Story [6]:
Many people are of the mind that the story for Shokugeki starts to fall off around the time the new director, Azami Nakiri, takes over and the main cast effectively become criminals in the eyes of the rest of the student body. I think it's a bit far-fetched, but others may enjoy the escalation and that's perfectly fine. At this point, I'm not as engaged as I was in previous arcs.
Art [4]:
The characters look great! The backgrounds, when they exist, look good too! Most importantly, the food looks God-tier as it does in previous seasons! Now you may be thinking "This guy just praised three of the most vital visual aspects of the show! How does art get a 4?!". Well the answer is quite simple (it's what we've all been waiting for!): panning shots.
The art of a show is the overall visual presentation of everything, that much is obvious, but this is not just limited to the way things are drawn but also the manner in which they are presented to the viewer. This show presents almost EVERY FRAME in EVERY EPISODE with these godawful panning shots. For 20 minutes at a time, you sit and watch the characters stand dead-still; their mouths flapping open and closed as they deliver their lines. But the directors must've realised that characters standing and talking would pointless as people could just read the manga. They realised they had to animate it somehow! So instead of, you know, animating cooking or something, they made every single frame a panning shot of some sort! YES! Because this would simulate movement and thus make everything okay! But alas, it looks like crap. Every new frame is panning in some random direction across the screen, along with random zoom-ins, zoom-outs, and diagonal/slanted shots. All of this means there is zero visual consistency for the most part, and makes the otherwise semi-interesting episode into an absolute nightmare to behold. It completely kills any and all chances to enjoy any episode.
The parts where characters react to the food, one of the best parts of the series honestly, is still enjoyable to witness (despite the fact that the panning shots even infect these scenes).
Sound [7]:
I generally don't notice sound too much but Shokugeki has a fairly good soundtrack which bolsters the impact of each scene (despite the fact that the panning shots ruin said scenes).
Characters [7]
If you've watched the show up until now, you probably like most, if not all, the characters to some degree. The main cast and the Elite Ten have a variety of personalities and the way characters interact is good. The same formula of "thing happens and everyone is shocked" resumes in this season as well and makes everything seem more intense than it otherwise would've been. Some old faces make a reappearance and I was glad to see them back. Both factions have characters with powerful plot armour, however.
Enjoyment [3]:
Panning shots.
Overall [6]:
It's not great, but it's definitely not terrible. If you like the story, read the manga instead. If you've watched and enjoyed the previous seasons, or just like watching something mindlessly for 20 minutes and are immune to headaches or motion sickness, go ahead and watch it.
