Cloud of Muses

Shokugeki no Soma Volume 1 Manga Image taken from Google Images

In the manga market, there aren’t many mangas revolving about cooking, even if there are, those are not of top notch. What I meant by top-notch is that the main focus of the manga must be basically about culinary and food, not just a beautiful work of art topped heavily with fan service and romance with just a tiny dash of culinary knowledge. These mangas are certainly ‘deceptive’ as they are actually cheating the readers by luring them to think that the manga is actually about culinary.

However, in actual fact it isn’t!

The best example though isn’t a culinary manga is La Corda D’ Oro (The Golden String) which gotten quite a spotlight in Animax Channel as a music-based anime/manga. I was definitely excited to watch it after going through Nodame Cantabile (another music-based anime/manga).

My expectations were high on it and I was ready to receive in-depth knowledge about music through the anime (or at least hearing some really good, authentic classical music). Sadly, it was a letdown.

So back to the topic, Shokugeki no Soma, also known as Food Wars! is a shounen manga revolving around the culinary world. It is written by YutoTsukada, illustrated by Shun Saeki and the recipes are provided by Yuki Morisaki.

Do know that although the series has an anime too, the review is basically on the manga.
The story focuses on the protagonist, Yukihira Soma, a 15 year old boy who inspires to be a greater chef than his father and lead their family’s diner, Yukihira Diner. Soon, the plot unfolds with his father forcefully enrols him into a prestigious culinary school where only 10% of the students graduate. Hence, the mangaka draws our attention on whether will Yukihira Soma graduate the school and be a top chef or will he fail?

The storyline is indeed satisfying with equal amounts of drama and cliff-hangers. However, sometimes it gets a bit predictable and repetitive with certain arcs especially at the current Hokkaido Arc where the readers somehow could predict that Soma will definitely be able to pass the hurdles easily. Somehow, I could no longer feel any excitement when reading certain story arcs as I have already known that, our protagonist will be safe and sound.

One of the most iconic scenes of the manga Image taken from Google Images

Just like many of the other main characters of shounen manga, Soma shares the same persona, being a witty genius with good heart and will do anything to protect his friends and family. Hence, leading to the déjà vu feels when reading the manga. The manga is rather just another branch of the ever sucessful shounen manga- to have a young and hot-blooded protagonist with his ambitious goal of becoming the best ___ (depends on the type of story).

As stated previously, Soma’s dream is to be a top rated chef like his father. Although this formula is a rather cliché formula in many shounen mangas, people still read them.

The question is why? In my opinion, I believed it somehow gives readers a chance to recollect their past when they once shared an almost similar dream to the protagonist.

If you read closer, you will notice the Jojo Bizarre Adventure gag Image taken from Google Images

Moreover, the characters have vibrant personalities but one can’t really expect much from them judging that the manga is labelled as a shounen manga. We have the typical tsundere, sarcastic noble background female character called Erina, the meek, shy yet talented student, Megumi, the cool with exceptional cooking skills, Jouichirou (Soma’s dad, duh) and the half-Japanese, pretty male sidekick, Takumi. All these characters can be found in most shounen manga, packaged with different styles but they are basically sharing the same personalities.

But, just like many of manga readers, I never get bored facing the same kind of characters. Perhaps it is due to my personal preference but yeah, the mangaka has potrayed them to be at most of the time, entertaining to be read and visualised.

Nevertheless, the cooking techniques featured in this manga is 100% legit and believable. But this manga is not your average cooking manga where a beginner can learn a bit or two about cooking from it. The techniques implied are totally of intermediate and professional level similar to what we usually get to see in the Master Chef series or any other famous cooking shows by top-rated chefs. It goes in-depth in the culinary world, which proves the level of research done by the mangaka and his team. The characters cooking skills are made to be believable and nothing seemed illogical.

Comparing Shokugeki no Soma and two of the top cooking manga, Toriko and Yakitate Japan!, it is definitely the most reasonable manga with logical cooking abilities (thanks to the mangaka who has referred to many reliable culinary sources for the story). In Toriko, we are introduced to a world that seemed too good to be true ( eg. a fruit whose a drop of its juice is able to fill an Olympic swimming pool and an island where everything is naturally alcohol-based.)

Omellete Souffle Image taken from Google Images

Meanwhile in Yakitate Japan!, though the plot about bakers are rather normal with OK bread-baking techniques (not much details are given), the story isn’t logical! We have breads that are able to allow one to time travel, change the shape of a person’s body and character!

How is that possible?!

Chaliapin Steak Rice Image taken from Google Images

So if you are the kind of reader who seeks for a good culinary manga with believable storyline, I would recommend Shokugeki no Soma. It is a decent cooking-based manga with quite amusing characters and awesome cooking scenes. Moreover, the food art looks really good!

Yuto Tsukuda, the mangaka has once said in the beginning of the manga that he had put in great effort in producing Shokugeki no Soma. In order to create the manga, he had read many autobiographies of famous chefs, wondering about the drama hidden behind the eye-catching and heavenly dishes and even tried to cook those dishes mentioned in the manga!

Rainbow Terrine Image taken from Google Images

Let’s sit back and appreciate Tsukuda’s hard work as we wait and see how the story unfolds. I would be rather disappointed to see the manga ends ‘tragically’ like Yakitate Japan! in which the mangaka rushed the story and ended up with a badly planned ending.

By the way, for those who would like to try on Soma and his friends’ recipes, Tsukuda and team have released a special book from Volume 1 to 6 containing all recipes from Shokugeki no Soma.

Someone has shared the link in Reddit. Here is the link to the post.

Happy cooking!

Food porn hahaha Image taken from Google Images

Cloud of Muses Rating
Story               8.5/10
Art                   4/5
Characters       7.5/10
Total score       20/25



To read more reviews of the manga by other bloggers, click here! 

   
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Read the manga here!

You can also catch up with Shokugeki no Soma’s anime here!


Watch Shokugeki no Soma anime trailer here!