2021 Update! I love the warm nostalgic feelings that I get just from reading this manga. I'm really determined to finish the series within the next 6 months so it was great to dive back into this work. Tsukuda creates such an interesting character with Mimsaka. He truly does illustrate the difference between the rest of the students who have a true passion for cooking.
So this made me really want to pick Volume 11 simply because I need to see how the semi-finals are going to turn out between Soma & Mimasaka who I do not like. I thought Alice and Erina were bad, but this guy has no passion for cooking. He simply "cheats" his way to victories. I think Soma has a chance to beat him, but I really need to see how he's going to do it. Another great installment in this Manga series.
I usually do individual reviews, but I read volumes 10-12 so close together, they've all kind of blurred together. Not a surprise, as it's the same storyline split up, and mostly 'battle' scenes at that. So, a combined review it will have to be!
To start with, Akitas side of the battle seems like a bit of a let down after Hisako's in the last volume, though it was still interesting. Maybe because her scene introduces a new style of cooking that readers, especially Western readers, haven't been introduced to so far - the use of medicinal herbs and considerations in cooking, and the effect that food has on a persons' health. We don't get as much insight and information into Akitas' methods here, so it seems more abrupt than her part.
There was also an outright adorable scene in Vol. 10, with Souma acknowledging Takumi's desire for a rematch, and Takumi just *lighting up* as his rivalry with Souma (and, I suppose, skill as an equal,) is acknowledged. The way the illustrator drew his expression is just too cute for words.
Other than that, it's a pretty standard shonen manga, which doesn't help separate the volumes. Many 'action' scenes, occasionally interspersed with flashbacks for each character. Here, it's mostly Ryo's that we see. We also meet more of the Nakiri family - Alice's mother - which is interesting, albeit a bit odd. The character is Scandinavian (Finland, or Denmark I think, but I could be wrong) and speaks rather broken Japanese for the most part - until 'inspired' by the food she tastes, when she suddenly becomes quite fluent. A bit unbelievable, as her daughter is quite fluent, and you'd think if Japanese was spoken enough in her home for her daughter to grow up bilingual, she'd have picked up enough for basic conversation over the years. I suppose you could explain her sudden 'inspired' fluency away as having needed to learn the specialized vocabulary for work purposes over the years, but it still seems strange that her everyday speech would be so broken in that case.
There's a bit of a surprise twist when it comes to the final battle, and who will compete, but I won't give any spoilers. The final theme is interesting to learn about - the characters must use a certain type of fish, the fresher the better, which puts Souma at a bit of a disadvantage against his competitors' skills. It feels a bit uninspired, as it's perhaps not the most interesting choice after Hisakos' turtle (sorry, but this definitely stole the storyline for me when it comes to the various dishes we see), but the progress of the story does feel believable.
I've never been fond of the multi-volume or episode action scenes in Shonen manga. It usually puts me off of watching the tv shows - I think while watching Naruto, for instance, the majority of the episodes were played more in the background while I read or did a craft, only half paying attention to what was actually going on on-screen. Manga are a little better, as I read quickly enough that the scenes go by quickly rather than having to sit through a half-hour scene. That being said, the manga continues to do a decent job of keeping my attention throughout the battles. It probably helps that we learn a lot about various cooking techniques and different foods throughout these battles, which are topics that I actually find interesting, rather than just two characters punching each other. The author and artist continue to make the story interesting, and keep you wanting to learn more about the different characters and see how they will develop over future volumes.
The tournament arc continues, but for this reader, the recipes looks pretty amazing. The beef stew recipe included in this volume piqued my interest and I may just try it out myself!
This was really fast paced and exciting for about the first half because it is the end of quarterfinals! At the end of the quarterfinals we find out more about Subaru Mimasaka and his "techniques." After that, the story was a slow because it is between competitions but Soma risks his future career to take down Mimasaka in the semi final round so it is still intense. Soma has been able to pull through in every challenge he has faced since coming to the school and I'm sure he can beat Mimasaka (who has no passion for cooking, only winning) I just can't wait to see how it all comes together!
2.5* but the racist caricatures bring it down. The way Subaru is depicted--both through the art and the way the other characters react to him--is rife with anti-Black racism. Sucks, because I think Subaru is an interesting antagonist to bring in otherwise since his modus operandi is so seemingly anathema to what the Totsuki Institute should stand for. He's clearly a skilled chef since he's able to reverse engineer someone's recipe while also having enough cooking knowledge to then make an elevated variation. Not sure I buy it that every recipe has a 1:1 elevation comparison, but I get that it's for the sake of the plot. I like that Soma calls him out on avoiding the try-fail cycle of being a chef and creating one's own recipe. Given Soma's chaotic approach to cooking their match up should be interesting.
World: Solid art. The word building is good with the Aldini piece and also the Subaru piece, character driven development. Other than that the pieces here are about the same. There is the new judges which is also good.
Story: This is when stakes get done solidly well. We get emotional impact with Aldini which I did not expect them to go there. The resulting build up to Soma and Subaru was done well.
Characters: Solid work with Soma and his mentality. Good drama with the Aldini brothers and a great villain in Subaru. The new character of the newsie was kinda out of left field.
This is an interesting volume just for the fact that Soma has to go up against someone whose cooking talent is taking someone’s dish and creating something just the tiniest bit better. Will Soma prevail?
The quarterfinal round concludes in which we transition to the semifinal round in the 10th volume of Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma. We are getting closer and closer to the end of the 43rd Annual Totsuki Autumn Election, a story arc that is starting to get way too long in my honest opinion.
Anyways, three one-on-one matches have taken place in the quarterfinal round. Soma Yukihira defeated Alice Nakiri in a bento box match. Ryo Kurokiba defeated Megumi Tadokoro in a ramen match. Akira Hayama defeated Hisako Arato in a burger match. The final match pitted Takumi Aldini against a student who only made a brief appearance in the preliminary match, Subaru Mimasaka. It is safe to say this volume concentrates a lot on him.
Unlike the other three quarterfinal round matches which concentrated on the theme of food (bento box, ramen, burgers), the writing goes in a direction detailing Subaru Mimasaka over the theme for his one-on-one match against Takuma Aldini, desserts. Ergo, we learn all about Subaru, his backstory, and what he does. We even known that he has won almost 100 Food Wars in which he collects the most beloved item of any chef: their knife.
Anyways, we learn how the winners are paired in the upcoming semifinal round as well as the preparation leading up to it. Take note, a lot of the preparation concentrates on both Soma Yukihira and Subaru Mimasaka as their one-one-one match will also be a Food War. Readers will learn what happens in the following volume.
The last quarterfinal match of the Fall Classic cooking competition begins: Mimasaka, who wins by copying his opponent's dishes, versus Takumi, who focuses on Italian food.
Mimasaka is so overblown as a villain - long tongue hanging out, drool flying, spitting on his opponent's treasured knives, occasionally pictured as a demon - that it takes away from the story. I want to read about realistic teens who are extraordinary chefs, not a caricature of evil.
Cheesiest 'food orgasm' line in this volume: "I can feel it awakening the heart of a maiden within me!" (said by elderly male judge).
I'll still read the next book because Mimasaka faces off against our hero Soma.
No series is really complete without a really despicable antagonist. This series was lacking that until volume 10. The new antagonist Mimasaka who seems to be an underling of Eizan falls in the ultimate Villain category pretty easily. He stalks and copies his targets and then defeats them at their own game. Not only that, he takes away something important from his targets as his winning memento. Now Souma is up against him and bets his own cooking carrier against this monster. Really revs up the tension for the next volume.
I am always amazed at how emotionally invested I get in each volume of this series. Takumi isn't one of my favorite characters (or he wasn't before this book), but I really felt enraged on his behalf. This is some excellent storytelling, even if the artist still can't quite figure out how breasts work.
Ok, this fall classic is going on a little long, but I am still enjoying it. I'm really excited to see how Soma wins this stew thing. Also I have volumes 12-14, but 11 is taking forever to be processed! Come on!
and the final one I'm doing on this because I'm not writing out 34 vol complaints as the series dips.
Okay, gonna put this out there, I started reading this series around Jan 4th after seeing the anime season 1 and thought I'd get into it, sped through it and got the entire series read before last the end of last night.
I really dislike that this series ended the way it did, the plot, the comedy, the characters. All of then are decently presented and the ar tis sublime on the signature dishes and the side scenes.
And I was hoping that I'd get a great story, there was SO much build up of things, from things with Soma and his dad to the others. But that ending man, damn that ending ruined it for me.
So lets sum it up, shall we? Soma loses out to Kurokiba and Hayama, gets better and becomes a better chef, goes to work at Shinomiya's as a "stagiaire" we learn of the Elite 10 and meet the Copy Chef, have the same basic storyline told over and over til we get to what Tsukuda had to force out.
See Erina's been a snobbish bitch since the moment we met her - but she's the ideal waifu for Tsukuda - and he saw how people reacted to EVERYONE BUT ERINA and had to come up with a reason why she's just a massive cnut.
So we have an abusive backstory where her Father comes in and forces her to waste food, something she apparently didn't do before.
Now this would be acceptable for some series but there's one thing that has constantly been touted by Shokugeki No Soma.
Soma's food LOOKS simple and ground level, but is in fact gourmet level food that is done with simple ingredients and looks. It's what the series was initially drafted to be "you can make anything delicious and delectable if you try!"
So the "food" that Erina was shown has been repeatedly shown to be beneath her "God Tongue" but throughout the series whenever she's tried Soma's food she's marvelled at how delicious it is, from the first recipe of the furikake rice to that last recipe given to both Erina and her Mother.
And what does the spoilt rich bitch do every time she tastes his food, calls it disgusting and leaves. She's not a likable person.
NOT because she was abused as a child and grew up thinking snobbish thoughts - oh no.
She just is a bitch in general and doesn't like that her order that Soma not get in because his food is simplistic by comparison to the standards she holds (that she constantly is outdone by with Soma) is overridden by her Grandfather.
Onto the ending, oh ffs the ending! That thing is a damn nightmare of a thing to have to deal with. Throughout the series we've seen no build up of any romance between Soma and Erina. He's pretty much been oblivious to three of the girls around him thirsting for his sausage (if you know what I mean) but out of nowhere a "reason" why Soma can't beat his Dad is told, that he doesn't have someone to devote his food to, not that he's still developing his skill, that he's learning, nope, he's as good a cook as Joichiro is already, he just can't cook for a waifu yet.
that's insulting, its demeaning and its ridiculous. there is no way whatsoever that was the plan going out.
I personally think that Tsukuda didn't expect his series to be given so much mainstream attention, I mean its a COOKING MANGA ffs, it's meant to be lighthearted and goofy with a plot that just focuses on the love of a thing the author likes. But it shot to fame with the anime adaptation and he was told "keep making them." because they were making money for Shonen Jump and it was here where he lost his spine.
IF the series had ended with the Central arc then there'd be no issue, we see Soma and the gang win against the Elite 10 and become them, overcoming their greatest rivals in their generation and becoming heroes in their own rights.
But no, can't have that, gotta have a conclusion where a Brother of Erina is found and he plans to marry her so he can own a God Tongue and oh yeah he's Soma's half-brother as Joichiro adopted him before Soma was born.
Jesus that was a ruinous ending and that power of the Nakiri's was stretching reality beyond breaking point.