Food Wars! The Third Plate

Episode 23

It's always the quiet ones you have to look out for, or in this case, the mild-mannered ones who seem like they wouldn't hurt a fly. Of course, we've known that Isshiki is more of a behind-the-scenes kind of guy for quite some time, but to his opponent Juria, he's just the loser weirdo who defied Central and sided with a bunch of plebian cooks, giving up all of his power in what he perceives to have been a losing move. Like many of Azami's flunkeys, Juria can't comprehend that someone might have non-power-based reasons for doing something, or that someone might be more than they at first appear. (And failing that, you'd think the whole “former seventh seat” thing might have clued him in.) All of this sets the stage for Isshiki to wipe the floor with Juria in their eel battle, and that's precisely what he does.

Largely this is because for once in the series, Isshiki is deadly serious about what he's doing. I don't doubt that he'd have won regardless, because he's very well prepared for his recipe with special ingredients that speak of forethought. That those ingredients are all the products of Polaris isn't a surprise: Isshiki is devoted to the dorm and his friends there, and he's also a very canny guy and knows that the best way to prove Polaris' value is to get a valued judge to back him up. Whether or not he's found out that the judges will be from the World Gourmet Organization before they come trooping in is almost immaterial; he knows that whoever Azami gets, it will be someone powerful because it will add merit to his schemes if he gets such people on his side. Two can play at that game, and Isshiki put on his thinking cap along with his clothes for this event.

I was concerned at first that the WGO judges would not be as impartial as necessary, and that may still prove to be the case – the first judge Soma interacts with, Anne, is condescending to him when she realizes that his family diner isn't in her gourmet books. That smacks of the disdainful attitudes of other petty people Soma has encountered before, and while he's largely won them all over, at this juncture he really doesn't need more people lined up against him before he's even begun. On the other hand, he may relish the haughty attitudes he's facing – his approach to soba seems calculated not only to pull one of his signature weird turnarounds, but also produce the maximum annoyance in his opponent. Nene is so firmly entrenched in her idea of proper soba that she's upset simply by the idea that Soma's creating some sort of weird “instant” yakisoba dish; in her mind, he's not taking the challenge, the food, or her family history seriously.

That, as it turns out, is a major button for Nene. She and Isshiki have known each other since they were four years old, when he came to foster/train at her family's home. From the start, Isshiki never appeared to be serious about anything (although he was better at keeping his clothes on), and much to Nene's annoyance, he was good at everything without actually trying. That he could surpass her almost immediately was bad enough, but that he didn't care that he was so good at them when she was trying so hard cemented him as a rival in her mind. Beating Soma, a close confederate of Isshiki, is a major step towards proving that seriousness is a virtue and a mark of her superiority over him. That Soma likewise appears to be taking the competition and her family's signature food so cavalierly stands to make her not just irritated, but actually angry. That could be part of Soma's plan, because an angry person is more likely to make mistakes than a calm one, but it feels more likely that he's just needling her in his efforts to show that snobbery doesn't actually matter when it comes to good food.

We'll find out next week how that works out for them. Presumably Soma will come out on top, but I've learned not to make assumptions like that. Time to just wait and see.

Rating: B+

Food Wars! The Third Plate is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.