Common Name: Shokugeki no Soma: Third Plate
Alternative names: Food Wars! The Third Plate, Food Wars! The Third Plate - The Toutsuki Train Arc -, Shokugeki no Soma: San no Sara, Shokugeki no Soma: San no Sara - Toutsuki Ressha-hen
Score: 7/10, 3/5
Length: 1 Season of 24 Episodes, with a hiatus between each cour, or 2 Seasons of 12 Episodes
Genre: Foodie, Action, Drama, Comedy, Shounen, Ecchi
Summary: Following the events of the Fall Elections and the Stagiaire, things have still not calmed down for the first years of Toutsuki Academy. Never giving the students a moment's pause, the Lunar Festival, where students get to run a food stall for locals and bigwigs alike, and Advancement Exams, which features a multi-staged journey through Hokkaido, are right around the corner. Yet, as if these events weren't hard enough already, things have only grown more difficult now that Soma has gained the attention and ire of the entire Elite 10. What's worse, Toutsuki Academy itself is under attack from within as the school's administration is overturned within a single night at the hands of Erina's father. Now, things are changing for the worse as Nakiri Azami turns all of the school on its head, implementing a plan to fundamentally change the gourmet world and weed out those that would stand against his absolute control. Still, Yukihira Soma has never been one to turn down a real challenge and this is about as real as it gets. One mistake and his entire culinary career would be forfeit.
Review: Simultaneously the lowest and highest points of the Shokugeki no Soma series, the combined cours/separate seasons that make up the Third Plate individually prove how following a formula can be detrimental and beneficial to a series depending on how that formula varies over time. The series mainly follows the same competitive win-loss pattern found in the previous seasons, namely that Soma continually follows a formula of proving his strength, getting in over his head, and eking out a win over a technicality when the stakes are as high as they can get. Thus, unfortunately, that emotional roller-coaster eventually grew to feel dull and predictable right up to the moment the show decided to change the dynamic and raised the stakes to a truly impressive level. What's more than that, the show's fairly large cast of characters started to see some significant growth and development to the point that they felt almost like entirely new people in some circumstances. So, in other words, there's a lot to criticize about this show but, eventually, we get an equal amount to praise as the second half of the third season/fourth season started chugging along.
Heh, chugging along, like a train. I'm so clever.
Where the first cour is basically just more of the same old Soma, just with some new faces added for variety with little actual threat, the series actively suffered to the point of me losing interest in the series as a whole. While the new cast amped things up, given their ranking in the school, they rarely ever engaged with Soma and haughtily boasted their vast superiority without ever giving us a reason to believe their claim to fame. We were never given a solid reason to find them as threatening or interesting as the foes seen in the Fall Elections since none of them featured a personality or show of skill beyond acting like a bunch of dorks who couldn't even bother to take Soma seriously. Put frankly, the big conflict of the first half meant little at all and dragged on forever specifically because there was never a solid threat to Soma's education since he was already playing in his element. From episode one, we understood that he was insanely good because of his experience working in a diner. The Stagiaire only reaffirmed that fact as he worked as a high-class restaurant. So, there was little reason to worry about him struggling when it came to him facing off in a challenge of who can run the best, most desired dinner. With that as the start of the second season, I had lost most of my interest in the show to particularly care about the sudden political changes to the show or Erina's past coming to light as her comedically evil and abusive father took the stage. Perhaps this continued lack of interest was indicative of the same lack of interest Azami showed in Soma or anyone beyond Erina and himself. It was only when Azami and his CENTRAL, basically food nazi, forces turned their attentions on Soma did I remotely care about the harm he was doing to Toutsuki since those who suffered under him were basically just one-off characters and background characters that I had little to no investment in.
Though I will admit that I did find the show's depiction of Azami as the Satan of food shounen
laughable in both the best and worst ways possible.
Luckily, once the season's group of big bads finally decide to treat Soma and his friends as a considerable threat, things finally started to become interesting and engaging. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the "Train Arc" is the best this anime has ever gotten. While it was still shounen nonsense, through and through, it felt like there were actual stakes this time around. There was a solid reason to believe that Soma might finally have bitten off more than he can chew. In fact, it's pretty much stated that he did do just that, but he still wins the day wth the help of his friends on top of his own, natural skills. This theme of friendship, while a point that exists in most of the show, really comes to a head this arc as the whole of Polar Star are forced to fight for their lives as they tackle hurdle after hurdle that Azami and CENTRAL throw at them with the power of friendship. What I think I liked most about this season was the simple fact that, along with this validation of the friendships Soma has created, intentionally or otherwise, we get to see these characters undergo a considerable amount of growth and change under pressure. While, yes, this change would not have been possible or nearly as compelling without the first cour's efforts to explain the history between Erina and her father, it doesn't feel satisfying until his presence forces her to act, as opposed to sneering from the sidelines as she has always done until now. Now, Erina feels like a character on par with Soma, the Aldinis, and Megumin, finally giving me a reason to care about her beyond her being a half-assed tsundere love interest. Yet Erina isn't the only character to see the spotlight this season. Takumi Aldini and Hiyama Akira are given a considerable amount of attention and a showcase to see how each has grown since the Fall Elections. Even the members of the former Elite 10, now just the heads of CENTRAL, feel like actual villains with quirks and skills that make them seem like a significant threat to the protagonists. All around, this cour did a fantastic job managing its tone, pace, and characters; so much so, in fact, that it managed to rekindle my waning interest.
(Un)Fortunately, since the second cour bumped all the good stuff up to 11,
some other aspects (i.e. the smut) also needed to improve just to keep pace.
As much as I'd love to cry foul at this show's horrible use of its female cast for quick, cheap ecchi, I know well enough by now that my biggest complaint with this series is also half the reason people watch this show in the first place. So, moving past that quip, I'll simply state that I think the third season did a fair job overall. While the first cour made me want to give up on his garbage, the second had me eating out of its hand. It managed to throw a few curve balls I hadn't expected and made things feel tense and legitimately compelling. If the next season, since there's no question that there will be one at this point, meets the same level of quality the second half of Season 3 gave me, I'll be a happy camper. Granted, there's always the threat of this show growing bland and predictable again, so I'll just say I'm cautiously optimistic from here on in.