Story:
The first half of the third season of Food Wars brings us a duality of arcs from its original manga, serving us up the moon festival and the beginning of the series's downfall respectively in a somewhat bitter tasting presentation that begs the question of where the show is going to go from here.
At first, we're given a nice sampling of more of Totsuki's culinary festivities with the moon festival, doing what Shokugeki does best by creating your standard shounen rivalries in a competitive atmosphere where each side brings their own tools and weapons to the table to create an action and thrill driven plot that we've come to know from the series. The arc is actually pretty satisfying to watch and provides some good screentime for the just introduced elite ten members the series has been hinting at for some time. But the second half, oh...the second half.
I honestly don't know what direction the series is going at this point. What started as a heated and competitive series that pit young chefs, each with their own style and personal stake in every competition or event escalated so dramatically into the equivalent of a battle for the end of the world that I fail to understand the logic of why things had to elevate so fast, especially for students that're still in their first year of high school! (We still have 2 more years left if the trend of school-based shows are any indication.)
The series turns its head into something of a fascist vs. capitalist kind of argument where many, many leaps of logic have to be considered for any of this to make much sense. It begins the eventual long trend of series slowly lending itself to a battle for survival with a hilarious amount of twists and turns presented that boil down to the villains being narcissistic assholes without any redeeming qualities to serve as fodder to show that our protagonists have the will to fight and aren't willing to back down. At least in the past they gave SOME positive merit to the opposing force in the way of the protagonist that actually turned many opponents into supplementary allies. Here though? Aside from the elite ten, everyone's an asshole that's not worth the time of day to talk about.
Overview:
+ Good first half
- Second half...starts going rancid
Characters:
If you're curious, Soma and the rest of the Polar Star Dorm (or main protagonists I guess) don't really change all that much. So I'm not covering them.
If there's any silver lining from the second half, it's Erina. Finally getting much needed explanation and backstory for one of the most stuck-up characters in the series made her so much more redeemable than what we were presented with before, and gave her positive growth that I for one was thankful to see. She feels a lot less annoying to watch, and it's one of the few things from the beginning of 'Central' that I can praise the series for doing.
Aside from her, we're given a taste of several members of the elite ten, giving more depth as to what these esteemed prodigy chefs specialize in so we're familiar with how they operate when the time to face these final bosses come. The introductions are done pretty imbalanced cause several take the spotlight above others, but when we get to the second half of the third plate, we'll get to everyone else eventually.
Then halfway through the series there's what seemingly is the big endgame boss to the Shokugeki no Soma series as a whole, Nakiri Azami. This guy is just designed for you to hate him. The man who instills a fascist regime over Totsuki really doesn't have any positives going for him, especially when he's drawn monochrome and has Aizen's voice. (Which I admit, sounds cool, but the character himself is shit.) At least with previous antagonistic characters we get some form of redemption and reason behind their actions, qualities that make villains interesting and more complex than being the guy sitting there twirling his evil mustache. This man has no redeeming qualities and simply just stands there with a coy smile as the pillar that siphons all of the hate I have for potentially having a really cool endgame antagonist who isn't just doing what he's doing cause of dumb reasons.
Overview:
+ Redemption for Erina
+ Depth for new cast additions
- Seemingly main villain is severely disappointing
Art:
J.C. Staff always pulls out all the stops for Soma, giving us the bright and colorful style that they've done for 3 cours in the past with gourmet food that literally glistens when you look at it and makes you want to eat at that very moment. The typical stripping scenes combined with orgasmic moans are also rather commonplace so...expect that. All of that's the same, but what else is on the menu?
Some...interesting stylistic choices for parts of the show were made for the art aside from the standard quality we're familiar with. For one thing, several scenes in the first half are done in CGI which while are brief, are pretty noticeable for the time they're on-screen. Not only that, but the show turns to create these super detailed and super ugly faces at times for several of its characters. (Especially for that one battle in the second half) It's not...bad per say, but it's just a kind of interesting style choice that was done cause it was put in the show previously.
Overview
+ Some interesting...style choices
+ Standard, still really good looking art and food
Sound:
To be honest, I didn't really pay much attention to the soundtrack. Much of it was largely uninteresting this time around and definitely didn't have the same quality that previous OPs and EDs have.
Personal Enjoyment:
Now this is the part of the review where I get to have fun and rant, cause Central is a piece of hot garbage that I really am not looking forward to. I just don't understand why the show had to turn itself from a heated and sometimes overly dramatic cooking-based battle series into an end of the world scenario where the heroes have to fight an oppressive force in a David and Goliath story that turned things on its head so fast that it's hard to put into words have quickly things escalated. What's worse is that there's just SO MUCH SMACK TALKING that an entire episode will be filled with nothing but how 'great' and 'refined' the people of Central are that I could only come to the conclusion of: they're assholes. That's it.
Like...you had Subaru, an intimidating guy who despite being a bit of an asshole, actually had something to him that you could at least sympathize with. Erina, a girl who has had her fair share of pompous problems in the past, soften up and grow as a character. And even Kuga from this season, who has so much more depth than these new asshole characters who exist only to be assholes. I fail to wrap my head around why a series that's had such a good history of providing antagonistic characters with positive traits go so wrong by filling those in the 'bad guy' role with irritating stuck-up characters that make Erina's previous actions those of a saint.
Did I like this series?
The moon festival was a good arc, and I really liked the way the show provided brought some struggle and positive qualities to a member of the Elite ten who from the show's own volition made them out to be like gods.
What didn't I like about this series?
Central. I LOATHE this arc and everything that this new story direction stands for. And this shit goes on for a LONG WHILE. So if you're like me and not a fan of it, don't expect it to go away any time soon.
Would I recommend this series?
I'm honestly torn because on one hand, Shokugeki is a good series, and those who like it should continue liking it. But Central is just one of those things that irks me about the show cause in doing this, the show becomes less about the students and the individual stories of these chefs and their plight to learn and hone their craft, and more of a battle of good and evil just using cooking as the weapon. Really, if you're a fan of the series, continue watching, but be wary that the Shokugeki you knew before has changed form.
