Shokugeki no Souma: San no Sara

The 3rd season of Shokugeki leaves something to be desired in every way. J.C.Staff's adaption of this manga series has never been masterful. For the most part it has been just phoned in. The spottiness of the animation, ugly CGI and off-model characters have always been somewhat present in this series, but the 3rd season marks a turn for the worse even when compared to the previous 2nd season. Using manga panels directly as a storyboard and making sure the female characters' boobs look like they are about to burst from their uniforms worked fine for the first season, because that's when the writing and theplot was immaculate. This isn't so much the case with 3rd season. Even though the first arc has a very nicely structured conflict with a satisfying resolution, the following major arc that covers the rest of the episodes ramps up the action in a worst way possible, and goes almost full shounentard. As I had read the manga before diving into the animation this time around, I was hoping for J.C.Staff to salvage the plot and place emphasis on the elements which worked - which is the opposite of what they did do. What made the first season of Shokugeki good, anyway? The characters, and both their *intrapersonal* and interpersonal struggles. Souma's ability to rise to the challenge and help the people around him do the same made him a superb character. The interactions between him and Megumi were especially crucial, giving the viewers catharsis shockwaves. The people found their inner strength, and the (romantic) tensions between Souma and Erina kept us praying for more development. The slower passages gave the long season a much better flow. (minor spoilers starting now:) The introduction of a "classical" villain and a conflict which is fought between two factions ruins all these intricacies in the 3rd season. Especially the middle section of this season feels like an endless stream of boring shokugeki. There are too many new bad guys and not enough interest in the stakes from my part. The dramatic tension of the whole series is undermined by the illogical motives of both the villain and the supporting faction. It's impossible to come up with reasons for as to why half of the top ten seats voted to place Azami as the director of Tootsuki. The fact they did do so pigeonholes these characters and the rest of the supporting forces, as their motivations have to be justified somehow down the line, even though that's impossible. Basically, the biggest plot twist of the entire series is a spectacular asspull. The problems of the manga's plot are heightened by the fact that all the anime does is ramp up the tension, throwing caution out of the window. The sound design of this season is surprisingly stark. There are a variety of dramatic scores which are played surprisingly loud during shokugeki and otherwise. There are numerous instances where the director has decided to use montages and flashbacks to really try to bring out the feels out of the viewer. I was taken aback by how disconnected I felt from the story, even compared to my reading experience. The anime would have benefitted from downplaying the action and giving the characters more air to breath. So why is this anime even good, then? The third season has still a lot of momentum and strong characters backing it up. Even though the plot is a little contrived, the development between Erina and her father is still very enjoyable. That’s all that matters and all that the conflict should really be about – resolving Erina’s literal daddy issues. Even though Erina’s payoff scenes were handled without much directional finesse, they still made the show worthwile. Additionally, even though Azami leaves something to be desired as the bad guy for the series, the first seat, Tsukasa Eishi, works much better as an opponent for Souma. If there’s something good to be said about the factions and the entire conflict, it would be the emergence of tension between these two characters. The final verdict? Well, the animation is spotty, the sound design is crap, the CGI is fugly, directing is unimaginative, and emphasis has been placed on the wrong things. But it’s still god damn Shokugeki no Souma. It’s impossible to ruin the entire franchise at this point. I had fun times watching this season, and I’m hungry for the 2nd cour.

I just finished the series and i was amazed. In my opinion this is the best season so far and i think that it is my favourite show now. The story in this season was pretty unpredictable yet i would call it amazing. The Shokugekis were extremely intense and i was always excited how it turns out because as i mentioned before it is pretty unpredictable although the outcome is guessable. I love that the elite ten were intrduced and even a bit of their characters has been mentioned. I dont want to spoiler anything so i wont tell much but the ending where erinagets a certain information and everything seems connected now i love the show so much more. It is unavoidable to watch this! Perfect season!

So what's the big premise of this show? ... to just watch the same happen over and over again? Souma has been winning so many matches lately, and yet it's almost like nothing happens. 3 seasons in, and yet they keep introducing all kinds of tournaments, where the winner, gets nothing in exchange. The fanservice keeps being the same, every reaction keeps being the same. To be honest, the food gets more development than the actual characters, it's strange. As far as this goes, this one cour has the be the worst of them all, with no progress in the story, and rather, it's filledwith nonsense to sell more. The big idea: Souma wants to enter the Elite Ten. How is he going to do it?: No idea, 3 seasons in and nothing has happened. When is he going to do it?: Again 3 seasons in, but apparently seeing people excited and being almost nude because of food seems more interested than the actual "plot", if you can call that a plot. Story-wise, not much here, in any case, this has been been the worst season of them all. The only big thing is Souma fighting for the place he lives in. After that (And before that) it's a rollercoaster of nonsense, all of these together with no explanation of the actions of some characters, leaving you without 0 clues, so you end up not knowing anything. It's a joke. While this one was 12 episodes it felt like reading the 3 first chapters of a manga. Almost 4 episodes contained what 1 chapter of manga could have, it was slow paced leaving a lot of cliffhangers in the end, so in the next episode they keep doing the same. So, repeat this 2 more times and you are done. At least this part's art was better than the so garbage part 2. Not to sound rude of course, but the lack of quality in animation has always been part of this show, only concentrating on making face expresions look ridiculously weird and making girls excited from eating. Leaving behind any proper proprortions of the body, leaving behind all the work the Manga creator has put into it, just so the fanservice can take over it. (w) Sound: I guess it was decent. There isn't anything remarkable at this point, everything seems in place, from the OP to the ED, to Background sounds and music to voice acting. Like previous season, they knew how to remix their music so they don't overlap over the voices. But they forgot that not everything is music, they are using a weird amount of music in every episode it gets annoying, and not exciting as i'm guessing they want it to be. Character: Again, they keep introducing characters that seem quite interesting, just so they get defeated in some sort of Shokugeki and never appear again. While the main characters have already been developed, it seems they don't care about anyone else. Enjoyment: Not best experience i've had, i could've dropped the series in the middle, but i decided to continue... i ended regreting not dropping it. It seriously feels like a joke, rather than a "cooking" show. Where's the progress? Oh, I see. 3/10.

The third season of Shokugeki no Souma is the season where the story takes an interesting turn. An antagonist is introducted who changes the dynamic of the entire anime and makes surviving at totsuki a lot harder for Souma and the other protagonists. The story this season is really interesting because of the introduction of an antagonist. The first half of the season starts off normal with the moon festival which is another cooking event. After that however the story changes and totsuki goes from trying to weed out the weak to trying to weed out dissidents. Overall this is a great change which makesthe story way more exciting and coherent which elevates this season above the previous two. The characters are mostly the same apart from the introduction of an antagonist and a more in depth look at the elite 10. The reasoning of the antagonist is sound and he isn't evil for the sake of being evil. He simply has opposing morals that he acts on making him a great character that adds a lot to the anime. The music, animation and voice acting are all the same or similar as in the previous two seasons. Overall this is an amazing third season that I enjoyed more than the previous two. It's definitely worth watching if you liked the previous two seasons.

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