Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma

Episode 22

It may be just me, but as Food Wars! has gone on, I've found myself sympathizing more and more with Megumi Tadokoro. From the girl who could barely do anything (she thought) without Soma, she has evolved into someone who, although still sadly lacking in the self-confidence department, can still stand on her own two feet. She actually embodies something I've seen a lot from students who arrive at university from small schools – the sudden shocking realization that while she may have been the best in her tiny town, she's now out of the pond and into the ocean, and that means that there will almost always be someone who's better than her. Megumi took this very much to heart at the start of the show, and she's only now beginning to overcome it...and for her just saying, “Um, I'm here too,” is a sign of her slowly rising confidence. (This also makes her relatable to those of us who used to get asked part-way through the school year, “Wait, how long have you been in this class?”)

It's a good thing, really, that Megumi has evolved so much as a character, even if the meat of her background was saved for this and last week, because there has been and continues to be a sad lack of Soma in the show. While the choice to divide the contestants into two groups certainly makes it easier to both cover more people and allow for more range of competition, it also has left us floundering through lengthy stretches without our protagonist and, more importantly, rehashing the same basic scene over and over and over again. Previously it was cooking scenes (and there are only so many ways we can watch someone throw spices into a pot), and now we have tasting-and-judging scenes with the quickly wearing addition of everyone impressive receiving a special nickname from the judges, complete with title card. While the one of Isami in a spaghetti western is pretty great, it appears that no one involved in the show actually knows what “Little Red Riding Hood” is about (it's not hunting, guys), and the others feel very pat. They also don't quite work as replacements for foodgasms, though I do appreciate the attempt to mix things up. Probably the most interesting tasting segment is for Alice's microbiotic dish, which throws all the judges off and looks fascinating, although not particularly mouthwatering. Her continued certainty of her own awesomeness is still a bit grating, mostly because it hasn't been fully explained the way Erina's or Soma's has, but she does contrast well with Megumi this week.

Food Wars! is really running out of episodes in which to come to a real honest-to-goodness conclusion, and given the pace these recent episodes have been maintaining it doesn't seem by any means certain that we'll get to the Soma/Akira face-off next week. While seeing all of the other curries has been interesting, at this point I'm getting impatient to see the hero go up against his big rival. This is definitely a tried-and-true shounen trope, with so many X vs Y chapters where the companions fight the minions before hero and villain go up against each other, so perhaps Food Wars! is simply trying to whet our appetites for an amazing final showdown. Right now I'm hoping that's the case, because this formula for the contest is getting old fast.

Rating: B-

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

Rebecca Silverman is ANN's senior manga critic.