10 Second Anime - Shokugeki no Soma S3 - Episode 14

Erina schools the rebels on Hokkaido cuisine for the Advancement Exams. They show their affection and thanks on the train to their next destination.

Episode 14 - "Onward on the Toutsuki Train"

Meh.

I talked about this during the first half, but the use of pan and scan as somebody talks for large portions of the anime is starting to make the show look like a picture drama. This is not a compliment. It's one thing to be faithful to the manga, essentially treating it as a storyboard, but anime is its own media, and scenes should be treated as such. It's wearing a little thin and I really can't see where in the story they need to spend more time on to animate properly, if they're trying to budget and schedule their efforts. It looks like Shokugeki's B team is just making a full motion picture drama and it's getting pretty cheap looking. At the very least, none of the characters are off-spec and they don't look like they're rushing, but still, meh.

Hmm.

One thing nice about this story arc is how Erina is seeing how friends treat each other. She was isolated for so long during the tutelage/torture of Azami, she lost the closeness she had with her cousin Alice and never had a peer relationship with Hisako. That's changing for the better, and Souma is playing a big part of it. She says she's not getting annoyed at looking at his face anymore. Well, he still makes some faces that annoy everyone, so she'll still have all those sweet moments of tsun tsun mixed in with the dere dere. Remember, Souma is actually the villain in this story! Ha! I'm only halfway kidding.

Heh.

In the episode recap, Erina says she owes Souma something. She doesn't want to admit that to him, though. Got to keep some of the tsun tsun going.

Azami is teaching his Central recipes himself. Doesn't this point to the staff being short-handed? Like some of the teachers quit or refused to teach rote recipes? Plenty of room for rebellion here, and not just from the students.

Ah. The first-years' Advancement Exam is basically a trip through Hokkaido. On swanky trains! This Toutsuki school doesn't do anything half-assed. Also, as a practical matter, this is a great way to learn about tradition Japanese cooking, its ingredients, and how seasons affect them. It's really great vocational training.

Please teach me, Erina-sensei!

Harsh, but sexy!

Ha. Ikumi is just casually bringing food over to the dorm, to maybe, possibly run into Souma. If he's not busy... And Takumi drags his brother with him to do the same! I love this rivalry for Souma's attention, if not affection.

Nice. Hisako dressed up as the teacher's assistant. Assist me, Hisako-sensei!

Cooking is important, but first - snow angels!

The first test is using salmon as the main ingredient. This teacher is obviously going to try to fail the rebels who have all been grouped together.

Ah. Pretty conniving. Give each rebel group poor ingredients, and buy up all the supplies so they can't get some preserved ones.

But! Three of these guys, Souma, Alice, and Ryuu, have worked for restaurants since they were young, and they know about sourcing ingredients. They got a plan!

Bam! Eat that! Well, she will, but seeing that awesome looking salmon lets the proctor know her plan already failed. And preparing a dish in half an hour? Again, chefs make food to order, so that's plenty of time.

Har. Alice stepped on Souma's signature phrase. Well, who put him in charge anyway? On the other hand, who put Alice in charge?

Grilled fresh salmon. Apply directly to the head.

Well, at least the proctor was honest enough to rate the dish properly. She could have chosen to be even more ruthless in failing them.

All the other groups passed too, but we didn't get any word on how. In the manga, it was glossed over, and I hoped we would get some fleshing out in the anime, but no such luck with the picture drama strategy. I wanted to see Ryouko and Ikumi too!

Toutsuki trains are nice. Very nice.

Erina knows she's going to pass all her exams, so she's studying to see where Central could trip up the rebels. Sabotaging ingredients probably won't be tried again.

Aw. Erina isn't used to people just coming by to be nice. It's called having friends!

Uh oh. Erina's eyes are starting to go kyuun-kyuun~ for Souma. He made her giggle!

Next time, Erina is in a suit of armor for some reason, being compared to Joan of Arc.