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Review

by Rebecca Silverman,

Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma

GN 18

Synopsis:
Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma GN 18
Soma's shoukugeki against Central's Eizan comes to its conclusion over the fate of Polaris Dorm, where Erina Nakiri is currently hiding out from her father. As it happens, however, Azami Nakiri knows full well where his daughter is staying, and in the wake of the shoukugeki, he comes to see her. This brings about a revelation about Soma that neither Nakiri saw coming, but how will it affect Erina's view of Soma and her father's vendetta against the school? One thing's for sure – Soma's challenge to Central has started a wave of protest against Azami's new administration. Now the only question is whether the students can really fight back.
Review:

There is rarely a dull moment in Yūto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki's Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma manga, and while there's a small breather between storylines of this volume, the action is as intense as ever despite the climbing volume numbers. This eighteenth book picks up with the remainder of Soma's shoukugeki against Central (the newly renamed Council of Ten)'s Eizan. The stakes are Polaris Dorm, which Azami Nakiri, Erina's estranged (and disowned) father wants destroyed, emotionally if not physically. Unable to stand the categorical unfairness of Azami's approach – or the blatant rigging of the shoukugeki system – Soma has brought not only his characteristic determination to the kitchen, but also the moral high ground. While it might not work in real life, in shounen manga, this is enough to help save the day, but more importantly to make a statement: not all of the students will be easily cowed, defeated, or otherwise ignored. If Azami wants a revolution, he's going to have to deal with a rebellion first.

It's particularly interesting that this is the case because of the generally toxic atmosphere that Totsuki has shown as a school since volume one. In part this was due to Erina's own elitism, but she's really only the character we saw enacting it the most; it's endemic to the school. Now that we're coming to understand Erina better, it's fascinating to see the new “bad guys” displaying the same exact attitude that she used to, but without any of the sympathy she was shown with. For every horrible act or statement Erina made, we'd see a moment of her being kind to Arato or an emotional weakness. With the new Central members, however, there's none of that: they simply scream their own superiority to the skies while putting everyone else down as lesser. Presumably this is intended to show that something got corrupted along the way with Totsuki under its previous dean, but the system was meant to foster healthy competition rather than emotional bloodbaths. Under Azami, it's win or die. While I have difficulty seeing how the shoukugeki system and the general attitude of Totsuki was intended to do good (it's contradictory to everything I learned about education), it's clear that Azami's model is far worse and that his reasons behind the change are twisted.

They're also caught up in his past at the school, which will doubtless prove to be increasingly important as we learn more about it. We do know that he was a year behind Soma's dad and knew him – but didn't know that he had a son presently attending Totsuki. He's visibly shocked to learn Soma's parentage, as is Erina, but their different reactions say a lot about the characters: Azami twists the knowledge to suit his purposes with proclamations of “destiny” while Erina is forced to rethink her entire opinion of and reaction to Soma. Although she may not truly realize (yet) that how she treated him was wrong on a personal level and not just as the son of her idol, she is coming to see that her father's “teaching” left her with a warped and unpleasant view of the world. Her friendship with Arato, who is becoming an increasingly good character, definitely helps with that, but living at Polaris has perhaps made the biggest contribution to her change. As she interacts with the different people living there and sees the way that they work together, she begins to realize that her elitist worldview may not be entirely correct. This is backed up by Soma's ingredients in the shoukugeki, and even in the fact that the revered former Second Seat, Soma's dad, grew up to run a family restaurant, the type of establishment nearly everyone Soma (and the Aldini brothers) goes up against looks down upon. Food, the story is beginning to suggest, doesn't need to fit some static definition of “gourmet” in order to be worthwhile, and I hope that's a message that continues to be thematically important.

From the Stagiere Arc, we've started to really see some of the characters evolve, with Erina, Takumi, and Arato at the forefront. All three continue to outgrow their earlier roles, and while it's a little sad not to see as much of Takumi's one-sided shounen face-off with Soma, his new part as an important ally is much more rewarding. As a series, Food Wars! continues to be difficult to put down, mixing sumptuous foods with themes of fairness and tense battles. Some series start to lose their steam by the time they get into the double-digits, but this one is still going strong, and with the promise of more revelations about Azami's past with Joichiro and Erina's hopeful rebellion against her evil-looking dad, to say nothing of Alice and Ryo's latest move against Azami, it doesn't look like things will be slowing down any time soon.

Grade:
Overall : A-
Story : A-
Art : A-

+ Story continues to move at a rapid clip, art is dynamic and lightens up on unnecessary fanservice, Azami makes an excellent bad guy, good character development for Erina, Takumi, and Arato
Doesn't succeed in making the school look good pre-Azami, Isshiki's plotline feels underdeveloped

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Production Info:
Story: Yūto Tsukuda
Art: Shun Saeki
Licensed by: Viz Media

Full encyclopedia details about
Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma (manga)

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Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma (GN 17)

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