Characters / Food Wars! - Polaris

Food Wars! Main Character Index
Polaris Dormitory (Soma Yukihira) | 92nd Generation (Erina Nakiri) | 91st Generation | 90th Generation | Totsuki Academy | Other

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Polaris Dormitory

Polaris is a financially-independent dormitory situated on the main Totsuki campus. While most students have their own residences off-campus, Soma, Megumi and their friends live at the dorm for one reason or another, including Satoshi Isshiki (2nd Year, 91st Generation), Seventh Seat of the Council of Ten Masters. The dorm used to be very prestigious, but has gone into a decline until the present, when several of its residents, all freshmen from the 92nd Generation, make it to the qualifiers of the 43rd Autumn Election, with Megumi and Soma even reaching the quarterfinals and finals, respectively.

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General

• Band of Brothers: After being singled out from the rest of the Academy as the old guard standing in the way of Azami's reforms, they slowly grew into this, led by Erina and joined by Alice, Ryou, Hisako, Ikumi and the Aldini brothers.
• Commonality Connection: Despite their various personalities and cooking styles, all the tenants share a sense of determination and confidence in their cooking. This is best shown when Erina first took asylum at the dormitory to escape her father Azami, where not only do they refuse to be intimidated by her critiques, but also convinced her that the culinary world is far bigger than what she might have thought.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: At Soma's welcoming party, Isshiki mentioned that all the characters present only make up less than half of the dorm's residents. They are all the named characters listed below and they are the only inhabitants of Polaris.
• La Résistance: After Azami's takeover, the Polaris tenants have become the vanguards of Totsuki's old status quo, together with Erina, Hisako, Alice, Ryou, Mimasaka, Ikumi and the Aldini brothers. Erina is even compared to Jeanne d'Arc. With Erina as the leader, and bringing Terunori Kuga and Tosuke Megishima on their side, they form the Rebels faction in response to Azami's Central.
• The Power of Friendship: As Erina observed, the tenants' secret to their success at the 43rd Autumn Election (Soma and Megumi reached the playoffs, while Shun, Ryoko, Yuuki and Zenji, though they fail to qualify, nevertheless earned scores above 80, a rarity in the contest) lay in their habit of brainstorming ideas together. This factored into Soma's victory over Etsuya in their Shokugeki, as he reveals that the idea to use tomato ketchup for his Satsuma jidori to preserve its original taste and texture while using different ingredients and methods came through his dormmates' feedback. Also during the Regiment de Cuisine, Satoshi defeats Julio using a dish made mostly of ingredients created by the Polaris freshmen.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Amongst the hundreds of students of Totsuki, the Polaris residents are known for their wildly distinctive personalities and cooking styles, more so with the current generation.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Zig-zagged. Everyone sans Soma, Megumi, and Satoshi are knocked out during the exam by the Council of Ten Masters, relegating them to the sidelines even more than they were previously. However, even when placed inside iron cages and threatened with expulsion, they're still used for exposition and comic relief during the otherwise tense Regiment de Cuisine arc.
• True Companions: Despite coming from various backgrounds, the tenants stick together through thick and thin. Their "family" has even extended to outsiders Erina, Hisako, Alice, Ryou, Ikumi, Takumi and Isami. This is further reinforced when the original dorm crew (and Hisako) decide to defend the dormitory from Etsuya's lackeys while Soma is out dueling Etsuya at a televised Shokugeki.

Current Residents

Soma Yukihira

See his page here.

Megumi Tadokoro

Megumi Tadokoro

Voiced by: Minami Takahashi (Japanese), Jad Saxton (English), Tamara Veppo (Latin Spanish)

Clumsy and shy Megumi left Tohoku unprepared for life in Totsuki, finding its competitive atmosphere totally at odds with her mellower approach to cooking, leaving her with a bad case of stage fright and poor grades, such that by the time she survives into tenth-grade (and even then she has the lowest passing score) she was only one failing grade away from expulsion. After surviving her first class upon being paired with Soma, however, she begins to look up to him as her greatest hope for helping her fulfill her dream of making her family and hometown proud.

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• Accent Slip-Up: She may slip back into her native Tohoku dialect when she's flustered.
• Adaptational Badass: Even taking her vast improvements throughout the series into account, she gets a big moment to shine exclusively in the anime; rather than simply being invited to participate in the BLUE along with Soma and Takumi, in the anime, Totsuki holds a schoolwide Shokugeki-style tournament with soup as its theme to determine who will be going, with more or less every named student still attending the school taking part. She comes out on top over everyone else, including Soma, who only scored third place despite being the 1st Seat.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Initially considered an outsider to her poor grades and submissive attitude. During training camp she makes a good impression with the instructors, allowing her to participate in the Elections. Though her schoolmates are initially baffled at her inclusion, they eventually come around and respect her abilities after her match in the quarterfinals even though she's defeated soundly by Ryou.
• Animal Motifs: She has been compared to a rabbit twice: her nickname as a table tennis player is "Tohoku's Hopping Hare", and after her match with Ryou, she was described as "a bunny going against a wolf".
• Apologizes a Lot: Seeing Megumi and Jun interact, Soma’s eyes glaze over as he realizes they’re stuck in an infinite loop of apologies.
• Audience Surrogate: Initially, her role was to be the Straight Man to Soma's overconfident antics as well as an observer to his various habits.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: After the Time Skip. She was able to deduce the underworld chef's exact hometown just by listening to his accent, deduced what he might have eaten as a child and recreates the flavors with greater intensity in her dish. The tough chef starts shedding Manly Tears as he is reminded of his childhood.
• Badass Adorable: After she regained her confidence and lost her stage fright, she managed to give Ryou a good match while still being sweet, cute Megumi. She also made it through the preliminaries due to her skill at cutting hanging monkfish, something she mastered when she was very young despite the obvious difficulty in cutting up a fish larger than she was.
• Best Friend: Soma is naturally a social person, but Megumi has been his closest friend and partner since the beginning of his time at Tōtsuki.
• Big Damn Heroes: Chapter 137 ends with her helping Erina, Hisako, Alice and Ryou hide in the Polaris Dormitory after the former was sprung out of the Nakiri mansion.
• Birds of a Feather: With Soma — both come from a humble background and suffer from bullying at school, yet are better cooks than the average lot. When given the opportunity, they can make friends easily.
• Book Dumb: Megumi has had a poor academic performance simply because she cannot cope well under pressure and doesn't specialize in technical perfection to begin with.
• Boring, but Practical: Her dishes tend to be simpler than many of the other students and she doesn't know how to prepare complex dishes like a suitable meat based ramen. However, she does a very good job with normal produce.
• Call-Back: During her first meeting with Jun, Megumi asked why the professor had a grudge on Jouichiro and his family. It was explained that the grudge was due to Jouichiro using her as his guinea pig for his nasty food experiments during their youth. This reminded Megumi of how Soma force-fed her squid and honey during their first class together.
• Character Development: She starts out with low self-esteem and nervousness due to being a borderline failure. After being paired with Soma, she starts to gets back to her feet. After the training camp, she's earned the respect of several alumni, and by the Autumn Election, she can stand on her own without Soma's help, even managing to be able to go toe-to-toe with the incredibly aggressive Ryou. Eventually she became the Tenth Seat of the Council of Ten Masters.
• Character Tics:
  • As Soma notices, as they prepared their first assignment together, she tends to write the "Person" character（人）on her left hand so she won't get nervous.
  • She also has a habit of bunching her fists together in many of her scenes, something that hasn't gone unnoticed.
• Comfort Food: Megumi's specialty. While dishes from other characters cause the well known orgasmic reactions and imagery in those who eat them, Megumi's dishes cause a different kind of reactions and imagery — that being of simple, heartwarming happiness. The Autumn Election judges are even shown relaxing around a kotatsu after trying her curry dish, and just one bite of her dish during her Shokugeki against Kojirou gave the latter a flashback to his childhood with his mother.
  • After the Time Skip, she takes this to a new level. Using her position on the Council of Ten, she traveled the world in order to get a sense of what "home" felt like and incorporate it into her cooking. Thus, she can pinpoint the exact region of America that a foreigner came from by his accent and clothing and make a dish based on that information.
• Companion Cube: She always talks to her rubber duck when bathing.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: She was a borderline failure at the start, without self-confidence and with a lot of clumsiness. After getting through those issues and focusing more on her niche as a cook, she shows that she can actually go toe-to-toe with some the best of the 92nd Generation, even making it into the Autumn Election. She's also been able to prepare hanging monkfish since she was a child, which amazes everyone. By the Regiment de Cuisine, she puts up a serious fight in a Shokugeki against Momo Akanegakubo, the best patissier of the Council of Ten who is said to be able to best Tsukasa in a battle of sweets. While she ultimately loses, it was ultimately a close vote, leaving Momo frustrated over her inability to crush Megumi, reluctantly acknowledging her as a Worthy Opponent by using her actual name. And after the Regiment de Cuisine, she became the Tenth Seat of the Council of Ten
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Ruthlessly fodderizes Huang Zuiwang, one of the strongest Noirs and the top five candidates at BLUE.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: When she's under pressure she makes a lot of mistakes, such as spilling ingredients in front of an audience during the tournament preliminaries. Though it could be seen as endearing, it's also one of her greatest flaws as a cook and nearly led to her failing out of Totsuki at the beginning of the year despite having great potential.
• The Cutie: While most chefs look badass when they're cooking, she's the character who always looks more adorable than badass, even in table tennis.
• Determinator: Despite her poor reputation in Totsuki, Megumi wants to cook her best, primarily inspired by Soma. As seen in her flashbacks, she learned as a child to cut hanging goosefish (which is a very hard task, specially for a little girl) to keep up with the tradition of her ryokan once their chef had to retire. The fishermen admired her determination so much that to this day they place her in high regard.
  • She challenges Asahi of all people to a Shokugeki. Megumi calls him out for harassing Erina and tells him that if she wins, Asahi must give up chasing Erina. To prove her point, Megumi instantly crushes one of Asahi's subordinates.
• Erotic Dream: Seems to become an issue for her after the Time Skip. She has a borderline sexual dream about Soma feeding her delicacies, and later reveals she was actually imagining one of her "foodgasms" of being in a bathtub full of money with two naked girls in each arm.
• Establishing Character Moment: Done to contrast her with Soma. After Soma has confidently introduced himself to the student body with the intent of using everyone else as stepping stones, Megumi shown cowering in the corner, contemplating her potential expulsion due to her abysmal performance and having a desire to not stand out. She gets paired with Soma for her next assignment.
• Even the Girls Want Her: One of Tōtsuki's legendary alumna, Hinako Inui starts flirting with Megumi and becomes blatantly biased to her. In an extra, Hinako steals a USB containing pictures of Megumi in a swimsuit.
• Fainting: Played for Laughs during her Stagiaire shift — even after she Grew a Spine, she still cannot help but pass out upon realizing that not only is she paired with Erina, but they also had to deal with a chef who absolutely refuses to be told around by students. She even imagines writing a letter to Soma asking of his own status.
• Fatal Flaw: Megumi consistently struggles to overcome her timid, passive nature and nearly gets expelled because Koujirou believes that her inability to be aggressive makes her not cut out to be a chef. If Soma hadn't stepped in and contested this ruling, Megumi would have been kicked out of school for sure.
• First-Name Basis: In the Japanese version, she's the only major character who calls Soma by his first name apart from his father.
• Foil: Four examples.
  • To Soma — where the former is the adaptive, cunning challenge seeker, Megumi is the underdog with a terminal case of shyness.
  • To Miyako — the former has been exposed to sexist male chefs in her family-run restaurant; in contrast, Megumi is surrounded by men who dearly appreciate her talents.
  • To Ryo — the former grew up in a kitchen full of "dog-eat-dog" chefs while Megumi grew up with people who encouraged and supported her cooking.
  • To Jun Shiomi — Both are/were housemates to a Yukihira and were victims of their disgusting creations, but Megumi stays as Soma's close friend while Jun blew up at even the mention of Joichiro's name (and initially refuses to help his son).
• Flowers of Femininity: Has a small flower pin in her right side, contributing to her delicate appearance.
• Girlish Pigtails: Has two braids of hair going down each side of her head to illustrate visually she's less mature and experienced than many of the other female characters.
• Girl Next Door: Compared to the rest of the cast, she has a much more normal and down to earth personality and background as the daughter of a family that runs an inn. Also, while not unattractive, her design is much less flashy than the rest of the female cast, especially the likes of Alice, Ikumi or Erina.
• Grew a Spine: After going head-to-head with Kojirou during training camp and learning to focus on her cooking and not the stakes of her duels, she comes out of the experience with even more self confidence. She's still not exactly the boldest member of the cast, but she can now stick up for her own viewpoints and style as necessary. She also stops having to rely on Soma after the training camp, scoring good grades now that she no longer considers herself completely incompetent.
• Harsh Word Impact: Twice by Soma, and once by a little girl who she was teaching cooking.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: As hospitality is key in her dishes, she also works under a mentality of "cook for someone you love, and it will be tastier". This comes to a head with her budding affections for Soma, as she recalls the events of the preliminaries in the Autumn Election. As the series moves on, she continues to evolve with this, not only through her Comfort Food style of cooking, but also by focusing and training on how to properly treat customers beyond just serving them good food, meaning that she's also adding the skills of a hostess and a waitress (roles just as crucial in a restaurant as that of a good cook) on top of her cooking skills to best make her customers happy, as shown during the fourth day of the Full Moon Festival.
• A Hero To Her Hometown: Megumi gets little respect at Totsuki prior to the 43rd Autumn Election due to her timid nature and almost flunking out, but basically everyone in her hometown is proud of her. The fishermen travel to the election's prelim to cheer her on, and they call her the town's "shining star".
• Hidden Depths:
  • Before enrolling into Totsuki, Megumi was a national-level table tennis player. A few chapters focuses on her playing when not cooking, and everyone else gets so worked up in the sport the narration has to remind the audience that Food Wars! is still a cooking manga.
  • Her cooking abilities are first given a look during Chapter 14 when she makes onigiri. Soma immediately lampshades this.
  • During the Autumn Election, Megumi's cooking made Senzaemon's fundoshi come undone without his realizing. According to Senzaemon, this means Megumi's potential is limitless.
• Hospitality for Heroes: At the end of Chapter 137 she offers Erina, Hisako, Alice and Ryou shelter in Polaris after the former was sprung out of the Nakiri mansion.
• Informed Ability: Her first scene is a flashback showing her family and neighbors saying how amazing she is at cooking but, we, the audience, do not see this in the present. In fact, she's on the verge of flunking out of Totsuki. When she makes snacks for her dormmates prior to the Training Camp arc, Soma asks why she can't cook food this great during class. This turns out to be a function of her character development. Once she builds up confidence and an ability to focus through high-stress situations, she demonstrates her ability to truly be an excellent cook with unlimited potential, if perhaps slightly sloppy and lacking in impact.
  • Her "food war" against Shinomiya was not remotely winnable but the judges definitely liked her dish.
  • During the breakfast buffet trial, one of the staff judges asked her to marry his grandson after one bite of her egg dish.
  • She reaches the top section of her block during the 43rd Autumn Election preliminaries.
  • When facing-off against Ryou, she loses but, again, the judges greatly enjoyed her dish and their decision was not easy.
  • She scores her first shokugeki victory During the Hunt for Survivors in the Central arc, saving her Regional Cuisine RS in the process. In fact, she shut-out one of Central's elite.
• If It's You, It's Okay: Non-Romantic example. She is the only one Hisako trusts to take care of Erina, after both her Character Devlopment and everything the Polar Star residents have done for Erina, to the point she only lets Megumi clean Erina's back at the public baths, something she doesn't even allow Alice, Erina's cousin.
• Irony: She was at the bottom of her class and was nearly expelled by Kojirō Shinomiya during the Training Camp. Months later, she ended up training under Shinomiya and became the 10th Seat of the prestigious Council of Ten Masters.
  • At the beginning of her first year, Megumi had wanted to avoid Soma after his Badass Boast speech and was distraught when she was partnered with him during a class. Soma gains her trust by proving his competence and since then they have been best of friends.
• Know Your Vines: She can easily recognize and get herbs and other plants in the forest section of the training camp.
• The Lancer: She has served as Soma's cooking partner through a number of assignments as well as offered constructive feedback on his cooking. While Soma is naturally sociable, Megumi is arguably his closest friend at Totsuki.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Anytime she's about to play table tennis and when strategizes for the Autumn Election (though she relapses into Nervous Wreck occasionally).
• Logical Weakness: Like Soma, she comes from a small-town family village and specializes in Comfort Food. As a result, she struggles to put out food with impact since she prefers to make comforting, everyday dishes. This ultimately results in her defeat against Ryou 3-0, but all of the judges admitted that they didn't expect her food to be so powerful. Heck, the only reason why Senzaemon didn't strip was because of the fact that her food made his underwear come off!
• Motherly Side Plait: By the time they pass to their Second Year, and she reaches the Tenth Seat of the Council, Megumi starts to wear just one braid to the right side, resembling more Hinako Inui. It suits her since her cooking style is compared to a mother's cooking and this is the anime mom hair style.
• Nervous Wreck: In her earlier days at Totsuki, she was constantly overwhelmed by the pressure of grades and stage fright, which prompted her to make a lot of mistakes and, therefore, fail her classes. Soma notes that she became more confident once she stopped staring at the pot while counting every minute, but she still panics whenever she's around more talented people or whenever Soma does something reckless.
• Nice Girl: Unlike the other students, she's not competitive at all and is more concerned about making people happy than doing well herself. She's eventually advised that she should probably focus on this hospitality aspect rather than obsessing over small details. While she may not be able to make a terrine nearly as good as Shinomiya's, her version does contain a thoughtfulness that he lacks, such as including allspice to help the judges' digestion after a full day of sampling hundreds of dishes.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Megumi is the best cook in her hometown, but in Totsuki she was on the verge of expulsion before Soma bailed her out. Totsuki emphasizes technical perfection, calm under pressure, and a certain emotional distance in the preparation, but Megumi is easily intimidated and specializes in adapting her cooking to suit the particular needs of whoever she’s cooking for. She's still within the top ten of her year, but Totsuki's competitive and demanding nature came as a shock to her.
• Odd Friendship: To both Erina and Soma, given their stronger personalities compared to her humble and shy character. She actually lampshades this once, saying she never thought she would be able to be friends with Erina when talking to her.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
  • She defeats Shigemichi Kumai 3-0 in the Shokugeki to defend the Regional Cooking RS, making her one of the four First Years to defeat Central.
  • She also crushes the Noir Huang Zuiwang 3-0 in a match at BLUE.
• Only Sane Woman: She's apparently the only normal resident of the Polaris Dormitory, as most of the other students can, and frequently do, behave like rowdy party animals. This is lampshaded when she says Soma will "fit right in" with the wacky residents.
• Otaku: Megumi is a fan of manga (specifically romance and sports). It’s later revealed that Soma borrowed from her an entire collection of a shoujo manga Erina got hooked on. And to get over her trauma of having Shinomiya as her personal trainer, she reimagines the situation as her favorite ping pong manga, to the point she starts calling him “coach” from then.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Megumi is a great chef in her own right and people constantly praise her inherent potential. Sadly, she's surrounded by the likes of Soma and Erina, who have much more experience and knowledge as well as a more active competetive drive to win than she does. So she comes off as lacking compared to her peers.
• Performance Anxiety: Prone to stage fright.
• The Power of Friendship: In Chapter 69, Megumi believes that she's gotten stronger because of the support of her friends.
• Red Baron: Aside from the nicknames some of the legendary alumni were proposing for her, Megumi is also known as "Tohoku's Hopping Hare" as a table tennis player.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: She's trapped in a negative loop at the start of the story. Her grades are bad, which stress her out. When she's stressed, she loses confidence. Without confidence, she makes mistakes. When she makes mistakes, she gets bad grades. Simply hearing she's at risk of failing made her all the more likely to fail. She manages to break out of her loop when Soma gives her a chance to breathe and then helped her avoid thinking of the consequences of failure, allowing her to do her best without worrying.
• Ship Tease: In Chapter 61, she recalls her mother's advice to think of someone dear to cook for, and only thinks of Soma, blushing noticeably while doing so. She also becomes flustered at the thought of staying in the same hotel room as Soma in Chapter 265.
• Shower of Awkward: Soma walks in on her bathing on his first night at the Polaris Dormitory. Megumi was greatly mortified by it, but Soma seemed to forget all about it rather quickly.
• Shrinking Violet: She has no confidence at the start of the story and is on the verge of failing out as a result. This has given her a very poor reputation. During the Autumn Election, when she shows that she's regained her confidence and really can cook, she starts earning the respect of the other students.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: To Ryou during their duel in the Autumn Election. Seeing that she's supported by her friends, he tells her that the kitchen is battlefield where cooks, regardless if they are working together, are fighting "eating" each other and that her cooking is a "trashy game" because she thinks that cooperation is important and that she doesn't fight with fellow cooks. Her response:
  "At the very least the things I've seen aren't trash at all!" (a short break to cook her dish) "All the people who pushed me forward, don't speak badly of them!"
• Shy Blue-Haired Girl: She has blue hair and is notable within Totsuki for her incredible passiveness.
• Silk Hiding Steel: She starts off really silky - looking soft, acting gentle and her cooking is often inspired by comfort food, and thus lacking in impact. However, she develops the steel over time, learning to stay calm under pressure and her cooking creates a powerful effect through its ability to quietly sooth and satisfy those who eat it.
• Skilled, but Naive: She's no doubt a skilled cook, but initially struggled with Totsuki due to her lack of confidence.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Mayumi Kurase, Soma's old high-school classmate. Both share yellow eyes and love for his dishes.
• Tareme Eyes: Whenever people notice that she is The Cutie and how her personality reflects on her cooking, her round eyes are prominent.
• Tender Tears: Being incredibly shy and weak-willed, she breaks down crying a few times, such as when she bottomed out after her and Soma's dish was sabotaged, and throughout her harrowing experience under Kojirou's boot camp (where she was nearly expelled and Soma had to challenge the latter to a Shokugeki in her defense). It turns to Tears of Joy at the end of Episode 23 after she narrowly qualifies for the Autumn Election playoffs.
• The Three Faces of Eve: Among the Polaris girls, she is the Wife to Yuuki's Child and Ryoko's Seductress, being the sweet, humble one of the trio with a talent for home cooking.
• Took a Level in Badass: Begins the series with failing grades due to stage fright and was one mark away from expulsion. After partnering with Soma, her cooking skills improved, becoming more refined and brave. This culminates in the Autumn Election, where she makes it into the quarterfinals, losing only to super specialist Ryou.
  • In Chapter 166, she beats Shigemichi in a Shokugeki while representing the Regional Cooking RS, and becomes one of the only two cooks to have saved her research society during the second day of purge.
  • As of Chapter 193 (the end of the third day of the Survivors' Purge), she is the only other remaining member of the original Polaris crew besides Soma still in the game, alongside fellow rebels Erina and Takumi.
  • After the Time Skip, she's managed to hold onto a position as Tenth Seat on the Council of Ten Masters for four months. When confronted with a chef who works with the underworld, she challenges him all by herself with her own cooking and does so without ever losing her composure and like a traditional Japanesse hotel hostess. And the dish itself proves that she put her time on the Council of Ten to good use, as she's able to determine where the chef was born and use that knowledge to make something that reminds him of his home.
  • By the time of BLUE, Megumi is one of the few light chefs along with Soma and Takumi to clear all three gates and enter the final round. Senzaemon himself points out that she has drastically improved. Mind you, more experienced light chefs had struggled a lot in clearing each gate.
• Tranquil Fury: She maintains a pleasant attitude when facing the midnight chef, but is visibly offended by his twisted understanding of the concept of hospitality, which happens to be her specialty.
• Two Guys and a Girl: Since the Central Arc, Megumi is often grouped with Soma and Takumi. Even in the BLUE arc, the three had to start from the first gate and cleared all three trials, entering the final tournament round. Coincidentally the three of them represent the three primary colors because of their hair. Megumi is blue, Soma is red and Takumi is yellow.
• Underestimating Badassery: Megumi's history of failure and low rank lead people to underestimate her, forgetting she is indeed a skilled cook.
• Undying Loyalty: She develops this towards Soma, as she would go out of her way to help him. In the Autumn Festival arc, she declines helping at the Polaris and her Regional Cooking RS booths because she puts Soma's need as top priority.
• Whip of Dominance: Played for Laughs. During her "battle" with Huang Zuiwang, he threatens to make her "Squeal like a pig". In the Imagine Spot of their contest, Megumi then pulls out a whip after showing her "meal in a flash" and two whip cracks later, and he's left in his underwear, having been "disciplined" by her.
• World Tour: After becoming an Council of Ten, she uses her privilege to travel to all parts of the world to experience the many different forms of home cooking and hospitality.
• Worthy Opponent: Considered this by Ryou. During the Stagiaire Period Arc, Erina reveals to also think highly of her.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: So kind and humble, and the others often comment Megumi will be a great wife when they taste her cooking. She has the family-loyalty trait solid as well since she wants to inherit her family's ryokan (traditional Japanese inn). The "inner iron" of the trope takes a little longer to develop.

Satoshi Isshiki

Satoshi Isshiki

Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai (Japanese), Scott Gibbs (English), Federico Llambi (Latin Spanish)

Oldest student in the Polaris Dormitory, eleventh-grade Satoshi, from the 91st Generation, is also the Seventh Seat of the Council of Ten, an assembly of Totsuki's best student-chefs from all years and its highest policy board besides headmaster Senzaemon himself. Satoshi hails from a famous clan of cooks from Kyoto, who specialize in traditional Japanese cuisine. Unlike most of his peers, however, he knows great talent and tells them like he sees it, in particular taking a keen interest in Soma and Megumi, encouraging them to hone their skills even further.

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• The Ace: Besides being the oldest Polaris tenant, Satoshi is also the only one in the Council of Ten Masters. Within the latter group itself, almost everyone is aware he is very likely the best cook among the 91st Generation, and is only below Nene because he doesn't take his responsibilities as seriously as her. Whether it's cooking, music, dancing or other things like table tennis, he excels at it and especially his superior cooking makes the people around him envious and resentful.
• Air Vent Escape: Has a habit of visiting Soma by his ceiling panel.
• All Your Powers Combined: In Chapter 216, he uses ingredients from his fellow dorm residents in his eel dish.
• Always Someone Better: As Nene, the highest-ranking eleventh-grader in the Council of Ten admits, she's only above Satoshi in the Council of Ten because he never gets serious; when he does, however, he can surpass her skills, culinary or otherwise, which only added to her resentment towards him.
• Berserk Button: Satoshi is nigh unflappable and will simply brush off any insults and the like with a smile on his face. But as shown in Chapter 209, insulting his fellow Polaris Dorm members is the one thing that will genuinely piss off Satoshi, and the fact that he displays it in a Tranquil Fury kind of way just makes him come across as even more intimidating.
• Big Brother Instinct: Being the eldest and most experienced resident in the dorm, he looks after his kouhais and heads to Hokkaido to participate in the Regiment de Cuisine so he can get back his seat in the Council of Ten and force Azami to rescind the expulsion of his friends.
• Bishie Sparkle: Happens every time he is shown working on the garden, since he gets sweaty and sparkly at the sunlight.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Despite everyone in the Council of Ten acknowledging his skills to be superior to those of Nene, they are also aware that he is at a lower ranking than her due to dismotivation issues. Downplayed in the Blue arc where he's revealed to finally take up the second seat but still allows Soma to take the first seat.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's the best cook in Polaris and is also the only one in the Council of Ten, as well as a consummate politician who often supports his kouhai with behind-the-scenes manipulation and an organic gardener of growing repute. He's also known among his dorm-mates as a shameless nudist, to the point that the sight of him putting clothes on means O.O.C. Is Serious Business. He is also perceived to be the best cook of his batch, and was only placed on a lower seat than Nene because he never took things as seriously as her.
• Call to Agriculture: He manages the Polaris gardens, to the point that he skipped many classes to take care of the vegetables. The organic produce is so good he even managed to commercialize them.
• Chekhov's Skill: For much of the early arcs, Satoshi's culinary style is never shown, so it's hard to say what kind of cook he is, except for that one time when he tested Soma's skills at the start of the story. Soma deduces from his dish that his family must have run a wasshoku (a high-quality traditional Japanese restaurant), and it took another 200 chapters to confirm that Soma was spot-on.
• Chick Magnet: Orie offers him financial aid to support him forever if he would become hers. He's also very popular with older women at the DEF Kitchen.
• Childhood Friends: Shared a past with Nene, as he trained at her house when he became four. However, Nene doesn't see themselves as friends.
• Combat Pragmatist: Played for Laughs during a table tennis match against Megumi. Though he’s just barely managing to hold his own, he knows he’s going to lose eventually, so he distracts her during a serve by telling her that she’ll be in the Autumn Election. Everyone gets so wrapped up in the announcement they forgot about the match, allowing him to leave without losing.
• Cool Big Bro: He sees himself as the one guiding his Polaris underclassmen as the oldest tenant, and encourages them to enjoy their youth together as a big family. Even Joichiro approved of his role.
• Crazy-Prepared: Knowing well ahead that Azami will dismiss him (as well as Terunori and Tosuke) from the Council of Ten for declining to support him, Satoshi spends what little time he had in power writing up the rules of the Survivor's Purge, in which Research Societies and Seminars would have to challenge key Central supporters for a chance to have their dissolutions revoked. In particular, the fourth clause requires all judges to be outsiders who had no prior contact with the competitors, presumably to avoid another incident like Etsuya hiring Central loyalists to rig shokugekis in his favor.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: It's not exactly well-hidden, given that he is the Seventh Seat of the Council of Ten ( Second Seat as of recent events), but his laid-back attitude, goofy smile, tendency to casually walk around in the dorm wearing as little as possible, and him easily being distracted in his thoughts—even in the middle of a Shokugeki—makes people underestimate him, despite his ranking. Anyone who actually watched him cook, however, have an awareness as to how much of a culinary monster he really is.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His family pushed him to excel constantly and never gave him any praise for any accomplishment. This destroyed any passion he had for cooking, or anything really. Living with Nene and watching her work diligently to master recipes was what saved him.
• Death Glare: Push his Berserk Button and you will see it. He will then proceed to kick your ass.
• Dream Sequence: Isshiki has this while worrying if the rest of the dormitory will come back complete from the Training Camp. He imagines Soma as a Kenshiro Expy, Megumi, Daigo, Shoji, Ryoko, and Yuuki as Japanese Delinquents, and Shun as a malnourished, barely clothed barbarian; the only remains of Zenji were his glasses.
• The Face: Later at the Maple Leaf meeting, Eishi reveals that Satoshi was appointed as host and spokesman for the Autumn Election because he is too shy to be in public.
• Female Gaze: There are plenty of times when readers will see his naked ass.
• First-Name Basis: In the past with Nene. Their relationship quickly became frosty, though, and both address each other by their family names in the present.
• Foil: To his childhood friend Nene Kinokuni, the Sixth Seat of the Council of Ten Masters. Both hail from clans specializing in washoku (traditional Japanese cuisine). While the Isshiki family is based in the West (Kyoto), the Kinokuni family is based in the East (Tokyo). Nene appears to be stern, aloof and cold, Satoshi is cheerful, social and warm.
  • It's revealed that this extends to his cooking as well. Like Nene, Isshiki was raised to cook traditional Japanese cuisine. However, he has become known for experimenting with absurd modifications and additions so long as it will produce something new, to the point that Isshiki proudly admits that he does not adhere to any particular tradition, but is willing to try just about anything so long as it creates a flavor that is unique to him.
• Graceful Loser: Satoshi loses to Eishi in the fourth bout of the Regiment de Cuisine, but he isn't bothered in the very least, even turning down Eishi's offer to join Central and have his expulsion revoked.
• Home Nudist: He habitually walks around the dorm with very little clothes on. He can be seen wearing a Naked Apron when cooking or a Fundoshi while tending the garden. In fact, his dormmates note that it is difficult to recognize Isshiki when he is wearing clothes outside the dorm.
• The Host: He had this role for the semifinals and final of the Autumn Election.
• Hyper-Awareness: Not only is he aware of the 92nd Generation's dormant talents, he also gauges Soma's potential to become a Wild Card and deduces that his presence will likely shuffle the balance of power in the student body, as well as identifying the roots of the resentment of majority of the student body towards him. He also pretty much knew well beforehand that Soma would defeat Etsuya in their shokugeki, and that Azami would kick him, Terunori and Tousuke out of the Council of Ten Masters.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Julio thinks Isshiki is messing around too much during their match and has it in the bag, and then goes on to mock the Polaris dorm as nothing more than dregs holding him down. Isshiki promptly demonstrates a Death Glare that spooks everyone, before gutting an eel so fast and efficiently that the blood vessels take several seconds to bleed, showing how much of a skilled chef he was in an instant. It's at this moment that Julio realizes Isshiki was no longer holding back.
• Icy Blue Eyes: His eye color is light blue, which gives chills to Soma once Isshiki reveals himself as a member of the Council. He also shows them when Julio Shiratsu pushes his Berserk Button by insulting his friends.
• Instant Expert: At least from Nene's perspective, since he took much easier to the arts and crafts that she spent years and hard practice to master.
• Large Ham: On occasion, especially in the anime.
• Life of the Party: Every time there's a party, Satoshi will appear wearing nothing but an apron or a speedo underneath that, prompting cheers from his roommates.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Career-wise, Nene Kinokuni. Isshiki outright admits that if it hadn't been for her, he would've given up on cooking, having never seen the appeal in it. This is why he's visibly displeased when it seems Nene is close to giving up on cooking herself after her loss to Soma.
• Lucky Seven: He is the 7th seat of the Council of Ten, and on the first day of the Moon Banquet Festival, his booth placed 7th.
• Manly Tears: His reaction to Soma's dish, "Revamped Mackerel Onigiri Chazuke", following the welcoming party.
• Mr. Fanservice: In a series where most of the Fanservice is provided by the female characters (mostly as dream/foodgasm sequences), Satoshi stands out as an example who appears in universe more so than any other character. Not only is he very handsome, but he's also a blatant nudist who is rarely seen wearing anything other than a Naked Apron (with many close-ups of him shaking his ass), a Fundoshi, or a speedo. Even when fully clothed, he still provides plenty of eye candy as a Sharp-Dressed Man.
• Naked People Are Funny: His tendency to go around naked in the dorms are mostly Played for Laughs, with his fellow dorm mates even cheering him on while he shakes his ass.
• Nice Guy: Although he is on the prestigious Council of Ten, he is very humble and caring towards his underclassmen, acting like a big brother to them. Insulting them is Satoshi's Berserk Button.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Satoshi freely uses the intercom and the air ducts to get into his roommates' bedrooms in the most unexpected moments. Don't even try to ignore him, because he will get persistent. He also wanders around almost naked without a care in the world.
• Perpetual Smiler: He is always in a good mood, even when both Kuga and Eizan are fighting and get him in the middle. Even in the most dire of situations, he meets everything with a smile and never loses his cool.
• Rank Up: After the Rebels overthrow Central, Isshiki becomes the Second Seat of the Council of Ten Masters.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Unlike most of his Council of Ten peers at the start of the story, he's more professional in dealing with the rest of the student body and acknowledges great talent when he sees it, especially if it has the ability to shake the status quo at Totsuki.
• Rousing Speech: To Nene, who had been wallowing in self-pity after her loss to Soma.
• Shaking the Rump: Satoshi seems to be fond of doing this as part of his Naked Apron routine, strutting around and wiggling his butt in front of his dorm mates.
• Shameless Fanservice Guy: He's a proud Home Nudist who happily lets his dormmates see him in a Naked Apron or a Fundoshi every day.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Soma and Megumi get shocked seeing him in a business suit, admitting he looked super-cool. Later they question if it was really necessary to get dressed for a community cooking school.
• Sixth Ranger: In order to rescind the expulsions of his underclassmen, he joins Soma, Erina, Megumi, and Takumi in their Team Shokugeki against Central.
• Sleeps in the Nude: Unsurprisingly because of how much of a Home Nudist he is, Isshiki sleeps in his birthday suit.
• Supreme Chef: As a member of the Council of Ten, Isshiki is this to the Polaris dorm, though we don't get to see just how good he is until the Regiment de Cuisine. He's so ridiculously fast and skilled that he was able to gut an eel before anyone could process what he was doing, to the point that the eel's body took a few seconds to start bleeding after it had already been dismembered. He then adapts the specialties of all of his dorm mates into a dish that turns the individual flaws in each of the ingredients into strengths, utterly crushing the competition in the process.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • It's very easy to miss, but during Chapter 102, when he's talking with Eizan, Isshiki comes to the conclusion that the reason the rest of the school looks down on Soma is because most of the students don't want to acknowledge him, because it would also mean they would have to acknowledge their own lack of effort. Through the use of this series' particular variant of Glowing Eyes of Doom, you can see just how much that pisses him off.
  • Another instance happens in Chapter 209 after Julio makes the mistake of insulting his dorm mates. That's the moment Satoshi drops his cheery demeanor and goes all-out, with the full intent to crush his opponent.
  • This is even reflected in his cooking style. Washoku (traditional Japanese cooking) is normally prized for its balanced, simple, and distinct flavors that harmonize with each other gently. Isshiki's variation uses unconventional techniques that amp up the flavors to mind-boggling levels while retaining that incredible balance and clarity, leading it to be described as "extremely aggressive Washoku", with Isshiki himself being portrayed as having a multi-headed dragon at his back.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Played Straight and later subverted. None of the Polaris residents ever question his nudist antics since they're all used to it, but during the post-Fall Selection party at the dorm, non-resident Ikumi immediately questions why no one finds this strange.
• Worthy Opponent: He's very sure of his dorm-mates' potential (especially Soma and Megumi's), backing their names in the list of Autumn Election candidates, hoping to face them once they're ready.

Shun Ibusaki

Shun Ibusaki

Voiced by: Taishi Murata (Japanese), Houston Hayes (English), Martín Gopar (Latin Spanish)

Another freshman resident in the Polaris Dormitory, Shun's specialty is smoked food.

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• Brilliant, but Lazy: Shokugeki no Soma ~à la carte~ has a moment when Satoshi tells him that he basically gives up in spite of being a Sore Loser.
• Brutal Honesty: He doesn't sugarcoat things, as he can bluntly say how low their chances are, to Yuuki's chagrin.
• Can't Catch Up: In any other year he probably would have had the top score for the Autumn Election preliminaries, but he fails to make it in at all due to Subaru's intervention. As a result, during Stagiaire Week he's upset that Soma and Megumi seem to be pulling further and further ahead of him. This could be simply a matter of perspective, however, given that he actually scored as high as Megumi did.
• Covert Pervert: Is hinted at it by Isshiki, who teases him that he wants to hang out with the girls instead of the guys.
• Chainsaw Good: He uses a chainsaw to cut trees and woods.
• The Comically Serious: Most of his funny moments come from how he keeps a straight face in front of his more crazy, loud-mouthed roommates.
• Deadpan Snarker: In the rare moments when he talks, he clearly tells what's on his mind in a condescending manner.
• Eyes Out of Sight: His eyes aren't shown for over a hundred chapters, helping to illustrate his quiet attitude. He's actually more fiery than he lets on, however, and gets so worked up during Stagiaire that we finally get a glimpse of his eyes.◊
• Hypocritical Humor: During the Regiment Shokugekis, where Takumi managed to turn the tide on his favor by tracing Eizan's complete record and pull a Batman Gambit on him, Shun comments that he didn't picture Takumi as "the kind to hold grudges". Yuuki is quick to call him out for doing the exact same thing after Mimasaka took the 8th spot from him in the Autumn Election.
• Messy Hair: Red and messy.
• No Social Skills: In Shokugeki no Soma ~à la carte~, he sees himself in a kid at the DEF Kitchen who isolated himself from the other children. He tries to help the kid to open up to others.
• Not So Stoic: On the other hand, this facade is also very prone to breaking. For example, Yuuki notes that he was moping in the smoking room for not making it into the Autumn Election cook-offs, and thus drags him out to celebrate Soma, Megumi and Takumi's qualification. Other incidents include going along with Yuuki cheerleading for Megumi and reacting violently to Ryoko teasing him about how he also wanted to become like Soma, getting worked up during Stagiaire Week because he is still frustrated over his current situation, and is visibly upset at the prospects of Polaris being shut down.
• Only Sane Man: The most low-key of the dorm residents, but still goes along with whatever the others are planning to do.
• The Quiet One: Rarely speaks or raises his voice. The only time he speaks loudly is when he gets frustrated at the idea that Soma and Megumi are still ahead of him.
• Ship Tease: With Ryoko. While he doesn't seem to mind or return, Ryoko likes to tease his emotionless façade, which he denies fiercely. Shokugeki no Soma ~à la carte~ gives a bit more of this, as Ryoko seems to be the only one who can see through his cold exterior.
• Sore Loser:
  • As Yuuki notes, Shun was so upset at failing to enter the Autumn Election playoffs that he locked himself up in the smoking room while the rest celebrate. Yuuki eventually dragged him out to join the celebrations. She and Ryoko also theorized that he later did extensive research on Subaru as vengeance for losing a slot in the playoffs. While he denies it and addresses it as a recorded fact, they still know that's true.
  • Even though he cleared his Stagiaire Week and even saved a restaurant from bankruptcy, he feels he hasn't done enough yet, frustrated that Soma, Megumi and Satoshi are still way ahead of him.
• The Stoic: On one hand Shun is very serious and is rarely fazed by anything, let alone Joichiro's weird dishes...
• Those Two Guys: The anime shows him in most scenes sharing screentime with Zenji. In the ending, his reaction shot is shared with Zenji's.
• Tsundere: While scolding Isshiki for not being with them defending the dorms, Isshiki compliments their efforts, to which he replied that he couldn't stand letting Soma do all the work. Both Ryoko and Soma are quick to tease him by pointing out his hidden good heart.

Ryoko Sakaki

Ryoko Sakaki

Voiced by: Ai Kayano (Japanese), Kelley Peters (English), Rae Bael (Latin Spanish)

One of the three first-year girls from the dorm, Ryoko's specialty is shiokouji (preservatives and fermented ingredients), and spends months preparing them in the dorm basement.

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• Buxom Beauty Standard: Her impressive bust is the main reason she's such a Dude Magnet and it tends to trigger Yuuki's A-Cup Angst and be the source of many Boob-Based Gag. Yuuki stares at her own chest self-consciously at the sight of her breasts bouncing during her table tennis game against Soma, and also complained that her pair have been taking a lot of space in a kiddie pool they and Megumi shared. In one light novel illustration, where she, Yuuki and Shun were also at the DEF Kitchen, one of the kids is grabbing her by the boobs.
• Cool Big Sis: Due to her motherly tendencies and mature personality, many of the female students see her as an older sister and often refer to her as 'Onee-sama'.
• Curtains Match the Window: She has reddish hair and red eyes in the shame shade of color.
• Dude Magnet: Has a secret fanbase in the student body.
• The Gadfly: She, along with Yuuki, started to tease Ikumi for her obvious crush on Soma. Also she was teasing Shun for secretly wanting to be as stubborn like Soma, although Shun denied it.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Her school fanbase included a number girls fawning over her.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: After the Régiment de Cuisine, she cut her long hair so that it now only reaches her chin.
• Insistent Terminology: It's not illegally brewed sake, it's special fermented rice juice!
• Military Moonshiner: Played With; she has her own supply of homemade "rice juice" for parties.
• Ms. Fanservice: She is the girl in the dorm that provides most of the Fanservice (usually focused on her boobs).
• Nice Girl: One of the kindest characters in the series, she's always looking out for her friends and tends to comfort others when they're trouble or upset.
• Onee-sama: Not only does her fanbase call her this, but the judges in the Autumn Election admit her cooking evokes this.
• Only Sane Woman: She's the least eccentric of the Polaris dormmates and often plays the role of Straight Man.
• Ship Tease: With Shun. While he doesn't seem to mind or return, Ryoko likes to tease his emotionless façade, which he denies fiercely. Shokugeki no Soma ~à la carte~ gives a bit more of this, as she seems to be the only one who can see through his cold exterior.
• Straight Man: She is more patient, rational and calm than Yuuki, and also makes a more collected contrast to Megumi when she starts to panic.
• The Three Faces of Eve: She's the Seductress to Yuuki's Child and Megumi's Wife, being the sexiest and most provocative of the three.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Ryoko is beautiful and graceful, with a secret all-female fanbase in Totsuki.

Yuuki Yoshino

Yuuki Yoshino

Voiced by: Maaya Uchida (Japanese), Luci Christian (English), Micaela Carla Oddera (Latin Spanish)

Another of the three first-year girls at the Polaris Dormitory, Yuuki's forte is poultry and wild game (specifically, specially bred animals) and frequently uses a combination of different fat and meat.

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• Alliterative Name: Both her first and last names starts with Y.
• A-Cup Angst: She was shown looking at her chest self-consciously when she notices Ryoko's breasts bouncing during the table tennis match against Soma.
• Character Tics: She's often seen smiling with her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth.
• Cute Little Fangs: They are visible whenever she is comically screaming before a challenge.
• Friend to All Living Things: She breeds many types of farm animals, including deer. Subverted, since she uses them as ingredients.
• Fangirl: She is the first to organize a cheerleading group for Megumi's round against Ryou Kurokiba. When she made fans with Megumi's name, nobody could refuse, agreeing to use them with embarrassment, while a happy Yuuki was encouraging them.
• Foil: To Ikumi. Both are meat specialists (Ikumi works with A5 meat, while Yuuki raises special breeds and applies wild game) and are very supportive of their circle of friends. But where Ikumi has trouble expressing friendship towards others (even thought she does like them all), Yuuki is more outgoing and cheerful (to the point that even Ikumi herself can't refuse to join in her clique).
• Genki Girl: Very cheerful and energetic by default. One of the judges bets this is how she manages to have such good ties with the hunters needed to get her all the wild game she has.
  Andou: Birds and animals are hard to obtain as it is... in order to get some for the Classic, she must be well-connected with hunters. I guess her cheerfulness makes that possible...
• The Heart: She is the one who maintains the Polaris group together, as she is constantly rooting for Megumi, gathering them for reunions (like dragging Shun to the party for being a sore loser) and keep them cheerful. She also is quick to welcome Ikumi and the Aldini brothers as part of the friends circle. When she gets depressed, Ryoko can literally hear her heart breaking. It isn't until she starts crying when the eviction day is close that everyone else also starts crying as well.
• Little Red Fighting Hood: In the anime, Fumio deems her natural charisma and cooking talent to a "Red Riding Hood of the forest", completed with an Imagine Spot of her dressed as Red Riding Hood with an sparkles gunshot.
• Mood-Swinger: Very energetic and emotionally volatile. She can easily go from worried to angry to depressed in just a few panels or go from cheering for Megumi to bawling her eyes out.
• The Nicknamer: She suffixes some people with "-cchi", such as "Nikumicchi", "Takumicchi" and "Erinacchi".
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: It's a very distressing sight to see the usually energetic and happy Yuuki breaking down crying over the prospects of Polaris being shut down.
• Plucky Girl: Even when the competition and the pressure is heavy, she will find a moment to be quirky and cheer the others. This comes to a head when she improvised her second dish for Erina, who notices that it is of a higher quality than her first serving.
• Shipper on Deck: She, along with Ryoko, teases Ikumi for having a crush on Soma despite her protests to the contrary. After the tournament, Yuuki is the only one in the audience that can feel the romantic subtext between Akira and Jun after the former hugged her upon winning the Autumn Election.
• Stepford Smiler: After she didn't make it to the next round in the Autumn Election despite scoring very highly, she claims that she's fine and is as cheerful as ever, but quickly starts to cry when Fumio comes to comfort her.
• Tender Tears: Yuuki breaks down in anguish over the news that Polaris will be shut down as part of Azami's reforms. It later turns to Tears of Joy after Soma defeats Etsuya and forces him to cancel the demolition.
  • When she realises that the Polaris team can't afford to relax for a second during thje promotion exams, in spite of having everything Totsuki Resort has to offer at their fingertips, she cries literal Tears of Blood.
• The Three Faces of Eve: The Child to Megumi's Wife and Ryoko's Seductress, being the cheerful, energetic mood-maker of Polaris Dormitory.

Zenji Marui

Zenji Marui

Voiced by: Yūsuke Kobayashi (Japanese), Greg Ayres (English), Gabriel España (Latin Spanish)

Another Polaris freshman who comes off as physically weak and pathetic, Zenji happens to be the most educated of his batch, coming up with unique yet unorthodox dishes thanks to his extensive research.

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• Adaptation Expansion: In the anime, he successfully defends Miyazato Seminar during the Survivor's Purge by defeating Rui Kofuru 2-1. In the manga, the fate of the seminar is ambiguous.
• Badass Bookworm: When he uses his knowledge in the Autumn Election, Zenji scores higher than Ikumi.
• Bookworm: Frequently seen studying for the theory/written exams.
• Butt-Monkey: Among the Polaris residents. Besides having his room commandeered by the other residents for parties, Zenji has bad luck with eating dishes — during the end of training camp, he swallows his food badly and is the first to try Joichiro's snake dish.
• Character Tics: He constantly pushes his glasses up his nose with the fingers of his right hand.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Walked all over by even his dorm mates and only fails out during the training camp, but he's actually very knowledgeable about cooking. He just has terrible stamina. During the Autumn Election preliminaries he manages to get an 88, which is higher than or equal to anyone in the dorm apart from Soma.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: After seeing his performance at the Fall Classic and tying in the Fifth Place with Shun in the preliminaries, the others express their newfound respect for him... While still invading his room. Marui just looks resigned.
• Extreme Doormat: His roommates always pick his room to have hangouts, reunions and welcoming parties and leaves him to do the cleaning. And even after showing his roommates how skilled he is and they declare a newfound respect for him, Zenji notes they're still using his room without asking.
• Nervous Wreck: During training camp, where he's constantly seen exhausted and on edge.
• Opaque Nerd Glasses: Most of the time, his eyes are hidden to visually underscore his stickly-scrawiness, and they make him tand out as a nard in his dorm.
• Ship Tease: Gets some with fellow Miyazato Seminar member Madoka Enomoto, when she helps him during the beach exams in the second year.
• The Smart Guy: While he's physically weak, he is extremely knowledgeable in the science of flavours, and is considered a "walking flavour dictionary" by his classmates.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Downplayed. While Marui is very smart, he's not the smartest character, and there are some fields that are just beyond his knowledge. Alice's molecular gastronomy techniques, for instance, is not something he could explain to his peers when they are watching her match against Soma during the Autumn Election quarterfinals.
  Yuuki: Are those glasses just for show?!
  • The entire Miyazato Seminar, the research club he is a part of, all wear glasses.
• The Strategist: Nicknamed "The Walking Flavor Dictionary" by those in his club.
• Teen Genius: Is The Ace of the Miyazato Seminar, which specializes in research and analysis of classical literature about gourmet food, despite being only a freshman.
• Those Two Guys: The anime shows him in most scenes sharing screentime with Shun. In the ending, his reaction shot is shared with Shun's.
• Weak, but Skilled: Zenji barely passed training camp, as it was a test of endurance and stamina. Having a month to prepare and research for a strategy in the Autumn Election allowed him to cook smoothly, with no signs of the nervousness and fatigue that plagued him during the training camp, and granted him a score of 88 in the preliminaries, tying with Shun. For reference, it's stated that many years nobody has a score above 80 thanks to the harsh judges. Later on, the Stagiaire Period left him extremely drained and looking gaunt, even more than the training camp did, but he stated that his knowledge made it simple for him to give worthy contributions and good results in the places he was assigned to.

Daigo Aoki and Shoji Sato

Daigo voiced by: Junichi Yanagita (Japanese), Andrew Love (English), Alejandro Bono (Latin Spanish)
Shoji voiced by: Kengo Kawanishi (Japanese), Corey Hartzog (English), Mathias Rapisarda (Latin Spanish)

Daigo Aoki

Shoji Sato

The last two members of the Polaris Dormitory. Even though they appeared early in the series, their names were not mentioned in-story until the Stagiaire arc's finale.

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• Ascended Extra: While still very minor characters, their parts in the anime are significantly bigger than in the manga, as they have more scenes, and even their names and rooms are given right away.
• Bash Brothers: Separated, they are as good as the other Polaris Dorm resident. Working together, they make an even better team, as demonstrated during their Internship week.
• Big Brother Instinct: Both Daigo and Shouji were very protective of Megumi when other students were badmouthing her.
• Butt-Monkey: Applies to Daigo. Ikumi beat him up for putting sauce to a wagyuu beef and calling her "Nikumi", completed with an X-Ray camera of his poor vertebrae. Also he is the first one to get a bad feedback from Erina (but it only makes him more determined to get it right) and tries to call her "Erina-chan" with no avail.
• Hot-Blooded: The two are often in fights with each other. Also during their Internship, their boss said aloud that initially he was going to give them minor chores, to which Daigo almost lost it.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: During one of their Stagiaire internships, their chef compliments them:
  "At first, I thought you were just side characters... but you've got some skills!"
• No Name Given: Their names are never mentioned in the main story. Supplementary materials reveal them as Daigo Aoki (the black haired guy) and Shoji Sato (the one with light colored hair). Averted in the anime, where their names are given right away along with their roommates'.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: While all their roommates were selected to participate in the Autumn Election, they are still much more talented than the average Totsuki students, as they successfully cleared both the Training Camp and the Stagiaire Periods.
• Those Two Guys: They only appear together to cheer for their roommates in the tournament. Even during the Stagiaire Period, they got assigned to the same place.
• Undying Loyalty: The two are very protective of their dorm's name and reputation. Even during their internship, they both exclaimed to not underestimate the Polaris Dorm's abilities.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: They are often bickering with each other at the parties to compare who did the best dish.

Housekeeper

Fumio Daimidou

Fumio Daimidou

Voiced by: Mari Yokoo (Elderly), Hitomi Nabatame (Teenager) (Japanese), Joanne Bonasso (English), Andrea Sala Rigler (Elderly), Tamara Veppo (Teenager) (Latin Spanish)

Housekeeper of the Polaris Dormitory.

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• Break Out the Museum Piece: When Eizan's goons come to force an eviction, she brings out relics from Polaris Dormitory's golden age. See, they racked up so many victories that raids from resentful students were common. So they had to defend themselves, just like they do now. These relics include hard hats, metal riot shields, pole-like sticks, and a fire hose.
• Cool Old Lady: Supports the residents and lets them have parties at night.
• Drop-In Landlord: She's much older than the high school-aged residents and acts as something like a strict mother figure. She's friendly to them, while also the voice of authority in the dorm.
• Glory Days: Fumio constantly talks of a generation of Polaris residents who were all part of the Council of Ten Masters.
• I Was Quite a Looker: If her flashback (or at least her foodgasm) is any indication, she was quite beautiful in her youth.
• Kindly Housekeeper: Played with; Fumio allows anyone to stay, provided they make her a good dish. Supposedly, it took three months for Megumi to please her.
• Parental Substitute: She's the only adult in the dorm. Even after so many years, her former residents are still in touch with her. Gin sends her cards and gifts at New Years, and Joichiro stops by unannounced and calls her "Ma".
• Red Baron: "Polaris Maria" and "Polaris Grandma".
• So Proud of You: During the Autumn Election, she expressed to both Megumi and Yuuki how proud she was of their performances.
• Team Mom: Has a good relationship with the residents and roots for them to pass their challenges. She even keeps in touch with previous students like Gin and Joichiro.
• Vague Age: In the flashbacks from Jouichirou's generation, she looks old as well, which raises the question of how old is she.

Former Residents

Jouichirou Saiba

See his page here.

Gin Doujima

See his page here.

Azami Nakamura

See his page here.

Jun Shiomi

See her page here.

Riko Ebisawa

See her page here.

Erina Nakiri

See her page here.