Story 07/10, Character 06/10, sound 07/10
The source story is fairly predictable as the modern day chef tries to make sense of ancient China, playing her cooking skills to stay alive. The cooking world in medieval China seems rather dramatically cut-throat (literally), man, I knew the Chinese took food seriously but I did not realize they took food THIS SERIOUSLY as if it were a life and death matter! Which it is in Season 2!! The sound, music and OST are all good.
What lets this entire arc down is the main character is the stereo-typical whiny heroine everywhere except the kitchen (where she's a supremely confident Boss Lady), and at times it got so annoying I wanted to slap her. She's still the same annoying person from Season 1, I had hoped there would be some progress but everyone else around her is getting more depth of personality so it's kind of sad that she's running in the same spot and hasn't improved at all.
Art 10/10
Everything else aside, this is a very, very pretty anime. The scenery is gorgeous and the food looks very tasty.
Enjoyment 08/10, overall 07/10
If you turn off your brain and just go with the flow, this is an easy to watch anime with nice touches throughout. There's twists and turns in the story with the Hero Guy getting a lot of development this season but the romance angle of this has still not reached an inkling of its full potential.
Subs 10/10
Shout out to Mizore x 33 for the wonderful, humorous subs with current anime pop culture references, interesting vignettes and historical references explained. These subs alone were worth +1 points in Enjoyment.
Foodie Rating 08/10
* 10/10 Visual appeal of food - mouth watering
* 09/10 Reaction of characters to food - the reactions are pretty over the top and quite creative, but not ecchi.
* 08/10 Difficulty or complexity of food featured - Has a good mix of simple and complex - some of these recipes are not for beginners. That Beef Lantern was just a WOW!
* 05/10 Preparation or Cooking Instructions - it's show, don't tell. I could figure out some of them but a narration would have helped a lot.
* 08/10 Desire of viewer to cook or buy dishes featured after watching show - Now craving that bowl of noodles, geez my mouth watered just watching it being cooked. I tried but I don't think I quite made it as tasty as it looked in the anime.
