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The 92nd generation seems to have more talented cooks than other generations, considering that Senzaemon Nakiri names it like that. The 43rd Autumn Election is a perfect example for it. 16 students have more than 80 points and the top 8 are exceptionally talented chefs.
- Also reinforced by Isshiki's introduction, where he has the feeling that Soma will finally bring change to Tootsuki and make the hidden talent students bloom. And granted, by far there has been revealed that nearly 20 of the 1st years are exceptionally talented from all the other remaining 600.
Maybe they're brothers or something, but it can't be coincidence that both have bandana's while cooking. Maybe Kurokiba met Souichiro when he was traveling? Or they're blood-related but not siblings?
- Just like Jouichirou, maybe Megumi's mom sent her to Tootsuki knowing her true potential and Megumi doesn't know because his mom could have changed her last name after marriage.
- On the same page, also Takumi and Isami's father, since his face is never shown and he is the one who comes up with the idea of enrolling his sons there.
While this is already made somewhat obvious by the various things in Soma's character page entry, might as well get a compilation to explain why this is being written down.
Many of the characters have an area of cooking expertise. Megumi's is Hospitality, Shun's is Smoke, Ikumi's is Meat, Alice's is Molecular Gastronomy, Ryou's is Seafood, Akira's is Spices/Aromas, Hisako's is Medicine, and so on. There hasn't been a phrase or a title to label Soma's yet, but 'Evolution' makes a reasonable threefold choice for him.
1) He learns very well from failures and experimentation, using what has and hasn't worked out in the past to improve on future dishes. He's also very good at crossover-dishes, using principles from an almost completely unrelated dish to augment the one he is working on in unexpected ways.
2) He has a tendency to take what he's learned from other people's cooking and put it to use further down the road. This basically results in him snowballing techniques and specialties as he meets more and more people, expanding his repertoire exponentially. He doesn't really need a specialty of his own because he's able to wield everyone else's, and do so in intermingling ways that wouldn't otherwise be possible for those people themselves.
3) His penchant for dishes with multiple stages to them where you add something new and the dish completely changes, even dubbed in-universe as 'evolving' dishes. He's done this at least three times so far.
Just a thought.
- Not straightly confirmed, but according to Issiki, his true specialty is adaptability — such as when he adapted to the environment during the Hokkaido Regime de Cuisine, while his opponent stuck to her teaching and thus lost.
- Soma shares his name with a Vedic lunar god, so his nickname will probably also be moon-related. And considering that Hindu mythology crops up in the manga from time to time, the identical names are most likely not coincidental. My guess is that his nickname will be Chandrashekara
. - The possible nicknames for Megumi that came up during the unofficial Shokugeki against Shinomiya are all based on Japanese folklore. She also has rabbits as Animal Motifs (see her character page). One of the more well-known figures of Japanese mythology (or at least one I have heard about) is the moon rabbit. Q.E.D.
- Of course, since the word moon appears in Tootsuki's name and in several events connected to Tootsuki, they probably would have to work especially hard to get these kind of monikers.
Whether out of possible sense of rivalry or in a tournament setting, Megumi and Erina will engage in a Shokugeki. The story has already set them up as Foils of each other - Erina being the haughty Rich Bitch prodigy chef with a highly technical, French inspired "imperious cooking" style and Megumi the shy Shrinking Violet with a homely Japanese "childhood and comfort food" style. It is likely that Erina's inability to adequately empathize with the people she feeds will be pointed out, as well as her unfamiliarity with learning from mistakes and developing herself further (stagnation being a character and chef's detriment having been discussed in the story). Depending on the theme, it may well end up as Megumi's win, showing that technique should be matched with heart and empathy in cooking.
- Interesting in that regard is, that at the two occasions in the manga where it would have been highly likely for Erina to taste Megumi's food and therefore assess her cooking skill firsthand - Stagiaire week and Erina's stay at the Polaris dorm - it was shown or outright confirmed not to have happened - almost as if the author wanted to save that for a specific occasion, like a tournament or a shokugeki. The outcome of them facing off will probably end with Erina winning with an (almost all votes):1 score - though since it will probably be the first time for Erina to suffer a (partial) defeat against someone from her own generation, it would make Megumi a Wake-Up Call Boss for her.
- Also, while I'm at it, here's one more incidental theory to the Erina-Megumi-duel-guess: if it's in a tournament setting, Takumi will defeat Soma in the first round of it - just because it is a more unusual choice for The Protagonist and The Rival to square off in the first round of such a setting and The Rival winning.
- Rare redhead in Japan, with Ochre eyes and a talent in cooking... too obvious.
- Or Shirou could be his long lost brother who was thought to have died in the Fuyuki fire along with their mom.
- Hayama as Archer: Two dark-skinned blondes; additionally, both are voiced by Jun'ichi Suwabe
- Ryou as Berserker: Ryou's "Berserk Mode"
- Erina as Saber: While personality wise, Erina might be a better match for Rin, in terms of plot importance, Erina is pretty much a dead ringer for Saber. Also, hair color wise, Erina's is closer to Saber's blonde hair than Rin's brown hair.
- Megumi as Sakura: While Erina appears first, since she'd be a better fit for Saber, Sakura automatically goes to Megumi (not to mention that they have somewhat similar personalities).
- Fumio as Taiga: They basically have the same role in the plot. If they were to do this, it would make a bit more sense to use the younger version we see when Fumio tries Soma's cooking for the first time, since that feels like a better fit than the current Fumio.
- Jun as Rin Tohsaka: Mostly because of the fact that Hayama is devoted to her, but also because she has the same hair color.
Because:
- They all have reddish hair and yellow eyes.
- She's the Second Seat like Jouichirou was.
- She has cat-like traits while Jouichirou is compared to a cat (and Gin to a dog).
- She acts playfully trollish like Jouichirou and Souma.
- She ate from every stall or restaurant in the school during the Full Moon Banquet fair, kind of like Jouichirou's culinary globe-trekking in microcosm.
- She's traveled the world looking for new tastes and specializes in rare ingredients.
Maybe Souma had an aunt he had never heard of who married a Kobayashi man. As to why Souma was never told this, maybe Jouichirou is estranged from his family (taking his wife's name) and hasn't kept in touch with them.
The precocious child in chapter 61 is forced into a culinary school for children and has a fear of her food being rejected. Most likely, she is the younger sister of Erina who rejected all the food Kanon has made. Not only are the hairstyles similar, Kanon has a very haughty attitude worthy of a Nakiri.
One possible resolution might be Jouichirou proving wrong Azami's motivations by defeating him in a Shokugeki and also revealing to Erina that Soma is his son in the proccess.
Currently, Two of the top 9 first years live the dormitory: Soma and Megumi. Satoshi is the Elite Ten member living at Polar Star Dormitory, but that will change in future. Now that Megumi is inviting Alice, Erina, Ryou, and Hisako to stay at the dormitory that would make 6 out of 9 top first years. By the end of the arc, the five current non-elite members will hold seats. That will mean 7 out of 10 Elite Ten Seats will be held by Polar Star Dormitory Members.
At first, it seems to almost come out of nowhere, that Eishi would want to support Azami. He came off as a rather Reasonable Authority Figure, for all that he's an insecure whiner. However, it all makes sense when we see Azami's ultimate plans for Totsuki's new course, namely the abolishment of the meritocracy and the establishment of the Elite Ten and some students handpicked by Azami to decide what dishes the students will learn. Eishi is established as a major Control Freak. He is utterly unable to trust anyone else in the kitchen and insists on doing everything himself. However, it's also Lonely at the Top. Eishi is too insecure to allow others to handle his dishes or help him with any of his cooking, but that doesn't mean that he likes that. However, with Azami's plan, he will raise a group of cooks who are trained specifically to cook the way he cooks, to do the same thing he does, to make the same dishes as him. Thus, Tsukasa's support for Azami is born of his desperate desire not to forever cook alone.
- And while this is a pretty secure guess, looking for all that was presented about him up to now, a more benevolent take on this view, is that Tsukasa (wrongly) believes that the world would be a better place if more people could cook like he does so no one would suffer frustration for not being able to cook at all. It's much more easy and efficient to follow the footsteps of these that already can do better, than to try, to fail and bitterly give up in the end. Keeping into account that he probably never failed at cooking and couldn't know better what is like... making him the perfect foil for Souma.]]
Both of them were/are convinced that their way of doing things is correct, and that anyone who would deviate from their method should be eliminated. The difference is that Koujirou did this because people were regularly tampering with his recipes and sabotaging his ability to start and run a good restaurant mostly out of racism. He kicked those people out and run the place himself, his dependence only on himself only showing its downsides when he started throwing away good ideas with the bad ones. Azami, on the other hand, has not been given any reason as to why he thinks his word is law when it comes to cooking aside from that it just is. Shinomiya also sorta got better; Azami's only gotten worse but is very good at hiding it under a veneer of civility.
Obviously, this would only be a last resort to stop Azami from doing something very damaging (I'm torn between him either cheating in a critical shokugeki or pulling some sorta second Moral Event Horizon), and while she could likely only use the threat once, it would be very, very effective.
Erina's a smart girl. She's shown herself to be quite The Determinator lately too. And seems to be getting more and more infuriated with being pushed around by her father's minions as he tries to "protect" her.
Or rather, her tongue, which is really the one thing Azami values that can actually be used against him.
I don't think it'd take much for Erina to realise she has a very effective threat up her sleeve, and if it ever becomes necessary, I don't think she'd hesitate for a second to capitalize on that weakness. Azami can take over schools and (almost) bring down shokugeki, but he'd be as powerless as anyone else in the face of his daughter's pearly whites threatening to sever his life's work.
Reasons above aside, I think that after all the suffering he's caused her, seeing Erina use her father's "greatest accomplishment" against him would be a thing of beauty.
Azami has tried to make sure the Polar Star dorm students and their closest allies will be defeated by making the Elite 10 their opponents. However Erina has finally started standing against her father, and knowing she's a major part of his plans for the culinary world, will force herself into a situation where she may be guaranteed to get expelled. Azami can't show favoritism and prevent it, otherwise people will question his role as Totsuki's director, and Erina will use this either to force him to expel her which would ruin his plans, or get rid of the unfair odds he's forced on the resistance and give them a challenge they actually do have a chance to succeed in.
Once the Elite 10 are defeated by Souma and the rebels, Azami will have a Heel Realization, resign from Tootsuki as director, and reconcile with his daughter, Alice and his family as well as Jouichirou. It'll be a fitting redemption for him.
- Somewhat confirmed. He reappears again during the BLUE arc, and he clearly regrets his former plans, especially his treatment of Erina.
We've already seen cases where the placements of the Elite 10 don't necessarily reflect the actual raw cooking ability of each seat. Jouichirou was ranked 2nd due to his laziness towards his administrative duties and his classes in general, Isshiki never actually showed his best and more or less allowed Nene to take the 6th seath and Eizan cares more about profit than showing and refining his cooking ability. So it stands to reason that Rindou, given her general slacker attitude towards her duties as well, may very well also be ranked lower that Eishi despite being a better chef.
This is due to the 92nd Generation of students, particularly those who are in the Polaris Dormitory and the eight finalists during the Autumn Elections, being unbelievably better than most first-year students at Tootsuki in years, alongside what the current Council of Ten Masters see in them. Furthermore, there's evidence to suggest this is the case when Azami accuses Senzaemon of setting it up so that the Jewel Generation enrolled at Tootsuki at the same time to face off against his regime. While Soma is the obvious example (since Senzaemon explicitly reveals he told Jouichirou to enroll Soma), it's possible Senzaemon suggested the same scenario to the rest of the Golden Generation and their children (recall when Jouichirou and Gin were in their third-year at Tootsuki, the Council of Ten Masters was entirely occupied by the Polaris Dormitory; it's not implausible the rest of the Council in the Golden Generation share Jouichirou and Gin's stance against Azami's present-day motives).
- Takumi and Isami as the Kureshima brothers (Takumi as Takatora/Zangetsu, Isami as Mitzunane/Ryugen): Siblings
- Azami Nakiri as Dan Masamune/Chronos or Tenjuro Banno/Gold Drive: The Big Bad and an abusive father
- Subaru as Itsuro Takamizawa/Verde: Power Copying (or in Subaru's case, Recipe Copying)
- Etsuya as Takeshi Asakura/Ouja: Hate Sink, and a shared voice actor (at least, in the dub of Ryuki's American adaptation - his VA voices Strike, the DK counterpart of Ouja).
- Tsukasa as Tsukasa Kadoya/Decade: The Ace, and shared names.
- Ryou as Takumi Inui/Faiz: Similar color motifs (red and black), and a connection to feral animals (Ryou has them as his Animal Motif, and Takumi is the Wolf Orphnoch).
- Alice Nakiri as Taiga Nobooru/Saga: A familiar connection to one of the main cast, but not full-blown siblings with said cast member.
- Soma as Shinnosuke Tomari/Drive: Following in his father's footsteps, and said father being connected to events that kickstarted the plot
- Erina as Dan Kuroto/Gemn or Gou Shijima/Mach: Child of the Big Bad, and antagonistic towards the main character for a period of time.
- Megumi as Kamen Rider Poppy: Both have comfort related to them somehow (Poppy's civilian identity is a nurse, and Megumi specializes in Comfort Food)
- Rindou Kobayashi as Blood Stalk: Wild Card
- Joël Robuchon
- GordonRamsay
- Jiro Ono
- Graham Elliot
- Joe Bastianich
- Masaharu Morimoto
- Alvin Leung
This would be one way for him to redeem himself while giving his and Jouichirou's conflict some form of closure.
She probably gets a lot of challenges from people think she is the weak link of the Council of Ten Masters due to her earlier grades and how nice she is.
It has been stated that the only parental figure she had was her father and grandfather. It’s later revealed in chapter 300 that she is still alive and despises her daughter’s God’s Tongue. As someone from the proud Nakiri family, she was deeply insulted by her daughter’s words. It made said funny moment Harsher in Hindsight.
- On a more serious note, this moment might have cemented her decision to abandon Erina upon the realization and despairing confirmation that yes, Erina had inherited the genetic defect known as the "God's Tongue", prompting her traumatized mother to judge the child as "lost" and flee the field all together.
Or became one after an accident. The contrast would be great since no one like this appeared yet in the series...
- How this relates with Saiba Jouichiro? Well since she was the original heir of the Yukihira, but maybe was terrible inept at doing so... And being a sore loser was something that Souma got from his mom... My best guess is that Saiba-senpai was once a perfectionist food demon (any reference to Toriko are intentional) and mellowed out of his "Shura" nickname after meeting her... much to Azami's (unknowing) distress. Maybe smiling at gross food are his fondest memories of her, something cute along the lines that Jouichiro was the first person smiling at her food... or something like this...
- Now how this could result in this expulsion from Tootsuki? Maybe he was insane enough to enter in a Shokugeki with the objective to let her became a student there...
- Confirmed. Somewhat ironic given that the previous owner of the Yukihira diner was her father. She still tried, though, and sometimes she managed to make good dishes.
There have been hints that Erina held Jouichirou in very high regard (it's unclear if Jouichirou was one of the Nakiri's cook or for another reason), but also we don't know anything about Soma's mom.
- Either Soma's mom is a long lost relative of the Nakiris or Jouichirou is part of a secondary branch of the Nakiri family, or Jouichirou was going to be engaged to the Nakiri's somehow before meeting Soma's mom.
- Probably not Erina's mother. Jouichirou took the family name of his wife. And Erina would probably know the maiden name of her mother.
- Jossed. Both mothers have been revealed. Soma's mom died years ago, while Erina's is still very much alive.
Because that would be awesome.
- Not only that, but it could be more likely than you'd think. Many characters, even some Elite Ten members, specialize in one particular type of food. That's not broad enough for a Final-Exam Boss, and one of those seems like the best way to cap off the series, especially given Soma's own habit of taking a little bit of everything and blending it together into a style all his own. The only other students with broad enough specialties to fit this sort of thing thus far would be Alice and Hisako, but Alice has already lost once and Hisako's a perpetual second-in-command. Megumi, on the other hand, was one of the most pathetic chefs in the school, but meeting Soma gave her confidence, and she's on her way up. If anything, she has just as much drive and determination as he does; she's just quieter about it most of the time. She has the ambition, she has the broad spectrum specialty, she has the rate of improvement. By the time the series is wrapping up, she will be on Soma's level, and they will have an epic Shokugeki. What the stakes will be, I don't know, but it's so happening. There's pretty much only one other option besides her that makes sense for a finale, and that's Takumi... but that depends on how broad he spreads from his Italian specialty.
- Jossed. The manga has announced its finale, and with only three chapters to go, Erina will be.
- Hisato Arato. She's Erina's aide and one of her from her fraction. Arato's loss would have an immense impact on Erina.
- Jossed in Chapter 75.
- Ryou Kurokiba. He defeated Megumi Tadokoro in the tournament, meaning that Soma has some business with him. He also has pending business regarding Alice losing against Soma. Confirmed, but both Hayama and Kurokiba are going against Soma.
- Takumi Aldini. Soma's self-claimed rival.
- Jossed in Chapter 79.
- Subaru Mimasaka. He's apparently Eizan's aide, and Eizan has business with Soma.
- Jossed, he's Soma's semi-final opponent.
- Akira Hayama. The will decide their match from the preliminary in the final. Confirmed, but both Hayama and Kurokiba are going against Soma.
Since Marui started to think about it, the themes of all the challenges are very popular and common foods outside of the "gourmet world". Curry for the preliminaries (which nowdays is mass-produced as packaged dinner), obento (or "lunchbox" that can be bought at a conveinence store), ramen (commonly found even in carts on the street), and hamburger. Maybe the school wants to teach the student body about not forgeting that the chef needs to know how to serve to people from all the classes without forgetting the essentials.
- Confirmed
The Elite Ten organized the festival, so they will decide who is worthy enough to take a seat of theirs.
- Jossed: the three judges assigned are Chef Doujima, Senzaemon Nakiri and Leonora Nakiri, Alice's mom. Also Satoshi Isshiki is the Finale's Host and Erina is still working as staff.
Since it's a 3-way duel, it would be fairly difficult to avoid a tie if they used more than one judge. Additionally, Erina's sense of taste might have a better chance of deciding which dish is better. This will also make things epicly difficult for Soma, who has to compete against two nearly equal opponents while dealing with a judge who dislikes him.
- Jossed: there are three judges instead, despite the potential for a tie.
It will be one of those cases where Mitsuru will be all friendly and gullible at first towards Soma in order to get a closer look at his hobbies and skills before The Reveal.
- Jossed: the Elite Ten has been introduced already and all of them are High School 2nd and 3rd year students.
To contrast with Alice being a Nakiri on her father's side; therefore Senzaemon has a daughter and a son instead of two sons. The Nakiri family is prestigious enough that male suitors would have to take its name.
- Confirmed: Azami refers to Senzaemon as father-in-law.
At the end of the Shokugeki, Eizan will taste Soma's food and have his cold heart melted. He will realize there's more to cooking then for sheer profit and become good friends with Soma. Eizan calls off his men and does a Face–Heel Turn vows to protect Polar Star Dormitory.
- Jossed: Eizan does taste Soma's food and is stunned by the flavors. Soma proceeds to win the Shokugeki, but Eizan is embarrassed by his defeat and extremely displeased, screaming for the cameras to be shut down. When he reappears afterwards in Chapter 151, he's still visibly furious, and by Chapter 153, he's still seething about it and is eager for revenge.
In the most recent chapter Tsukasa Eishi and Yukihira Souma are having a shokugeki with the stakes being either Eishi gives up the First Seat to Souma or Souma joins Central as Eishi's right hand man. All around a very dramatic and epic food battle but just one little thing stands out to me. They are in an empty classroom with no idea that Erina and Hisako are spying on them. Just who were they planning to have judge their food? It's fairly obvious that Erina is going to come in and judge their dishes, after all who better than the God Tongue, but they don't know she's there. Prediction for the coming chapters: Eishi and Souma will present their dishes to thin air and then freak out when they realize they forgot the judges.
- Probably Jossed, since Soma is serving Eishi his dish to eat. Meaning they will be their own judges, like in the Soma/Satoshi duel.
- Confirmed and Jossed: Soma didn't mind to make Tsukasa taste his dish, but also Tsukasa himself forgot about the judges until Soma suggested that Hisako and Erina (who were hiding) be the judges instead.
Part of his plan to destroy the Status Quo of Tootsuki, he might be thinking of recruiting students who think like him and lead his own revolution against the school.
- Eizan is a very likely follower for him, as he can be lured away by any deal that can benefit both of them financially.
- Confirmed by chapter 134: he takes Tootsuki as 9,6,5,4,2,1 seats of the elite 10 voted on him as the new director. And as of chapter 151, he kicks Satoshi (7th seat), Terunori (8th seat) and Tosuke (3rd seat) out of the Elite 10 and seems to have built a massive army along with the remaining Elite 10 and other students he handpicked himself.
- There has been no show of Akira in the recent chapters, despite the current proceedings eradicating the Shiomi Spices Seminar and therefore Jun's life work. As Jun is Akira's reason for cooking, it's hard to believe that he's not going to fight back to keep the Seminar alive, especially considering his loyalty to Jun.
This is where Azami comes in. Azami wishes to utilize Erina's God Tongue to further his goals. However, as Erina is currently out of his reach it is not hard to believe that he'd turn to the next best thing - Akira Hayama, who's nose and superior sense of smell has often been compared to the God Tongue.
While Akira might not agree with Azami's ideology, he might have struck a deal with Azami - in return for letting the Shiomi Seminar continue their studies, Akira will go along with whatever Azami wishes. As Akira has been stated to be a very self reliant and private person (Jun was so happy about Akira making friends his age during the Autumn Festival that she cried tears of joy), it is likely that he might not have considered asking Souma and the others for help and instead did what he could on his own to save the seminar - which in this case is offering his sense of smell and abilities as a chef to aid Azami's regime in exchange for saving the Shiomi Seminar and by extension Jun.
This might serve as a reason for why he's not appeared - he might be undergoing the training Azami intended for Erina.- This is semi-confirmed, though he claims to have abandoned Shiomi Seminar. Though many readers are guessing (and hoping) that he is merely putting up a Jerkass facade and is secretly being blackmailed with the seminar on the line.
- Another possibility is that Akira lost against one of the Upper Seats of the Elite Ten and also Jun got fired as part of the Teacher purge, since Azami mentioned before that he had to get rid of all the teachers who didn't agree with him. As a result, Akira had no other choice but join Central to stay at Tootsuki and his devotion to Jun is what drives him at the cost of his moral horizon.
- Yet another possibility is that Jun purposefully disbanded the seminar in exchange for Azami making Akira into an Elite 10, out of fear that she and the seminar might become a burden by causing Central to target Akira like with the other "rebels." Akira's motivation for following Central is because he doesn't want Jun's sacrifices to go to waste, though Soma will eventually defeat him and talk them both out of this plan.
- Confirmed.
Akira has already found his special person, which means he may have reached the pinnacle of what he can do, or is close to it. Kurokiba and Soma have yet to find or admit they've found that person, as of yet, so they still have much more room to grow, because they have yet to achieve that ceiling, and they're already pretty close in terms of talent.
- Confirmed: when Akira stopped truly cooking for Shiomi, he loses to Souma.
Doujima is still a Tootsuki employee and former 1st seat. He might be one of the central figures in a possible rebellion against Azami. The other Legendary Alumni might as well intervine.
- One possible strategy to circumvent Azami's influence would be Doujima and Jou banding together to buy out a majority of Tootsuki's shares with the help of Jou's massive catalog of clients and Doujima's network of Alumni.
- Confirmed: he reveals to Takumi and Megumi that he gathered both Jouichirou and Senzaemon to Hokkaido as soon as he found out about Azami's return, though is working under the pretense of being neutral, yet readily admits he's using the "rebels" for their own motives against Azami.
Since Azami got his position with a 6:4 vote, using Shokugekis to kick out current members who voted for him and casting another vote seems at least feasible; of course, this could go both ways.
- Confirmed via a Regiment de Cuisine.
- Doujima told Hayama that "such immense talent will eventually bear its fangs at you.", implying that he saw something similar happen before. Currently, in his generation, the only ones with such talents that have been revealed are Jouichirou and Azami.
- Doujima felt that he might not need to worry about Hayama, because Souma and Ryou were there. Maybe he was implying that Hayama won't go down the same route as Jouichirou because there are rivals with similar standards near him.
- Azami looked up to Jouichirou, implying that he isn't as good a cook as Jou. So Azami could not have been a rival.
- Doujima is not a rival because he isn't that good at cooking compared to Jou. While cooking is important as a First Seat, other skills (Shokugeki record, etc) also play a part. Jou lost a few Shokugeki because he kept coming up with weird dishes. This might be why he isn't First Seat, but Second.
- Explains why Azami looks at Doujima with contempt in chapter 136.
- Azami wants to bring "salvation (revenge)" to the rotten culinary world that ruined his "dear Saiba-senpai", and that perhaps, he'll "even make senpai happy".
- He wants improve the standard of cooks in the world, so that Jou will have rivals to fight against.
- The Chairman asked Jou to send Souma to Tootsuki because Souma, with his Dad's talent, needed rivals to not go down Azami's or Jou's route.
- It was stated that Souma's talent is inferior but catches up due to his Determinator attittude.
- Jossed: Jouichirou left Totsuki due to him suffering from burnout.
When the Polar Star residents asked him why he didn't graduate, he only responded "A lot of things happened..." and then changed the subject. It's possible that one of the reasons would be a Shokugeki agreement.
- Jossed: see above.
The reason why he changed his name and why he is a nomadic chef is because they are in a gigantic shokugeki, Jouichirou must become a renamed chef again, only that this time as a unknown person, by traveling to every country of the world to learn cooking techniques
- Now that Azami Nakiri (Erina's father) has appeared, it's very probably that said Shokugeki is against him.
- Jossed: Chapter 150 reveals that Azami idolized him.
- Jossed by Chapter 194. See above WMG for reason.
- Bear with me the following, Word of God confirmed that Soma's mom is dead in twitter and this list piles up.
- First episode/ firsts chapters. Jouichiro tries to tell Soma that the secret to cooking is love. Yes, I am paraphrasing here, to cook as if every meal was for the one he loves cue to Erina x Souma ship here being a plot point later.
- Jouichiro didn't graduate Totsuki for unknown reasons during his senior year. He also changed his last name.
- Azami pretty much idolized Jouichiro in highschool, a Heel–Face Turn so hard needs a base for this new loathing to his blood and cooking style to happen. Hence two options.
- Azami and Jouichiro fell in love with the same woman in highschool, both had the same cooking style back then but after being with her future wife Jouichiro started to become related to the idea of experimentation while Azami was left behind in both senses of love and cooking turning him into the creepy zombie-cooks maker he is now.
- Azami and Jouichiro had the same cooking ideals, but Jouichiro fell in love with a woman that showed him his new path of cooking. Cue to his hatred of that new cooking that stole the idol from him.
- In any case this needs the following conclusion for Azami since he wants to base his plans on Erina.
- Souma needs to improve his cooking a lot and soon. Cue to his father's words in the first chapters.
- Erina needs to 100% drop his fathers ideals and follow the freedom route she did say in recent chapters that while she doesn't want to be with his father for obvious reasons, she understands his objective.
- What a better conclusion to a old rivalry and hatred than the respective children of each side join together and deny the dictator. Yes, I know this is a trope but no idea which one.
- Apparently Senzaemon spent a lot of effort convincing Jouichiro to enroll Souma into Totsuki. If this isn't a Chessmaster Shipper on Deck i don't know what this is.
- Jossed: it relates to Jouichiro being burned out by expectations from all parties. Azami's Revenge is against the entire culinary landscape for "ruining" Jouichirou having adopted a new philosophy and stance rather than the "ruthless" approach to cooking he took as the "Asura".
The similarities with him and Soma have already been established and he's shown to be dissatisfied with the Elite 10 voting Azami Nakiri as the new director. So clearly he's going to pull a Rivals Team Up with Soma, just so he can get another chance to go against the higher seated students.
- Confirmed: he lend some help to Soma's match against Akira.
In chapter 203, Erina's grandfather encourages her to confront Azami after Erina proves herself as a cook. Before that, Alice told Azami directly that she hated him. It'll deal a crushing blow to the Elite 10.
- Confirmed in Chapter 204, where Erina does confront Azami and gives him a very short one, when she resigns from the Elite 10.
- Miyoko Houjou, Subaru Mimasaka and Nao Sadatsuka, since they weren't targeted directly by Central, but still have good relations with the remaining rebels.
- Confirmed with Subaru.
- Isshiki, Kuga and Tosuke will face the other members of the Elite Ten, or at least prepare Megumi and Takumi before the matches.
- Confirmed with all three of them.
He was the only one of the unknown elite ten who didn't vote Azami in.
- Confirmed: he joins Soma's team for the Regiment de Cuisine.
- And that's why he grow a garden at the dorm. Gotta cook fresh veggies.
- Jossed: his specialty is kaiseki, traditional multi-course Japanese meals, but experiments using ingredients to absurdly modify and add to his dishes that averts the spirit of kaiseki.
Just as a wild guess given three reasons:
- Peruvian Cuisine is ranked between the best cooking styles in the world, along with French, Chinese and Japanese Cuisine among others.
- His overall appearance is not traditionally Japanese in comparison with the other students. He is big and his wool hat is the kind used in the Andes regions of South America.
- It's been implied that each member of the Elite Ten must have a specialty area, either by Country origin or Special Skill (in Eizan's case is more related to consultation and strategy). Tosuke must belong to the former.
- Jossed: it's ramen.
It's unlikely for the 1st seat to lose so quickly, but this would at least set up Kuga for a legitimate Hope Spot. It would also be interesting to see how a perfectionist like Eishi reacts to losing one point.
- Jossed he loses 0-3 against Eishi.
- Soma as Shirou
- Confirmed via Chapter 243 a la Unlimited Blade Works.
One of the future school events will require students to work together in randomly selected two man teams to check their ability to work with others. Per Rule of Drama Souma and Erina get stuck on the same team. From this point there are two possible routes: either Hilarity Ensues as they try to pull through despite their differences, or alternatively it turns out that they work amazingly well together, a fact that will greatly disturb Erina.
- Close. It's actually Hisako who gets paired with Soma at the "Stagiaire Week" by working together at the same restaurant.
- Another close one: Megumi is the one paired with Erina.
- Confirmed: it finally occurs with the two of them being the last two rebel survivors in the Regiment de Cuisine.
She's taken a shine to Souma and she made a point to visit all the food stands in the festival, so she obviously doesn't share Azami's elitism when it comes to food. It's more likely that she supported Azami because she thought it'd be interesting if the students turned against him and improved their cooking to take him and his supporters down.
- Satoshi Isshiki.
- Nene Kinokuni, as she is the highest seat from the 2nd years.
- For their 3rd year, it's possible that Erina will be the 1st seat, as Soma and Akira's goal to dethrone her will remain.
- Jossed. Soma is the first seat now, and he appointed Erina as the new school dean.
Combining several of the above: Soma will oust Azami the way he got in; by controlling the Elite Ten. He has people on his side whom are potentially able to take their seats (the Aldinis, Mimasaka Subaru, possibly Megumi, possibly Marui if he shapes up, maybe Akira) as well as an inside man (Isshiki). As for Jouichiro, Soma wants to prove himself to his old man, and would want him nearby, and he also might consider it a great way to tweak Erina's nose.
- So far, that's Soma's plan after most of the Rebels are expelled. To achieve this, Jouichirou manages to make Azami agree to a "Régiment de Cuisine" Team Tournament.
- Confirmed for the rebels controling the Elite Ten, with Soma headlining the first seat tentatively, with Akira (fourth), Ryou (fifth), Alice (sixth) and Megumi (tenth) also given seats, but Jossed with the new director, who is Erina.
Given the talent of the Jewel Generation, these characters will be asked to join the BLUE competition, allowing them to face against chefs outside of Tootsuki and working in the culinary world to showcase their abilities on an international stage. Additionally, Soma partaking in BLUE can be used as another parallel to his father, except he won't cave under expectations and pressure from his critics and peers.
- Confirmed: Soma, Megumi and Takumi are invited to BLUE.
Perhaps he's participating in a last-ditch effort to revive Central and get revenge for the previous arc.
- Jossed. He does reappear in the Blue, but as a spectator, not a contestant.
