10 Second Anime - Shokugeki no Soma S3 - Episode 24 [END]

Souma surprises Nene with his unorthodox soba dish. The first round of the Team Shokugeki ends. Season Finale.

Episode 24 - "The Basis for Strength"

Hmm.

I can't stress enough how efficient the storytelling is in this show. Maybe a bit too efficient, considering the boring scrolling picture-drama style of animation used for all the standing around and talking, but one thing this show does is have an answer for whatever is introduced. If some stray comment is made, there will be a joke answer, or it will become important to the plot.

In Nene's match against Souma, some of the jailed kids remarked how cold it got in the arena. Well, guess what. Isshiki noticed that, which is why he shocked Nene last episode telling her she would lose. More importantly, Souma noticed the cold too, because the a good chef adjusts his recipe for the best dining experience. This is totally against the Central philosophy of never deviating from the best version of a recipe.

Isshiki, knowing Nene so well, already figured what she would make considering the theme was soba, and that she wouldn't consider her environmental conditions. Isshiki also knew that Souma would pay attention to those details and adjust accordingly. And so it all played out as Isshiki predicted because the Rebel philosophy focuses on creativity for the pleasure of the customer. Central dictates what the customer should like, and it's their fault if they don't enjoy it. The Bookmen disabused Central of that notion in the first round.

Eh?!

That's it? That's all we get?

Megishima defeated Kaburagi and all we get is her ahegao (orgasm face)? I didn't even get a chance to see how cute she was and call her by her first name Shouko. And all Megishima said to Souma was that he kept his promise. Details to come later... much later for anime watchers. Probably at least two years.

Heh.

Stir frying wheat soba noodles is bad. Alice will get answers, I'm sure.

Hayama and Ryou seem to know what Souma is up to with his allegedly bad idea of frying top grade buckwheat.

Can I just say that it took me this whole entire season to figure out what that image is of snow being cleared from somewhere on the Toutsuki trains? It's the glass ceiling from the lounge car! Gah! I could never make out what part of the train it was and it finally hit me right at the end.

Nene's soba dish goes first.

Please, let's just have Anne talk about throat-feel from the noodles. I have my preferences...

Ha! The noodles and sauce with tempura taste so good, it's all gone before the judges know it.

I never thought a shrimp mermaid would look so good.

Hahahaha! The Soba That Leapt Through Time! Please do an image search for "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" anime, and you'll see how hilarious this reference is.

And Souma really did make instant yakisoba, or the gourmet version of it with fresh ingredients.

The elite of the elite are smelling something different from Souma's dish.

Ah. He used a different grade of noodle that withstand the heating process and retain its flavor and aroma.

Anne calls Souma "Mister Yukuhira." She also called Nene "Miss Kinokuni."

Yukihira-style Seared Soba. Thumbs up!

Haven't seen this in a long time. Souma created another world for the judges to feel their foodgasm. This time it's the Summer Festival eating food stall yakisoba with friends.

Notice that Isshiki is beating the drum naked in the background!

And Souma won because the arena was too cold for the subtle aroma from Nene's dish.

Yay! Nene gets a foodgasm too!

High fives for everyone. Not Erina, though. Mimasaka looked really happy to get one.

And that's the end! See you in two years.

Nice. The end credits start with a recap of Souma's devastating foodgasms on Erina.

Bye, guys. Keep aiming for the top!

Final Thoughts.

I have to say that the third season of Shokugeki was a disappointment in the animation department. JC Staff decided to go with static stills scrolling against each other to provide an illusion of depth, so almost the entire split cour looked like the manga had turned into a shifting storyboard. We had started seeing some of this technique in the second season, since it was pretty much the only way to make cooks standing around explaining stuff look, if not visually appealing, at least moving around enough to draw the eye. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the Moon Banquet Festival arc from the first 12 episodes and the Toutsuki Train arc in the second half, almost all the kids were just standing around making comments about cooking.

I don't have a suggestion for a fix on this, because that's what the manga looked like at the time, but reading static words on a page goes much quicker than having a voice actor repeat the dialogue with a slowly scrolling anime version of the comics panel. Perhaps if the director wasn't so workman-like in his adaptation, we could have seen something more interesting. Instead, we got the Shokugeki no Souma Scrolling Picture Drama for 24 episodes.

At least the story was still solid. The character development is pretty much complete, so it was always a good time to see how these mature characters interact with the mysterious Elite Council. Megumi's growth from the first season is breathtaking and it's a real treat watching her in the current story. Souma the Villain is always good. Erina's character development has a little bit more to go, but we won't see the fruits of her journey until almost the end of this Rebellion story. As it should be.

For invested fans of the show, they were going to keep watching no matter what the animation looked like. At the very least, with picture scrolling, the characters are never going to go off-spec and piss off the audience. The acting was still solid and so was the musical score. I just wish the animation was more dynamic when that heart-thumping music came on to emphasize the emotion of victorious cooking. Ah well. Not every season of a long running story can be great. This was just okay.