FOOD WARS! THE SECOND PLATE – EPISODES 2 AND 3 (REVIEW)
By: ZelyhonSo, having fallen behind due to real life getting in the way, I’m going to try to catch up with Food Wars by going through two episodes every other day until I’m caught back up with the show. So, let’s start in on Food Wars! The Second Plate - Episodes 2 and 3![yasr_multiset setid=11] Episode 2:
We continue right into the next match of the Quarterfinals, with Megumi going against Ryo in Battle Ramen. The pacing of the cooking and the match in general felt somewhat better this episode than the first one. I think that a big part of that comes from both the fact that we don’t need to reintroduce what is going on and the setting in general, so it felt much more focused on the actual match. This is in addition to giving a bit of Ryo’s backstory and the beginnings of how he got involved with Alice and, eventually, Totsuki. I liked how they handled his story and how it was directed along with the actual competition itself.
Part of why the pacing felt better to me is that it didn’t feel like there needed to be as much buildup for this match. Ryo comes in as the relative unknown. He’s Alice’s assistant and doesn’t seem like we need to spent as much time on the buildup as I’d have liked to see for Alice vs. Soma last episode. We also allow the episode to spill over, albeit briefly, into the next episode, which give a bit more time than the first match. Altogether, the episode felt like a step in the direction I wanted to see from the first episode with regards to pacing, even if we still dealt with the majority of the match in a single episode.
Episode 3:
Third episode, third quarterfinal match done. This one was understandably the shortest. While Hisako has been around the whole series, neither she nor Akira are main characters (yet) the same way that Megumi, Soma, or even Takumi are. As such, their episode doesn’t get the same focus that the other matches did. That felt fine, though, given that it was just intended to show more of Akira for the tournament and set some stuff up for the future.
I did quite enjoy their introduction of Subaru. I hadn’t given much thought to the voice that they’d pick out for him, but I like it. He’s one of those voice actors I’ve heard everywhere, but can’t place the primary one I know him from. The way that they actually portrayed Subaru this episode was suitably both amusing and creepy. A lot of that does come from the manga, but they did an excellent job actually putting it across on-screen. It did a lot to capture his character in a very short amount of time. I’m very much looking forward to his match in the next episode.
Animation-wise, the show continues to do well. The cooking action is well done and conveys the energy and actions of the chefs quite well (particularly notable with Ryo). The dishes continue to look delicious and make me hungry unless I eat dinner right before watching. I will never stop being amused by the visualizations of the food, including Gamera-Hisako in particular.
VERDICT: The season continues at a quite quick pace, but continues to live up to its relatively high standards.
FOOD VERDICT EPISODE 2: I would take Ryo’s dish over Megumi’s. His ramen seemed to be more interesting to me, and any dish that uses mushrooms as a primary ingredient can stay away from me, please.
FOOD VERDICT EPISODE 3: As great as a kebab burger sounds, especially with the right spices, I’m just too curious what a turtle burger with a bun like that would taste like to pick anything else.