Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma

Episode 16

Put your minds at ease, people who were with me in being disappointed that the fried chicken arc had been skipped – it's just been rearranged, and next week will bring us that story, which frankly makes me feel better about the rest of the show. And if you think about it, it does make sense to move it to after Joichiro's visit to Soma, given his final words, which are the same in the manga.

This week is one of the more low-key episodes that Food Wars! has had, despite the fact that it covers a cook-off between Soma and his dad. Perhaps this is due to the fact that Soma has nothing at stake here – he's been cooking with his father all his life and competing against him since he was in the sixth grade. This certainly explains why Soma is so competitive in his day-to-day life, but also why the various shokugeki haven't really phased him. His dad, as we learned last week, was the Second Seat during his time in high school, and therefore one of the top chefs to come out of Totsuki. If Soma's used to cooking against him, why should anyone else bother him? Even though Soma wasn't aware of Joichiro's status, he can certainly recognize the difference in skill between his father and the other people he's cooking against, plus his father has been running a very successful restaurant for all of Soma's life, while most of the people who challenge Soma (or whom he challenges) are still students with no practical, real-life experience. Suddenly his attitude makes a lot more sense. (At least to his dorm buddies, who have a new understanding of him.)

The challenge Soma's dad proposes is to make breakfast, and this is further expanded by the dorm head to an invigorating meal suitable for someone who's been up all night. Both Soma and Joichiro immediately begin preparations, but what's most interesting is how easy they are about it all. There's no tension whatsoever – it's really clear that this is something the two of them do all the time. Seeing this camaraderie is not only a nice change of pace in the show, but also just pleasant to watch. They're cooking separately, but also clearly sharing space. It just feels more natural than most of the cooking we've seen. In keeping with the slower pace of the episode, even the foodgasms are toned down, although Tadokoro's “prince” is one of the creepier looking guys I've seen in anime, and certainly up there with the magical cabbage girls for memorability.

On the whole, this episode functions as the kind of respite we don't often have in Food Wars!. It's kind of calm, not filled with anything too extravagant, and it gives us some insight into Soma without explicitly telling us concrete facts. As an added bonus, it lets us see that Joichiro really does care about his son, despite his unceremonious leave-taking back in episode one and subsequent absence from his life. Since we know the next big cooking event is rapidly approaching, it seems likely that Joichiro came to not just check on Soma, but also to give him a boost for that. After all, he didn't just prepare his dish, he explained how and why he did things, thus indirectly offering Soma a lesson; the same can be said for last week when he had his son be his sous-chef. It's a nice little detail that once again is not flat out stated, building both characters in a subtle way. Keeping the cast of characters small this episode also helped to keep things tight and unusually civil for this show. I can't deny that it was a treat not to have people fussing, freaking out, and crowing about their superiority throughout the episode.

Speaking of self-assumed superiority, the idea that Erina either has a crush on Joichiro or idolizes him (or both) is really driven home this week with two separate scenes of her blushing at his picture or assumed presence. Detractors of the character appear to be able to look forward to her getting some sort of come-uppance when she learns who he is; I'm just hoping it'll take her down a peg or two. In any event, we'll have to wait a bit for that, because next week...fried chicken!

Rating: B

Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Rebecca Silverman is ANN's senior manga critic.