Food Wars! The Second Plate

Stark700★ 7

Grab a seat, sit back, and relax. Shokugek no Souma (Food Wars) is back and that means, fans are in for more treat and foodgasms. From the series that bought you excitement of cooking and extravagant culinary arts, the second season has a lot to offer as well and it’s no understatement. First things first, the sequel is a direct continuation from the first and thus, the story connects from established characters and storytelling. Therefore, there’s no reason to watch the second plate without tasting the first. Do note that there’s also no recap so the second season really gets straight to the meat of thestory. That’s a good thing anyway. Who wants to listen to boring narrative of recapping? Rather, the second season dives into the main course as the tournament (Fall Elections) gets underway. If you remember, main male protagonist Souma is an inspiring cook chef who wants to follow his father’s footsteps into the culinary world. As a guy who is never afraid of challenges, it’s interesting to see how he fares against his competition. The first of those is Alice Nakiri (Erina’s cousin) and we see how both sides demonstrate their talent. What’s often interesting about Shokugeki no Souma is often the clash of ideals because characters come from so many different backgrounds. For instance, Erina and Alice were both raised in a high class society so they lack understanding about people from below their class. This also adapts the way how Souma responds. If fans took notice, Souma often uses his own creative ideas to craft food rather than using fancy or stylish ingredients from the start. The point is that with so many ways characters can use to build on their talent, the second season capitalizes on them to make them memorable. Souma’s talents aren’t the only one being highlighted as characters returning from season one such as Megumi, Ryou, Akira, Hisako, and others get their own moments. Every one of these characters has their own cooking style so seeing them demonstrate what they’ve learned shows their strengths and weaknesses. The season does a decent job at that through colorful explanation of the food making process while injecting humorous moments and details. Don’t worry, if you’re starving for some fan service because of the foodgasm, there’s also that too. As the titular character, Souma is still the face that gets the most highlight. In particular, his personal rivalry against one competitor named Subaru is something to remember. It’s not because of what’s at stake but because of Souma’s willingness to take on the challenge. As I mentioned before, Souma is a daredevil. He likes challenges and often takes them for reasons beyond personal interest. Also do note that Souma isn’t unbeatable and he does take a major loss. However, it’s important that Souma is the type of guy that also learns from his mistakes. Speaking of mistakes, I guess a season condensed into a single just one cour will result in what people call “rushing”. Yes, the first season ran for 2-cour length of 24 episodes while the second season is only about half the length. What does that mean? It basically means material will be skipped to get straight to the main meat of the show. The first few episodes had me worried me a bit especially in the early stages. However, it doesn’t destroy the storytelling altogether if you look carefully. In essence, the condensing is probably done to get the story flowing more or capture the more important elements of the manga. In particular, the second half of the season really gets intense with high level competition. Of course, there are still lots of room for humor and breathers in between. Just know that season 2 is much more about competition. Some of the final few episodes affirms Souma’s motivation to improve himself and we get more background storytelling about his character. Once again, J.C. Staff is responsible for the anime production. The visual quality remains more or less the same as fans may remember. There are occasionally awkward camera angles but in most parts works well. It’s noticeable that with the variety of themes offered during the tournament (bento, seafood, ramen, etc), the staff is able to capture the thrill of that. Fan service seems to be tamer compared to the first season especially in the early episodes but they are still there to make the fans droll. Meanwhile, the soundtrack remains somewhat less noticeable. While the theme songs are quite catchy, it just feels like the OST is overshadowed by other factors of the season. Voice mannerism still works quite well though in terms of delivery. One of the more noticeable character is a woman who speaks in broken Japanese which can be quite amusing to listen to. The gimmick of Shokugeki no Souma has been a clever one. Taking the idea of making food and transforming it into something so colorful is what makes the show special. It’s essentially a satire with characters using their talent to make food better than appear. I’d say, it’s a clever joke and emphasizes more on how characters deliver their talent. The second season offers plenty of moments with these rivalries and moments you’ll have hard time forgetting. We might not appreciate every humorous joke or foodgasm they throw at us. However, it’s still enough to show that Food Wars remains a must-watch on the bucket list.

LegendAqua★ 9

Order up!...AGAIN! Shokugeki no Souma 2nd Plate left off where the first season did with the Autumn Election and it really ramps up the tension for Souma to be in the Elite Ten if winning the tournament. LA's views on the Shokugeki no Souma of the previous season was nothing but awe as to how cool and awesome the anime franchise which is essentially Iron Chef: The Anime with food porn and gasms which makes it weirdly unique to it and 2nd Plate may still have the same flavor (huhu) as the original season, but it both makes it great and falls under the same problems ofthe shounen genre and the original season did. For what a food shounen anime comes in, this season still brings out some form of meaning this tournament and Shokugeki's this Election as well as the Stagaire has as well as make some of the more main cast members with the little screentime they had and ramps them up to be both badass and develop them further. Easy examples are Megumi Todokoro, the shy chef and Akira Hayama, the spice master and surprisingly enough Souma's development as a chef. Before moving onto what's wrong with this season...the technical features. For the animation, the animation is overall decent to the vibrantly flashy character designs as well as the tournament aesthetics, where the animation shines once again goes to the food, making you just drool at looking the gorgeously delicious food (by the way...HAVE FOOD WHILE WATCHING SHOKUGEKI...you'll be hungry if you don't) and is where most of the detail of the animation comes from. The animation overall is decent on par with the original season. The voice acting at best can get overly hammy typical from the first season what with the more heated battles and wacky crazy contestants going against one another and really the voice cast were utterly great and added to the atmosphere be it a heated battle or the characters explaining about the food or how good it tasted due to how it was made, LA just can't put a favourite voice actor as the ENTIRE cast was great!. Now what's really wrong with this season?...well just by looking at the episode count in comparison to the original really says it all, 24 to 12...some of the Shokugeki battles gets rather rushed...to be precise, the tournament battles that are not important to the characters are like this, examples as Takumi Aldini vs. Subaru Mimasaka or Souma vs. Alice Nakiri, sure the "meaning or theme" is still shown, but the rushed portion comes in when these battles' food prep and "how to make" are skimmed over just to finish the battle before the episode ends. Now this comes off as both good and bad as with the season's episode count, they kinda DO want to hurry it along, but bad as feels rushed. Nonetheless, 2nd Plate even with it's rushed zigzag pacing isn't enough for LA to hate this season. The last problem and LA's own personal opinion is that LA knows that Souma gets the most screentime in this season, but LA wanted more of ERINA NAKIRI!!!, small flaw but LA knows why the focus is on Souma. Even the character development's zigzagged pacing gets a pass as even with this huge of a cast and the rushed Shokugeki battles, the combatants are still presented and developed even to the point even Souma's win record turns his character development even better as even he evolves as a character and not your typical "always win main protagonist" type. In terms of character development like Souma's screentime compared to the rest, Souma has the majority of the focus especially when it comes to Souma's battles in the Autumn Election, but he really has the majority of the focus come Stagaire. But for Souma's opponents as well as other contestants going against on another during the Election, they to during their battles brought up their development as a chef or personal developments again easy examples are Megumi. The ending which brought to a finish the Stagaire mini arc, and really LA MUST point out that the Stagaire arc was one of thee best arc in Shokugeki no Souma, as it went more into the realistic look at restaurant and trying to be the better chef using new methods they learned. Ni no Sara by all means with it's strengths and flaws, it was on form, not all the way through but it still had the flavour and intensity of the original season and LA LOVED Ni no Sara for that...what else is there to say but... LA wanted more...LA wants a 3rd Plate for all LA cares...