Le voile est enfin le lever sur le professeur Suzuki qui se révèle être en réalité Asahi Saiba, l'instigateur des arrivés des cuisiniers noires au Japon. Soma promet de se venger de lui lors de The Blue, la compétition culinaire mondiale, et il sera accompagné de ses amis et d'un ancien élève de Totsuki.
This is getting a lot harder for everyone... I also think Soma deserves more from his past dish. Damn that lady had no more money and just gave the exact amount.. I was even so excited to know that at least he will go nearer to Tsukasa's price.. However the 3rd gate is just a real pain. A real mess up situation.. I just hope Soma will be able to find a way for this... My gosh... I'm getting excited and nervous at the same time.
An slight course correction but then it falls back into ridiculousness.
World: The art is still a bit off, the tone is completely different, this book went from a school book to a yakuza manga and it’s art style is matched. The world building here is trying to course correct and put some logic and structure back to the insanity and stupidity that is the idea of the noir chef. The tournament idea is okay with the different doors to reach the castle, that piece of the world building feels like this series, but the tasks themselves are ridiculous and make no sense once again. in the past the tastes themselves served a purpose to teach students something, from buffet style to creating new menu items. The combini challenge makes no logical sense and it’s stupid. Add to the fact that this book has been hitting us so hard with the ranking of the Totsuki 10 for the last 30+ books and suddenly there is another group which has never been allowed in the Blue that is ranked higher than them...the logic leaps are ridiculous.
Story: The story tries to fix it’s main problem by having Dad come talk to Soma and say he’s already beat him since he’s the first seat, that makes no sense even in the internal logic of the world. Then there’s the Blue competition which starts off with an interesting idea and set up but the challenges themselves I’ve already discussed above as being absurd and pointless where as older book in the series had a point to the challenges and lessons were learned, nothing is learned in the combini challenge. Then there’s the fact that as much as I love Megumi and Aldini, they are invited and Kurokiba and Hayama are not? That makes no logical sense in the book also since they were so highly touted in the books. And we end with the stupid chainsaw cooking challenge, what the fuck is this. So far the cooking in this series has been over the top but also realistic causes the things used made sense...this book has devolved into a chainsaw with spices in it to cut the meat, what the fucking fuck is wrong with the writing? Did he suffer a blow to the head?
Characters: The characters are not acting the way they should and all the nice pieces that this book was known for, the teamwork and friendship of Polaris and all the wonderful characters are all gone and it’s just the Soma show. Even Megumi and Aldini are shuffled aside. Asahi is a stupid character and his mission to marry Erina is creepy and the fact that this book has been up to book 30 trying to free Erina and make her an independent and free woman is just in 3 books has made her a princess in a tower is a disservice to this character and clearly a step way way backward. The entire arc of Erina is wiped away by her just sitting there, there is no reason to let Asahi do as he please and there is nothing hanging over Erina’s head to not just have her walk out and say “fuck this, why do I care”. These characters are being assassinated so quickly and by it’s creator, it’s a travesty.
This book is getting to the point that it’s become a shadow if itself and bordering on a parody.
The final tournament is underway! Some familiar faces return, some colorful new villains emerge, and we are supposed to be wondering who is the mysterious Book Master running the whole thing. It's good to see that Soma still has a burning competitive streak and is willing to learn from his mistakes, but the series seems to be coasting out with just another competition and the usual flashes of fan service as a new batch of judges have orgasmic reactions to the food.
The creators are doing more of the same instead of stepping up their game. Fortunately, that "same" is still pretty good.
Things I loved: Soma getting mad about things nobody else does. Soma getting fired up over things that nobody else does. Takumi getting mad over Soma getting into a stare down with someone else. Tsukasa (I don't know, I just like him!).
I keep thinking, how on earth am I still reading this series, and how many different food challenges can Tsukuda possibly come up with? But somehow, I am still completely hooked and still find the endless cooking battles endlessly entertaining. I am looking forward to volume 34 and the showdown between Soma and the Noir!
Food Wars: Shokugeki no Sōma!, Vol. 33 continues where the previous tankōbon left off and contains the next nine chapters (282–290) of the on-going manga series.
The tankōbon begins and concludes the first two rounds in the BLUE competition. The BLUE or Bishoku Leading Under-25 Entrance is a world youth cooking championship where young chefs from all over the world gather and compete against each other. This year the competition is opened to Le Cuisiner Noir and consists of four rounds separated into different gates.
The first round in front of the Third Gate has participates divided into three groups with different judges and has Sōma Yukihira, Megumi Tadokoro, and Takumi Aldīni separated into different groups. All they had to do is please their judges. Sōma had to create the last dish for an elderly chief formally of Le Cuisiner Noir and pass by inspiring the elderly chef ready to die to find a new desire to cook again. Off screen, Takumi passed by creating non-allergenic baby food and Megumi created food that both dog owners and their dogs could eat.
The second round in front of the Second Gate has the passers with those seeded in to compete. Eishi Tsukasa, formerly First Seat of the Council of Ten Masters appears. Their challenge is to take simple ingredients found in convenience store and makes a $100 dish. As a side challenge, Eishi challenge Sōma to see who can create the most expensive dish from these cheap ingredients.
The third round in front of the First Gate reveals the reason Le Cuisiner Noir were invited to participate. Apparently, the Head of the World Gourmet Organization has lost faith with traditional chefs to create something new to excite his taste bud as he has seemingly eaten every dish in every variation and now his hope lies with the Le Cuisiner Noir.
This tankōbon is written by Yūto Tsukuda and illustrated by Shun Saeki. It begins the BLUE competition, which is apparently the biggest international cooking competition with the winner considered the best in the world. There is a nice father-son bonding section at the beginning of the tankōbon between Jōichirō Yukihira and Sōma Yukihira and how proud he is of both his students who both had surpassed him, because Asahi Saiba has defeated him in a shokugeki and Sōma has made it to First Seat, where he only made it to Second Seat of the Council of Ten Masters. More of Asahi Saiba's backstory is revealed.
All in all, Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Sōma, Vol. 33 is a wonderful continuation to a series that seems really intriguing and I can't wait to read more.
El arco de The Blue no me había entusiasmado en el volumen anterior, todo el tema de los cocineros noir se me hacía muy exagerado y sin mucho sentido. En este tomo me queda más claro que seguimos hablando de un manga shonen y que en varios volúmenes nos mostraron tropos típicos de los shonen de peleas. Era obvio que habría una especie de organización malvada de cocineros tenebrosos. Con eso en mente, leí este tomo de una manera menos rígida. Me gustó. Los retos con los que se enfrentan son diferentes a los de los tomos anteriores. Después del arco de casi diez tomos del shokugeki de destacamientos, era obvio que no podían mostrarnos shokugekis así de sencillo, y este formato en el que les ponen un reto interesante que además los noir tienen ventaja, me pareció bueno. En este tomo vemos a Soma enfrentarse a dos de estos retos y me gustó que le costara mucho trabajo el segundo reto, bueno en realidad, ambos retos no fueron sencillos para la mente de Soma. Me hubiera gustado también ver a Aldini y a Tadokoro. No me gustó que no explicaran porque ellos fueron invitados a The Blue, y no por ejemplo Alice, Hayama o Kurokiba. Esos eran candidatos que me imaginaba más que Tadokoro. La aparición de Tsukasa en la segunda puerta me pareció muy acertada, y verlo aplicar sus técnicas elevadas fue muy interesante, además que la química entre él y Soma es muy interesante. Se nota que en el siguiente tomo terminará este arco, me gusta que sea breve, pero creo que si hubieran aplicado esas técnicas para el arco anterior, hubiéramos podido disfrutar un poco más de cosas en este arco y no se sentiría todo tan apresurado.
Okay, so the famous cooking competition, The Blue, isn't what we were previously told, at least not this year. The idea seems to be that not only will it include top private chefs who work for members of the criminal underworld, but it seems oddly weighted in their favor. That's weird, and is out of place in the main themes of the series, but it has the potential for interesting competitions. On the other hand, the pacing is rushed, and we only get to see snippets of the competition. That's too bad, because at least one of the segments looks like it would have been very funny, and the story needs a bit of humor in it at this point. Only seeing what amounts to the punch line is a bit weak, especially after a literal life-or-death story in this volume.
The story is still acceptable so far until it reaches to the final part of the volume. It's a bit difficult for me to accept the 'chainsaw' cooking technique even though I've been reading a lot of unusual techniques all these time in this story. Maybe it's a bit far fetched and unconvincing to me. I will rate higher if not because of that part.
Old enemies return as a supporting cast of sorts? Cool! Having to treat a chainsaw as a viable and successful appliance in the kitchen? Nah, no thanks.
This series has always been over-the-top with its style and description of flavour but for the most part it's been pretty grounded in technique. Yeah, there's a suspension of disbelief, but now secret crime masters using weapons to cook? At some point you draw the line, and while "the gifting" is where I drew the line very far back this is certainly another one, as Food Wars! makes its great attempt to freeform dive through the bottom of the barrel into the molten core of the Earth to create the truest dumpster fire known to man.
Pues Soma va al concurso ese de Blue. El diseño de los chefs de Noir, algunos parecen villanos de comic, hasta el tal Asai llega con look Emo.
Y que Soma pierda en el primer intento del test de la tienda tipo Oxo, no tiene sentido, toda la serie lo hemos visto usar ingredientes de ahi para generar platillos, y que falle así en su primer intento. Y luego intentar hacer como si no hubiera entendido de que se trataba. Muy mal.
Y que onda con el cuchillo motosierra de especias, de risa.
Honestly, not a terrible manga volume, but it just wasn't to my taste (pun intended). If you like the crazy/random humor of One Piece, Toriko, JoJo, etc., then you'd enjoy this, but it's not my cup of tea. Felt like the artists/writers wanted to gauge what would help get the series back up to more readers, but it missed the mark for me.
What I liked about Food Wars was that even though it was ridiculous, it worked with actual recipes that you could, in theory, go away and cook.
Now we've got seasoning chainsaws. On top of that, the Shokugekis are now being breezed through, not taking the time to look into the ideas of the chefs or building tension. It's proper rubbish.
Soma competes in the first two challenges of the Blue tournament.
Barely 3 stars - I enjoy Food Wars for its light heartedness and teamwork and sense of fun. That's been gutted out with this Blue tournament. Creating a last meal for an elderly man is not something I can go 'gee whiz, that's fun!'. Come on creators - I hope this 30+ volume ride does not end with a crash landing.
3.5/5 ⭐️ I’m glad Tsukasa is back but I’m not really enjoying the story as much any more. It’s gotten a little too crazy and feels like the cooking isn’t the main focus any more. Also, the BLUE was supposed to be this super prestigious competition, but it just seems so unserious.
The final arc in this series feels a bit like the final arc in Naruto where it went downhill and weird. Since there are only 3 more volumes to finish out the series I will, but if I was halfway through I would DNF the series.
The most prestigious and the most bizarre Blue competition has started, pitting Light vs Dark. This is becoming a bit weird to be honest. A surprise candidate for the Light side shows up.
I sprung off the anime and dived into the manga thinking I would find a direct adaptation and therefore would be able to swim from where the story currently is to where it leads. I was wrong hahaha. I'm finding that the story's divergence isn't a bad idea anyway; it's just a bit different.