Soma’s battle with Akira Hayama might be over, but the war against the Azami administration and Central continues. Troubled times loom ahead for the Resistance, but there might be some light at the end of the (train) tunnel. After a walk down Memory Lane first.
Creative Staff:
Story: Yuto Tsukuda
Art: Shun Saeki
Contributor: Yuki Morisaki
Translation: Adrienne Beck
Production: James Gaubatz, Mara Coman (Touch up art and lettering), Alice Lewis (design), Jennifer LeBlanc (editor)
What They Say:
Dropping all pretense of being fair, the Azami administration has now declared that to pass the third stage of the advancement exam, Soma and the members of the resistance must each defeat a Council of Ten member. And what will everyone think when it comes to light that Dean Azami’s real motivation for overthrowing the institute is Soma’s own father, Joichiro?!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Here we are getting to the core of the whole Azami vs. the Resistance story arc. We had been told some time ago that at the very heart of his darkness was something involving Soma’s father Joichiro in the past. So it was more than about time that the man himself appear and the truth behind it all be revealed.
First things first, of course: we have to see the tail end of Soma’s victory against Hayama, which ends with Soma winning the deciding vote (the twins had split; Soue Nakiri now votes for Soma). It’s an opportune moment for Jun Shiomi to reappear in order to deliver a talking to (starting with an open-hand slap that sends Akira reeling—Soma had been at the receiving end of this once before) to Akira, who is suitably chastised…and reveals that his defeat means his expulsion. For that is how this stage of the “Advancement” Exams was set up for the Resisters: win or be expelled. The heartache and sadness of seeing many of our favorite characters get tossed aside is lived more through Erina than Soma (who is always calm in the face of stress). It’s hard to be able to imagine this going back to the early volumes of the series, but it’s Erina Nakiri who has emerged as the emotional heart of the cast. We feel her anxiety, her pain, her anguish. Yet here we are. Her transformation from Queen Bee Bitch to Caring Leader is fully complete.
That change is put on full display when the remaining Resisters, Soma, Takumi Aldini, and Megumi (these two manage to survive their encounter with Rindo Kobayashi simply because Rindo is a weirdo and doesn’t destroy them in cooking contests, as happens to the others. It provides an effective comic moment to counter the depressing gloom of seeing everyone else summarily dismissed in just a handful of panels, as if Tsukuda and Saeki didn’t want to linger over the expulsions either, which is a rational decision) try to plot out a strategy to get their friends back. Soma hits upon an unrealistic idea of challenging the Council of Ten to a group shokugeki, in order to win enough seats on the Council to stop things (they can count on Erina being on their side and she’s already on the Council). But they have nothing to bargain with. So, Erina offers to basically grovel before her father—something again that I think would be unimaginable to a reader only familiar with the overly prideful Erina of the early parts of the story.
Of course, both strategies are doomed to failure. Azami, trapped in his own arrogant bubble, thinks that Erina’s behavior is just a passing phase and she’ll come back to him, to be the good little pawn he wants in his desire to reshape the culinary world. Soma has nothing to bargain with.
Someone else does though. That would be Joichiro Saiba, Soma’s father. And who should turn up when things had reached their darkest other than Joichiro, with Senzaemon Nakiri as well. We finally get the reveal as to what Joichiro and Gin Dojima had been planning for some time: a desperate gamble using the only bargaining chip available to all who wish to return Totsuki to the light. Joichiro manages to convince Azami to accept Soma’s challenge, with the offering on his side being that Joichiro will agree to close down the Yukihira Diner and join Azami’s army to overthrow the current culinary world (and reshape it in his monochrome image). Azami cannot resist such bait and readily agrees, even though he could have won almost everything he could ever imagine just by sticking to his own current plans and leaving Soma and any other Resisters to their fate.
The final showdown is not going to happen immediately. It will be the climax of the whole Advancement Exams Train Trip. And it will take the form of a rare type of shokugeki: a régiment de cuisine. Here, teams of chefs face off against each other basically until only one is left standing. And Tsukuda needs to unwind this event as slowly as possible, so this volume ends first with a necessary digression and then a hint as to the next step.
The necessary digression is an extended flashback and here I’ll give credit for an interesting way of setting it up: it’s not “gather round everyone and let me tell you a story!” time. Separately, Joichiro meets with Soma and tells him the story of his time at Totsuki, while Gin Dojima takes aside Megumi and Takumi and tells them the same tale of how Joichiro became a “demon” (a nickname that Fumio, the dorm head of Polaris had mentioned many volumes ago). We can see what it was that broke Joichiro, taking him off the path of becoming a master chef of a Michelin three-star restaurant and instead the proprietor of a diner catering to locals in a random Tokyo neighborhood. We now begin to understand him much better and also gain further knowledge into what he thinks of his son Soma beyond the brief talk between Joichiro and Isshiki we saw some time ago.
Before the big match, of course there will need to be time for training if there will be any hope of defeating Azami’s Council of Ten.
In Summary:
Despite Soma’s personal victory, things look very bad for those opposed to Azami’s oppressive rule as most of the Resistance (and many of our favorite characters) are expelled from Totsuki. Just when things seem destined for doom, however, Joichiro arrives to offer a ray of hope and a chance to turn the tables on Azami, though it involves a major gamble. We also get a much needed look back to the past, what was the origin for all that has transpired in the first place. The train is headed to its final destination for this trip, though we will probably see them make a few more stops before reaching the climactic showdown.
Content Grade: A
Art Grade: A-
Package Rating: A-
Text/Translation: A-
Age Rating: T+: Older Teen (16+)
Released By:Viz Media
Release Date: April 3rd, 2018
MSRP: $9.99