Shokugeki No Soma

His name's Koujirou Shinomiya.

I also liked his Shokugeki more than Mimasaka's, because I felt a sense of dread. It was overpowering, I truly thought that Megumi was gonna lose. But she didn't, so whew. But Souma felt like he totally lost. That was heavy stuff.

Here? Mimasaka's gonna get owned, and learn a lesson or something. Stalker King's reign ends here!

edited 27th Sep '14 7:58:59 PM by Diamite

Megumi did lose. Shinomiya just didn't hold her to it.

Agree with the general notion that Shinomiya's unofficial shokugeki was handled better than Mimasaka's. We get to see that Souma isn't an invincible chef and that he still have much to learn.

The camp was good for that. I liked how he almost failed the breakfast test due to a genuine gap in knowledge. It showed that he has weaknesses as a chef.

Speaking of which, is it just me, or is almost every Shokugeki we see so far has the winner decided unanimously?

Surely you don't believe a cooking manga would say that some things are simply a matter of taste?

The part with Hayama in the prelims said just that, actually. Remember when the judges got into a fight?

That's just silly. Everyone knows that cooking is a matter of power levels. That's why Erina's food glows - it's going Super Sayian.

Chapter 88: Welcome to Yukihara Land. Having the judges casually hold hands outside of the metaphor was pretty great.

He won by taking multiple steps to improve his dish, whereas Subaru only improved the dish by a single step. I'm definitely OK with that.

Well that was beautiful victory. The Yukihiraland fantasy sequence has to be among best ones yet. "We're all BFF." Brilliant.

I like the way Souma won. He used all his twelve years of experimenting experience to compose the dish. That's not something that could be copied just like that.

Next chapter will probably be celebration.

edited 30th Sep '14 5:42:44 PM by Shlugo_the_great

His dish made me crave for those beef brisket noodles I used to buy when I was still in Singapore. I like those stuff better than bacon, which considering my Bacon Addiction, is saying something. :P

I was hoping that they'll hurry up and start the next round so we can see who Souma will face in the finals, but you're probably right.

They should just have five pages of Subaru wallowing in his defeat before getting on with the next semi-final.

This tournament arc has gone on for ~40 chapters and it needs to end already.

IKR. Let's hope the match between Hayama and Kurokiba won't take 5+ chapters, as Souma's and Megumi's did, then — although I'm pretty sure they'll somehow pad up the finals to make up for it anyway.

edited 1st Oct '14 1:54:33 AM by theAdeptRogue

I'd be amused if Ryou or whatever his name is won. Since that's not going to happen, I hope they don't spend too much time on his inevitable loss.

Next chapter will have to include everyone congratulating Souma, Erina being tsundere and Subaru giving up the knives. No way will the next match start yet.

I would love if Ryou won, partly because it would be unexpected and partly because I don't really like Hayama and would like to see him taken down a peg.

I agree with you. I can't like Hayama at all, even though Kurokiba is admittedly the more Jerkass between the two.

Ryou is rough around the edges but I wouldn't call him a jerk.

Yeah it's tough to blame someone for such a cutthroat approach to life when they grew up in a dockside tavern.

I'd actually expect to see Ryou beat Hayami, for Ryou v. Souma in the final round. Hayami is arrogant, sure, but a match between him and Souma after Souma v. Subaru will be anticlimactic. Hayami isn't antagonistic enough to make it feel suitably high-stakes, and approaching it as a friendly rivalry usurps Takumi's role. Ryou, on the other hand, brings a wild ferocity to the kitchen. Add to that the similarity of his and Souma's backgrounds, and you have a much more interesting matchup.

^ You don't remember the setup for this arc?

Yeah, most likely Hayama and Souma will be the ones facing off in the finals.

Subara vs Souma ends as expected. Pretty boring but it's not like I expected much.

Subaru's fate was sealed as soon as he made that bet against the protagonist. At least Kurokiba has a fair shot at beating Hayami.

I honestly wouldn't be so sure about Hayama walking away with a win. One could make the argument that Hayama's spotlight time is over after the prelims.

edited 2nd Oct '14 5:28:29 AM by burnpsy

After which he's getting hyped as a possible rival for Erina herself? Unlikely, as much as I'd love to see him lose.

I would argue that means nothing, given that Alice was being hyped as the one to beat at the main election, what with her top score and everyone in-story assuming Soma was gonna lose, and yet she was kicked out in round 1.

Only because Souma have the protagonist Plot Armor, so he wouldn't lose until at least the finals. Kurokiba has no such "protection".

But, hey, what do I know? The author can and does pull twists, occasionally.

Also, I'm hoping that the Benkei-Yoshitsune imagery in the cover of that last chapter is only there for visual bonus and not some sort of foreshadowing because I really don't want to see a Defeat Means Friendship cliché here.