Original Air Date: May 15th, 2015
The Shokugeki between Ikumi Mito and Soma Yukihira takes place, with a big audience who hates Soma's guts.
This episode provides examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion:
- The Polaris Dorm residents (except for Isshiki, who is still at the Dorms) are the only ones in the audience rooting for Soma.
- Two of Soma's haters in the crowd were the two cheaters from Chapelle's class.
- The entire school gets notice of the Shokugeki by reading Tootsuki's Sports, the School Newspaper.
- Attention Whore: MC Urara Kawashima adores the attention she gets from the male audience (while the girls hate her), to the point she herself hates if any other woman, like Ikumi, steals her spotlight.
- Bland-Name Product: Soma's steak was purchased from "Sendai." The Alternate Character Reading for "dai" is "yo." So... the place is a knockoff of Seiyu, Walmart's Japanese division.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Urara Kawashima poses as The Cutie for the audience, when in reality she is a Green-Eyed Monster who pretends to have refined tastes.
- Combat Commentator: The people who provide the explanation on the Shokugeki dishes, aside from Soma and Ikumi, are Erina, Shun, Marui and the judges.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Even when the odds were against him, Ikumi lost because Soma realized something: Ikumi was so focused in showcasing the beef, that she didn't think on how it could compliment the rice.
- Defeat Means Friendship: After losing, not only did Ikumi accept her defeat, but also develops a crush on Soma.
- Embarrassing Nickname: "Nikumi" (Niku="Meat"). Even when it was her Berserk Button with everyone else, she blushed when Soma started to call her by the name, because he thought it would look "cute" written in hiragana.
- Evolving Credits: The rotating dish in the opening changed. For the ending "Spice", the foodgasm reaction is from Ikumi.
- Feigning Intelligence: Urara Kawashima claims that she reads tales (she hasn't even opened any books), likes romance movies (in reality kung-fu movies) and wants to be a wife (even the subtitles don't know what to make of that).
- Freudian Excuse: The Don made Ikumi remember how her father prohibited her to show her soft side, making her the tough chef she was until now. Also she started to have her crush on Soma because he was the first person to ever say she was cute in a positive way.
- Hated by All: Almost all of the audience was there to watch Soma lose against Ikumi (especially Erina). The only people rooting for Soma were Kanachi, Megumi and the rest of the Polaris Dorm.
- The Host: Urara Kawashima is assignated to be this Shokugeki's MC. Kanachi mentions that his Shokugeki didn't have one and barely had audience. Although she presents the contenders and grabs the audience's attention, she barely provides any actual comment or fact on the cooking itself.
- Impossibly Delicious Food:
- The general audience and judges are amazed by the A5 meat used by Ikumi, which has an incredible marbled texture and juicy content that the smell alone is enough to make people drool. The result is Ikumi's "A5 Japanese Beef Roti Don", consisting of Garlic Rice and roasted beef placed like a flower. Even so...
- Soma's "Chaliapin Steak Don" blew Ikumi's entry out of the water. The first smell was enough to weaken Ikumi. And even when the judges dismissed the dish before tasting it, they found themselves unable to stop eating, as the combination of the pickled plum rice, sauteed onions and tender steak managed to create a unit, unlike Ikumi's (since the rice and the meat were packed with flavor but were competing with each other because it had nothing to bridge the flavors together), to the point of requesting for seconds. Even Ikumi herself enjoyed the plate so much that she had a flashback about her childhood.
- Innocently Insensitive: As the entire crowd started to heckle Soma, Kanachi (who didn't know about his speech) asked him why he had so many haters if he only had less than a month at Tootsuki. Soma also wonders why.
- Male Gaze: The entire Intro had Ikumi trying on different bikini tops for the Shokugeki, going from a leopard print, a cowboy top and finally settling on a fire print.
- Ikumi’s foodgasm when she tasted Soma's Don had her naked on a bed of onion and rice.
- Nervous Wreck: Megumi was freaking out in behalf of Soma.
- Orgasmically Delicious: After remembering parts of her childhood, Ikumi's reaction was like she was covered in onion on a rice bed, just like the don.
- Produce Pelting: When Soma revealed that his main ingredient was a cheap steak from the market, all the guys in the audience started to throw things to him.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Right when Ikumi took her time to taunt him in the middle of the match, Soma's only response was "People who talk too much are not really that capable. The Don I'm making is going to tell the story". The first smell of his plate was enough to shut Ikumi up.
- Tsundere: After her defeat, Ikumi quickly showed to be this, as she asked about Soma while pretending to have the obligation to keep her word. Of course she gets dissapointed and angry when she found out that Soma was not joining the Don RS.
- Twist Ending: Just as Kanachi proudly appointed Soma as the next head of the Don RS and Ikumi was prepared to work by his side, The Stinger reveals that Soma declined the membership, as he was only checking out the clubs before he decided to save the day, shocking the entire audience.
- You Have Failed Me: Since Ikumi lost against Soma, Erina immediately ordered Ikumi's kitchen to be taken away and ditched her as her henchwoman.
