Shokugeki no Souma

The first 263 Chapters of Shokugeki no Soma are a phenomenal remix of the shonen battle manga structure. Throughout the course of the story, authors Tsukuda and Morisaki managed to form a stimulating web of characters and battles that had me both invested and interested. The system of the Shokugeki itself is a stroke of genius. It combines the idea of the Shonen battle and tournament arc into a structure of food and delectable description. Every battle takes the time to delve deeply into how the dish functions and how that contrasts with their opponent’s actions. What really makes that structure work is the web of archetypical yet charming characters that act as the fun supporting cast. Soma himself is also surprisingly interesting in his own right and gets a great deal of subtle growth throughout the series. Seeing him take on challenge after challenge, we always have a feeling of his strength as a cook.

Beyond just the story, the artwork is strong and does a great work of supporting the narrative and food explanations. Some of the shokugeki’s do tend to get a little bloated with dialogue and explanations, but I feel that is necessary considering the form and context. Overall, I feel that Shokugeki no Soma does a great job of creating a dynamic action oriented shonen story about food. At least for the first 263 chapters…

After Chapter 263, the manga moves into a new story arc that takes place 4 months later. After this point, the pacing takes a massive nosedive. The balanced writing present in the shokugeki matches is completely gone, replaced with a breakneck speed that lacks all of the nuance present earlier. By this point, I had lost all feeling of scale in terms of how the characters stood up to one another. Along with this, all of the characters grew largely out of character. Erina and Soma were the worst examples of this. The former regressed considerably in order to try and give the story momentum. The latter grew into a caricature of himself due to a lack of insight into his thoughts. What was once a passionate and energetic chef turned into a Messiah who could save us all from ourselves. Along with this, many side characters kept unnecessarily popping up, achieving little with their time on screen.

The whole thing felt like Food Wars fanfiction. The new villain is probably the worst example of it. A few of the characters had already shown off vaguely supernatural powers in the past, but this new villain takes it to a whole new level. It completely shatters any tangibility this story had. It may have worked better if it was doubled in length, but even then, the problems are still very apparent. It comes off nearly as bad as Psycho-Pass 2 or even Steins;Gate 0. It single handedly reduced my score for the series from a 9 to a 7.

That being said, everything after chapter 263 doesn’t actually need to be read. It leaves the series with a few lose ends, but I would very much recommend stopping there. Because of that fact, my score didn’t actually lower as much as it actually deserved. Still, being able to skip that ending doesn’t change the fact that it makes the story as a whole deeply flawed. Shokugeki no Soma was a powerful and well written shonen battle manga till it fell apart with its final arc. A massive shame, though still an interesting read in the end. I would highly recommend reading everything up to chapter 263.

At first glance, it sounds like your standard shounen manga formula, doesn't it? A few chapters in, it certainly does affirm that sentiment.

What formula do you speak of, you ask ? Overpowered main character ; fights someone better -- loses initially or is faced with a seemingly insurmountable challenge --> actual battle, wins through a trump card or sheer will or something naive.

Shokugeki no Soma - however, thoroughly shocked and impressed me.
First things first, the art is amazing. Nuff' said. No complaints from me. I'm not a fan of ecchi - but the way it combines with food and writing - it does it in a way that doesn't aim to 'turn one On'. However from what I've read so far, it's more to describe a feeling - and also for Comedic effect. If you view it that way, the Ecchi in this manga doesn't really disturb me. Further, the fact that practically Black lines and white spaces can 'color' and 'flavor' food to this extent is impressive ! The detail put in is amazing, the art really does complement the lengthy and difficult explanations - making it 'palatable'.

Moving on, in the Story aspect of this manga. Truly the progression is amazing, with each new phase (i.e from the small entrance exam to the Autumn Elections) appearing grander and even more challenging. WAIT ! Now, you might be saying, this is the same with many other shounen manga, be it the Action genre such as Bleach OR the Cooking genre such as Bartender or Yakitate Japan! or even Nobunaga no Chef or Dungeon Meshi etc. Now now, hear me out! What made this manga stand out - is the fact that each new phase while fulfilling the standard progression of the mangas within it's genre, it does it smoothly while balancing each other with new unique characters, or interesting quirks and settings. At times the scenes are absolutely crazy (ie. the Finals of the Autumn Election) to simpler settings (i.e. the No Contest in the Classroom). However, at each Shokugeki - the attention to detail, in dialogue, explanations and characters are incredibly captivating and amusing. Also, I haven't found any fillers (or at least nothing seemed like something trashy like a Filler to me).

This leads me to the crux of my Perfect score. Honestly in the words of Chapelle-sensei early on in this manga, "I would give this a higher score if I could". The crux is the Characters. Each of them are Unique. There's no such thing as a cookie cutter characters in this manga, save the extras in the background. From the teachers, to the judges to obviously the chefs. Each and everyone of them not only are provided with clothing that set them apart from each other, they are given backstories and histories, from brief to complex. Speaking about the Chefs, it continues to impress me 170+ chapters in- that the mangaka and team are able to continuously innovate and enhance them. Giving them proper 'Development' - through each phase of the manga, we can see of course Souma's growth. But we also see Ibusaki, Takuni, Aldini, Nakiri(s), Hayama etc's immense growth. Borne from their interactions with Souma but also spurred on by their losses with other chefs through the Shokugekis. The reader is able to see them mature at a reasonable pace - making them believable. What's more - what sets this manga apart is it's Subjectivity.

The main element of the Shokugeki is - food. There is certainly no Objective way of evaluating a person's cooking skills. Compared to other mangas where the hero has a observable and measureable way of seeing the fighting prowess or overpowered strength or immeasurable intelligence etc. In this manga, the characters ARE ALL CRAZY STRONG. But it's so hard to measure their skill. Plus, the story really doesn't give in to Predictability. The MC can Lose! Geniuses can triumph and lose too. That means, every phase will keep you on the edge of your seat.
What's more - these characters are Equally as Important as the main character. Not only can they hold their own as Stars - but they also make the main character better. Each with their own skills and ability to impress and entice the reader to rooting for them.

All in all, there is a good balance of comedy and seriousness. The main character is 'human'. He's not someone gifted or especially talented. It's interesting to see a MC that not only Struggles and Fails. But also one that COMBINES the past failures, trials and errors and struggles to improves himself.

This manga is a work of art that does not cut corners and is worthy of reading. Thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish.

Shokugeki no Souma has a brilliant concept.
Its strengts lay within the Charakters and their unique personalities and goals.
I enjoyed reading it, until the ''régiment de cuisine'' Arc ended.

Afterwards it suffered from a illness, which can be known as the ''Bleach-Syndrome''.
If you read the last 100 or so chapters it leaves way too much to be desired.

Many of the Charakters are more or less thrown out of the picture and you don't really see them any more (though that too happened after the ''autumn Election'' Arc to a degree).
The developement of the Main Charakters is mostly ignored just to press in new things. There is a try to build up a new Villian for a new big Showdown, but he is written so poorly you start missing even the badly written Charakters of the Tokyo Ghoul Anime.
There are no words for my dissapointment in the ending of this otherwise good Manga.
Either the author wanted the Manga to End or he just didn't know how to continue and made this mess of an Arc.
Every bit of foreshadowed realtionship or events between Charakters is just gone (no Romance, no new Friendships, no Trio between Yukihira, Sadatsuka Nao and Kobayashi Rindo (which I wanted to have), no fitting Shokugeki to solve the Rivalry of Takumi and Yukihira, no threeway battle with Hayama and Kurokiba.) All of this considered the Manga left many things to be desired.

I highly recomend stopping after the ''régiment de cuisine'' Arc and only continuing with Fan made Doujinshi or Fan-Fictions in generell.

I only rate what was before that bad ending, thats why it gets a 9/10, otherwise it would have gone down to a 4or5/10.

This is the first time I've bothered to write a review, but I think I'll try to make a habit of it moving forward. I finished watching the 2nd season of the anime, and decided to check out the manga - I'm quite glad I did. I gave the anime an 8/10, but I was quite impressed at how the story evolved once I picked up the manga.

Story - 9/10:

My main qualm with the anime was that the food battles themselves took up too much of the plot, and often bogged down a bit. I get that Shokugeki literally means food wars/battles, but I really felt like the Autumn Elections arc went a little overboard in that regard. Time spent with the characters interacting was a pleasure, and watching the relationships develop, but the story itself seemed to stagnate a bit.

That all changes once Erina's father enters the picture. I don't want to spoil anything, other than to say that the story really picks up speed. There's a lot of forward momentum, and it seems as though the author learned from previous mistakes, as the food battles are much better utilized moving forward - they retain impact by not being overused, and they're not as long and drawn out.

Art - 9/10:

I'm not much of an art critic. I would generally rate most manga as being pretty high in the art category. The character models look great, and the food dishes are interesting (although in black and white they lose a lot of their realism and impact as compared to the anime).

Character - 10/10:

I'll admit I'm leaning forward a little with a full 10/10 score here - I'm anticipating where things are going as much as what we've read to date. But the main characters - Souma, Erina, Megumi - are very nicely fleshed out. They have real problems and interesting personalities. Relationships between characters develop in realistic ways. It's hard to go into too much depth without major spoilers, but I was impressed with the way that the characters were handled, as compared to most shounen manga/anime I've consumed. I especially like the depth given the secondary characters in the story - Alice, Ryo, Souma's dad, Nikumi, Hayama, Jun, Gin, Shinomiya, etc. The author does a better job than most stories at breathing life into characters who aren't the real drivers of the plot.

Enjoyment - 10/10:

This is an easy score. I ripped through the full manga in a few days after having finished the anime. It was a pleasure to read. Anytime I can't put a book down, that's an easy 10 from me. My only complaint is that now I have to wait week to week to keep reading :(

Overall - 9/10:

Like I said, I feel like the story stagnates a bit around the Autumn Elections arc, but that the author learned from that and really tightened up the writing moving forward. There's still a bit of room for improvement, but I have very high expectations as the story continues. The manga is full of fun, some humour, some drama, some disappointment, some feel good moments, and even a few teases of romance. The focus on food and cooking is an interesting switch from usual themes, but it's really not that integral to the overall story (you could easily swap "cooking school" out for pretty much any other random profession and tell the exact same story).

I would definitely recommend this story.

How to describe this manga ? One way to do it is like this , some randome dude that was having fun driving his car met a big ass wall-kun, then he crashed right into it , now it struggles to stay alive by fast pacing it's heart beat and trying different remedies , ' superpowerish' ones ... Ok I don't really know if this does make any sense whatsoever , but this is how I see this manga now .

This should've ended right after they took over the school , why in the blazing hell did they want to continue if it is clear as day that this writer has lost it's way ... Light Chefs vs Dark Chefs , really ?! Getting someone's knife equals getting their skills , really ?! If they wanted to go this path with this series they should've done this from the get go , not now in the last hour ...

My guess is that they want to finish it with some romance between Souma and Erina , because it seems that she is his last goal , making her submit to his cooking and admitting that its delicious and here I will be honest , this is the only thing that I would like to see a final battle between those two and some kind of happy ending to this tragic once wonderful series .

I know how this must look , but I am not venting my anger here , more like I feel disappointed with this manga , it really felt home when I was reading it and I learned new stuff about cooking , even tried a few recipes that came with the show , but now it's a really well drawn mess .
Thx for reading .

So, I'm writing my first Review ever here. Why for this Manga ? Dunno, just felt like it.

So Shokugeki no Souma is about a boy, who works at a small daily dinner his father owns - "The Yukihira's". He always competes with his father, but never seems to stand a chance. Than one day, his father suddenly goes somewhere outside of Japan and tells Souma to go to a Cooking Academy. He doesn't like the idea at first, thinks that it's child play, but he'll know very soon, that it isn't.

That should sum it up for this Review.

Now, let's start rating it.

I don't even know why I started reading this Manga (Well I watched the Anime first and loved it, but I don't know why I started watching it), but it somehow hooked me up from the beginning. I liked how it handles the enjoyment of eating tasty food with these overjoyed ecchi scenes, it is just hiarious. When I watch them cooking I also kind of feel like eating something (Well I don't know if that is good or bad - decide for yourself!). The Story isn't very different to other Shounen/Ganbatte Manga so I won't say anything about that. The Art is very good in my eyes, the food looks delicious and is very detailed, the males look cool and most of the females look very nice.
The Characters are one of the strongest points of this Manga in my eyes. Each one of them is different and most have a nice backstory (Well, some of them we get to know really late, but they have one!). Also The enemys Souma and his friends encounter are somewhat special. I was very impressed to see, in what difference you can present cooks. It is very awesome. Oh yeah, and there is also a lot of Shipping material too of course ;)

So all in all, this is a very nice Shounen Manga, which I really enjoy reading and would recommend everyone to at least give it a try.

(Sorry if my grammar is bad, english isn't my native language :D)

What a wonderful bait switch that Food Wars contains. What starts off as a seemingly generic shonen series with ecchi elements gradually evolves into one of the greatest battle shonen manga I've ever read.



Story: 9

What's amazing to me about Food Wars is its balance between epic action moments, and equally as great character moments. For every "food war" there is time spent building up characters making Food Wars cast incredibly likable and memorable. Each chapter seems to have something to add, and for a weekly Shonen series that is incredible.

Art: 9

Every time I read Food Wars I need to eat something because if I don't I find myself incredibly hungry. Shun Saeki has a masterful handle on making the food seem extremely appetizing. Some the of the detail given makes the food in certain instances see almost real! As for the general art work it's at a higher consistent quality that other weekly series lack.

Characters: 9

What starts off as a bundle of stereotypes evolves into fully fleshed out Characters. You feel like each one of the characters has their own motivations and reasons to be at Totsuki. Most of all, the characters protagonist or antagonist seem be just that good characters. You find yourself growing attached to the main cast and you love to hate on the villains of the series.

Overall: 9.5

Obviously, spoilers ahead. In essence, to sum it up, I wasted 315 chapters of a story. Shokugeki no Souma in my opinion, is one of the greatest downfalls/declines I've ever seen in a manga. As a personal fan of the Central Arc, I noticed even then that during the final fight of Rindo/Tsukasa, vs Erina/Yukihira, it felt extremely rushed, with no adequate pacing whatsoever. After thinking not much of it, I turn to the rest of the story, eager to see what happens afterwards. I was met with a ridiculous character named Asahi Saiba, a supposed "adopted" son of Joichiro, who he taught when he was young. While becoming a great chef, he manages to not only completely destroy Joichiro in a Shokugeki, but also Tsukasa, the first seat, as well, with no real showings of his power. However, that's not even my main issue. The issue lies with his character and the ending. Instead of showing what ways he's able to come back, and Soma being able to surpass his limits, he instead just does another "I'll surpass you" moment to somehow end up beating this supposed master of chefs, giving him the side character treatment as a result. In the end, it results in a battle between Yukihira, and Erina, and you would think finally, this is the scene where she says his food is good, right? No, instead typical Erina goes on to say it's not much more then slop. Yukihira, being flamed by this, wishes to challenge Erina one more time. And that's it. That's how it ends. It ends with a challenge in the middle of a giant competition, with no clear ending, leaving a load of loose ends, along with enough cliffhangers for eons to come. Sadly, in my opinion what was an honest 10 for me has been reduced to a 4, as almost half of this once great story, has turned into, in Erina Nakiri's words, nothing more than B-grade slop.

This is my first review so I hope that you'll not take it for granted.

Shokugeki no Souma is the first series I've read before I watched the anime. I just read this since my brother watched the anime and I want to know what it feels like to read the manga over watching it. For a cooking manga, it's like I'm reading a battle manga at the same time because of its concept.

Story - 10

Even though the story is like your typical Shonen manga where the MC is normally OP and nothing stands in his way, in which it is, there are times that Soma does lose. Out of all the characters, Megumi was the only one (so far) that has the most development and she has the sweetest backstory ever. The way how it was presented is well executed and it has those elements from hardcore cooking shows which makes it stand out.

Art - 9

The art is pleasing to the eye especially to the food. *drools. Each character design is unique to me and sometimes the fanservice here is sometimes better. I don't mind the fanservice here because it's not really the selling point at least but the best part is not focusing too much on it. (In the later chapters there's not that much fanservice)

Character - 8

Now this is where the series lacks in. Even though Soma is the MC, the main heroine, Megumi (again) has it all the way. I also like every other side character's background (especially Marui's shining moment) but when a new arc comes in, they seem to be left-out. I hope that the author focuses more on them in the main story at one point. There's also that harem where Soma's having but he's too oblivious to notice it and how come it's like this in most Shonen today?

Enjoyment - 9

I love the series and even bought the first nine volumes! Because buying and collecting manga gives a different feeling than downloading them online. If only other people will know the value of owning a real one.

Overrall - 9

I know that this is my first review and as a whole, this a great manga to read. I would not recommend this to someone new to manga and anime though. But overrall, it's an interesting series.

Shokugeki no Souma is taking over the manga world by the storm. The volumes fly off the shelves and fans absolutely rave about it. And to good measure. The art is fantastic, the premise is interesting (food battles--what can I say, I'm a sucker of cooking manga), and there's a diverse cast of characters. That being said, I don't think Shokugeki no Souma will ever be regarded as a classic such as Hikaru no Go. The main reason being that the protagonist, Souma, wins too easily. He almost always pulls through in matches by thinking of some clever scheme. Not only that, but Souma doesn't have strong rival to compete with. (VERY slight spoiler: some may argue his dad is his rival, or the number one, but none of these characters are very developed.) To compare, Hikaru had an extremely strong rival and had to suffer numerous losses in order to achieve his goal. Hikaru and his rival pushed themselves hard because they had each other, and you could really see their growth without. This pattern is often seen in other "greats" such as Glass Mask and Death Note. However, it's missing in Shokugeki no Souma. A small but critical point which would have really pushed this manga to be better.

Basically, Shokugeki no Souma is pretty enjoyable with fantastic art, but I don't think it'll ever be considered a 'Great'.

If you're looking for a great food manga to read, you've arrived at your destination. When Shokugeki No Souma describes the food, it goes in depth to the texture, the flavor, and anything else that makes food taste good. Wen you read this, there is a 90% guarantee that your mouth will start watering. The food looks delicious and the way it is described makes it even more delicious! I really enjoy Shokugeki No Souma. Now, let's not just focus on the food. The characters in this show have some good backgrounds that you can look into. Especially Soma's father. There will be no spoilers in this review, but there are so many questions that can be asked about him. How did he have friends in New York if he lives in Japan? Is he some important figure in the food community? So many to be discovered. Now, excuse me while I read some more!

I honestly didn't know when this manga would end but it finally has. Having picked it up during the anime adaptions airing season back in 2015 I have been faithfully reading Souma for 5 years, and even with it's ups and downs I am glad I was there for the journey even if not from the start.

The story following Yukihira Souma on his path to being one of the most outstanding cooks at Tootsuki Culinary Academy. This winding road has you meeting memorable characters over the course of Souma's road to perfecting his cooking style. You will see plenty of Shoukugekis, battles consisting of chef(s) making the best dish possible based on a specific ingredient, then having it judged by 3 judges of stature in the culinary world.

The strong sides of the series comes from it's comedy. Even with emotional situations you find yourself in love with a colorful cast each with their own style of cooking that makes them unique. Along with this amazing cast you get dramatic panels of bizarre situations be it the food being so delicious that you are enveloped within properties of the ingredients (sometimes without clothes) or just seeing Souma's senior in a naked apron. The light these characters shine is bright.

I'd also like to note that the depth to the cooking is not underhanded or irrelevant. There was a lot of research from the mangaka that helped create a wonder atmosphere and mouth watering food designed for your eyes to feast on. It is another key aspect to why this series survived in Jumps sturdy lineup for 6 years.

If you are worried if this manga is for you and aren't sure I recommend reading the first few chapters. The tone it sets is common and will let you know if the personality of Souma and scenes you will see can grasp you attention.

With every cooking manga I've read, I noticed that they always fall in either two categories. You've got heartwarming cooking manga who brings forth the importance of family, friendship, and community. On the other hand, you've got Shokugeki no Soma, who brings a battle shounen twist in the kitchen.

Shokugeki no Souma had a rather fun story. It was really entertaining to follow Souma's path into becoming a better chef. Like other battle shounen manga, it's an extremely fun read to follow the path of our protagonist, to see him try to become the best that ever was. I was incredibly entertaining to see the craziness of battle shounen brought into the kitchen. As much as it is a crazy and weird concept, it definitely delivered on it. However, that does not mean that the story is without flaw, although these flaws are in the later chapters. I'll avoid discussing the final arc, but I'll just point out that it was a disappointing ending to an amazing story. Although the ending definitely decreased how much I liked this manga, I think that a disappointing ending can be overlooked if the path to reach that ending was fun and entertaining. This manga is a great example of the saying "It's about the journey, not the destination". Even if the destination was sub-par, the journey to get there was a simply thrilling ride, which you are sure to have fun while reading.

This manga has amazing art. From character designs to the food, everything looks really good. The art was very successful in portraying emotions to the reader as well. When there was a moment in the manga that was more serious or tense, the art portrayed perfectly the tension that the characters feel in that moment. Similarly, when there was a comedic moment, the art perfectly encapsulates the lighthearted moments. The art perfectly portrayed the emotions felt within a scene, and it successfully impacts the reader through this.

It's quite rare for manga to put so much focus on supporting characters. However, Shokugeki no Souma does it, and does it well. Every character in this manga has life into them, and they all have an interesting personality, at least most of them do. These characters are all really fun, and they all have their own share of quirkiness. I don't think that there is a single character in this manga that I can outright say they were boring. Overall, the characters in Shokugeki no Souma were all pretty good, and each one of them helps make the story more fun.

As a whole, I really enjoyed Shokugeki no Souma. As much as I can say that the ending left me with a bitter taste, I cannot deny that I had a lot of fun reading this manga. The entirety of this manga is really entertaining, so much so that it overshadows the mediocre ending.

In conclusion, Shokugeki no Souma is a great manga, with many strengths that make the flaws irrelevant. The weird battle shounen twist it brings on the art of cooking makes for a fun read, in which many people are sure to enjoy.

IF YOU'RE CONSIDERING READING THIS MANGA I WOULD REALLY RECOMMEND YOU TO READ UNTIL ONLY THE END OF THE PROMOTION EXAMS ARC (CHAPTER 263) AND ALSO TO IGNORE THE LAST ARC ENTIRELY.

'Shokugeki no Souma' used to be one of my favorite mangas. I discovered and binge-watched 12 episodes of the anime's first season in one night and to my surprise then as an anime enthusiast (who usually has enough patience and only follows anime adaptions), I decided to start reading the manga because I couldn't wait for episode 13 to come out. Despite how horrible and messy the blue arc is, I managed to read through every single chapter and have completed the entire 315 chapters * in which I highly suggest you to save your time and don't read any of it if you haven't done so yet.

I think the reason this is the manga I've read the most chapters of without loosing interest (in the beginning) was because of how amazing and detailed the (food) art is. I also loved how each dish was memorable and unique with descriptions of its creation process from inspirations to come up with its concept to the impactful role of all ingredients/materials incorporated and the distinctive method/steps done before presenting the dishes (until the manga started going downhill).

The story's progression format may be repetitive and each arc's result or plot twist can be predictable, but for most parts, the manga was still enjoyable; the range of many new characters we're introduced to as Souma meets (to compete against and refines his skills) in each arc...again, stressing the importance of excluding the last (blue) arc.

I'd already thought at the start of the hot spring investigation arc that this manga should've ended at its peak with the promotion exams arc. However, I didn't expect the story to spiral downhill as quickly and disastrously as it did in the final arc. I was so happy when they announced that the manga was ending in 3 chapters as too much damage had been done in the recent 50 chapters, destroying the high rating the numerous older chapters had built. Overall, this manga generously went down from an 8 to a 6 for me.

What was once a shining star in the overall mediocrity of Shonen Jump’s catalog finished its run worse than the likes of Death Note and Fairy Tail’s endings. Yes, I invoked the conclusion to Fairy Tail, and no, I don’t think I’m being facetious. I have no words — I mean how could I? Any effort would be a waste, and yet this intellectually fickle mind is doing it regardless. Take that how you will.

The ending is a slight on all that is good, kind, or right. It is dissonant in the workings of satisfying character/plot progression and conclusions in ways one could not feasibly picture in their bulky weeb brain. There are no ideas to be portrayed, no textures to be defined, and contentions that are unimaginably vast. Such a monstrosity is so egregious to the point where criticism is in of itself a completely benign endeavor. Imagine stabbing Godzilla with a toothpick. Yes, this ending does exist, and no, it is not some trite fan fiction. If no one else is to sympathize with the reader's plight, I will. All those page turns and bubbling oddities were nothing more than a cover-up for the nothingness that remains hidden under platitudes, and that in and of itself is a travesty.

Emotional it is not. Just ask the Azami’s flaccid plot twist to instantly become a likable character to fit the plot. Visceral it is not. Tosh is truly gifted as a manga artist, but the flat storyboarding leaves much to be desired. What began as endearingly bombastic became much more of an irritant at anything once the curtains fell. Food Wars is a bastardization of all the effort that has led up to this point, from both the creators and the reader.

That said, I’m a sentimental fool who will give it a 6/10 regardless. Sue me.

Shokugeki no Souma starts off well, but gets completely lost in the last two arcs, turning unnecessary things like the god tongue into the focus of the story, no one has come to this manga seeking to know about supernatural cooks skills and an unbeatable power passed from generation to generation in the Nakiri family, in the beginning what made this manga so exciting and fun was the competition that was delivery arc to arc and Souma overcoming these obstacles with creativity and effort, the romance that hung in the air, and the everyday school life that challenged everyone there.

But in the end it all boiled down to a gigantic Nakiri drama, and people making culinary dishes completely out of logic, people with ridiculous powers, and an unstoppable obstacle, most of the characters were forgotten and poorly developed, I think wanting being grandiose generate more of a mess than helped, if everything had remained simpler and more normal we would have had something better and cohesive.

Having said that Shokugeki no Souma is enjoyable and you will have a good time reading it, the art is good, the characters bearable and certain moments will pay for the journey but don't expect anything too much of development of the story and the two final arcs and especially the final.

And not Le Dessert won't save this manga...

BASED TILL CHAPTER 262. ALTERATIONS WILL FOLLOW. CONTAINS SPOILERS.

Shokugeki no soma is a very simple story with cooking as its theme.It incorporates echi in every chapter, some bearable and some definitely disturbing. But what sets this manga apart from the rest of the manga, simply basing it on the average rating is has all these years, is that it is pretty entertaining.
In 248 chapters, there is enough to keep anyone engrossed with(depending on one's tastes)
interesting cooking battles,
crazy exam themes
over the top expulsions
exagerated gestures,
too many foodgasms,
lots of stripping,
one especially naked very hot sempai
greasy looking costly food,
costly looking cheap food
marketing strategies and selling tricks
souma's innovative cooking,
souma's parlor tricks
souma's combination cooking to name a few.

There is no visible plot. Its all about cooking. Anyone can predict that Souma wants to become a great chef worthy of his name. His biggest dream apart from first seat is that he beats his father. He might even get the girl as a bonus. if he tries that is. Personally i like Souma as he is not that loud loser that most manga boasts about. Like a good red head MC he is a cute and funny guy who shows his personality through his actions. While all the characters support each other there is not that stuffiness you feel under other shounen nakama banner. Most characters exhibit individuality. Tsukasa, Rindou, Kuga and of course Ishiki bring in fresh perspective. I just love Ishiki with and without clothes. His personality is the least shown. He does a lot of goofing around and only in the recent arc we get a glimpse into his cooking style. Tsukasa under the pretext of an anxious oddball is as cunning as a fox or so i think. As for Rindou, anything she does is adorable. She has fangs!!! fanged chara are cute. While Erina has yet to make an impression on me, Kurokiba's deadpan to a pompous Alice is hilarious.
That leaves us with todokoro. She is too pathetic to the point of funny. She is the necessary lame character who forms part of the harem. The rest of the support cast either get a glory chapter or three each or get sidelined by the glory of Souma's success. All those matches where they won were rendered useless by the regimental shokugeki arc which to put it plainly is to get souma one step or many towards elite ten membership. the recent azami arc is just a device to further that arc. Those students of polar star worked their asses off only to lose in the promotion exam and what could be more worse than souma and team to trying to retract their expulsion? Its being biased in favour of MC's friends while hundreds get weeded out every other day in tootsuki academy. Not to mention that its pretty demeaning to the guys as they owe souma and team for their return which in all honesty is not their own effort.
Azami arc is cliched. He is messed up. He even went as far as messing up erina. Not getting the best dad mug eh!
Saiba's past makes little sense. He is made out as a genius who succumbed to the pressure of having to live up to that level but the regimental shokugeki where he alone took down 50 ppl contradicted everything. Someone who wants to win and who is capable of winning would not simply throw the match just because somewhere deep down he knows he would win anyway. His matches both inside and outside of school saw him as the winner. Perhaps he just wanted to lose against a decent opponent. The thought of future put him in anxiety. Wonder what kind of educator senzaemon could have been in order to suggest a teenager and a nervous wreck at that to drop out of school before graduation. explains jouchiro's extreme case of wanderlust.
On the other hand Souma has a diner to head and a highly skilled chef to surpass. As long as he has these two options all the aggressive winning will not drag him down
I am left with one burning question though. why the only person making sweets is that loli?
I kinda do not like how things ended with the latest chapter (262). this plot gets even more simple. Souma's immediate goal is to enter the elite ten in his second year and may be in his third year he can get the first seat. This is only my opinion Souma will his entry to the elite ten. While Tsukasa, rindo and other third years graduate, Souma's competition, at least the good ones will dwindle. That leaves Hayama, alice, erina, Ryo, Issihiki, kuga and some others i dont remember who will enter the elite 10 and after ishiki's batch graduates the plot will reflect the same kind of wretchedness Saiba faced that drove him to drop out. Things will get boring.
So yeah, unless the author can come up with something interesting, the story development is stagnant and so is on the character front as well. While i love the manga dearly, i like a neat ending.

So here we have a cooking manga, running in Shonen Jump, set in high school, with a straightforward headstrong protagonist, some ecchi, some tsunderes, and it's all drawn by an artist known for mainly for hentai. But hey, it's about cooking!! Haven't seen THAT in Jump before. No cliches here, right? ... RIght?!

Shokugeki no Soma isn't some mold-breaking, era-defining shonen manga. In fact, I would go so far as to say it's often formulaic and predictable. But my god is it entertaining. Every chapter, from the very beginning, has never failed to be exciting and memorable. And despite being a bit formulaic, there are some interesting and unique elements explored here that you won't find in other shounen manga.

The story is set in Totsuki Academy, a competitive culinary high school where grades, popularity, and job outlooks are all determined by cooking skills and cooking competitions (called Shokugeki). Our crimson-haired main character, Soma, enters the academy in order to one day surpass his dad in cooking. At the academy, he meets a hosh posh of different cooks, some of which he befriends, some of which he competes against, and maybe there's even some romance involved??... Anyways, all in all it's a pretty straightforward story. The pacing is quick, and there are plenty of nail-biting twists and turns, but there aren't many complications or strange deviations from what's been done before. Hence why I say the story is predictable. The tension is there, but the result is never beyond the realm of expectations.

Compared to most other shounen manga, the art in Soma is very clean-cut and detailed. The backgrounds aren't much to look at, but the character designs are consistent and appealing. The food is also realistic enough to make me hungry. Especially the food that Soma himself makes, specifically the Japanese style dishes. The mackerel dish he makes in chapter 8 made me drool a little. No joke.

As for the characters, it's hard to point out a unique one among the bunch. You have your tsundere (a couple of them actually), the clumsy girl, the determined male protagonist, the malicious looking one with glasses, so on and so forth. That's not to say they're not likable though. Despite their stereotypes, there's enough comedy and personality quirks to keep their interactions entertaining and refreshing. It takes a while for any substantial character development to kick in, but it's quite rewarding when it does. There are a handful of characters that have begun to show a lot of room for development, especially in the latest arc, as the characters begin to fumble through surprisingly down to earth experiences to hone their skills.

There's something to be said about Shokugeki no Soma's use of cooking as its form of competition. Unlike in sports or combat, cooking is an art form appealing to the taste buds, the results of which are often subjective. So an interesting issue arises with a manga about cooking: how does someone visually express the subjective experience of taste? Of course, you can just have the characters explain what they're feeling. But Soma goes beyond that and truly makes an effort to utilize the visual story-telling aspect inherent to manga. At firsts, these expressions of taste were very simple. Characters would have pornographic "mouth orgasms" in response to to the taste of good food, which I often found to be hilarious, but a little bit out of place. As the story goes on, these sensory experiences become expressed through vivid, often fantastical mini-stories and set-pieces, some of which are evocative, and others of which are hilariously bizarre.

So, in my opinion, should you read Shokugeki no Soma?

Yes. Yes you should.

If you like typical shounen battle manga and ecchi but want a new taste this manga is for you. It's a Slight Ecchi Cooking Battle Manga (^ ^). Lots of tension, suspense, cliffhangers, satisfying wins, well MC does lose, but rarely because of MC protection. Art is great it's drawn by Saeki Shun who aslo did 'Our Love Counseling' great oneshot btw. Lots of foodgasm scene (LOL) basically scenes where the characters get orgasms after eating the delicious food (yum yum). Great story, MC trying to be the top in a hard to graduate 'superior elite school'. Action, yes, lots of action battles everywhere (It's called shokugeki, a showdown between two chefs) Oh yes and MC is typical, he has red hair (real typical, has to stand out) he's badass, he's great at cooking ins't all that invincible cause he doesn't battle the best of the best yet so far. Well overall I really recommend this to everyone :D

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This was the most enjoyably retarded shit I have ever read. None of it makes a single goddamn sense or is an even slightly related to reality yet it is still pretty damn fun. I wasn't sure how it is that they have managed to make cooking a source of intense competition in which a person could feel physically exhausted after cooking three meals. Or the simulation of being physically beaten but they have managed to do it, and somehow quite convincingly.

I have given this a 6 because the suspension of disbelief you have to work with is beyond, I am sure you will manage if you have seen stupider shit but for me, it was just too much. It was just too retarded and cringe-worthy for me when they started to compare the guy to be a knight of tasting or some shit, then the girl to Joan of Arc because she was helping them cook better. (They literally fucking draw them both in armor.) You could accept their clothes being ripped off for comedic effect but to make it so that as if the whole scenario has weight, like an arc about the Third Reich of Food, making it so that student can only cook food on recipes instead of making their own, completely ignoring the whims of capitalism or common sense, then the villain forces his taste on his daughter or some shit because he finds his senior being tortured because he was cooking pleb food or something.

Either way, it's still fairly entertaining and the protagonist is fun to read because he has a unique calm and calculative shonen protagonist aura. Dare say he is cool, but it is still about cooking. Every time they compare that sushi making kid to a Samurai or when he fucking say it himself(he calls himself a warrior, I am not fucking with you),
I could feel the wave of cringe spreading through my skin.

If you could look past all of that as part of its comedy(which it isn't they want you to it seriously lol), you will definitely enjoy this. I might have given this a six for, 1 for its story but this is just my personal taste if you like what you have read so far, definitely take some time to see if this is worth your time.