[Manga] Shokugeki no Souma

Yukihira Souma is an ambitious 15-year-old whose dream is to surpass the culinary skills of his famous father, Yukihira Jouichirou. But just as Souma graduates from middle school, his father abruptly closes down the family restaurant and leaves to cook in Europe. Although downtrodden, Souma's fighting spirit is rekindled when his father enrols him in an elite culinary school where only 10% of the students graduate. Can Souma survive in the cut-throat world of Tootsuki Academy?

source: Shokugeki no Souma Mangarock

About

Food Wars! : Shokugeki no Soma is a Japanese manga series created by Yuto Tsukuda and is illustrated by Shun Saeki. It was created in November 2012 and is still currently ongoing. An anime adaptation, its third season is also ongoing thanks to J.C. Staff Studio.

Thoughts

Shokugeki no Souma, an anime about cooking. Yep, you read that one right. A show about cooking. Wouldn't that be boring? Surprisingly, No! I can't pinpoint exactly what Shokugeki no Souma has, but right from its first episode I was drawn into it. To start off, the animation of this show is amazingly well done. The characters are very well drawn and very detailed. The foods presented all looks very delicious and well crafted. Yada yada yada if you've watched at least one episode, you'll get what I'm talking about.

The story however, is nothing special. It's about a young chef who wants to surpass his fathers culinary skills. His father enrolled him to an elite culinary school where only 10% of the students graduate. Most if not all the students in this school comes from a rich or a very well known family background. It's your typical story where we the viewers will be rooting for the underdog main character. To top things off, we are introduced to a somewhat ranking system. The Elite Ten Council is the student council in Totsuki Culinary Academy and is formed by the ten best students. Now, that's what every anime lover just loves, an underdog who is expected to destroy and defeat a very strong elite of the elite group. In this case, through cooking.

The strongest suit of this show however is it's well-timed executed comedy. The show does not try too much nor too little on this scenes, it just comes off naturally. One of the shows genre is Ecchi, so expect a lot of fan service and showing of skin. This is usually shown when food is being evaluated. Many people like to call it 'Foodgasm' as to reflect how delicious the food is that they are on the verge of having an orgasm like feeling. These reactions might be over-reacting to some but if you can think off another way on how to express how delicious a food is without being boring then please tell the mangaka asap. XD

The amount of research done in this manga/anime about the various methods and techniques about how foods are done and the different kinds of unique ingredients is also worth mentioning. I honestly don't give a crap nor understand half of the things the characters says about the preparation and the ingredients they used but it is all well researched so there's that.

As for character development, it's there but is barely noticeable. The only noticeable ones are the two female leads, Erina and Megumis development. As for our main character, he already has the skills and the confidence and is always dependable so I don't really know what more can be developed for his character.

The soundtrack is good but is unforgettable. The background and dramatic music however are very well choosed so credits to that.

Overall, Shokugeki no Souma is a fun and entertaining anime to watch. Okay, I might need new synonyms for that one but in all seriousness it's an amazing series to watch. It's light so you'll never be stressed out. The characters are very well drawn and the animation is smooth. The food battles while expected to be boring is actually fun to watch even though I don't quite get half of the things the character says. Don't expect lots of plot twist or a complicated plot, expect however a lot of fan service and a little nudity.