Food Wars! The Third Plate

Episode 5

It's no secret that I've never been an Erina fan. Up to this point, she's been the snobby antagonist who embodied all of Totsuki's worst attributes as a school. But did you ever stop to wonder what made her that way? I'm not sure I did, but starting now, it looks as if all of those negative characteristics will be revealed to come from an understandable place, and that perhaps they weren't an inherent part of her personality, but behavior she adopted as the result of a childhood scarred by an abusive father.

While the episode opens with the conclusion of the Soma/Kuga battle and the revelation that Kuga was a lot like Soma when he first began Totsuki's high school program (which makes perfect sense come to think of it), the true meat of the episode is in its latter half, when Rindo, the Elite Ten's second seat, swoops down to whisk Megumi and Soma away to the high-class Yamanote area of the festival. Rindo treats them to a meal at first seat Tsukasa's restaurant, where Soma realizes that he has a long way to go yet if he wants to climb to the top. But more importantly, we see that Tsukasa is basically the living embodiment of anxiety; he worries about everything to the point that he won't let anyone else prepare his recipes. While the poor guy clearly needs some anti-anxiety meds and therapy, his apparent fears about the worthiness of others to even carry plated dishes speaks to his role in bringing back the major antagonist of the next arc – Erina's father.

Up to this point, Erina has been obnoxiously self-confident, to the point where her firm belief in her own superiority leads her to dislike upstarts like Soma and exude an unbearable smugness that costs her relationships with her peers. All of that is to obfuscate her hidden fear of being judged inferior by the two people whose opinions matter most to her. The first is Soma's dad, the father figure she wanted. The latter is the father she got, a man so horrible that he was banned from using the Nakiri name and kicked out of the institute. Just his appearance sends Erina receding inside herself, quivering with fear – she barely says anything once he sweeps into her restaurant. Hisako earns major friend points for being the one to stand up to the man when Erina is frozen, and when Soma sweeps in all unknowing, he also manages to both defuse the situation and drive Erina's dad out. As insensitive to situations as Soma can be, I don't think he's totally oblivious to Erina's troubles when he walks in, but even if he truly is, his ability to look past obvious markers of rank and privilege enable him to make Mr. Nakiri sufficiently disgusted enough to change his mind about spending time with his estranged daughter. If anyone's able to continually have Erina's back, it'll be Soma.

And she's going to need the support. The final moments of the episode reveal that Erina has essentially been betrayed by most of the Elite Ten, who deliberately invited her father back to take over the school and “reform” it. What that means isn't yet clear, but it certainly can't be good. Hopefully the six council members who voted for his return aren't aware of who his true identity (although I would put nothing past Eizen), but it's most telling who did not want him back: Erina, Isshiki, and Kuga. Despite his feud with Soma, Kuga stands to be an important ally for him and Erina, and we know that Polaris' favorite underdressed upperclassman has more power than he tends to flaunt.

Even if Erina never becomes likable, she's at least taken more steps toward being understandable. Change is definitely in the air at Totsuki, and even if her evil father stands to do damage to the school, Erina may learn that she doesn't have to remain in his shadow and that she can change for the better.

Rating: B+

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