Characters / Food Wars! - Soma Yukihira

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

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Soma Yukihira

Voiced by: Yuki Ono (Japanese, Vomic), Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Japanese, Anime), Blake Shepard (English, Anime), Diego Santos (Latin Spanish, Anime)

Hailing from family-run local restaurant Yukihira, Soma immediately antagonizes his fellow 92nd Generation freshmen by bragging about using them as his stepping-stones to glory. Widely dismissed as a braggart transferee from a no-name diner, Soma gradually climbs up the ranks of his batch with his work experience, a steely resolve, and a willingness to experiment, all of which he learned from his father Joichiro, who he aspires to one day defeat to prove himself worthy of inheriting their restaurant.

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A-E

• Accidental Pervert: On his first night at the Polaris Dormitory he walks in on a naked Megumi. Also when he was heading to the public baths after his first training camp session and accidentally knocks Erina over, both she and Hisako think he was staring at her breasts under the yukata (he was just surprised to run into her) while Hisako also thinks that Soma purposely tried to molest her. Once the series takes on a more serious tone this gets turned down quite a bit and rarely happens, however.
• The Ace: Becomes one in his own right. His performance at BLUE garnered widespread publicity. He is capable of surpassing the notoriously high standards of the Nakiri family on a regular basis. Joichiro deems him to be his equal. After graduation, Soma becomes a world famous freelance chef just like Joichiro, frequently being invited by clients across the world.
• Affectionate Nickname: Tomita addresses him as "Soma-chan".
• All of the Other Reindeer: It comes in waves. At first, his status as an outsider from a simple family restaurant combined with his boast that he plans to use the school as a stepping stone earns the ire of most of the other students. However, he ends up blindsiding most of them over the course of the series thanks to his cooking skills and determination. This comes back into play once Central takes over and the vast majority of the school again treats him as a pariah because he opposes the Azami administration. And yet again, once the Azami administration is defeated, Soma is again treated as a badass by the rest of the school, who take his proclamation that he'll accept any shokugeki so seriously that it becomes dishonorable to turn a challenge down.
• Almighty Janitor: Despite his humble upbringing, Soma's culinary skills saw him standing alongside such talents as Erina and Akira as among the best chefs of his generation, gaining enough street cred to be noticed by the Council of Ten Masters. His culinary spirit has earned him the respect of Terunori, the Eighth Seat, after nearly being beaten by Soma sales-wise during the School Festival, enough to lend Soma his support during his struggles with Azami's administration. He proceeds to defeat more of the Council of Ten Masters during the said struggle, namely Etsuya, Akira, Nene and Soumei, before teaming up with Erina to defeat Eishi and Rindou, the top two students of Totsuki, to reverse Azami's reforms, even to the point of being appointed as the First Seat.
• Always Second Best: A running gag.
  • Prior to joining Tōtsuki, Sōma never won against his father.
  • During the Pre Election and Autumn Election, Sōma lost to Akira and had to share 2nd place with Kurokiba.
  • He decided to outdo Terunori Kuga in sales using Chinese speciality, and even though Sōma gave a strong fight, he narrowly lost to Kuga.
  • After the Regiment de Cuisine, although Sōma became the 1st Seat of the Council of Ten, he acknowledged Erina to be above him, and admitted he had never actually defeated Tsukasa, Rindou, or the other Third Years in single combat (which isn't entirely untrue - Erina did much of the heavy lifting against the most difficult opponents and Soma received partial assistance from Megumi and Takumi during his match against Soumei).
  • He also lost the BLUE final match to Erina. That loss upset him so much that he travels overseas and avoids any contact from Tōtsuki.
• Animal Motifs: Kuga compares him to a stray cat who gradually turns into a mighty lion.
• Armor-Piercing Response: When Mimasaka asks what he could offer that's worth the same as the 100 tools he's collected, Soma replies by betting his entire career as a chef.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Downplayed when compared to other characters that exhibit this trope, but still there. Soma has an immense thirst for knowledge and eagerness to learn that allows him to quickly learn the basics of any cooking discipline. He is often shown to study and experiment for days before a match, even late into the night, and it's also a part of his ability to quickly improvise.
• Badass Boast: He has a pretty good knack for this.
  • On his introduction Soma claims he will use his schoolmates as stepping-stones to glory, which obviously made him a marked man. When Erina confronts him with the fact that most of the batch-mates he offended received high-quality education in middle school, he counters that he already had work experience as early as three years old. Soma did live up to his boast by succeeding Eishi Tsukasa as the Council of Ten Masters at the end of first year.
  • After defeating Etsuya at a televised Shokugeki, Soma faces the camera and claims that he is ready to challenge anyone who dares harm his friends at Polaris, even if it's a member of the Council of Ten Masters.
• Badass Minds Think Alike: After discovering that many students who rebelled against Azami were expelled, Soma proposes that the remaining students should group up and take the seats of the Council of Ten Masters for themselves, effectively disbanding Azami's Central. His friends had considered this a crazy proposition, but elsewhere Gin Dojima was also discussing the same plan with Joichiro and Senzaemon. With their support, the Rebel team and the Regiment de Cuisine is established, leading to a momentous Shokugeki war.
• Badass Normal: Unlike his peers, Soma isn't gifted or talented in cooking. He acquired his skill through sheer determination and experience. Lampshaded by Joichiro during the BLUE competition.
  • This actually plays a role in the plot. Asahi's Cross Knives ability doesn't work on him because there's no "superhuman ability" for it to acquire. This leads Asahi to dismiss Soma as a threat.
• Batman Gambit: Soma banked on Etsuya's pride to get a proper Shokugeki by consistently taunting him throughout the match and refusing to back down or flinch, provoking the Ninth Seat into actually cooking and to get the judges to actually eat. It pays off big time, when all three rigged judges were forced to vote for him.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: Soma's creativity allows him to utilize some of the techniques of his opponents, whether it be against them in their own match or against new rivals.
  • Against Ikumi, he managed to beat her special meat dish by complementing the rice and meat to create a more unified and addicting flavor.
  • Played with throughout the Autumn Election: subverted during the preliminaries, where his curry lost by one point to that by specialist Akira (despite more judges liking his dish); straight in the quarterfinals, where he used a simple molecular gastronomy technique to beat Alice's more exquisite bento; played straight again in the semifinal against Subaru, where he deliberately told the latter he will make a beef stew, challenging himself with the knowledge that Subaru will copy him; and subverted in the final, where he narrowly loses to Akira and ties with Ryou.
  • Against Terunori, Eighth Seat of the Council of Ten and Chinese cuisine specialist, he stepped up his game by improvising his mapo tofu dish throughout the first three days of the Full Moon Banquet before setting his grand plan into motion come the final day, armed with his homespun skills, Megumi's direct assistance, Miyoko's initial guidance, Erina's indirect feedback (with Hisako convincing her to do so), Yuuya's logistics assistance, and last-minute help from Subaru, Ikumi, the Aldini twins and members of the Local Cuisine RS (who initially tried to recruit Megumi). It works so well that he not only lured customers away from Terunori, but also overtook him at the central area standings at the end of the fourth day, and while Rindou assesses that his final earnings may not be enough to surpass Terunori's, she nevertheless compliments him for actually beating a member of the Council of Ten Masters at something.
  • Against Etsuya Eizan, Ninth Seat of the Council of Ten and a schemer who specializes in manipulation and putting opponents in unwinnable situations rather than confronting them directly, Soma turns his tactics against him in their Shokugeki, whose judges were Azami loyalists (and thus on Etsuya's side). Soma taunts Etsuya by accusing him of cowardice, provoking him to actually cook. Then, having allowed him to taste his dish, Soma then goads him into trying his in turn, indirectly forcing the judges to do the same. His dish was so overwhelmingly good the judges gave him their votes.
  • Against Nene Kinokuni, Sixth Seat of the Council of Ten and soba specialist, he works around the noodle-unfriendly temperature of Hokkaido by cooking up a dish that would maintain its texture and flavor even under such inhospitable conditions.
  • Against Sarge, a top level Noir and wielder of the dish arms. She uses a chainsaw, a sledgehammer, a detonator and high class ingredients to bake a cake. Soma uses his own unusual tools: a small cup ice cream spoon, a plastic bag and cheap ingredients to bake his own version of Christmas Log and wins.
  • Teams up with Takumi to beat Don Calma, a Noir specializing in team effort.
• Berserk Button: Soma hates unfair treatment, especially of his dormmates. When Kojirou expels Megumi from training camp for adjusting his recipe, Soma points out that she simply tried to adjust to the bad ingredients she procured (which was a deliberate setup), and seeing her crying over being forced into a no-win situation made Soma drop his cool disposition and challenge Koujirou into a Shokugeki. Later, he challenged Etsuya to a Shokugeki to force him to stop the disbandment of Polaris as being unnecessary to their one-track specialization.
• Betty and Veronica: Soma is the laidback and friendly Betty to Asahi's dangerous and malicious Veronica in their Love Triangle for Erina. It's very obvious Erina prefers Soma, but he still doesn't really view her as a Love Interest and is just competing with Asahi to see who can satisfy the God's Tongue.
  • He himself seems to be in a dynamic like this with Megumi as the Betty and Erina as the Veronica, though he's blissfully unaware of his Archie status. Same with Ikumi and Mayumi during the Kaarage arc, the former as the Veronica and the latter as the Betty.
• Big Damn Heroes: Makes a Dynamic Entry to help Takumi in his match against Don Calma and his men.
• Blood Knight: In a family-friendly, cooking contest sort of way. A great number of Soma's shokugekis and competitions aren't necessarily for someone else's sake but rather his own pride and urge to improve, and even with someone else's stakes on the line, he almost always indulges in the personal challenge of the competition unless he's in genuine Tranquil Fury. As Joichiro puts it, he himself may have been unable to weather the storms of heightening challenges due to everyone's expectations, but Soma will straight up tackle it head-on with a grin because it's all challenges for himself.
• Book Dumb: Played with. On one hand, Soma lacks the knowledge of some of the finer aspects of cooking, but makes up for it with his willingness to experiment, and it's emphasized that despite not having attended culinary school before, he's had enough hands-on experience in his family restaurant to be more than a match for his peers. On the other hand, later chapters reveal he actually knows a lot of foreign culinary styles, except he only manages to master them through his experiments.
  • One of the first examples on his breadth of knowledge but lack of finesse is his first challenge against Isshiki, where he uses a classic French technique to crisp the skin of the fish he is cooking. Isshiki asks how he knows how to do so, but he says he doesn't know it was called anything in particular, just that his dad taught him it was the best way to do so.
  • Then played straight when Alice explains to him the functions of all the expensive machines used by Rentarou, and he could only understand that it has separated compartiments. When Takumi scolds him for not remembering this particular lesson, Soma just admits that he didn't pay attention in class.
• Boring, but Practical: During his Regiment de Cuisine matchup against Nene, the latter beautifully makes her soba noodles with her hands. Listening to Azami's explanations, the crowd is impressed by Nene's skills and gets excited. Soma on the other hand uses noodle-making machines and earns boos, and his friends wonder whether he already has given up the match. Nene, Azami and Erina however realize that Soma is playing it safe, since if your handwork isn't superior, it's better to just go ahead and use a machine.
• Brutal Honesty: Soma calls things exactly as he sees them. As Joichiro points out, his culinary prowess is not so much based on his natural talents as much as him being upfront about areas where he may need improvement. He will also go and say whatever he is thinking, mostly challenging any superior chef without hesitation.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: After he defeats Nene he is asked how he was able to notice such small details like the scent of the flour and make changes to the dish to overcome them, let alone in so intensely competitive an environment as a Regiment de Cuisine, where everybody else should've been too frazzled to notice the details. He simply replies that, having grown up working in a family-run diner, he got so accustomed to making last-minute improvisations it has become par for the course for him.
• But Now I Must Go: Played for Laughs. After losing to Erina in the BLUE's finals, he decides he's gonna do the same as his dad and travel around to hone his cooking skills, since he still feels he's not up to take over the family business.
• Captain Oblivious:
  • He didn't realize that Joichiro was globally famous despite seeing photos of him with foreigners and taking phone calls from people who speak different languages. The other dorm members tell him to get a clue when he finally figures it out.
  • He also genuinely doesn't realize that the school initially considers him an academic pariah because of his Badass Boast at his enrollment. Or doesn't care, as until going against Takumi, he didn't consider any other student worth much as they were just taught cooking and he'd been living it in a restaurant for years.
  • He's the only one that didn't realize that his match in the semifinals against Subaru was a setup by Eizan, later asking him when he's going to try to get his revenge. Eizan is not amused.
• Catchphrase: He has two: "Dig In!" (or "Oagariyo!" in Japanese, which he uses when presenting a dish), and most frequently "Osomatsu!" The latter is a Japanese phrase variously translated as "Happy to Serve" (in the official manga translation, which is used on This Very Wiki), "Glad you enjoyed it!" (the official anime translation), and "It wasn't much!" (unofficial translations). None of these translate perfectly, as Soma's line is a variant on a self-deprecating phrase offered when someone thanks you for a meal you cooked, but Soma is using the line in a rather arrogant manner^note (The proper phrase is "Osomatsu-sama deshita"). Amusingly, near the end of the Regimental Shokugeki, Soma acknowledges the fact that it's specifically a catchphrase and that he intentionally uses it to look cool whenever he wins. Also, it's a Borrowed Catchphrase as he stole it from his father, and in turn, he specifically encourages Erina to copy it when she wins a shokugeki (although she had actually stolen it from him earlier without his permission).
  • In the English dub his Catchphrase is simply "You're Welcome!"
• Challenge Seeker: If he encounters someone that can do what he wants to learn, Soma is ready to give them the fight in that field. This goes up to eleven upon his return from Stagiaire month, where he immediately accepts Shokugekis from second-years. And, to Megumi's horror, the first thing he does when he and his fellow top freshmen (including Erina) meet the Council of Ten for the Red Leaf Hunt is to request a Shokugeki against any member of their ranks (though they flatly refused), and during the Survivor's Hunt, once he sees Fourth-Seat Momo display her expertise in desserts, Soma instantly yearns to challenge her right after pointing out that he has little to no experience in making desserts. Once he claims a seat in the Council of Ten Masters, he also offers his seat on the line to literally any student that challenges him.
• Character Development: He experiences this subtly throughout the series while never changing his fundamental attitude. In the beginning, he feels like attending Totsuki is a waste of time since he has a considerable amount of experience working at Yukihira. Very quickly, he meets opponents that match or surpass him in skill and experience and he realizes that the school is far more interesting than he thought.
  • Though he doesn't realize the true significance of the change, after Akira defeats him in the Autumn Election, he tells Joichiro over the phone that he wants to stay at Totsuki to prove himself truly worthy of their family name. Before this, any loss was either against someone with vastly more experience, subjective or thanks to him feeling he hadn't done as well as he could have.
  • After his match against Eizan, he shows that his loyalty has shifted to the Polaris Dormitory as the place he wants to refine his cooking, whereas the beginning of the series he was content with returning to Yukihira.
• Characterization Marches On: It can be rather jarring to read the pilot chapter and see him being so callous; he never shows up to any of Erina's lessons and when he finally does, he shows up late and insults her cooking to her face. ^note unlike in the main series, she never actually does anything to antagonize him at this point. Even in the series proper, he's rather full of himself at the start of the story and it was a few chapters before he developed many of his current quirks and good-natured attitude.
• Character Tics: He would wrap his head with his headband, lifts his finger whenever he's explaining his dish, often grins whenever his food get some positive outcome, and finally, yank off his headband once he wins.
• Character Title: The series is called Shokugeki no Soma, but his name is either written as "Sōma" or "Souma", depending on which romanization style used.
• Chaste Hero: As he is Oblivious to Love, he also shows no interest at all in love. He thinks Ikumi and Mayumi's reactions to each other are just "they are not getting along", is amazed at Megumi's philosophy of cooking for a loved one, and treats everyone with the same friendly attitude regardless of the gender, not showing reaction to all the blatant Fanservice around him.
• Chekhov's Gun: Soma's disgusting squid and peanut butter as well as the aspic he used on his entrance exam against Erina who called it disgusting. Months later, Erina uses the same ingredients to create her winning dish against Tsukasa and Rindo.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: The Polaris girls appraise his romantic appeal to be on par with his father Joichiro (probably justified in that Soma is basically an ultra-skilled rebel who consistently defeats various authority figures). Soma, for his part, is entirely clueless of Megumi, Mayumi and Ikumi's affections for him and never seems to have any interest in anyone else beyond their ability to cook.
• Cool Bike: There's an art of Soma with a delivery motorbike around the Autumn Election arc. Following the Red Leaf Hunt he is shown riding a scooter, with the narration explaining that he got himself a student driver's license because Totsuki is too big to walk through.
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: He likes to experiment with strange food combinations that would result in a horrible-tasting dish, such as his "squid with peanut butter", and takes great pride in making the most horrible tasting concoctions. While his father also has this habit, they appear to do it for different reasons - Joichirou does it to deal with the stress of the constant pressure to innovate, whereas Soma just seems to enjoy trying to make horrible combinations work.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Initially comes off this way since he often is unfamiliar with cooking techniques everyone else around him is familiar with. The trope is most often applied in order to come up with a plausible reason for other characters to explain various techniques that it wouldn't make sense for Soma to be super familiar with given his background. But just as often as not, Soma will turn out to actually be quite proficient in the technique or theory (e.g. the French poêlé technique), it's just that he isn't familiar with either the science or the name behind the technique. As the series progresses, Soma's skills are acknowledged by several people including the Tōtsuki Alumni, Gin Dojima, Eishi Tsukasa and even Azami Nakiri. See also Hero with Bad Publicity.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Is quite capable of dishing this out frequently. In the Autumn Elections, he easily defeats Alice Nakiri and Subaru Mimasaka who were strong opponents. He also defeats Eizan Etsuya and Nene Kinokuni, both of them who were seniors and members of the Council of Ten. In the BLUE competition, Sōma simply walks over the three trials and effortlessly defeats Sarge- an elite tier Noir- in the first match at Heaven's Keep. Later, Soma partners with Takumi and the duo quickly defeat Don Calma and his group in a team battle.
  • Soma wins 3-0 against Asahi Saiba during their rematch at the BLUE tournament.
• Dare to Be Badass: Arguably his most prevalent characteristic in the story. Joichiro dared him to surpass him in cooking as a child. Erina's rejection of his cooking led to Soma daring himself to improve his cooking to make her admit it was good. As Satoshi pointed out during the Autumn Election, the rest of the student body hated him because his amazing performance is an uncomfortable reminder of their own complacency. When teaming up with Erina for the final bout of Regiment de Cuisine, his strategy was to craft a massively powerful appetizer, then dare Erina to make her main dish more powerful than his. Last but not least, when he's named the first seat of the Council of Ten, he decided to break the wall between the Council and the rest of the school, daring anyone who wants to challenge him for the seat to do so freely.
• Deadpan Snarker: He has moments like this, such as when Takumi says they'll meet again, perhaps at a Shokugeki and leaves on a dramatic note. A few moments later, they're sitting right next to each other on the bus back to the hotel. Soma immediately cracks a joke about "meeting each other" again already.
• Delayed Reaction: When he walks in on his dad in the Polaris kitchen, he just begins helping out without thinking, not reacting properly until a few seconds later.
• Determinator: Soma's greatest strength is his refusal to give up, even against a vastly superior opponent. Joichiro admits that Soma is far superior to him in that regard. It helps him keep calm and continue improving himself where everyone else will have simply given up. Basically, his philosophy is that all chefs must not be afraid to fail, for they serve as motivation to spur them onto eventual victory.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: He tells Eishi, the First Seat of the Council of Ten and thus Totsuki's top dog, that he may be a better cook than him when turning down his offer to join Central as his assistant. The latter calls his bluff and challenges him to test that theory, even betting the first seat in exchange of Soma joining Central.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Subverted. Despite continuing to suffer lack of respect from the student body at large, Soma takes it in stride, and is more focused on doing his thing.
  • This continues even after the poor guy achieved the First Seat of the Council of Ten Masters. He is defeated by the creepy Midnight Chef Asahi. While competing in BLUE, no one recognizes Soma and everyone is focused on Eishi. Soma decides to use that as motivation and promptly clears all three gates of BLUE, defeats Asahi and makes it to the final round.
  • It is essentially a running gag that hinders Soma from achieving The Ace status.
  • Averted near the end; see Living Legend below.
• Establishing Character Moment: Soma tries out one of his new dishes (squid tentacles with peanut butter) before feeding it to Mayumi, which showcases his quirks as a chef. In a subsequent scene, he astutely notes his mistakes after his latest cook-off with his father, which displays a bit of a quieter side. Not to mention his incredible improvised meat dish against realtors, which cements himself as an unorthodox but highly determined chef.
• The Everyman: While he doesn't have a specialty like other characters, his signature style seems to revolve around common, homely dishes, though oftentimes giving them a new spin while still staying in that homely territory. It gets lampshaded in later chapters when people start referring to his food as having "the flavor of the masses", which makes sense as he comes from an ordinary diner.
• Exact Eavesdropping: Soma, Megumi and the Aldini brothers stalk Erina and peek into the conversation between her and the Bookmaster. This is when they all discover the Bookmaster's identity as Erina's mother.
• Experienced Protagonist: Soma himself boasts about having twelve years experience in serving customers, which proves to be one of his biggest assets. His father is himself an elite chef who used to put Soma in all sorts of crazy situations developing his exceptional ingenuity in cooking.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Soma slowly lets his hair grow, which is the most noticeable after the hellish training camp and after the Stagiaire month, indicating that he Took a Level in Badass and is slowly getting better and better.

F-N

• Face Fault: After he just defended his restaurant from landsharks, and declared that the Yukihira is his castle that will never go down, his father appears to tell him that he intends to close it down for two-three years.
• Famed In-Story: Even though he failed to win BLUE, Soma's performance garnered lot of media coverage.
• Friendly Rivalry: It's almost impossible to make enemies with Soma, since he always ends up befriending or at least get along with his opponents. He can hold a normal conversation with Erina despite her protests, has Ikumi falling for him, becomes good friends with Takumi, gets orientation from Akira, talks friendly with Alice during the match, compliments Subaru's motorcycle, and later hangs out with both Akira and Ryou after their Autumn Election match.
• Friend to All Children: He's surprisingly good with kids, knowing a lot of little visual tricks with cooking that help grab their attention.
  • During the breakfast buffet trial at training camp, he calls a shy little girl to try his omelette breakfast by showcasing it as a "magic trick".
  • At a community cooking school where Satoshi works part-time, he and Megumi get the children's attention by appealing to what they find cool, and later encourage them to do their assignments by various methods.
• The Gadfly: Soma has the tendency to taunt his opponents when presenting his dishes.
  • With Yaeko and her mooks, Soma rubbed in her face, turning her previous "The Reason You Suck" Speech into an Insult Backfire.
  • It's mostly because of this that Erina rejected his application, since on top of proving her wrong, Soma started to tease her.
  • Right during the fourth day of the Festival, Soma flaunted about having more experience in business than Council member Terunori Kuga.
  • This actually becomes a plot point when Soma manages to get Eizan and the judges to taste his dish by taunting Eizan. Eizan, of course, reacts accordingly.
• Good Is Not Dumb: An establishing moment of this trait came from the Sumire District arc, where he pointed out the fact that customers (or people) are greedy in nature.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: He bears a diagonal one across his left eyebrow. The anime reveals he got it when he accidentally dropped a fish and while diving to save it, he hit his head with the kitchen table's edge.
• Graceful Loser: Played with on this and Sore Loser. On one hand, he's a good sport and not one to linger for too long on his losses. On the other hand, he has a tendency to vent his frustration on his dishes (for example, during the Autumn Elections preliminaries, Satoshi noted that he served the judges a combination of his two latest "failures": the omelette from training camp, which nearly cost him his tenure, and the apple risotto from his latest cook-off with his father), and he uses any loss as an opportunity to improve himself (to the point where Fumio called him the "ultimate sore loser").
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Averted. While a quick and flexible thinker, Soma clearly lacks the natural talent of Erina or Akira, the specialist knowledge of Alice or Ryou, or even experience with cuisine outside of cheap Japanese foods. However, his twelve years' worth of hands-on experience (plus his impulse to constantly test strange food combinations) proves to be a great asset from the beginning, making him a flexible thinker who copes well with pressure and works constantly to improve himself. This allows him to be one of the best chefs of his year, but precisely because he lacks the obvious natural gifts of someone like Akira, the other students resent and belittle him. They look forward to seeing him fail out because acknowledging his ability would be the same as admitting that they just don't work hard enough.
  • Most notable in his three-way match against Akira and Ryou at the final of the Autumn Election: both of them are far more capable of obtaining fresh saury than Soma is (Akira because of his excellent nose, Ryou because of his longer experience with seafood). Instead of trying to defeat them on their terms, he aims for an alternative way of preparing the fish.
• The Hero: He's the protagonist, and his talents in cooking and his overall genial personality attracts no shortage of friends and rivals. Satoshi implies that his uniqueness may bring about larger changes in Totsuki.
• Hero-Worshipper: While he started seeing Shinomiya as the one to beat during the training camp, after being his intern at Shino’s Tokyo, Soma is so impressed with him that he starts calling him “Master Shinomiya” from that point, reacting with excitement every time they see each other again.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: As noted by Satoshi, almost every school publication spends time either criticizing or dismissing Soma's relevance (for example, by picking bad photos of him or giving more spotlight to the other contestants). The only journalist who genuinely likes him is Mitsuru. It's justified since the negative articles against Soma are the most requested by the student body in part due to him rubbing them off the wrong way with his introduction speech, and because acknowledging his strengths would also mean doing the same for their own weaknesses.
• Heroic BSoD: Downplayed and Played for Laughs at the same time after Soma loses his duel against Tsukasa. Even though Tsukasa backed out on the conditions of their Shokugeki (that Soma join Central), Soma still felt upset about the loss. During Ikumi and Megumi's Shokugekis, his friends could notice that he has been down ever since.
• Heroic Lineage: Not many people outside his circle of friends (including, initially, himself) know that his father Joichiro is a world-renowned chef, partially because he is still known by his maiden surname, "Saiba", before adopting his wife's "Yukihira", which Soma also uses.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: This happens at one point during the training camp's breakfast buffet. His desire to create a surprising dish (based on his experience) also meant it wasn't suitable for a buffet. He narrowly passes using improvisation and showmanship.
• Hollywood Tone-Deaf: In the anime, he would sing loudly and off-key while having a goofy face.
• Honor Before Reason: Even after learning that Azami blackmailed Akira into joining Central by taking Jun's research hostage, Soma couldn't get over the thought that Akira didn't even try to fight to protect his home like all of them did, labeling him as pathetic as a result.
• Honorary True Companion: Despite not being a full member, he is this towards the Don RS (on account of having saved them from an earlier attempt at dissolution, leading to), so much so that during the Survivor's Hunt he actually shows some concern for how they will fare on their shokugeki.
• Hope Bringer: Soma is the kind of person who not only gets along with anyone, but also brings out the best in them.
  • His victory over Ikumi made her a nicer person and allowed her to accept herself without having to be tough, and by the terms of the Shokugeki, her having to join Don RS allowed her to become more creative with her dishes.
  • He gradually influenced Megumi into breaking out of her shyness and finding the courage to stand out on her own.
  • Despite winning against Subaru, he nevertheless encouraged the latter to keep trying and that defeats are not the end, even as he influences him to give up his dishonest ways.
  • After helping her survive their Stagiaire assignment at a struggling restaurant, he helps Hisako come to terms with her loss to Akira during their Autumn Election matchup, as well as encouraging her not only to not give up on her relationship with Erina, but also start seeing herself as more than just her Number Two, for which she mellows out to him and starts to serve as his middleman with Erina.
  • Satoshi perceived from the beginning that Soma was destined to bring change to Totsuki and hopes the rest of the student body will step up their game, regardless of who he is fighting against.
  • Senzaemon is implied to also think of this about him, particularly after overhearing his introductory speech and while musing that Jouchirou may be right in telling him that he can help save Erina from Azami's influence.
  • Erina is surprised just how everyone in the dorm, even Hisako trusted Soma to bring about a miracle during his Shokugeki with Eizan. Soma defeats Eizan and halts the demolition of Polar Star dorm. Hisako herself lampshades this to Erina, going as far as to say that if anyone could stop Azami, it was Soma.
  • In a comically ironic twist, this very trait actually works against him in the final chapters. When he sees Erina having a breakdown during the BLUE finals, he approaches her and taunts her with a remark about how her dish is boring to snap her out of it. This gets Erina to regain her competitive spirit and subsequently win BLUE, much to his chagrin.
  • In a flashback, it's shown that Jouichirou becomes very depressed after Tamako's death. He only gets up and cooks again when Soma, who has been clearly crying his eyes out, challenges him to a cooking duel. This motivates Jouichirou to move on with his life as a chef.
• Humble Hero: For all his cocky tendencies, Sōma doesn't gloat over his rivals. He is quick to recognize talent in other students and doesn't make the mistake of underestimating them. Even after becoming the 1st Seat of the Council of Ten (signifying he is the very best student chef of the current generation at Tōtsuki), Sōma admits that Erina is better than him and believes he still has much to learn. He also welcomes Shokugeki challenges from any Tōtsuki student.
• Hyper-Awareness: Only when it comes to cooking. In any other situation, he is a Captain Oblivious.
  • Just by a quick look, Soma notices that his and Megumi's dish was sabotaged by two of his classmates and takes quick action to solve the situation.
  • Soma concludes after one dish that Isshiki cooked for him, that Isshiki's family must run a high-class washoku (traditional Japanese cuisine) restaurant. The viewer doesn't see Isshiki cooking for the next 200 chapters, when it is shown that Soma's guess was correct.
  • Between all of Eishi's questions and freak-outs, Soma is the only one who notices that he never asks about the quality of his dishes.
  • He is the only person who notices that something is wrong by watching Eizan's attitude while cooking. Turns out that the judges were all zealously devoted to Central and were willing to cheat, so he didn't have to put any effort.
  • During his Shokugeki with Nene, he noticed that the soba flour didn't smell like it usually does (due to the arena's cold weather as he'd later learn) and got the idea to fry it to make it extra pungent and get the smell through even under these conditions. Nene is shocked that he managed to pick up on that detail given that most people would be too frazzled by the pressure of a Shokugeki to notice.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: In the Fall Classic semifinals, he gambled his whole career as a chef against Mimasaka. When he beats him and Mimasaka says he's going to quit cooking, Soma calls him out on it, telling him why shouldn't quit after a single loss. The others comment how rich this is considering he was risking on doing the exact same thing.
• Hypocritical Humour: He laughs after hearing how his father had forced Jun to be his guinea pig for many of his bizarre dishes, never mind that he does the exact same thing to Tadokoro who even gives him a flat stare in response.
• Ignore the Fanservice: He genuinely doesn't care about all the blatant Male Gaze around him. He doesn't make a big deal after walking into the bathroom while Megumi is there, doesn't seem to care about Ikumi's Stripperiffic outfits, and when he runs into Erina out of the bathrooms, he is only surprised to see her instead of looking at her cleavage.
• I'm Not a Hero, I'm...: Even though he steps up to challenge strong rivals on behalf of others, he clarifies that he has slightly more personal reasons to get involved:
  • After Senzaemon asks him to save Erina from Azami, he replies that he's less interested in meddling with the Nakiri family's issues than simply eliciting her words of approval.
  • When Polaris was threatened with a shutdown, he challenges Etsuya to a shokugeki. When the latter accuses him of playing hero, he retorts that he's only protecting the one place where he can truly master his craft.
• Inconsistent Spelling: Phonetically, the "o" in his name is written as "ō", which equates to "ou". Both are correct, but the series' title uses the word "soma" for "body or physique", a pun on his name. The English localization uses the latter.
• Insufferable Genius: Subverted. Soma isn't blatantly obnoxious or smug, but he doesn't care much for people who lack cooking experience. That said, he is quick to acknowledge people with ambition or experience and doesn't underestimate or gloat over his opponents.
• Insult Backfire: When the loan shark claims the Yukihira is nothing but a failure, Soma presents her with an extremely delicious dish, explaining it was inspired by an accident, i.e. from a failure.
  • Lampshaded by Isshiki. Most of the student body hate Soma and wish to see him suffer a humiliating defeat. Unfortunately for them, Soma has enough ability to back his words. Isshiki remarks that if the student body acknowledged Soma, they would have to admit that they are not putting enough efforts themselves.
• I Resemble That Remark!: Denies being a sore loser, then corrects his dad on how many times he’s lost to him because he doesn’t want him to think he's already won 500 times in a row.
• I Shall Taunt You: How he gets his match with Etsuya to become more or less a proper Shokugeki, and indirectly convince the judges, all of whom were Azami loyalists, to somewhat be more impartial.
• It's Personal: His motivation for participating in BLUE is to defeat Asahi Saiba to avenge his previous loss against him. In addition, he plots to exact revenge on Erina for her earlier actions. Soma does succeed in defeating Asahi, with the added bonus of gaining approval from Mana Nakiri's God Tongue, which is the rarest of all honors.
• Jack of All Stats: Both a strength and a weakness of his. Unlike most of the other chefs featured in the series, Soma doesn't specialize in any particular ingredient or cooking style, instead having picked up a wide variety of styles and techniques from his father, which is otherwise known as "Yukihira style". So while he may not necessarily be the best at any one style, his vast array of knowledge and versatility is what allows him to outperform the most specialized chefs he goes up against. However, under Kojiro Shinomiya's supervision, Sōma does learn a number of French cuisine techniques. Later on he employs it occasionally. But as a weakness, his lack of specialization is the main reason he will lose a food war, with his defeats most often coming at the hands of a chef who vastly outshines him in a particular discipline.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Soma often comes across as a flippant, insensitive person who sometimes likes to mess with others. He does care for his friends, though he isn't so blatant about it. The only time he completely lost his cool was when Shinomiya tried to expel Megumi over a triviality.
  • Another time when he won against Subaru, Soma returned all the stolen knives to their respective owners and chided Subaru for stealing their pride. Not long after, the two of them became friends.
• Last-Name Basis: Soma calls almost everyone by their surname, except Takumi, Fumio (to whom he applies the suffix "-san"), Ikumi (whom he nicknames "Nikumi") and Alice (who he labels as "Nakiri's cousin").
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Usually casual and laidback, Soma stops beating around the bush and gets serious whenever he's fired up, usually every time someone belittles his family, hometown and/or friends, including some of the chefs' pure honor.
  • Always indicated by the putting on of his headband.
• Lethal Chef: He is an excellent chef. However, like his father, he purposely creates gross dishes during his free time. He once made a snack with octopus and peanut butter.
• Like Father, Like Son: On the one hand, Soma is exactly his dad when he was his age, and both share the same quirks, a fact not lost on Joichiro's old classmate, Gin. On the other hand, he has none of his father's brashness in his youth, instead bringing his mellowed-out personality (as a father) by the time he enters Totsuki. He even leaves Tootsuki (temporarily) to travel the world and find his own style like his dad, leaving an exasperated schoolmate with all of his paperwork much like Jou's relationship with Gin.
  • After graduation, Soma follows his father's footsteps becomes a world famous freelance chef, frequently being invited by clients to cook overseas.
• Living Legend: By the time of the epilogue, Soma is regarded as a top tier chef not only for his accomplishments at BLUE, but also for shaking up Tootsuki to such an extent that the gourmet/lower class barrier was brought down under a newer and fairer regime. Tons of young chefs from more humble backgrounds now seek to apply for the school, and the student body is all for him.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Joichiro never told Soma about his past. This is serious when he has to confront Azami and Asahi.
• Logical Weakness: Soma's work experience serves him well, but only if the situation is similar to his experiences, otherwise it can work to his disadvantage by giving him false assumptions. During the training camp's buffet challenge he almost failed because he didn't consider whether his dish can keep on a heating plate, something largely irrelevant in the Yukihira but absolutely crucial in a buffet. He's also unused to handling tasks as complicated and demanding as multiple-course meals and really struggles during the Autumn Election semifinals because he's not used to making meals designed to have immediate, powerful impact rather than milder food meant to be eaten regularly.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Amusingly inverted in his exchange with Azami, when the latter is gushing over Joichiro.
  Soma: Ummm... you may not know this but Saiba Joichiro is my dad.
  • The truth about Sōma's father often amazes and shocks people around him. The most extreme example was Erina: she nearly fainted when she overheard the truth from Sōma.
• MacGyvering: Soma can make any dish taste incredible, even when the barest of ingredients are available. For example, in Fumio's entry test to the Polaris Dormitory, he makes a hamburger with canned mackerel, eggs, onions and panko, and also uses the liquid with the canned mackerel with ponzu to create the sauce.
• Magnetic Hero: Soma's friendliness, his helpfulness, his willingness to teach and motivational ability make him easily make friends, even with students that are very antisocial otherwise.
• Meaningful Name: In Vedic mythology, Soma is the name of the moon god. Considering his father Joichiro's nickname was "Asura", also a Vedic name (literally "distant moon"), this is probably not a coincidence. It's also notable that the venue of the Autumn Election and shokugeki between the Council of Ten (i.e. the battleground where the first seat is won) is named Chandra's Hall...Chandra being another name for Soma.
• Men Don't Cry: No matter how bad of a setback he has in cooking, or hearing of the tragic circumstances of other characters, Soma never so much as cry or weep on-screen for the entire series, with the exception of his mother's passing off-screen.
• Mood Killer: In a positive, Big Damn Heroes way — Chapter 133 ends with Soma (and Megumi) breaking the tension between Erina and her father Azami by asking the former if there are still seats in her stall, much to Hisako's great relief.
  • In Chapter 303 when Asahi indulges in Evil Gloating and taunts an anguished Erina, Soma breaks the tension and confronts him.
• Mundane Made Awesome: While his competitors will use financially expensive ingredients, yet rich in flavor, Soma can pull off the same result by buying affordable items from the local supermarket and any leftovers.
  • In his Shokugeki against Ikumi, Soma uses a discounted beef from a supermarket to go against the grade A5 beef — which is probably the best quality of beef that can be found — the former uses.
  • When Soma is paired against the showy Alice, Soma opts for a Nori bento, which is considered the most basic kind. Soma then makes this bento "evolve".
  • He doesn't know how to pick out the best seafood, so instead he opts to try various styles of curing instead. His dish is judged as being by far the most creative and at least on par with the other dishes he was competing against though he stills fails to win.
  • When he offers Erina to make her a "Yukihira special", he chooses to make her a simple Tempura-Bowl Egg^note a rice bowl with a fried element, with some eggs Soma bought cheap on a sale. When the others wondered how Soma managed to deep-fry an egg without it breaking up, Soma explained that he fried the egg while still frozen solid. Also that the flavor was amplified by freezing it and it wouldn't have been the flavor he wanted if he had used a high-quality egg.
  • During the BLUE semifinals, Soma serves a specially augmented fried rice to Mana Nakiri, the head of the World Gourmet Organisation and bearer of the Divine Tongue. The dish is so delectable that not only Mana is forced to acknowledge, it also evokes Mana's bestowal on an unprecedented magnitude. This is an impossible feat even for the other Nakiris (including Senzaemon).
• My God, What Have I Done?: Sports a comical one when he realizes he just indirectly helped Central by being Tsukasa's sous chef.
• Naïve Newcomer: Subverted; he's impressed with every new fact he discovers from Totsuki or his roommates, but he gets used to it in less than three panels.
• Naked First Impression: How he met Gin the first time, as he was the first male student allowed to rest from the first day of training camp. A little stunned at first, he quickly is talking to Gin jovially and helping him stretch in the bath.
• Nerves of Steel: Joichiro taught him how to stay calm under pressure, which, combined with experience, helps him keep his cool during high-profile matches.
  • During the training camp's breakfast selection, he made a mistake in his choice of menu, but last-minute improvisation allowed him to come up with a new approach and attract nearly 200 customers in only half an hour. In the process, he managed to keep refining and improving his technique. All around him, other people had given up or were panicking, but he remained calm and focused, for which Gin praises him.
  • Doesn't even blink when Subaru appears in his room after the semi-final bracket is made. He just calmly says he'll make tea, as well as a meal, then just as calmly challenges him to a Shokugeki while telling him what he'll be making.
  • This is especially demonstrated during Soma's Shokugeki against Eizan. Eizan publicly reveals that he's rigged the affair so that the judges will vote for him, no matter what dishes are produced. Then, just to put extra pressure on Soma, he orders his subordinates to go ahead with the forced eviction of the Polaris Dorm while the Shokugeki is in progress. Despite having total assurance of his victory, the fact that Soma takes all of this without so much as flinching is what ultimately draws Eizan into taking the match seriously, which ultimately proves to be his undoing.
  • Upon hearing that all rebels sans himself, Erina, Megumi and Takumi got expelled, he just calmly calculates how many seats they'll need to gain a majority in the Council of Ten Masters so they can overturn the expulsions and stop Azami. He goes so far as to directly challenge Azami himself to a full-hands Shokugeki.
  • How he is able to convince Megishima joining Team Rebel. In spite receiving punishment from the big man himself, Soma was still standing and told Megishima his speeches about his desire to protect the way he learned to cook by challenging every chef he encounters.
  • This is the lynchpin to his victory over Nene in the first round of the Regiment de Cuisine. Nene's absolute confidence in the quality of her soba (her culinary speciality) is built upon her reliance on the teachings of her family, which she defaults to, partly to concentrate under the pressure of the Shokugeki. In contrast, Soma's ability to remain calm allows him to notice the little things, such as the soba's flavor not being as pronounced (due to the temperature) and adjusting his final product to compensate, which wins him the match.
  • It goes on after the first round as well, as, with the second round, the three chefs from Central have won all their bouts, but Eishi and Rindo are both mentally and physically exhausted, along with Somei (though he manages to bounce back in time for the next match). On the other hand, Soma has gone though almost exactly the same level of strain, but comes out while hardly even breaking a sweat and goes on into the third round with absolutely no problems.
• New Transfer Student: Soma transferred to Totsuki at the beginning of his first-year in high school. It is not unusual, except Totsuki also has a middle-school campus, and the majority of its tenth-graders hail from there.
• Next Tier Power-Up: He's finally able to complete his "specialty" that he's been working on since working at Shinomiya's resteraunt during the Regiment De Cuisine Shokugeki. By having Erina's God Tongue point out any deficiencies in his composition, he's able to craft a dish that even Azami Nakiri acknowledges as being as good as 1st Seat Eishi Tsukasa's own specialty.
• Nice Guy: Soma's biggest virtue as a person is his friendly nature. Even when people looked down on him for his humble origins and transfer student status, he quickly makes a circle of close friends thanks to his outgoing demeanor and helpful attitude. He is always helpful and inspirational to his friends, and many of his rivals turn around and become his friends after being defeated by him because he always shows respect and admiration for them before and after a match.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Zigzagged. During the final match against Erina in the BLUE, the latter is in the middle of a Heroic BSoD, so he snaps her out of it by saying that her cooking is boring and he won't feel good winning against her like that. While this does cost him what could possibly have been an easy victory, it doesn't have any lasting consequences, and if anything, it only brings him and Erina much closer to each other than before.
• No Badass to His Valet: Inverted. Joichiro points out that this is Soma's other main attribute, as he, unlike most people, won't get intimidated by status or fame. He won't hesitate to challenge anyone into a duel even if their levels are vastly significant.
• No Fame, No Wealth, No Service: Most of the school looks down on him because of his humble origins, compared to the many heirs of wealthy restaurants.
• Non-Uniform Uniform: Soma wears his shirts open with a navy blue T-shirt inside (long-sleeved when getting colder) and no tie.

O-Z

• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Soma is usually a blithe person who enjoys challenges. But in chapter 304, he is visibly exasperated with Asahi's arrogance and Erina's indulgence in despair. To make matters worse, Erina meekly prepares to marry Asahi and bluntly tells Soma she wants to see him lose to Asahi. Soma snaps and tells her he doesn't care about her family drama. The next day, Soma is in a stern mood as he confronts Asahi in the BLUE semi-final.
• Oblivious to Love: As of the Autumn Election, at least two girls have a crush on him, yet he can't tell, since he's focused on two things: surviving school and surpassing his dad. That's it.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Soma promptly clears the third trial of the BLUE without breaking a sweat which happens off-panel. Many light chefs (the ones who cook mainstream as opposed to those who work in the mafia) had miserably failed in that trial.
• Power Copying: Not as blatant as Subaru, but he's pretty good at getting inspirations from other dishes and/or concepts. He used Alice's own molecular gastronomy technique against her (sodium alginate and calcium chloride), and against Subaru, he used Hisako's technique to thicken his own stew using collagen in beef tail. However, this trait eventually leads him to failing to win the Autumn Election. Nothing he makes is really unique to him, so even if he can make food on par with other cooks he still hasn't grown as much as they have, thus factoring into his decision to use his Stagiaire Week shift with Kojirou to learn as many things as possible from a former First Seat.
• The Power of Love: Soma invokes this during his rematch against Asahi. He fondly remembers his mother while he is cooking. Coincidentally this also happens to be one of Joichiro's biggest cooking secrets which he had tried to reveal it to his son.
• Running Gag: Every time Erina tries to tell him how terrible he is, he just laughs it off or ignores it. When she keeps it up, he eventually notes that having a normal conversation with her is pretty difficult.
  • He also has a habit where he often takes charge of everything even being incredibly reckless and all which infuriates everyone including his own dormitory friends.
  • In addition, he loves to cook lethal dishes which grosses out his friends including Megumi, who is a victim of this. Yuki even once stated that he should only use Megumi as his only victim which horrifies the girl.
• Second Place Is for Losers: He gets incredibly frustrated at any perceived loss, no matter who his opponent is. He takes it hard when he failed to help Megumi win against Kojirou during their unofficial Shokugeki, striking his hand against a wall hard enough to hurt himself once Megumi is out of sight. When he gets second place against Akira in the Autumn Election preliminaries he's angry that he didn't get perfect scores across the board, despite only losing by one point to a specialist on his home ground. Losing again in the final is a bit different, however. He's still bitter, but he also acknowledges that Akira's cooking has something he lacks.
• Secret Legacy: His father is renowned in the culinary world, but Soma isn't even aware of it. Soma is shocked by the revelation, but his friends point out that all of the signs of his father's legacy were there, but Soma was just too oblivious to have noticed them.
• Shonen Hair: Like most shonen protagonists, he has spiky hair that sticks out all over the place.
• Shower of Awkward: He was seen naked by Megumi when he walks in on her on the bath on his first night at the Polaris Dormitory. Well, at least for Megumi it was awkward - Soma didn't seem to think anything of it.
• Showy Invincible Hero: Played with; there are many opportunities for students to get expelled at Totsuki, thus Soma has to put his cooking experience to the test and improvise when he can to win, yet there are a few moments where he doesn't "entirely succeed".
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Sōma perfectly sums up Azami's attitude problems in one line:
  Soma: Um, couldja stop telling people what they're supposed to think is happiness, please?
• Slasher Smile: Sports a vicious one as he brings out his food cart at the end of the second day of the Full Moon Banquet, apparently up to something to beat Terunori in his own game. He also gives Eizan one when he asked if his dish was delicious.
• The Social Expert: He easily makes friends with Ikumi and Alice and, even though she dislikes him, he's one of only a few people who can actually hold a conversation with Erina despite her notably terrible social skills. Going from there, he makes friends with Hisako easily despite her starting with the same opinion of him as Erina, to the point where even the latter expressed some jealousy over how Hisako seems more friendly to him than her. Nao even liked him enough to decide that she doesn't need to hold a grudge against him for having worked with Hisako. He also befriends the bear hunter who gave them the tour around the mountain by showing genuine interest in his knowledge of the animal, which gains the admiration of Kuga, as this also gets the hunter on their team if they needed more meat.
• Stock Shōnen Hero: He fits a lot of this character type's traits, being a Fiery Redhead who enters the prestigious Tootsuki Academy to become a great chef. While he is at first looked down upon due to his humble background, he manages to survive the academy's cutthroat environment due to his determination, creativity and experience. Despite being very proud of his skills (he antagonizes the entire student body during his entrance speech where he practically calls the other students a bunch of losers for not having any practical experience in the kitchen), he is also very loyal to his friends, being willing to wager his position in the academy to save a school club from being shut down, and prevent Megumi from being expelled after she failed an exam.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Soma strongly resembles his mother.
• Supreme Chef: Even by Tōtsuki's absurdly high standards, Soma has often proven himself to be one of the best chefs of his generation. Throughout his time at the academy, he has been competing against several accomplished chef-students, continuously honing his skills and ingenious methods in multiple cuisines. As a result he is often held in high regard by his close friends and seniors.
  • After graduation, Soma is often invited overseas to cook. The chance to taste Soma's cooking is considered to be prestigious by several gourmets.
• Surpassed the Teacher: Other than getting Erina to say his cooking is delicious, this is Soma's main goal, to become a better chef than his dad and take over the family business. This is the main reason why he enrolls into Tootsuki, as Joichiro tells him that if he can graduate there. He manages to do so by virtue of becoming First Seat of the Elite Ten before finishing his first year of high school (Joichiro only managed Second Seat), and later, by defeating Asahi, the only chef on-screen to ever give Joichiro a complete defeat. Even though Soma doesn't feel like it, Joichiro acknowledges Soma has surpassed him.
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: As explained by Isshiki, the reason for the hatred of Soma among the bulk of the students was his ability to compete on equal footing with those someone with such a low background should be able to face. Soma has no famous lineage^note  Most are unaware that his father is one of the greatest chefs in the world, no particular genius and works in a low class special of the day diner, yet he's going up against prodigies and those with ties to the top tiers of the culinary world through nothing but hard work and sheer determination not to give up. If the students acknowledge his skill then that would mean they have to acknowledge they've just been making excuses to give up and not work hard.
• Tastes Like Friendship: Soma wins over several people by giving him some of the food he cooked. The flavor triggers memories of their childhood and then purifies them, allowing the eater to come to terms with them.
• Taught by Experience: The crux of his skill is growing up in a kitchen for twelve years, and food-battling his father (a.k.a the best chef in the entire world) 489 times, and losing every single match. He has much yet to learn, but Soma's a very quick learner and knows how to make his mistakes curb in his favor. After losing to Akira in the Autumn Election, Soma voluntarily subjects himself to intense training under Kojirou's guidance for his second Stagiaire Week shift, and upon returning to Shokugekis from second-years he sets his winning conditions such that his defeated opponents would have to teach him their techniques. This is also one of his biggest strengths as a chef, as he proved during the Stagiaire. He quickly learns to adapt to the chaotic environment of a high-end restaurant simply by being in the kitchen, making mistakes and working hard to correct them.
• That Came Out Wrong: When Asahi declares his intentions to marry Erina, Soma angrily retorts that Erina and her tongue belong to him. Erina listens to Soma's line. Believing it to be an Anguished Declaration of Love, she becomes flustered and faints. Even after some days, she is still shocked Soma would actually say something like that.
• To Be a Master: Sōma's primary goal which drives him on throughout the series is to one day surpass his father and mentor, Jōichirō Yukihira. During his time at Tōtsuki, Sōma takes new goals such as winning Erina's approval as a chef and surpassing her, defeating Akira Hayama and becoming a member of the Council of Ten Masters. As of now, Sōma has achieved the last two goals.
• Too Kinky to Torture: Joichiro reflects that Soma's greatest strength is not that he is fearless in the face of overwhelming challenges but that he enjoys them. This is why he isn't fazed by the fact that he's lost to Joichiro 489 times before the series begins. He's still eager to battle again and again until he wins. This is represented by an imagine spot of Soma treking through the same metaphoric wasteland that caused Joichiro's burnout; even though he's bleeding from the mouth, Soma still bears a grin of audacity.
• Training from Hell:
  • Had one lasting for four years. It is revealed that when Soma was still in elementary school, Joichiro used to assign him all the important and challenging aspects of the diner. This forced Soma to constantly experiment, think, innovate and adapt to so many different situations. Being subjected to extremely difficult tasks and situations as well as hundreds of matches against Joichiro transformed Soma into a competent chef capable of handling anything Tōtsuki can hurl. This comes into play in the BLUE arc where the spectators are intrigued by his unorthodox methods.
  • He also boasts that Erina's intensive seminar prior to the Advancement Exams was a 100x tougher than the exam itself.
• Tranquil Fury: A good way to tell when Soma is pissed off is when he shifts from his normal, relaxed expression to an extremely stern and serious one, almost always accompanied by him being drawn even more detailed than normally.
• Transfer Student Uniforms: The jacket he wears seems to be the black gakuran from his previous school, while the Totsuki jacket is navy-blue with white borders on the collar, with pleaded brown pants and tie.
• Turn Out Like His Father: He's skirting this trope, exemplified whenever he feeds Mayumi and Megumi some of his experimental dishes... just like what Joichiro did to Jun back in his day.
• The Unchosen One:
  • It is emphasized that Soma's father never formally taught him how to cook or even wanted him to become a chef. It was simply through challenging him all the time that Soma gradually developed his abilities.
  • Played With later on. Senzaemon Nakiri reveals that he was the one who told Joichiro to enroll Soma into Totsuki, believing that Soma might eventually have a positive influence on Erina. Although Soma becomes aware of this backstory, he admits that his reasons for helping Erina are still the same; to get her to admit that his food tastes good. This is again played with when Senzaemon had handpicked many members of the 92nd generation himself.
• Underdogs Never Lose: Zigzagged. Soma is constantly being labelled by other students for being the nobody from a small restaurant, yet consistently performs better than most of the other students in his year. He manages to beat Ikumi in a Shokugeki, ties with Takumi for their unofficial contest in the summer training camp, and later beats Alice and Subaru in the Autumn Election semifinals — both of whom were considered to be leagues above him. However, he also loses in an unofficial Shokugeki against Kojirou, scores lower than Akira in the preliminaries and eventually loses out to him by one point in the finals. Then played straight at his Shokugeki with Etsuya, where he manages to convince the three judges, all of whom employed by the latter, to actually vote for him.
• Underestimating Badassery: Many people look down on Soma, thinking he's a simple chef from a simple special-of-the-day store. They get blindsided when he shows he can match their three years worth of high-level education with twelve years of experimenting in a kitchen.
• Undying Loyalty: He will defend the name of Yukihira at any cost; this extends to his neighborhood and classmates from his old school. This has also extended to Polaris, both because of Joichiro's past connection to it and the friends he has made there, to the point that he challenges Etsuya to a shokugeki to keep it from shutting down.
• Unknown Rival:
  • Soma tries hard to have some form of competition with Erina or get her to accept his cooking, but she never really reciprocates his feelings of rivalry. First he just pisses her off for being both rude and serving commoner food, then she ignores him when she can't get rid of him and eventually she makes friends with him. By the time the Azami Administration is ousted she thinks his stubbornness in trying to compete is kind of charming but still doesn't seem to take him seriously as a threat.
  • The Council of Ten don't really take him seriously, especially Terunori Kuga, who believes it would be a waste of time taking him on. The others aren't as blunt in dismissing his challenges, but they don't really disagree with anything he's saying either. Unfortunately for them, Soma does become the 1st Seat of the Council of Ten Masters.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: One of the few people who can hold a straight conversation with Erina, although they often bicker.
• Walking the Earth: In the final chapter. Just like his father, Soma becomes a world famous freelance chef, and is frequently invited overseas to cook. He does intermittently visit Japan.
• We Do the Impossible:
  • Soma pulls off the near-herculean feat of actually forcing the three judges employed by Etsuya during their Shokugeki to vote for him in a 3-0 whitewash.
  • Cranked up to eleven when towards the end of his first year, Sōma is appointed as the 1st Seat of the Council of Ten, the highest and the most prestigious rank a Tōtsuki student can ever achieve. Soma broke Azami's record because the latter achieved Third Seat in his first year while Soma won the First Seat in his First Year.
  • Soma is able to elicit Mana Nakiri's bestowing on an entirely different level, by serving a specially prepared fried rice. Consequently he defeats Asahi Saiba for good. In the final match, his dish activates Erina's pulse for the first time, blasting a wall.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy:
  • His Goal in Life is to one day surpass his father so he can inherit their family restaurant. Joichiro actively encourages Soma to do so, outright stating that if Soma cannot graduate Totsuki then his dream of surpassing him will never come true.
  • He also has made it his goal to make Erina say his food tastes good. Ever since the entrance exam, when she called his dish bad (but was still able to pass because her grandfather, the dean, overrode her decision), Soma has tried to challenge Erina with his food again. He cooks another meal for her in chapter 170 and is eager to hear her answer in the next chapter, which she naturally doesn't give. Even during the final chapter, Erina still calls his dish disgusting.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: While his cooking is very versatile, Soma still comes from a "special-of-the-day" family restaurant, and he "specializes" in simple dishes that can be created and served on the spot.
  • This briefly becomes a negative during the breakfast buffet trial, as he's used to serving food immediately. The solution? Put on a show to attract customers.
  • The same aspect also bit him back for his Stagiaire shift at SHINO's. He simply isn't used to the amount of forethought and planning needed to ensure that the dishes in multiple multi-course meals go out at precisely the right time.
  • Soma does overcome this limitation briefly by learning French cuisine techniques from Shinomiya. He also explored Chinese cuisine while challenging Kuga. However, he usually relies on his Yukihira style while combining the techniques he’s learned.
• Wild Card: According to Satoshi's appraisal, Soma's unorthodox methods and his sheer determination have the potential to rock Totsuki's status quo by provoking his batch-mates into striving to become more than what they are in the present.
  • This is also acknowledged by Tsukasa, explaining that keeping Soma by his side was potentially dangerous to Central.
• Working-Class Hero: When he is introduced to Totsuki Academy, he is one of the few students who hail from a humble diner. In the epilogue, it's revealed that the newer generations of Totsuki consist of more students from similar backgrounds, which was possible thanks to Soma serving as an inspiration for everyone.
• World Tour: Shortly before entering the third year, Soma went on a voyage to hone his skills, and hasn't returned yet. Erina is frustrated that he is evading her messages.
• Worthy Opponent: Kojirou respects his guts to challenge him to an unofficial shokugeki to force him to retract Megumi's expulsion from training camp, and thus (in his own way) takes him in as protégé for a Stagiaire week. Likewise Alice is impressed with his ability to redesign his breakfast buffet and attract 192 customers in only half an hour to complete the minimum 200 servings required to pass, telling him that she looks forward to dueling him come Autumn Election. And after beating him to the top of fourth-day sales for the Full Moon Banquet, Terunori admits to Rindou that perhaps Soma has the potential to become a chef worthy of the Council of Ten Masters.
  • After the Regiment de Cuisine, Soma has earned the respect of all senior members of the Council of Ten, especially Eishi Tsukasa. Tsukasa and Hayama are seen rooting for Soma during the latter's match against Asahi at the BLUE semifinals.
  • His father Joichiro himself considers Soma to be this. Soma does not believe in natural talent or genius and perseveres until he surpasses his opponents. Joichiro would often be upset when people labeled him as a genius instead of acknowledging his hard work, which is why he likes to compete against his son.
• You Remind Me of X: He reminds Rindou of Terunori, who also challenged the Council of Ten last year.