Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma

Episode 6

Sometimes the build-up is as good as a solid plot would be. Not that this episode of Food Wars! doesn't have a plot, but it's clear that it's really more of a building block to the next one, where Soma will enter his first official shokugeki on behalf of the Don Research Society. A “don” is a rice bowl dish featuring various ingredients on top of hot rice, and it's a staple of traditional Japanese fast food (in the sense that it doesn't take much time to prepare or eat rather than in the junk food sense), so naturally Erina doesn't think it worthy of Totsuki. Thus the Don RS is the next target of her snobbery, and this time she's sent her henchman Mito Ikumi, AKA Nikumi, to take down the object of her ire. Nikumi comes from a family of basically high-class butchers, and she's known at school as “the meat master.” She's totally confident that her pricey cuts of meat will win her the shokugeki, which enrages Soma, who just happens to be visiting the club when she waltzes in. He offers to take her on on behalf of the Don RS and what's more, he'll beat her with the stuff real donburi are made of: reasonably priced ingredients.

That's pretty much all the plot we get, with the first part of the episode focusing on the vegetable garden the Polar Star students maintain (and wow, do I want strawberries now!) while the final third shows Soma testing out new recipes. Neither of those parts make for particularly exciting viewing, but they do make for a nice break in the otherwise frantically competitive world of the series, with the cooking segment being very interesting despite the fact that we're really just watching Soma cook slabs of beef in different ways with little to no dialogue. The veggie garden is what brings this down to a B+, really, because while the food is beautiful, you could have roughly the same experience walking down the aisle of your local farmer supply company or big box store.

Nikumi feels like a worthy antagonist, although she doesn't have that love-to-hate quality that makes Erina such a perfect bad guy. Deliberately fanservicey in her design, she's brash and abrasive, hiding nothing about herself behind pretty manners, and that quality not only makes her stand out from the other female characters but also makes us look forward to Soma bringing her down next week, although not in a malicious way. I'm really enjoying the forthright voice given to her by Shizuka Ishigami (who also plays Syr in this season's Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?), and overall she projects an air of confidence. Unfortunately the animation tends to show this through her boobs, focusing not just on her cocky body language but more on the fact that she wears a bikini top under her school shirt (1980s style) and that her straight back pushes them forward. In the animators' defense, they at least don't move randomly on their own; every bounce goes with a step she's taking. I just wish that they'd learn how breasts attach to the female body, because once again we have shot where it looks like they're part of her clothing and just in the (mostly) right place because she's wearing that top.

It looks as if next week is going to be the big showdown, and while those of us who have read the manga know what the outcome will be – and given the fidelity to the source material the show has exhibited so far, I think we can safely assume that that won't change – having this build-up episode has made it exciting nonetheless. Nikumi is a fun villain and many of us know the value of a good, quick meal, so watching her learn it will be satisfying. Soma (and generations of brisket recipes) have proven that meat doesn't need to be expensive to be delicious, and that combined with the fact that Food Wars! has shown us that a show doesn't have to be perfect to be fun makes it look like next week is going to be worth waiting for.

Rating: B+

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

Rebecca Silverman is ANN's senior manga critic.