FOOD WARS! THE SECOND PLATE – EPISODES 4 AND 5 (REVIEW)
By: ZelyhonSo, here we are with another two episodes of Food Wars! The Second Plate. In general, I have been much happier with the pacing of the show since the first episode. I may have been a bit harsh on it in retrospect, since it just jumped right into the action. The rest of the series has felt fast, but not unnaturally so. It's not lingering too long on any specific fights and drawing them out the way that shounen battle series can sometimes do. Anyways, here are my thoughts on Food Wars! The Second Plate Episodes 4 and 5.
EPISODE 4
This episode does quite a good job of showing us the other side of Subaru's character. We've caught that he's absurdly meticulous in earlier episodes. This episodes shows how that relates to his cooking style and his Shokugeki record. We see how he gets into the head of his opponent and anticipates every little aspect of their dish, up to and including what they will do when they figure out that his specialty is improving on their specialty. They do a quite effective job of using the imagery to reinforce just how sadistic he makes it. He's not doing this because he has no better ideas. He's doing this to break them. It makes for an effective and threatening villain for a series like this.
Takumi does well for himself in this episode in standing up for his brother, but in the face of Subaru's mimicry, he can't quite overcome that obstacle. However, they do a good job of showing that, even when he loses the match, he improvised and came up with an interesting and impressive innovation with limited time and resources. It's nice when a series like this has the rival (or one of them) lose to show how much of a threat the new villain is, but does it in a way that doesn't just completely belittle someone who is supposed to be a serious competitor for the main character. The stinger at the end of the credits is an important moment too, where we get to see exactly the stakes that are on the line for the next portion of this arc.
Food-wise, desert has never been my "meal" of choice. I dabble in cooking, but baking and most deserts are an area that I really haven't experimented much with. From what I understand, though, cooking deserts like that can be very, very difficult. Both of the semifreddo looked tasty and I'd have gladly had either.
EPISODE 5
In addition to the preparation for the semi-final match between Soma and Subaru, we also get more of Erina as a character here. I enjoyed getting more of her character than just the distant, uncaring end-ish goal for Soma to aim for. We get to see more of her thoughts on Hisako and a hobby unrelated to cooking. It's nice to get more dimensions on her character after she's mostly been lurking for a season and change. In addition to that, she starts living up to some of the buildup the series has given her. She is thoroughly unimpressed by Soma's beef stew, and it's nice that Soma isn't just always on the level that will cause foodgasms from someone with as refined a palate as we've been told she has. It was also interesting to me that the dish he made for her to get into the academy was from Yukihira's menu, while the beef stew is the first (and possibly only?) item of Soma's creation on the menu. Thus, we can infer that the furikake rice from episode 2 of the first season was one of Joichiro's recipes. This single scene thus does a lot for several characters who have been hanging around the margins of the series and is much appreciated.
Speaking of side characters like that, we get to meet the judges for the semi-finals and we get some familiar faces back. It's fun to see the dynamics between the three familiar judges and our two newcomers from different years and generations. While there will be more to come with them, even the brief pieces we get point out this is going to be an interesting judging. Plus, on a related note to the previous paragraph, we know that Judge Dojima is very familiar with Joichiro and his style of cooking, which lends an interesting dynamic when he has to judge his son and someone imitating his son.
Which leaves us with Subaru again, who is always good for a laugh with his image training and sadism. Seeing Subaru acting like Soma in the restaurant was very entertaining when juxtaposed with his later attitude once they made it to the Shokugeki. While we haven't gotten as much of him yet, it's still early in the match with plenty of twists and turns left to go. There's plenty of battle left when Iron Chef America Food Wars returns!
Verdict: A fun pair of episodes that ramps up the momentum and keeps things moving briskly!
Food Verdicts: The Semifreddo's were nearly identical, so there's not as much point in picking one. And the stew's not done yet.