Shokugeki no Souma: Shin no Sara

Another Plate, another panning shot yet the culmination of one of the best character arcs yet!.

So Shokugeki no Souma Shin no Sama leaves off right where the Totsuki Ressha-hen season in where the tournament for the fate of the rebels contines and well it's roughly what you'd expect but LA will note this season did improve slightly even if they continue to use panning shots though utlize it when they can't think of any new way of showing the transitions which is most of the time unfortunately.

The 4th Plate visually is the same with some flourishes in the Shokugeki's here and there but where it ... lacks in animation, the characters gets some well deserved mentions, from Megumi, Takumi, Rindou, Tsukasa, Isshiki and finally ERINA having the the best character resolution to her rebellion to her father with this arc.

Though her rebellion started during the Totsuki Ressha-hen, once Erina steps up to the plate (PUN) she not only develops as a character but since this season is much more about the rebels and their camaraderie AS well as the Elite Ten Council and why they cook the way they cook and in some instances how Azami influenced them into his side, you'd thought it was SOUMA who would get the glory of this tournament, no we forgot how this all started and with Erina being the face of the rebellion like daughter to her overbearing father, what Erina cooks for him at the final bout not only shows off Erina's trust in her friends, but shows off her rebellion in full force and all the hopes and dreams that will crush Azami's authoritarian take on cooking and just MAN does that final bout delivered, LA KNEW investing into Erina (from what LA remembered LA started getting invested at the tail end of the third plate) was worth it and culminated and essentially exploded here in all of Erina's glory.

This season though the payoff was great, does still have it's flaws, one LA well get into a bit later. The pacing of the tournament bouts if anything seemed really rushed, from Isshiki and Tsukasa's bout to Rindou vs. Takumi is glossed upon (showing no prep to give us a hint to hows it's made etc.) and the thing is most of the bouts this season was or would have been interesting if not for it's rushed pacing, though the pacing doesn't ruin Erina's final bout, but everything leading up to it...LA can't ignore it and yes does sorta ruin elements of those season much like the previous 2 or 3 seasons before it.

And now for the elephant in the room and that is animation. Well it was done once again by JC Staff and welllllllll yeah the panning shots isn't going away and admittedly uses it the majority of the time, but where the panning shots are prevalent, the battles and especially the focus on the food (not so much on the prep anyways) is still great and of course the foodgasms were great and expected for Shokugeki no Souma for all manner of reasons. Overall same as Totsuki Ressha-hen, not much has changed for animation which is a damn shame since the plot and it's characters is now holding this season up while the animation is inbetween lazy to "trying".

The voice cast is back and LA will give the MVP's here as there isn't much to say considering the voice cast is pretty much intact and hasn't changed "as much". LA will give out the obvious, being Hisako Kanemoto as Erina, Miniami Takahashi as Megumi, Shizuka Ito as Rindou and Show Hayami as Azami.

The 4th Plate was essentially the payoff season or in culinary terms, the main dish for LA and man besides some messy side dishes of elements, the MEAT of this season was excellent with great character development seasonings, great battles though slightly underpinned by rushing the sauce and the presentation was PANNED as per usual and of course great aftertaste at the end.

There's another plate?...SIGN LA UP!...

Erina best girl, can't change LA's mind.

Out of all the anime that have come out this year, I think this was the biggest disappointment for me. After 3 seasons of slowly diminishing quality, I was worried that this season was going to be a slog to get through. When I say that though, I was still hopeful. I mean, they were going to tackle an arc from which I had heard was a decent arc. It could've been good but J.C Staff really went out of their way to make this one of the cheapest and lazy productions I've seen in a while. I hate saying that for a show I ... used to love. I loved the characters, I loved the foodgasms and yeah, the animation wasn't the worst, but it at least looks decent enough.

This season, I truly think J.C Staff didn't care about this show. With the last three seasons, there were some production issues, but there was at least solid music and some good shots here and there. With this season? If feels like they got out a powerpoint presentation template and just stuck the clips of the show they had into said template. Hell, I can break down a good amount of episodes of this season with bullet points.

- We are introduced to the main competitors

- We see the main ingredient

- Some words from the peanut gallery

-Some trash talk

- A flashback here or there to one of the totsuki ten because the shows forgot to develop literally any of them minus Tsukasa and Rindo, I guess.

- More words from the peanut gallery

- Chefs show off their dishes

- Judges eat and foodgasm

- More words from the peanut gallery about said food and what makes it special

- Judges choose the winner.

- Some more words and repeat the cycle.

The biggest problem with this repetitious cycle is that you slowly see the flaws within it. You realize that no matter what Soma will win his food battles because he's main protagonist. That would be fine if they spaced out the food battles but they don't. You're supposed to watch all of these food battles happen with the same repetitious cycle and it's just a bore. The show ended up this year as background noise for me. Just like how the peanut gallery was this season

Let's talk about that peanut gallery because if you wanted any characters like Mito, Ryo, Alice, Hisako, and anyone apart of the dorm anything this season, well that sucks. Literally all these characters do this season is sitting behind literal character jail and spout out stuff about the food they make. It's probably the worst crime that this season does because the main strength of this show is its characters and them interacting off one another. It's insanely stupid and for a solid eleven episodes, it's just sad to watch characters that I love as Hisako do jack for the majority of the season.

This then leads into the actual team rebel squad who consists of Takumi, Soma, Erina, Megumi, Kuga, Isshiki, Mimasaka and some random guy. Yeah, this show decides to use this arc to introduce another new character and instead of giving more interest in any of their other characters. "Yeah Mito and Alice haven't done much in a while and some characters like Ryo who are rivals to Soma have done zero anything with Soma but who cares! We need more one off characters!" - Some guy that works on Food wars. I also realized that in this show, I don't believe Megumi has one a single food battle that wasn't an election. In actual food battles, she has won none. That is stupid and something that pissed me off while watching her getting beat by some girl that uses cat paws as oven mitts.

Yeah, let's talk about the Ten because they're all forgettable. The only ones exempt from this are Tsukasa and Rindo, I guess. Thier not funny and Tsukasa's whole thing is dumb. I only liked Rindo to an extent. Azami is stupidly evil to the point where he ruins the tone of the show and while he does add to one of the more positive things about this season, he's not that interesting of a villain. Eizan was better.

As much as I have been complaining about this season for its soulless production, for its constant amount of throwing characters into the show without thinking about the characters in literal jail or even the diminishing quality of foodgasms and backgrounds which are generic to letter, there are some positives. Erina's whole arc is finally done with and it feels satisfying. While Megumi still hasn't won a single food battle, Takumi has and that was cool. The music stays pretty solid and the OP was solid, though a little samey.

Overall, this season was a big disappointment. Flat production, waste of characters and the constant adding of one-offs and this overall feeling of emptiness. It's sad for a show that had such solid first and second seasons. While season 3 wasn't great, it was still fun to an extent. This felt like such a waste of time. It's a shame. I can't wait for the fifth season because it apparently gets worse.

Story: 5/10
Art: 3/10
Sound: 6/10
Character: 6/10
Enjoyment: 5/10
Overall: 5/10

This series has scarred me so badly that it motivated me to write my first anime review. Anytime I see an actual good anime, I think about this one and what it could have been. I will now be using this as my measuring stick for a terrible anime.

Let me start by saying that I love Shokugeki no Soma. I love cooking, I like anime, I like hentai, and I love the manga. Despite all this, JC has done their damn hardest to make this season as unwatchable and as unenjoyable as possible.

This isn't an anime. There is hardly any animation. This is ... a slideshow with moving mouths, and motion sickness-inducing pan on every. single. frame. I know this is a cooking anime, but holy crap there does not need to be this many pans. There isn't even a pan that stops at the end to let your eyes rest for a moment; there is a constant slight motion throughout every shot. Since nothing is ever still, you get a feeling of uneasiness and motion sickness, which makes the whole thing near impossible to watch or enjoy.

This constant panning is a pathetic attempt to make it look like there is some motion happening to compensate for the fact that nothing is animated. An egregious example would be when Saito, the samurai chef, does a 360-degree slash through ingredients to show his proficiency. THEY COULDN'T EVEN BE ASSED TO ANIMATE HIM DRAWING HIS SWORD. He just stands completely still, as a circular slash of light comes out. That's it.

They have somehow managed to achieve the worst of both worlds in terms of pacing. Somehow, you feel like it's extraordinarily boring and that nothing is ever happening due to the animation, while also feeling that the story is extremely rushed. There were a ton of moments that I was very hyped for while reading the manga that happened this arc, but they all fell flat due to the sheer laziness of the animation staff. If it was properly animated and the staff actually gave a shit like in season 1, this would have been an easy 9, but alas, this is what we get.