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With Anime Fan Fest 2016 concluded and our writing deadlines met, we’ve got a short window before AnimeNEXT 2016 where we’ll all be guests and be presenting panels to record and release a new episode. In this episode, Daryl reviews Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma.
Introduction (0:00 – 38:33)
Daryl offers his thoughts on his attending Anime Fan Fest 2016, where our previously released episode was recorded. Due to repeated mishaps with our manual RSS feed editing–a task which is no longer done–the last two times we released new episodes ended up marking every single episode as new. Hopefully that will not happen a THIRD time. On the other hand, a few of you took this as an opportunity to listen back to either every single episode or select older installments, and so we answer questions about this stuff to the best of our ability. This involves us discussing what Tekkaman Blade is, who is Steve “Stevie B” Bennett, and why Ichiro Itano is the Nico Yazawa of being an anime director. Don’t worry. We would never actually use the “N” word on this podcast (unless paid to).
Promo: Right Stuf Anime (38:33 – 40:06)
Currently, Right Stuf is not only doing a sale on FUNimation titles, they’ve also got a selection of Sentai Filmworks releases for $10 or less. Several of these titles are worth watching, and Hulu removing a whole lot of anime titles starting in June is a strong reminder that there’s still worth in buying the shows you like on physical media.
Review: Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma (40:06 – 1:41:44)
Daryl reviews what’s probably his favorite consistently running title in Shonen Jump: a series about competitive cooking done in the style of a battle manga, much like Yakitate! Japan which we reviewed back in 2009. The anime adaptations of both series are available on Crunchyroll, and the original manga for both series are released in English courtesy of Viz Manga.
The second anime series for Food Wars! starts next season, but for those who can’t wait Volume 7 is roughly where the first anime series concludes and the second will start from. Note that Kindle editions now double as comiXology editions and are, as a rule, less expensive than what Viz will charge through their digital store and app. However, because Viz will occasionally do bundle sales that’ll make their editions cheaper than Kindle/comiXology, and since the Viz Manga app is the same app you use to read Weekly Shonen Jump anyway, you may prefer to just keep everything in one place.
For those curious: the comically large knife Daryl owns is this one. A more reasonable person would get this 8-inch knife instead, but Daryl was presumably thinking that he could get 2 more inches of knife for just a few dollars more, without giving thought to where one would store such a thing.
Here’s the Ogiue Maniax blog post we mentioned. The Many Levels of Fanservice in Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma.
If you break down Shokugeki it translates to ‘Food Play’ as in the same connotation the famous Jidaigeki TV Channel bears. Furthermore, the kanji in Chinese literally means ‘Food Halberd’. Which if my study of ancient oriental history through countless hours of Dynasty Warriors is correct, a soldier’s ‘blade’ was not just his pride and trophy, but his very ‘soma’… as in the work’s titular character, who’s kanji loosely describes him as the ‘True Maker’ [of food] if you wrap him up within the manga’s context.
As for favourite characters, I yield my taste buds to Miss megaton spicy punch; but that’s solely based on my proclivity for nerdy chicks with ponytails. Otherwise my honey pours for Ikumi Mito, being the combination of Deunan Knute with Tina Armstrong’s assets notwithstanding.
As someone that came from Yakitate, I was super blown away by the levels of… service Shokugeki takes the reader to. The only thing missing was a Soul’d Out afro-ending & I would’ve been in The Food Rapture.
Chankonabe sounds like an AV I never saw starring Maria Ozawa, but I’ve said too much!
The “vagina bones” meme originated on 4chan in response to Dream Eater Merry, which has character designs featuring prominent pelvic bones and highlights the V shape of the pelvic muscles.
On Steve Bennett not being at many cons for several years. Yep he was in Japan, now he has been relocated to the state of Washington.
As for his alcohol consumption I spent a weekend visiting when he and Nikki still lived in Iwakuni. I can testify that his alcohol consumption is not close to that high, he just acts as if he has had that much.
Glad he is back on these shores, tho’ I know they miss Japan. At least they have Daiso in their area. He is a fun and gracious guy.
Regarding Itano’s baffling pride in Blassreiter, I was reminded of someone’s summary of Urobuchi’s interview in the “Katarou! Kuuga, Agito, Ryuuki” book. (Urobuchi did series composition for Blassreiter.) I’ll reproduce the relevant part here and let everyone make their own conclusions:
“(Upon the interviewer saying that Blasswreiter is “Urobuchi’s Kamen Rider”): [Urobuchi] says that when Itano came in, while he was still writing, he let Itano decide the entire setting and how things would go. Blasswreiter is thus Itano’s ideal hero story, and so he thinks of it as “Itano’s Kamen Rider”. That the show was half Kamen Rider and half Ultraman was also Itano’s doing. He thinks Itano wanted to do what he couldn’t in Ultraman Nexus, and mentions how Itano complained frequently about how there’s something wrong with Kamen Rider these days. Urobuchi’s Joseph was originally a talkative guy, and it was Itano who changed the character into what he is.”
What are these lost H-games of which you speak? (I ask as a fan of old internet shit. If I wanted anime porn, there are 20,000 sites with better wank material than ancient porn games.)
[This went into Spam for days because of your fake email address. If you actually want your question answered, don’t bet on always lucking out by my seeing the one actual real post in the folder with hundreds of spam messages. –Daryl]
Watched Food Wars – Shokugeki no Soma: God damn it AWO! Why are you trying (and succeeding) to make me watch ecchi shounen food battle anime?! You did this nonsense to me with Ben-To, now this?
Look, I’d like to eat food that rips my clothes off and makes me pshuuu so hard I cum too. However, if you do find these edibles please send them to my private residence. I don’t want that to happen to me in a public place. I do have a sense of shame and don’t want to go to jail.