10 Second Anime - Shokugeki no Soma S2 - Episode 10

Souma presents his dish's final form and the judges choose the victor based on his character.

Episode 10 - "A New Genius"

Heh.

I admit it. I laughed, nay, guffawed for a good 20 seconds when Grandpa Nakiri's clothes exploded. I mean, we all should have expected it, but the set up and the pause before the UTTER DEVASTATION was brilliant.

Hahaha! I just watched it again!

Using a soy milk broth, which has its own umami (savory flavor), he was able to exceed the umami of the fresh Pacific Saury that Ryo and Hayama chose for their dishes.

Leonora gave us a second round of "baring" her fluent Japanese.

Souma's mixing of flavors, like parmesan cheese with soy milk, reminded Leonora of her brand new feeling of love between different cultures when she met Alice's father.

In the background of this judging, Isshiki had a conversation with his Elite 10 colleague Eizan, where he accused him of pulling the behind-the-scenes manipulations of popular thought against Souma and using his disciple Mimasaka to derail him. We saw that kind of stuff in the first season when Souma helped revitalize his market district by opposing a chain restaurant that used Eizan as a consultant.

This was all good background to make the judge's decision shocking to an audience who might believe Souma has plot armor as the hero of the series.

While Hayama and Ryo had superior skills in choosing the best ingredients for a themed dish, Souma was inventive enough to bring his flavors on par with the best ingredients. Unfortunately, with all things being equal, a dish must then be judged on the character of the chef.

Does this dish reflect a chef's specialty? Do you taste it and immediately think only this chef could have made this dish? In the finals, only one dish satisfied that question.

That meant Hayama won! I gasped! Like I said, the conversation between Isshiki and Eizan primed the audience of Souma's victory.

So, while Ryo and Souma may be technically proficient, they haven't developed a specialty, a unique characteristic, a flavor that says only this dish could have been made by Ryo or Souma. Hayama is the Spice King. What can you call Ryo or Souma? They need to figure that out to advance as chefs.

Alice was not happy Ryo lost. Well, neither was Ryo.

Leonora comforted Alice as Ryo and Souma tasted how Hayama's dish beat theirs.

Doujima had a piece of advice for Hayama: have a good relationship with your talent. That reminded me of one of the guest judges in the Survival Camp arc, Shinomiya. Not surprisingly, Souma is going to be visiting him in the Stagiaire arc to close down the season.

Souma had a timely conversation with his dad. Obviously, he didn't keep his promise not to lose to anyone else until he beat him. Technically, he did win all his shokugekis.

Souma also picked up on Doujima's concern about Hayama. He sensed something like an obsession in his winning dish. It looks like there's something for Souma to reconcile within himself to figure out what kind of chef he's going to be.

Honestly, though, his dad has already been preparing him with their disgusting taste battles. Souma may be the MacGyver of making tasty dishes with whatever is on hand, but he needs to figure out what he wants to make as a chef, not just be tied to the Yukihira Diner's menu. There's a thread there with his quirk of combining wildly different tastes to start weaving his own specialty.

Well, the Autumn Elections are over and Souma was only second. Time for Ikumi in an apron to calm us down with a little diversion.

The episode kept coming back to the concept of the cooking academy that many different chefs collaborating together help hone their skills and knowledge but also increase the depth and scope of cuisine in general. Ryo and Souma hung out with Hayama after the contest and the girls like Ikumi and Megumi spent their time together too.

I just love Ikumi as a character in relation to Souma. She's always the tough girl, but turns tender when Souma is involved. It's just one of the running jokes in this show that keep me smiling.

Next time, the cooking kids become neo pros, stagiaires, for familiar faces.