April 10, 2015

Shokugeki no Soma -- ep 2

It's time for the entrance exam to the best culinary school in the known universe, which flunks 90% of its students and turns away even more. Nearly all the other applicants are rich, famous, and powerful, and they look down on Our Hero because he's from a neighborhood diner. Low class scum.

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The examiner is that busty blonde. Her name is Erina and she's known as "God Tongue" because of her exquisitely sensitive palate. She's also arrogant and cruel and loves to crush people.

When the other applicants learn that the entrance exam is to prepare one dish for her to taste, they all freak and run for the exit. Only Our Hero is willing to give it a try.

His dish is rice with eggs on top, which is really classless on the face of it. She's insulted he would serve her such a thing -- but when she tastes it, she has a foodgasm. There's a lot of that in this show. However, she has standards to maintain, so she flunks him anyway even though the food was outstanding.

Well, it doesn't happen. An old man comes in later, alone, and tastes the rice, and then overrides her decision and allows Our Hero into the school.

I would hate Our Hero a bit because he has no sense. Even if he's as confident in his cooking as he is, taunting the judge isn't smart. Sometimes you have to suck up. There's plenty of time after you're in the school to taunt the arrogant bitch, but when she holds your future in her hand, you really ought to be nice to her.

Having said that, it continues to be fun and interesting, and I think I'll keep watching it. Everything in this is exaggerated to the point of farce, and that's kind of cool.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 06:03 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1
I would hate Our Hero a bit because he has no sense. Even if he's as confident in his cooking as he is, taunting the judge isn't smart. Sometimes you have to suck up.

On the other hand, that sort of misplaced chutzpah is right in character for teenage males, even the ones who aren't shounen protagonists.

Posted by: Mikeski at April 10, 2015 06:49 PM (aLP9q)

2 But then, if you don't stand a chance anyway why not taunt the monster? 

Maybe you'll get lucky (as Protagonist did) which means you've been accepted to the greatest culinary school ever and your future is set, even if you fail out... after all, you were still ACCEPTED, something that almost never happens.

And if you don't get lucky?  Well, the monster eats you.  But you die with pride, and if you've annoyed it enough, maybe it kills you fast.

Posted by: Wonderduck at April 10, 2015 07:22 PM (jGQR+)

3

I think there may also have been a bit of a tendency on his part to try to act macho in front of a gorgeous girl.

But he's already a bit of a hard-ass even without that, considering how he almost beat of that guy who insulted him.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at April 10, 2015 07:26 PM (+rSRq)

4 There's a school of thought of how to deal with a biased ref.

Trying to win straight up won't work. A ref that knows what they're doing can make a call that's clearly against you, but is at least still plausible. (Now, maybe you're so amazingly good that you can win despite the ref - but that relies on you having an opponent you can beat; doesn't work when the ref gives you a pass or fail.)

To win under those circumstances, you need to make the ref -mad-. If you're working from the premise that the ref has it in from you for the beginning, a mad ref isn't any worse than a level-headed ref, you're still doomed. But if you can make the ref mad ENOUGH, make it absolutely clear that you didn't get anything resembling a fair hearing, that can sometimes be enough to get an appeal pushed through. Even if the original judgment is correct, if the judge is obviously enraged and not being careful in their statements, that can cast doubt on the judgment.

Do I give a teenager credit in thinking of that in a calm and rational manner? Hah, no, not without some serious evidence. But it can still work despite that...

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at April 10, 2015 07:54 PM (zJsIy)

5 Real life example: Clyde Drexler, NBA star, had an ongoing feud with one of the refs, who often made, shall we say, questionable calls against him. Of course, being an otherwise highly respected referee, he got the benefit of the doubt and Drexler's complaints went unheard.
So one night before a playoff game that referee was working, Drexler walked up to him right in front of the scorer's table before the game began, but after the cameras started running -- greeted the ref with a smile and tried to shake his hand. (Note thatWikipedia has a slightly different slant on this). The ref turned his back and refused to shake hands. Later that night, he called two technical fouls (the second being for complaining about the first one) and ejected Drexler.
It was the last NBA game he ever worked.

Posted by: ubu at April 11, 2015 02:54 PM (GfCSm)

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