10 Second Anime - Shokugeki no Soma S4 - Episode 9

Eishi beats Isshiki setting up a final round bout between Eishi and Rindou against Souma and Erina.

Episode 9 - "The First and Second Seats"

Hmm.

I did not need to see the Shokugeki version of age-gap gay grooming between Azami and Eishi. The less said about the disturbing imagery the better. No wonder Rindou is mad. Some older guy with a flashy car turned her boyfriend gay! Er, not gay, but not cooking for fun any more. We didn't see how she found out about their trysts, uh, secret meetings in America, but that would make the whole queer conversion allegory more obvious. Let's just say that Azami seduced Eishi into his way of thinking about gourmet food being created only for gourmet palettes. This meant the "pigs" and unwashed masses would just have to accept an official recipe for specific dishes. How very fascist. The whole grooming sequence and Rindou's part in it brought us back to why this whole thing in Hokkaido is playing out.

It also brings us back to the main theme of the show. Azami almost had the solution for a gourmet chef inevitably getting lost in the Wasteland of new creations. He wanted gourmets to cook for Erina's God Tongue so they produced the official best dishes, establishing designated oases in the desert. Jouichirou, Souma's dad, found the better solution — cook for someone you love, making that person your compass and touchstone in the wilderness. Azami got stuck because of who his wife was, but that's a story that might never be animated.

Making this a worthless episode, we objectively know Eishi's dish didn't beat Isshiki's. How? Where were the foodgasms? None of the girls clothes exploded. None of them entered a fun fantasy land playing with sensual imagery. Eishi's dish was intellectually better than Isshiki's, but it certainly wasn't more fun. That's the whole point of the Rebel movement against Central and it's why Rindou is having such mixed feelings going into the final bout. That lack of focus on her part is going to be a key component on how she makes her dish. Who is Rindou cooking for?

Heh.

Ha. Nene got her moment wrecked by Eishi assuming he'll win and asking Isshiki to be his assistant. He can't read the room.

So, we're just never going to talk about how much tea Souma drank?

Head fake. Of course, Eishi's dish is going to have hidden layers. Bah. How good could it be? Where are the foodgasms? "She's writhing around!" But you didn't show us this!

Eishi backstory. Always a weirdo. Oh. The foodgasm happened to Isshiki getting naked. But he always gets naked, so how do we anything different happened?

Elder Nakiri says one final match only. Teams have to prepare a two course meal, with a main and an hors d'oeuvre. Souma and Erina will fight! The theme is "truly gourmet multi-course meal."

Aldini does have good stalking instincts. He got around to asking Rindou why she was so anxious during their bout. That got a big reaction! Rindou doesn't like Azami for "grooming" Eishi. Took away her boyfriend. Fun cooking buddy, anyway. Megishima knows Rindou is having trouble too. He knows she doesn't want to win.

Rindou noticed that he didn't like getting compliments from untrained tongues. Azami figured Erina's God Tongue was his solution. Okay, so when did Rindou find out about Azami's grooming? At least Azami saw in Eishi the beginning of the symptoms of wandering the Wasteland and wanted to save him, but his methods and philosophy about it were still bad.

Rindou joined Central because she thought she could keep making yummy things with Eishi. She's getting frustrated because she's not having fun.

Eizan is worried about Dark Urara still being cutesy from Momo's dish. Momo likes her that way, though.

Of course. Erina and Souma still haven't decided who's making the main dish and appetizer. Even if they do, there's going to be sabotage on Souma's part.

Next time, the Nakiri Dress Break is going to be the bomb! They're finally giving us sexy end cards again too.