Believability is forgotten in some instances
2. A couple of the characters are too far over the top
3. Animation sequences used again but in different story lines
4. No real surprises
Overall - 8/10
It's a fun anime to watch and I recommend it.
