Food Wars! (Shokugeki no Soma) - General Discussion

[Lantern7]

This is the latest anime to air on Toonami. From what I gather, kid seeks out his dreams of being the ultimate chef, attending a school where at least 90 percent of the student body will look down upon him because his background is pretty humble. That's the vibe I got from the teaser, and it looks interesting, even though we've been walking that path with Black Clover. Only this time, we have two things that are pretty unique: food and people orgasming from eating said food.

I tend to make up dialogue because I think it's funny. This time, it's at the end of the first episode with Sora and his father Joichiro.

Sora: (anger vein popping) What do you mean you're closing the restaurant?!?

Joichiro: I got an offer I can't refuse, and you need to go on your hero's journey.

Sora: Do you know what happened while you were gone?

Joichiro: I supposed you'll tell me.

Sora: Right. You know that bitch that wants to buy our place and tear it down? Well, she came by last night wanting a meal. The problem was her henchmen basically destroyed most of the stuff in the kitchen.

Joichiro: And you had run your mouth about how we'd close up if we couldn't satisfy any customer.

Sora: Right. It's a pride thing, even though I didn't put it in writing, let alone bring in a notary. Anyway, I MacGyvered up a dish that was basically potatoes mashed into the shape of a roast, wrapped in bacon.

Joichiro: Interesting. Sounds a lot better than that whole "peanut butter squid" fiasco. What kind of impression are we trying to give the audience if we have a hentai-like scene right off the bat? So then what happened?

Sora: She came. Hard. So hard. So did her henchmen. And I persuaded her to leave us alone

Joichiro: Are we talking fantasy foodgasm, or was it the real thing?

Sora: We had image spots of the lady's clothes bursting off her body from sheer ecstasy . . . but I think I ruined the guys' pants.

Joichiro: Wait, so the crap smeared on our sign-?

Sora: NO! But the lady walked right up to me, whispered in my ear to call her any time, licked my ear, and then shoved a business card down my pants. I basically have a grown-ass woman as my slave, as long as I cook for her first.

Joichiro: Damn.

Sora: So after all of that . . . ALL. OF. THAT. . . you're telling me we're shutting down for a few years? After what I did to protect the damn place? Why the hell should I let you walk off?

Joichiro: So that you can go off and have adventures in a culinary school where you'd be an underdog.

Sora: (facepalm) Shit. You're right.

Joichiro: On the bright side, I'm not an anime dad that abandoned his kid! Okay, now we gotta see an imagine spot where our female lead gets conked in the head by a jukebox as she meditates underneath a waterfall.

ETA: I figured that putting in the Japanese title first was better, but I guess that could be a pain if you're doing searches.

Edited July 14, 2019 by Lantern7

[Terrafamilia]

It's food porn and fanservice. I'm assuming they had some sort of culinary advisor on call for the manga to supply credible awesome dishes for the series.

[Sandman87]

I hope the barrage of shonen anime cliches will let up soon so the story can become more interesting.

On 7/14/2019 at 12:58 PM, Terrafamilia said:

I'm assuming they had some sort of culinary advisor on call for the manga to supply credible awesome dishes for the series.

The mangaka who created it collaborated with a celebrity chef named Yuki Morisaki.

[lathspel]

This is way over the top, I’m curious if it will settle down a bit as well.

[Lantern7]

I'm having fun so far. Soma is the Golden Child, a boy from a humble diner whose raw talent overcomes his lack of status. It also helps that merely tasting his food sends people into epic scenes of foodgasming. And he's a rookie compared to his father. That guy's food is so good, it causes a religious man to prematurely break his fast, even diving over restaurant patrons buck-ass naked.

Yeah, Soma's entrance is basicall Asta/Midoriya, where everyone looks down on him. And the high status girl (she's 15, so that makes her foodgasm a little unseemly) has the "God Tongue," so Soma's victory makes things sweeter. Well, until she breaks through her emotions and fails him. I'm guessing the old man in the stinger is her father, and he gets Soma enrolled.

Funny that everybody but Soma wussed out on taking the exam. You'd think a few of them would be humiliated.

Aide: Okay, she has graded all of your performances. Basically, every single one of you failed. I didn't want to get your hopes up. Yadda yadda yadda, you will be shot if you ever step near this institute. And each of you might reach peak status, but your failure today will haunt each of you until the day you die. And possibly beyond. [pregnant pause] Here are the comments she wrote for each of you. [hands out papers]

Applicant A: [reading out loud] "Your dish was basically a pleasant day in the wilderness, until I was devoured by a hippopotamus. Basically, you don't think that they can be vicious, but they can be . . . and eating your food felt like getting torn apart." Well, damn, that is harsh.

Applicant B: "Like getting attacked by a perverse octopus, only it has sixteen limbs, and it is really reluctant to violate me." Jeez, this girl's got issues.

Applicant C : Yeah, she's like that. Rumor is that her first words was criticizing her mother's breast milk. [looking at the sheet] She just wrote "FUCK YOU" over and over.

Applicant D : She just drew a picture of herself bent over my face.

Applicant B: How detailed is it?

Applicant D : Just stick figures.

Applicant B: I like stuff like that. Wanna trade papers?

Edited July 23, 2019 by Lantern7

[Matt K]

I kind of love this show.  It's a down to earth show that also completely over the top.  I also like how low stakes this is.  No bad guys to fight, just delicious food to cook.

[Lantern7]

54 minutes ago, Matt K said:

I kind of love this show.  It's a down to earth show that also completely over the top.  I also like how low stakes this is.  No bad guys to fight, just delicious food to cook.

The stakes are low now. Given how prestigious this school is, and that most of the student look down upon Sora, I'm thinking things will ramp up over time.

I'm guessing the girl we met this week will be in the main cast and speculated as a love interest. I know her panicking can come off as annoying, but when you're taking a test where you need an "A" to stay enrolled, and two fuckers sabotaged your dish because they want to break the new kid you've been trying to avoid . . . yeah, you'd be panicky as well.

Oh, and I didn't make a "stakes"/"stakes" joke. You're welcome. 😜

[Terrafamilia]

This week, Soma gets ahead with his honey-massaged meat. Wait, what now!?!

I would have been looking for a pressure cooker (But hey, this whole school is a pressure cooker! [rim shot])

[lathspel]

I hope they show Megumi’s southern-fried friend from home again.  Is the North of Japan really that rustic?

I’m hoping these cooking tips are real because I want to try them!

[Sandman87]

A person could make this episode sound really, really dirty. Meat rubbing! Honey! Too salty! And so on.

6 hours ago, Terrafamilia said:

I would have been looking for a pressure cooker

That's exactly what I was thinking while watching it.

2 hours ago, lathspel said:

Is the North of Japan really that rustic?

Northeast, but yeah. Pretty rustic.

[Vermicious Knid]

Did someone sit down and think "How can I make food as ecchi as possible?"

[Terrafamilia]

Back at the True Cross Academy of cooking schools even the dorms have entrance exams. Soma finds out that his dorm-mates are your usual assortment of quirky characters and includes the nearly flunking out gal he met in French class. Right on schedule they manage to see each other naked. Speaking of naked, another dorm-mate turns out to be a nudist. He also lives in the attic where he can peak in on other dorm rooms whenever he likes. He's also the number 7 seat on the dreaded and absurdly powerful Council of Ten.

Lest you think that watching sexy hi-jinks of high school students would make you a pervy pedo, worry not, these kids are generally drawn as older than they are just like twenty-something and even thirty-something actors are cast in teen dramas on the CW.

[lathspel]

So many meat puns - that was tough. 

[Lantern7]

Latest episode in eight words: "I got a funny feeling in my underwear." Goodness, the fan service was off the charts, what with all of the meat and foodgasms. Naturally, Soma defeats Meat-Meat to save the Rice Bowl Club (or whatever) . . .  but he doesn't wind up joining them. Meanwhile, Ms. God Tongue scowls in her private box, still offended (like most of the students outside of the Polaris dorm) by Soma's presence.

[swanpride]

So...I take it the show is now airing somewhere in the US week by week?

The first two seasons are on Netflix over here (and I am tempted to join Crunchy roll just to watch the other two, but I guess they will eventually drop on Netflix, too).

So I am ahead and I will try not to spoil anything, but I love the show. I was initially taken aback by the "interpretations" of the taste orgasm, but the way they portray the reactions is getting funnier and funnier. Plus, what they explain about cooking along the way is pretty interesting. And I like the characters (though I can't really explain yet without spoiling anything).

At one point I have to try what Soma did for the Donburi Shokugeki. It doesn't sound that difficult to do.

[Lantern7]

40 minutes ago, swanpride said:

So...I take it the show is now airing somewhere in the US week by week?

Saturday nights at 1 a.m. on Adult Swim’s Toonami block.

[lathspel]

I like that the sexy food daydreams have consistently involved weird hats recently - a guy in a duck hat, and later a merman in a rice cracker hat.

Megumi also received some compliments for her work, that was nice to see. 

[swanpride]

So has the show reached the training camp already?

[Lantern7]

On 9/6/2019 at 3:28 AM, swanpride said:

So has the show reached the training camp already?

Yep. The last episode that aired finished on Soma heading to the hot spring (or whatever), only to run smack into Ms. God Tongue. I don't think she'll take that well.

[swanpride]

Bathing area.

I have to say, their first task is still one of my favourite in the show, even though I think that having to catch a fish while under pressure is extremely risky. The area has to be extremely well stocked.

[lathspel]

Forgot to mention that I appreciated Mito’s bikini salute to Gurren Lagann, if that’s what it was intended as.

[swanpride]

Honestly, the scene in the bath makes me laugh every time...especially the memories of Isshiki "helping" with the gymnastic. He is the best, isn't he?  

[Lantern7]

On 9/8/2019 at 2:19 AM, swanpride said:

I have to say, their first task is still one of my favourite in the show, even though I think that having to catch a fish while under pressure is extremely risky. The area has to be extremely well stocked.

Meanwhile, Blonde Italian Cook Soma Takumi and his twin brother Isami bagged a duck. I can imagine the other students' reactions. "Wow, I was so stressed on failing and getting expelled, it did not occur to me to find a bird, strangle it, and prep it for cooking."

As for Actual Soma . . . looks like he's going to fight for Megumi against a dickhead judge. In my head, anytime shit comes to a head, someone should just say "One, Two, Three, Four, I declare a Food War." Meh . . . probably doesn't rhyme in Japanese.

ETA: Looked up the anime's Crowning Moments of Funny page on TVTropes. Hence the name corrections.

Edited September 14, 2019 by Lantern7

[swanpride]

If everyone got a similar task, I am ready to bet that Yuki went for the ducks (or any other wild-life) too. I can just see everyone grabbing a fishing line and she being all "okay, where is the next best thing I can butcher?"

[Vermicious Knid]

None of these chefs are actually teaching anything, have you noticed? It's been telling them to follow a recipe, or 'here's a bunch of ingredients, make something'. Pretty lousy for an academy.

I think there's more nudity in this show than some hentai.

[swanpride]

Well, at this point the students have already been schooled in cooking all through middle school, so I don't mind that that "camp" is more a test of their abilities by throwing them into situations in which they either adapt (and hence learn from the experience) or fail.

But I agree, it would be interesting if the show had a little bit more in terms of simple lesson. I guess that would be too boring, though….

[Matt K]

I like that we're getting more of a spotlight on Megumi.  I was starting to wonder why she's around since she was basically Soma's Sous Chef.  But between everyone loving her 50 meal dinner, and this food wars it's nice to see that she belongs there.

[swanpride]

Nah, Megumi is simply insecure. Her talent is to make meals which feel homely and make people happy.

Plus, it was really unfair to not acknowledge her making the best of the situation in the first place. Honestly, the argument that you have to be "fast" is a bunch of nonsense anyway, because there is a lot of luck involved in this. Those who went to the right table first were automatically in advantage, no matter how fast or slow they were.

[lathspel]

Summer Vacation episode.

I’m glad Megumi got to go back home to the redneck country of North Japan or wherever she’s from.  I forgot she was a country girl. 
Meanwhile, Isami is literally half of himself.  
“There’s going to be some vicious cooking ahead”, followed by a cooking montage.  I like that this ep was basically character building. 

[swanpride]

Now that we are past the summer camp, what do you think are the best tasks they had to fulfil? I liked the first one the best. I mean, the one with the breakfast was also interesting, but made little sense. So there are still 628 students left at the end of the camp, meaning all of them have served at least 200 egg dishes (and we know that Irina and Alice served much more). So we are talking about at least 12.500 dishes which were served in this task. How many people did they invite so that there were enough people there to even eat that much? I mean, I enjoy a long breakfast in a hotel, but I would most likely be full just from Irina's dish alone. Maybe another light one (in a way Megumi lucked out with her pick, because she went for something small and light).

[Lantern7]

Checking to see who else is watching. Latest episode shown on Toonami featured some hardcore foodgasm sequences. It's always a treat to see how far those can go.

[swanpride]

How far along is Toonami now? I have always a hard time to comment, because I don't want to spoil anything, and I have watched every episode which has been released so far.

[Lantern7]

12 minutes ago, swanpride said:

How far along is Toonami now? I have always a hard time to comment, because I don't want to spoil anything, and I have watched every episode which has been released so far.

The next episode title is “THE WARRIORS' BANQUET,” if that helps. Basically, we’re in Block A, and the judges have to excuse themselves between tastings because their underwear keeps catching fire.

[swanpride]

lol....like that part of the show, because it allows everyone to pull out their special abilities.

[lathspel]

“Shut up, you minor characters!”

Also - thank goodness we got a flashback to the Northern Japan rednecks.  

[Lantern7]

Second season started last week with a Bento Box challenge.

Most of the time, when someone tastes the food prepared by a pro chef or a student, a really sexual orgasm is the result. Question: if a chef preps a dish, eats it and has a foodgasm . . . would that be considered masturbation?

[swanpride]

Lol....

The Bento box challenge is one of my favourite.

[Terrafamilia]

Megumi and Ryō face off, manifest their stands and do battle! Wait, isn't that a different show?!

[lathspel]

On 1/26/2020 at 4:12 PM, Terrafamilia said:

Megumi and Ryō face off, manifest their stands and do battle! Wait, isn't that a different show?!

I had the exact same thought.  Megumi’s Stand looked like something from the season of JoJo where they used “Walk Like An Egyptian”.

[swanpride]

I don't mind the battle itself, it's fun, but the way megumi is drawn during it is just weird.

[Lantern7]

On 1/31/2020 at 10:38 PM, lathspel said:

I had the exact same thought.  Megumi’s Stand looked like something from the season of JoJo where they used “Walk Like An Egyptian”.

No, I thought the "Stand" looked like a feminine version of Gold Experience from Golden Wind.

ETA: I half-watched tonight's episode. Gotta love when a turtle get sacrificed and drained of blood to the delight of a packed arena. Uggggghh. Poor thing.

Edited February 2, 2020 by Lantern7

[lathspel]

It was weird that the hamburger they illustrated at the beginning had actual ham on it.

I thought I was really going to like Mimasaka, at least until he stick his gum on Takumi’s mezzaluna.  

[swanpride]

The Hamburger task was honestly weird. Especially Akira's reminded me way, way more of a Döner Kebab than an actual Hamburger. Interpreting a Hamburger as "some sort of meat between bread" is a way too broad interpretation for my taste.

[Terrafamilia]

What in the name of pork is going on here? Heh. 😋

Honeycomb? Riiiiight. Tripe by any other name is still blech.

ETA: Honeycomb is a type of beef tripe

Edited February 23, 2020 by Terrafamilia

[Vermicious Knid]

Argh, my DVR didn't pick it up because they changed the name for the 2nd season. I hate being forced to watch the commercials on demand.

[swanpride]

Tripe? So they just showed Ryo vs Akira?

[Scott]

13 hours ago, Vermicious Knid said:

Argh, my DVR didn't pick it up because they changed the name for the 2nd season. I hate being forced to watch the commercials on demand.

Same problem here.  Just glad I caught it after only one week.

12 hours ago, swanpride said:

Tripe? So they just showed Ryo vs Akira?

The end of Soma vs. Subaru, with my new favorite line, "an amusement park of delicious meat glory".

[swanpride]

Oh, right, how could I forget that one? One of my favourite episodes. I honestly want to eat a stew like this one day....

[Vermicious Knid]

Not stew, but beef tripe is usually on dim sum carts. Along with chicken feet! I can't bring myself to try either.

[swanpride]

Why not? If they sell it, there must be enough people who like it....