Shokugeki no Soma S5 - Episode 1 - Kids Enjoy Beach Episode

Shokugeki knows what its audience wants, so it gave them a beach episode right in the Season Premiere.

The opening credits make sure to focus on Erina Nakiri, this season's most important character.

The final exam for the Toutsuki students before they leave for summer break is running an event stall at the beach, the river, or summer festival, and make 30 thousand bucks during that time. The Elite Ten have a big handicap in taking over a rundown beach hut at the far end of the strand.

The other kids are already up and running their restaurants on the beach, but Souma and his crew of only six are still making renovations on the second day. Ikumi, Ryouko, and Yuuki worry about their friends, while wearing bikinis. New teacher Suzuki appears to have a grudge against Souma for some reason.

The kids relax at a seaside inn which has those massage chairs. One of these things is not like the other... Souma got to share a nice moment with Erina in the moonlight.

It's the last day of the exams, so Souma's crew will have to make all their money in one day instead of the three all the other kids had. Can they do it? Of course they can! First, they stole everyone else's clients with a signature aroma bomb, but they kept them coming by their special yakisoba recipe.

Can fried noodles really be that good? Hell yeah! Can the Elite Ten members keep up with all the orders? They can with a trio of diner brats like Souma, Takumi, and Ryou. They don't even need to advertise because the wafting smells and word of mouth from foodgasms will do the rest. There really wasn't ever any doubt.

Erina signaled the end of the exams and the start of summer vacation. We didn't see enough of her in her sleek black bikini.And then, just like that, the whole point of this season appeared. The kids have a chance to enter the BLUE, a cooking contest for chefs under the age of 25. This is the same contest Souma's dad never entered, deciding to drop out of Toutsuki instead, wander around cooking before eventually settling down with Souma's mom at the Yukihira Diner.

Blogging note: I have decided not to cover this final season of Shokugeki no Souma like the other seasons because it's just terrible. The animation continues to use the scrolling picture drama technique J.C. STAFF has used for the last three seasons, which looks cheap and boring. In addition, this last arc in the manga was poorly conceived and poorly received by the fans after the time skip.

The first part ended on a satisfying note of redemption and reconciliation between the fathers of Souma and Erina, as the theme of the Wasteland of Flavor featured in the background. The solution to the world of gourmet was to cook for someone you love, whether that's paying attention to a customer or making a meal for your daughter. A chef should always cook for someone else.

The second part tried to rely on a variation of themes from the first part, concentrating on mothers. However, the other themes were already resolved, and one of the mothers involved couldn't play as big a role as the other, and the fathers still were involved to the detriment of the central theme. There was also a jealousy plot point that revealed itself to be very problematic, which was another sour note for the story. In short, there should not have been a second part after such a satisfactory ending to the first part.

So, instead of complaining about all of this every week, I'll just watch the show and appreciate the pretty pictures of pretty girls when they show up on the screen. The character designs for the enemy chefs were visually interesting, so there's still something to look forward to.