

Sometimes, it’s not just about being the best. Furthermore, the season makes us care more about what’s really at stake. Characters that we don’t know too much about such as Nene and Azami gets their own background stories. It explores their past and almost feel like a character study. On the other hand, this season puts more value into the characters. It’s too bad really since I was looking forward to some of the more hyped Shokugeki battles. With only 12 episodes, it soon became obvious that the season isn’t enough to cover everything.

To do that, the season chronicles the rivalries between the Polar Star students (aka rebels) against the Elite 10. For Souma and his friends, they want to prove to the world what cooking really means. It’s about standing up against Azami, someone who holds the academy under an iron fist. However, the main conflict in the series isn’t just about winning or losing. And once again, it’s not hard to see how Souma positively influences Akira.

This season pits the two against each other once more in a match to see who the better man is. If you remember from the previous seasons, the two went head to head in a previous Shokugeki that ended up with Akira taking the victory. He proves this by going up against one of his archrivals, Akira Hayama. Watching this season also made me realize that Souma is also improving a lot since the previous seasons. On the other hand, I’m not too pleased that some major characters got put on the sidelines to focus on her. It actually changed my impression on her as well as she values characters more than just their cooking. She has changed and is now much easier to make friends with. However, this season shows Erina in a different light. She debuted in the show with a huge ego and a dogmatic attitude. That is to say though, I’m not a big fan of Erina. Thanks to Souma, Erina regains her confidence and plays an invaluable role for the Polar Star residents. The season explores her character as we see how Souma can positively influence her as he did to others. However, Erina is now in a conflict on whether she truly wants to cook. We already know that Erina has defected from her Father’s clutches and allied herself with Souma. That’s pretty much a general idea of this season as the Polar Star residents face off against the Elite 10, a group of students who are considered the best of culinary arts at Totsuki Culinary Academy. If you want to beat the best, you have to be the best. What started as an experience of food ecstasy is now more about who is the best. Let’s face it…the anime at this point has lost some steam since the previous seasons. At some point, I’d think Shokugeki no Souma (Food Wars) needed a break from its run.
