Food Wars! The Third Plate

Episode 20

Once again, we appear to be flying through the story at a breakneck pace, presumably so that the final group shoukugeki and the bit that was skipped from the manga can all be fit in. While that does make some sense, it's also a shame, because what tends to get cut out in these instances is the actual cooking. We barely saw any of either Saiba or Dojima's techniques, and only one brief shot each of the kids doing their parts. This is too bad not just because cooking is one of the series' biggest draws in general, but also because the innovations enacted upon the hachis parmentier are so interesting. Team Saiba's near-total change to the dish can barely be guessed at without any sort of information (which we don't get until the tasting), and Dojima's looks at first like a prettier version of a basic food, again leaving us largely in the dark about just how the group is innovating until we're spoon-fed the information. Given a few more cooking scenes, we could have made more inferences on our own, smoothing out the storytelling and hearing about how Megumi has grown as a chef too instead of just Takumi and Erina.

I feel like Megumi is getting more and more sidelined, mostly as a result of Erina's character development. While I would in no way want to see Erina's growth sidetracked, it does seem as if the show should be able to maintain a balance between two different female leads, as it did in earlier seasons when Erina was more of an antagonist. Granted, this may be because this week saw a slight backslide on her part, when after standing up to her father (hooray!) she almost immediately reverted to her less pleasant self, flaunting her god tongue and declaring the rest of her teammates her servants. Joking around or not, this marks a return to her overwhelming superiority complex, which she's picked up from her father. What the Rebels need now to fully stand against Central is a strong united front, and if Erina reverts to her old ways, that's just going to put her at loggerheads with Soma again and throw off the team's balance.

Of course, she could just be riding high on the adrenaline from finally standing up to her abusive dad. Lord knows the man has done nothing to deserve his daughter's love and devotion, and the fact that he assumes that Erina will fight on his team, despite the fact that she clearly disagrees with him, speaks to his exceedingly self-serving nature. (She's the selfish one? I don't think so.) His apparent certainty that his minions are going to wipe the floor with the Rebels certainly makes me want to punch his creepy-eyed face, but more importantly, his excessive punishments for Saiba and Erina speak to his incredible vindictiveness. He may not be showing it outwardly, but Erina's defiance and his history with Saiba are clearly burning a hole in what's left of his heart, and he means to make them pay for it for the rest of their lives. Azami's an emotional toddler, and having broken his own toys, he seeks to place the blame on anyone else he can.

I strongly suspect that next week will go back to what was skipped last week, which feels like a good time to cover that particular piece of information. Whatever happens though, things are getting down to the wire for the Rebels. I can't wait to see them expose Azami as the bullying jerk he is. (Because they will, right? Right?)

Rating: B

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