Shokugeki no Soma OVA 1: Takumi's Downtown Battle
Original Air Date: May 2, 2016
Takumi's Downtown Battle is an OVA episode for the anime series Food Wars!. It follows Takumi and Isami Aldini as they visit Tokyo. The episode was released alongside Volume 18.
This episode provides examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight: The OVA is centered around the Aldini brothers, with some other characters beside Soma showing up.
- Adaptation Expansion: While this OVA is based directly on the light novel ~à la carte~ / The Lost Recette, particularly the Aldini's holiday, there're a few additions to this.
- Several students of Tootsuki are seen also enjoying the holiday.
- The brothers run into the Polaris girls and go with them to eat Monjayaki. In the novel, no other Tootsuki characters appear in their chapter.
- In this OVA, Yuuki starts to nickname the brothers with "-cchi" at the end of their names.
- Urara Kawashima is the maid working at the cosplay cafe.
- Apparently, Isami is a very skilled artist. He draws chibis of him and Takumi on his Omurice with ketchup and later he does an awesome pancake art of The Great Wave of Kanagawa.
- Berserk Button: Takumi decided to duel the old guy because he dismissed him as a foreigner.
- Burger Fool: In this version, Urara is a maid in the cosplay cafe and doesn't want anyone to find out about this. Fortunately, Takumi doesn't recognize her at all.
- Call-Back:
- Takumi mentions how Soma improvised a new dish with some packed snacks he found around, which also comes handy for them.
- The Cameo:
- Alice and Ryou also go to Tokyo Skytree.
- Isshiki is taking Shun, Marui, Daigo and Shoji to the Planetarium.
- Akira is going with Jun to a curry restaurant.
- Erina and Hisako are going to a food sampling, while Nao is stalking them.
- Ikumi is shopping for rice bowls, while Kanachi wants to buy a shaving ice machine.
- Soma appears at the end of the episode.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- Hisako initially thinks that Erina looking at a Penguin poster is either her next foodgasm involving penguins or wanting a dish made of penguin.
- When Isshiki is taking the boys to the Planetarium, Shun asks if that's necesary at all. Marui thinks he is complaining about the location instead.
- Cuteness Proximity: Erina briefly looses her stoic demeanor when she sees a poster of the aquarium penguins, because she wants to go see them. Hisako thinks she wants to try roasted penguin.
- Early-Bird Cameo: One of the customers of the Cosplay Cafe looks like Terunori Kuga, from the Elite Ten.
- Evolving Credits: The openig features more scenes from Takumi and Isami. For the ending "Spice", the foodgasm reaction is from Akira.
- Freudian Excuse: The Old man was being a jerkass towards Takumi because his daughter wanted to marry a blond foreigner. He came to terms with it after tasting the Aldini's Italian-Japanese monjayaki.
- Impossibly Delicious Food:
- The old man's monjayaki, despite being a very basic recipe, makes everyone feel a nostalgic flavor in it.
- Takumi and Isami's Monjayaki Risotto make the old man realize that his heart was sealed by his own stubborness and remembers when he and his daughter used to eat monjayaki together.
- Mythology Gag:
- A Cabbage Magical-Girl cosplay is seen in display in the Cosplay Maid-Cafe.
- Kanachi is purchasing a shaving ice machine, which he and Soma use in a bonus chapter of the manga.
- The Gadfly: Isami starts to jump so Takumi will watch the glass floor in the Tokyo Skytree and remember that he is afraid of heights.
- Japanese Tourist: Inverted. Isami wants a grasp of Japanese culture during his holiday, so he drags Takumi to a Cosplay Maid-Cafe, since it's part of the "Japan Experience".
