And here we are at the season finale. It is always nostalgic to see the end of a series, especially for an anime as iconic as “Shokugeki no Souma”.

Unlike the previous seasons - our characters are closer to their culinary peaks than ever, being unbridled in strength compared to their peers. This is what we see in the first two episodes, as the new Elite Ten basically flexes their skills over the rest of the students.

One of the key joys of watching Shokugeki no Souma is seeing Souma being the underdog and overcoming challenges head-on, but in this anime, that aspect of the anime is overshadowed by a overpowering villainous backstory, weird creative liberties to prepare meals, and rushed relationship developments with very cliched flashbacks to boot. Moreover, the “clothes explosion” staple found in every “Shokugeki no Souma” anime gets out of hand in this season - the “PG13 or older” rating is definitely off by at least 3 years; while I would like to illustrate what I mean, I’d rather my blog remain SFW.

Step-by-step guide to figure out who wins a round of Shokugeki in “Shokugeki no Souma: Gou no Sara”

Is he/she the last guy to present his/her dish?
If yes, he/she wins. If no, he/she loses.
???
Profit.

The anime is extremely predictable; all you need to do is to keep the following facts in mind:

Souma is a main character, he cannot lose;
Unless the opponent is Erina, then he may lose.
If the main antagonist is involved without Souma, the antagonist wins.
If the main antagonist faces off the main character, then the main character wins.
Historic capabilities and expected growth does not matter.

BAM, you can now guess the outcomes of any plot presented to you in the anime.

Who matters?

When watching the anime, you can tell that certain scenes exist solely to develop one aspect of a plot device used later in the anime. For example, there was a scene used specifically to highlight how powerful the antagonist’s clique was - they spent 9/10 of the entire episode on each member of the clique, how good their culinary skills were, and how easily they were able to pass challenges that other chefs cannot. Then, out of a sudden, “ok so the three of you from Totsuki also pass kekw” - this makes the scene seem narrow in purpose, and difficult to find engaging if not for the crazy styles of cooking shown in the episode.

Souma, being the main character, also gets incredibly lucky on many occasions; for example, in one scene, he was given two chances to pass a challenge. He fails the first time, and uses the same philosophy to pass the second time. In another instance, Souma basically gambled on fried rice to win a competition round, while the opponent loses despite being far more experience with culinary skills from all over the world - either Souma reached godhood, which contradicts his losing streak with his seniors, or somehow “dedicating cooking to someone” meant an automatic boost in cooking skills.

The anime actually covers two concurrent events, but only explains that by hurling a large info-dump towards the viewer at the end of the season. This could have been executed better, as it seems to imply that only the main character’s stories really matter. In fairness, it gives the side-characters alibis so that the story can be concluded in whole.

Villain Backstory + Motivations

I personally find the backstory and the (true) motivations of the villain quite cliched. I also don’t think that it justifies how the villain managed to gain the amount of power he did, and why he is so driven. There are not enough story elements to piece together the villain’s culinary growth into what is effectively a deity in the food world.

Relationship development

There was no relationship development to speak of for 24 episodes; then suddenly, in episode 25, families reunite, love is in the air, and everyone is proud to be in the same generation as Souma despite Souma not even being present for any relationship development to take place.

Just, how exactly did they go from enemies to family?

Flashbacks

There is way too many flashbacks in this season. Granted, the characters can’t exactly go through the other methods of character development otherwise, given the nature and premise of the anime.

Conclusion

“Shokugeki no Souma: Gou no Sara” is the finale season of the entire “Shokugeki no Souma” series. Hence, I appreciate its existence as a series closer - if you have watched “Shokugeki no Souma” religiously up till “Shokugeki no Souma: Shin no Sara”, then you should watch this anime as well.

The anime is lacking in terms of story quality based on the points I discussed above - ranging from predictability, to poor methods of character building, to the sheer plot armor Souma possess.

Regardless, the series as a whole has been phenomenal!

Happy Coding

CodingIndex