Shokugeki No Soma

Yeah they have criminally terrible fashion sense.

I feel like punching rabbit-head for wearing that tacky-ass garish headgear.

I know freedom to wear what you want and all that but for God's sake in reason.

Edited by slimcoder on Dec 8th 2018 at 1:51:18 AM

Hmm someone few pages earlier mentioned something called Nightmare Kitchen which reminds me of how Weekly Manga Recap thought Blue in general feels like shitty cooking reality competition show

Weren't they called "dark chefs" because they cooked for the mafia or something?

They cook for the "Underworld" and nonsense like that. Also apparently kill each other when they normally face another Dark Chef.

It happened... Holy crap it actually happened...

The Kitchen Chainsaw-Knife is actually a real thing!!

(It's called "Ninj-O-Matic" Kitchen Chainsaw...look it up on google, I kid you not.)

Also, it seems that there's a whole art-form involving blood-cuisine in real life as well, making the Doctor completely legit as well.

Also, looking up further, there's such a thing such as a kitchen-guillotine in real life as well. (It's called "Kitchen Witch Guillotine" and is a real thing, use google.) The only difference between it and the one Bunny Girl is using, is that the latter's is only customized to look like the one used in the french revolution. Otherwise, the one-hand guillotine in cooking crafts is legit real as well.

Also...

The clown's juggling pots?

Guess what?

Yeah, they're also real. (Heavily customized versions of stainless steel IKEA cooking pots, in this case modified to not have any handles, added locks, and with the same principle. A spherical pot composed by two halves in order to cook food from every angle in the kitchen.) the juggling however is something no chef would recommend though...

The Noirs aren't so outlandish as we first thought...

Soooo wait, are Noirs all based on really gimmicky obscure real life cooking methods some crazy dastard invented at some point?

..........the fuck?

Oh shit. So we're just seeing real obscure cooking utensils and techniques instead of made-up nonsense? To bad the Dark Chefs still suck as concepts, because they'd be a lot cooler now.

Wouldn't be surprised if there just coincidentally happened to be a crazy person who made chainsaw cooking and the author had no clue.

I mean, I'm not really surprised everything they're doing has some basis in reality. That doesn't really make the execution better.

If anything, it makes it worse because we fully know that the author just straight up doesn't care.

how do you figure?

Think he just means the writing flubs in general lately.

Basically. Because it COULD have been a cool concept to explore.

Oh, I misread that as saying these concepts show the writer doesn't care which is confusing.

I'm wondering, though, if these were all based on obscure real-world concepts how could that have been conveyed better?

I feel like not applying them to a group known as "DARK CHEFS" is a good start. Like establishing that there are out of the norm cooking styles out there beyond what the main characters know and trying to work around that.

Instead of just using them to show "ZOMG, LOOK HOW DARK AND CRAZY OUR VILLAINS ARE"

Huh so for the past six weeks Soma has been in the absolute bottom of the rankings. Sure these rankings ar every fickle & prone to manipulation so take them with a grain of salt but still that hurts a little bit.

Also I’m not sure if the sales are doing good.

The series still sells well enough, but it's been steadily declining ever since, you guessed it, the beginning of the Central arc.

So let's congratulate the author for shooting his own series in the foot.

Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Dec 11th 2018 at 6:21:41 AM

And if the sales become low enough then Jump will put the seiries out of its own misery by a clean shot right in the head.

It’s only a matter of time till then.

Azami was just too edgy to be taken seriously.

I had no real objection to Azami. He's a Yu-Gi-Oh villain minus the magic.

I'd agree with that if he was entertaining in some way, but he really wasn't.

Well he certainly was no evil-Marik.

At least Ragnarok was a really bitchin finisher.

Azami had his moments and I think his backstory was interesting. Even though his goal was totally implausible I think it fit his characterization and I could accept it as part of the series, with some tweaking.

It's just that the arc dragged for so long. I think the elite four match was too much, I'd cut that down somehow and wouldn't end up with the main cast at the top of the elite ten. Then I'd try to go for 'return to form' to cover their second year in more detail (brief arcs, but enough focus to care about things like the beach shack) and have the Blue be the final arc without the Noir chef thing. Tsukasa etc could be beaten at the Blue instead of at the end of the first year, because that seems more fitting.

I had a brief thought that since the entire arc deals with Erina coming to terms with Soma's way of life, and the entire climax just revolves around them anyway. Why not just make that the centerpiece of the arc instead of trying to shoehorn the Elite 10 into the conflict?

Like, the way I thought of it. After the Autumn Elections, Erina begins begrudgingly respecting Soma as a chef, which knocks her off her game somewhat since his way of cooking is fundamentally different than what she was taught by Azami. This dissonance bothers her so much that it is starting to affect her more than usual because of Soma's constant achievements, which casts doubt on her entire way of life up to that point. Things could stay play out in the Stagiare and Moon Banquet festivals as normal, but I would distinctly focus on that.

Azami returns, mainly to address how Tootski's administration has damaged it's reputation and wishes to "correct" it. Senzaemon is forcibly retired when Azami wins favor of the Board of Directors, and both parties agree on the terms. Azami is less "EVIL OVERLORD" and genuinely wishes to improve Tootski, though he has a bit of a dark aura that turns people off, his intentions are ultimately good. His relationship with Erina is still kind of cold and distant, but less because of abuse and more because Azami spends more time on his business than being a father (To contrast him with Jou), but he still ultimately cares about her well-being and reinforces his worldview to her.

The Central arc then plays out as an escalating conflict between Soma and Erina; the former is against the reforms while the latter is in favor of them. Things escalate to a point where they finally decide to settle their differences with a Shokugeki; if Soma wins, the reforms are reversed and people are given back their freedom. If Erina wins, Soma joins Central.

I don't think this is a massive improvement, but I generally think this would have been a good climax for Soma and Erina to finally settle things and it gives us a proper match between the two conflicting ideologies they embody. Then after that conflict, they can be focused on surpassing the Elite 10 in their Second year.