I completely disagree with this. If a first year with such an 'unrefined' style of cooking surpassed Azami's First Seat, someone he obviously recognizes as a gourmet chef, it'd be 1000x the blow Ryo dealt them by surviving the purges. I also liked the insight into the Elite 10 mindset. They don't give a shit what Azami does to the Academy as long as they can use it to further their own cooking.

That said I can see this going one of two ways. Erina is asked to judge and she shuts it down. Or she does judge and chooses Soma's side, picking his dish over Tsukasa's. Soma obviously tastes Tsuaka's cooking, gets pissed at Erina and calls the whole thing off. Wins but he loses.

 

I read it as Soma getting completely outplayed, lol. Win, he's with central, lose... He's with central...

 

There's no way Souma is going to win, not this soon.

Meaning this is being railroaded to death to bring Souma into Central, or it's been played for drama and will be stopped/prevented.

 

Eagerly looking forward to it, lol.

 

No, I don't expect that he would. If Souma loses to Tsukasa and gets dragooned into Central, I'd have to imagine they'd waste no time in putting him to work in the purges. Good way to utterly demoralize the opposition, having its (former) inspirational leader defeating them with Central-approved dishes. There is the risk of Souma throwing matches, but I don't think he would. Too much pride and honor to shit on his word like that.

I'd expect Hayama to be the major victim of this. Make Souma face him in a shokugeki and give him a 'superior' Elite Ten level dish to use. Souma wins in a rout and forces the Shiomi Seminar to disband, gets a completely hollow win over Hayama and gets to feel like utter shit about it. Seriously, if this match with Tsukasa ends badly for Souma then I hope the author pulls no punches in grinding Souma's face in shit over it. Even if Souma gets out of this situation, though, Hayama is probably fucked. I could see Tsukasa personally taking that match and decimating Spice Boy just to dick with Souma.

Pissed would be a major understatement in the latter case. Souma's entire reason for sticking around Tootsuki is to get Erina to acknowledge his cooking. If she pretends to do that on a well-intentioned lie...hoo boy. That's going to be like Sakura's fake love confession all over again.

If it does happen, Souma will definitely not accept the judgement and will either forfeit and submit himself to Tsukasa's terms or at least demand a rematch.

 

I rather think they are going to get interrupted or something. I don't see him winning this. His friends just beat one of the secondary bosses henchman and now Soma is supposed to win against their heavy hitter in the students? Yeah, not happening, especially since this guy was build up pretty hard ever since he was introduced, heck, indirectly ever since the Elite 10 were introduced as a concept.

The whole arc seems a bit rushed to me anyway. The Elite 10 as a whole should have been a year two problem, not halfway through year one.

So, yeah, don't see Soma pulling a victory here and if he does, well, that would be super-disappointing and contrived.

In case of his loss, I guess there is some potential there, having him try to subvert First Seat with subtetly but that's not Soma and I don't see him playing second fiddle for long.

I guess this could pave the way for a rescue arc, of sorts. Seat 3 or Erina could challenge Seat 1 in order to win Soma's freedom. Would be a nice way to bring Erina truly into the fold, to have her rescue Soma now, in order to set up Soma's inevitable rescue of her from her father later on as to not have her be just the damsel defrosting ice queen.

 

Awesome chapter. Everyone in universe keeps hanging shit on Soma, but that instant where he went all shifty-eyed-detective was awesome. While everyone's just getting mad, he's getting intel.

That bambi image was fucked up!

Dat Hisako fanservice... :3

Those two in general being adorably rotten ninja is funny. Can't wait for the two to turn to them and ask them to judge.

 

Holy shit what an awesome chapter. Tsukasa is properly being played up, but the author is telling us not to give up on Souma just yet. I ... don't know if I believe. But I want to.

That image of knight Tsukasa was really fucking cool. The author is awesome with imagery like that.

Really fucking hyped for next chapter.

Edit: Also, the true scope of Azami's plan is revealed. Appropriately ambitious, I suppose.

 

This is increasingly becoming a fight that Souma really needs to win as the protagonist, yet shouldn't be able to.

 

But muuuum, the food smells so goooood!

 

I bet after Souma loses, Erina shows up and says that since it was just a spur of the moment, non-official shokugeki, more of a fight between two guys, it's not actually valid. Really, risking the first seat's position in a little shokugeki essentially in the dark in a little classroom, no way that's acceptable.

 

I think there's certainly a "I'm the goddamn First Seat, I can do whatever the fuck I want" rule involved here somewhere.

 

I bet Rindou-chan saves the day.

 

Awwww, Soma went first...

*spoiler* means he loses T_T

I find the two stooge's commentary pretty adorable/amusing too.

 

I wish the specialty/dish 'only Yukihira Souma can create' moment had been saved for a later match where he's not blatantly being positioned to lose. Using it here, placed alongside all of that flashback to his being acknowledged by Shinomiya, is going to make him look extremely second rate if he doesn't win.

I don't care for what should be one of the MC's crowning moments of awesome being shit on for the sake of hyping up some side character.

Suppose I should wait and see what actually happens before projecting too much criticism, though?

 

Hmm, I don't think it will be as simple as Soma losing or just winning.

What with Soma creating a completely personal, unique dish, my (vague) prediction is that Tsukasa will win, but will be sufficiently impressed by Soma's creativity that he will decide not to turn him into a support cook and snuff him out a chef of his own right.

Or something like that.

 

Gonna be interesting to see how this duel is resolved. Soma beating the First Seat would be really awful, but on the hand Soma being forced to join the Central faction would be rather bizarre.