10 Second Anime - Shokugeki no Soma S2 - Episode 6

Souma and Mimasaka finish their contest of beef stew with a clear winner.

Episode 6 - "Dawn Will Come Again"

Heh.

This was the first episode in a long time that felt like the first season. Of course, it had Souma's cooking in it that made the difference. While the other fine cooks can evoke interesting foodgasms, none of them offer the sense of the absurd that Souma's can.

Mimasaka's twist on Souma's stew was adding bacon as a garnish. The source of Souma's competitive comeback against Mimasaka's profiling strategy was to do neither of the two usual counterattacks. The first is trying to fool Mimasaka into preparing a different dish. The second was improvisation with the ingredients on hand to make a different dish.

Souma went a totally different way in going Mimasaka's interesting improvement route by totally exposing how small in scope his thinking was. Souma used the totality of his cooking experience to make a beef stew garnish that was all beef and all tastes found in urban diners. It was a perfect understanding of the theme of the cooking contest.

So, that's what happened plot-wise. Souma won. Naturally. But let's talk about those beautiful judges!

We know Hinako and Fuyumi pretty well from the survival camp episodes last year. Taki, the rude flat-chested judge, had her personality quickly defined in relation to the busty calm Sonoka. Dojima was there too, so it was to be expected he would be losing his clothes and cross-dressing at some point.

Mimasaka is an excellent cook, no matter what his competitive tactics are, so I was glad to see his cooking produced some kind of foodgasm too.

Bull and Pig tag team wrestling Sonoka! Gotta love it! Even better was Dojima in pink female wrestler garb taking the lariat. That was only a taste, ahem, of things to come when Souma's dish was up for judging.

I still chuckle at how Souma says things in a way that bad guys usually do in these kind of battle tournament style shows. He's supposed to be the good guy, right?

Well, I suppose you could argue that he's dealing villainous violence to the poor women judges.

Mimasaka had been using the image of build a house of cards to demonstrate how he meticulously prepared his dishes to beat his opponent's dish. Souma just ignored that and simultaneously showed how lacking in depth and scope Mimasaka's method was. Souma created an amusement park of beef flavors!

Aw yiss! We got us some sexy foodgasms! Thank you Hinako for not dancing with some weird food guy this time around.

And then it was time for absurdity and Dojima cross-dressing in Yukihee Land! That's a hilarious Japanese homonym pun on Yukihira and Land.

I love that flume ride picture where Dojima is the one looking at the camera.

Taki was so cute in getting overwhelmed and holding hands with all the judges. So precious!

Who won? Yukihira Souma, of course!

This meant all the cooking utensils Mimasaka won in shokugeki's were returned too. Except Takumi's mezzaluna, which started this whole duel. He gave it to Souma and told Mimasaka he would get it back from him when he beat Mimasaka himself. Pro cooks have their own sense of pride, after all.

Souma expanded on that observation by noting that a professional cook, no matter what may have humiliated him the day before, still has to open the restaurant's doors the next day. That's pragmatic and a life lesson about moving on from failure.

No contest against Souma is complete until the opponent suffers his own foodgasm. The women judges didn't need to see that. They see enough of that from Dojima. No expressed opinion from Dojima himself? I'm sure he approved.

Poor Erina. She thought Mimasaka had Souma's number and he would quit the school. No such luck. Plus, she still had to get that shoujo manga volume from him too.

Next time, Ryo faces Hayama. How many episodes will they get?