10 Second Anime - Shokugeki no Soma S2 - Episode 3

Ryo and Megumi finish their contest. Hisako faces Hayama. Mimasaka makes his debut.

Episode 3 - "Generation of Prodigies"

Heh.

This season is moving the plot along very fast. I actually don't mind this, because the tournament style battles can be a grind if you spend too much time on the side characters. The things that are important during this phase of the overall plot are the bits of character development and the cooking techniques. Yukihira always uses some of those things in his contests.

The cliffhanger between Ryo and Megumi ended predictably, if you pay attention to the opening credits.

That's right. Ryo is scary when he's in cooking mode. The telling clue of who would win between them is how Grandpa Nakiri's robe didn't fly off. It was Megumi's loss. She did get a nice cheer from the crowd, though.

However, Megumi's subtle cooking style stays with a person long after the meal is done. She actually blew off his underwear! A generation of prodigies has definitely come to the school this year.

Next up was the contest between the spice king Hayama and Hisako cooking up hamburgers.

This is pretty interesting to me that these quarterfinals are all cooking up "regular" food. Bento, ramen, now hamburgers. Of course, being a haute cuisine academy, these aren't going to be any old hamburgers.

Hisako is known for her medicinal cooking, but it isn't just plants and herbs. She butchered a live suppon turtle to mix in with the hamburger patty.

You usually make an herbal soup which is a Chinese delicacy out of that soft shell turtle.

Most of the audience didn't really like seeing a live animal butchered in front of them, but Hisako made a fan out of Yuki, who loves butchering game animals and Nao found another item to increase her fandom by aligning her own cruel streak with the object of her affection. 

We had a quick reminder of Hisako's and Hayama's motivation in terms of their closest relation. Hayama has great affection for the goofy mother figure Shiomi and Hisako does her own thing for the glory of Erina.

Interesting how proper this show's definition of a hamburger is. Four things make a hamburger: bun, patty, sauce and pickles. Pickles! That became the decisive ingredient for Hayama.

Yeah, I was stunned too. Pickles!

These two made some interesting burgers to match their ingredients. Hisako's Chinese style burger used steamed buns for the bread. Hayama made a pita burger. They also chose two different ways to make their burgers special: Hisako went after mouthfeel and Hayama targeted the nose.

Alongside the cooking contests, Yukihira met the mystery character from the opening credits. This Mimasaka guy was actually mentioned in passing at the end of the first season when the elite eight were announced from the prelims, but he was never shown. He scored high enough to be 4th overall, knocking two of the Polar Dorm mates out of the round.

Hee! I like how Yukihira can get along with other tough guys.

This Mimasaka guy is known for stalking his opponents and collecting info on them, so his recitation of details about Yukihira and Takumi was a nice exposition device for viewers who may have come in without watching the first season.

The big deal for the next episode is going to be how Mimasaka provoked Takumi into a shokugeki.

Geh.

Truth be told, these side character contests don't really hold my interest unless there's a bunch of foodgasms. Hisako provided the only one.

That happened after only smelling Hayama's pita burger, demonstrating the difference in their cooking levels. Hayama aims for the top while Hisako only aims to be Erina's number two.

I hope we get to the quarterfinals quick because I want to know whether this lineup of lady chefs is going to be the panel of judges. If so, we're going to be in for a treat with all the foodgasms.