ANIME REVIEW | Shokugeki no Souma

Shokugeki no Souma is about a bunch of students cooking food... really intensely.

When I first saw the trailer I thought it was playing off that trend where people are paid to eat in front of a camera... and enjoy it (boy sign me up). And while I wasn't surprised in some areas, I can say that this is a really weird show.

Source: Huffington Post

The show centers around a kid named Yukihira Souma, who wants to defeat his dad in cooking and take over the restaurant his family runs. Sound familiar? Change the cooking theme and you've basically got your cookie-cutter plot for a shounen. What I didn't know was apparently either the artist or director was involved with hentai for the longest time before taking on this project. I guess that explains a couple things...

I swear they're just eating food...

One of the things that sets this anime apart from some shounen is the incredibly risqué nature of some of the scenes. People take a single bite and suddenly their clothes get ripped off in a dramatic display. It's super over-the-top and ridiculous. Lately though this sort of thing isn't really groundbreaking if you think about it. It's common for shounen to have bursts of promiscuity in the shows, and with things like Kill la Kill and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, the whole over-the-top themes aren't anything new.

Where the show is interesting though is taking these common shounen strands and placing them in cooking. Honestly, waiting for something to bake isn't really that exciting in real life. Shokugeki no Souma is a fun show because it sits right at home with these other shounen shows. It's surprising at first and entertaining, plus the art style is accessible for people not entirely keen on the typical shounen. I wouldn't recommend this show for young kids though, while it's not explicit it's still very sexual in nature. If that's something you don't want your kid watching, then maybe look for something else.