Soma and his classmates go to a cooking camp for a series of culinary challenges - fail one and you’re expelled from the exclusive Totsuki Institute! Soma and Megumi are teamed up again, this time to use the natural surroundings of the camp to create a traditional Japanese dish, and Soma meets a pair of new adversaries: the Aldini Brothers.
Eh… I think I’m about done with Food Wars. Creators Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki have basically levelled out on what they can do in this series and are now repeating themselves. Soma and Megumi have to make a dish against the odds - done it before. Erina makes angry noises at Soma - done it before. Dull and arbitrary nemeses - done it before. Another shokugeki (food duel) is announced - done it before. So these guys are basically out of ideas and it’s only the third volume!
There are just a couple of dishes to drool over and they weren’t that inspired compared to previous meals. That’s a minor complaint but it’s indicative of the staleness of the series.
As if to add insult to injury, the book is only about 75% Food Wars as the last quarter is filled up with artist Shun Saeki’s dreary debut manga for Shonen Jump: Your and My Romance Counselling. It’s about a shy boy who declares his love to the wrong girl and all manner of “charming” misunderstandings follow. Saeki classes it up with several panels of underage girls in bikinis and upskirt shots. Garbage.
The first volume of Food Wars is a fun read but I’d leave it at that - this isn’t a series that has the chops to go the distance. Food Wars Volume 3 is boring with little to offer - the quirkiness and originality is gone and what’s left isn’t worth bothering with.
Food Wars!, Volume 3: Shokugeki no Soma
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