The thing I appreciate with Shokugeki no Soma is its recipes. It is nice to have a cooking manga wherein you can bring the creations back to life. More than that, I love how cheap and easy most of the recipes are.
As this shokugeki will tell you, “You don’t need expensive ingredients to have a nice meal.”
As of episode 10, there are only two episodes to come.
Unless they massively flubbed the ending its safe to say that Princess Principal is the sleeper hit of this season. Surprisingly, “Cute Girl James Bond Spy Action in Steampunk Alternate Past!London with bonus yuri-subtext,” is the anime that I didn’t know I have been missing.
The show took its cues from Haruhi and airing the episodes in anachronistic order. Since the episodes are mostly self-contained stories it is not bad plotwise. Astute viewers though who pay attention to the chronology may find themselves a bit spoiled at certain points.
Episode 1 itself is one of Princess Principal strongest cases and do a good job of establishing our protagonist so I don’t mind them using it as an opener.
In any case, let the analyzing begin. <Warning spoilers below until episode 10>
You could thank the existence of this post to Aaron who managed to spark my inspiration for Saki once again.
At this point, every one of the nuclear Miyanaga family has been named, which is a great time to look for symbolism and patterns again. ^^
I also know that you guys were probably tired of etymology post that amounts to “Saki” meaning “bloom” and Teru meaning “shine”. And if you didn’t know that, the manga and the anime or my blog have probably beaten the fact in your head by now. Thus, instead of rehashing those we are going to talk about themes and irony. How in some ways the names of the Miyanaga family may also display their personal challenges.
Chapter 171 is up as well as the leaks for the next chapter. I think that I’ll be covering that in my next post since the two are interconnected. For now, since I’m already covering the first episode of Saki, I might as well continue it? This time with some actual mahjong analysis!
I would also like to give special thanks to Katreus for his mahjong expertise. Without him, this post would have come out sometime next year?
….Or not at all.
…..Probably. The writing muse is a fickle mistress.
To most of the fans’ joy, Teru’s flashback is continuing in the manga. The current chapter 170 is great at clarifying some new information and adding a few question marks.
Still, I think, I’m going to wait for a few more chapters before I comment on it again. Instead, I would like to go back to the beginning tackling the first episode and looking for parallels there.
To those not up to date with the manga. Note that this is not a mere rewatch post. It has a few spoiler up to Chapter 170.
The second bonus recipe featured in Shokugeki no Soma is the Improvised Mackerel Burger Meal. Its an important plot dish, since this meal allowed Souma to pass the Polar Star Initiation Test.
Yeah. That cute image representing the team battle. ^
I noticed how strangely appropriate the character pieces are.
To my eternal joy, the main manga is continuing the Teru flashback!
And it’s a compelling thing, how Teru is characterized in the past two chapter – as someone who is similar to Saki while retaining subtle and distinct difference. It got me curious enough that I went back at the beginning and reread the first chapters.
And the parallels are interesting.
Late Merry Christmas to you all.
Finally, the holidays are over and I have finished my socialization quota for the year. Its time to imitate a reticent cavemen and go enjoy my introverted tendencies. Meaning time to catch up on my reading. And of course Saki is in the list since I know that’s its updating this December.
…. On one hand, its freaking nine pages. On the other hand, I could probably cheerfully forgive anything since its about the Saki-Teru plotline.
MANGA SPOILERS BELOW HERE
Team sports where I categorize concert band is a bit contradictory. They need to promote the dual values of cooperation and competition to be successful. Cooperation because concert band cannot be played with only one instrument. Competition to avoid breeding complacency (which we saw settling in the early episodes) and to reach new heights.
The thing is cooperation and competition aren’t always aligned. And nowhere is it perhaps more diametrically opposed as when a team is conducting an audition.
While they could be happily go hand in hand. If for example – those who are senior;Those who have put forth greater time and effort into the band are the ones who would be rewarded. But, that won’t happen everytime.
As Kumiko’s monologue put it:
Given that it’s an audition….
It is not unusual for a senior to be rejected in favor of a junior.
But, whether that means everyone accepts the results without another complaint is another question.
And really, how everyone handles that particular scenario forms the foundation of this episode.
There is really a lot of things to talk about here. Let’s start with the most positive one – namely Natsuki and Kumiko.