Shokugeki no Soma - Anime

Back in the day there was an interesting anime I watched that focused on bread, Yakitate Japan. It was a culinary show and despite the odd image one would have when you try to picture anime and bread it was quite a fun anime to pass the time with as the baker protagonist created various dishes that evoked extreme reactions from whoever tasted his amazing bread.

In a recent batch of anime I was given to enjoy, I had the pleasure of reliving the joys of another culinary show that had a similar premise to Yakitate Japan, except instead of focusing on bread this show turned your attention to food in general. Shokugeki no Souma takes you into the kitchen and hypes you up for the process of cooking as you watch the protagonist create his various dishes with seemingly random resources, all of which are targeted at being consumer friendly and relatable to the affordable pocket.

The main story follows a young chef, Yukihira Soma, who strives to beat his father’s cooking and become the best chef in the world. He also takes pride in the cooking he grew up learning in his father’s little diner and wants to become the best while serving his common style cooking that is available to the average customer and not just the ‘elite’.

But despite being a great chef, Soma has an unfortunate habit, picked up from his father, of experimenting with new dishes which almost always turn out horrible and the poor taste testers of these dishes always tend to be his friends.

The show is very light and full of humour that has you laughing along with learning a thing or two about the culinary arts. One thing in particular that’s quite noticeable is the reactions that the characters have when tasting delicious food. If ever you could apply the term ‘food porn’ to a place, here would definitely be it.

Another thing I like about the anime is probably a bit cliché but screw it – it works for me. I like that the protagonist is talented and strong enough to take on tough opponents from the get go and generally comes across as the underdog type. It makes for fun viewing and it also brings about some anticipation for when he might be really challenged and maybe knocked around a bit. That might sound sadistic, but it’ll be interesting to see how he recovers and such from blows like that. After all we can’t have him only winning all the time, where would be the fun in that?

Anyway, the anime is worth watching, if only to make yourself hungry for the food that is so deliciously drawn and presented on screen. 

Gotcha pork roast