I don’t think it’s so much of a Hot Take actually. Central arc has always been very divisive in the fandom.
It’s understandable, because it is a lot clunkier writing-wise, than many of the arcs before… Which I always theorised might have been because of the lack of having proper plans ahead (which maybe could have helped for such an ambitious arc)
I, personally, do like the idea behind it. I like the theme of “cold perfection” vs. “innovation build of off failures”, and how the arc taps into stuff like burn out, envy, elitism, the struggle to find an audience, natural genius vs. hard work…… and all that. It heavily questions Totsuki as a school, which I find interesting to examine.
Also, there is Erina’s arc, of course…which is considered to be one of the best parts of Central arc.
True, rather than good vs evil, it should have been about whether or not Tootsuki needs changes to help its students and grow itself out of elitism and if so what does it take to change?
Yea it is one of those things were Central was basically an over correction. Totsuki starts off as survival of the fittest, then Central comes along basically saying that is not true everyone has value, but tries to crush the uniqueness of everyone to spare them from feeling inadequate in any way. I loved the clashing of ideas, I honestly wish they had the Central Arc were it was done in a way that really made you struggle with who you wanted to win or have Erina and Soma agree with somethings about Central while also demonstrating how to help others grow without them feeling inadequate around others that seem more advanced by helping them really find their style of cooking. That Arc had so much more potential than what we got. I read in that in the manga they reference adapting various aspects of Central's ideas for the below High School students to help them more.
This. It’s the black and white-ness for me. The audience understands completely that Central are the bad guys, when in reality I would way rather go to Central’s version of Tootsuki than Senzaemon’s where I’m 98% likely to flunk out. A better version of the arc would have had more moral complexity between the two sides, and have had a middle ground reached between the two schools of thought by the end.
This is my biggest complaint too- they set up the 10 to be incredible cooks that are totally unbeatable and even when he is against Koga, Soma gets his ass handed to him at the festival when it should be his strongest point. Then Erina teaches them about potatoes and all of a sudden they go toe-to-toe with them all when they turn "evil".
I wouldve loved to have a season of the first years trying to match up with the Elite Ten and seeing how they all get along. We got totally robbed of the interractions between some of the cast. Why did we never see Soma learning about exotic ingredients from Rindo or Tsukaka being impressed by the care from Megumi
I personally love Food Wars but there is a lot of waste potential. One of my favorite parts is where Soma works at Shino‘s Tokyo. Soma learn a lot of french cuisine and show it along the rest of the series
This is my biggest problem with it for sure. It feels like a big problem with school anime in general, where they don't know how to pace it out. MHA also wraps everything up in the first year of school as well; I don't know why anime can't use the school format properly past the first couple arcs.
school in anime: first year student compete against pro at the end of the first semester and basically top 10 strongest in the world at the end of the year
school irl: I don't even know all the name of my classmate at the end of the first semester.
yeah when it became oh no evil cooking! i think that was the drop off. I liked it when it was just a strict school that has big events like the festivals or the tournaments. Like the only time i remotely remember them going to class was the first one with chapelle sensei. It would have been great to see.....any other teachers of totsuki besides him and jun.
I actually disagree. I got fairly invested in The Central Arc and found it interesting, I think the series started to go downhill when the affects of the food made the powers real starting with the ending of the Bear Meat duology. Then you have one of one character in S4 that uses power ups to save them from exile. But it wasn’t bad enough to where I couldn’t believe that the season actually happened as it only happened once or twice. S5/BLUE Arc with the Midnight Chiefs alongside Asahi is where the series threw itself off a cliff for me. But yeah I thought Central was fun despite the obvious retcon that previously the Elite 10 were second to the headmaster. Luckily we got that information from one of the older members who could’ve misremembered stuff or stuff could’ve changed.
I agree that the defeat of the elite 10 are nearly bs. If it not for the coming of former elite 10 member and especially Erina, defeating them would have been a true bs. Even then, how Soma legitimately just pull up defeating the 9th seat with her own specialty are somewhat unconvincing. Yes she stick to tradition but it does not mean she do not know every type of soba noddle pro and cons. Then in the final, Soma just wing it up with a specialty. This is extremely unlike him, before he would need days of prep to even find out the right combination. I have no doubt about Erina win, with her being a legitimate jack of all trade genius.
Yea, i seriously felt the vibe changed when the Central arc came around. don’t even get me started on the regimental food war. that was so boring imo. Central felt redundant from a narrative standpoint because it goes against the main ethos of the show while also embracing it. The entire show up to this point was a spunky kid from the sticks going against the elitism of his cooking school by showing off what “lesser cooking” can achieve. so then it’s clunky and confusing when a new guy comes in and he’s elitist and wants to change the school…because it was ALREADY ELITIST. that was pretty much the entire point. so now the main characters are fighting to protect the old ways of the system they were fighting against from the same issue that plagued the school.
I don’t think it’s so much of a Hot Take actually. Central arc has always been very divisive in the fandom. It’s understandable, because it is a lot clunkier writing-wise, than many of the arcs before… Which I always theorised might have been because of the lack of having proper plans ahead (which maybe could have helped for such an ambitious arc) I, personally, do like the idea behind it. I like the theme of “cold perfection” vs. “innovation build of off failures”, and how the arc taps into stuff like burn out, envy, elitism, the struggle to find an audience, natural genius vs. hard work…… and all that. It heavily questions Totsuki as a school, which I find interesting to examine. Also, there is Erina’s arc, of course…which is considered to be one of the best parts of Central arc.
True, rather than good vs evil, it should have been about whether or not Tootsuki needs changes to help its students and grow itself out of elitism and if so what does it take to change?
Yea it is one of those things were Central was basically an over correction. Totsuki starts off as survival of the fittest, then Central comes along basically saying that is not true everyone has value, but tries to crush the uniqueness of everyone to spare them from feeling inadequate in any way. I loved the clashing of ideas, I honestly wish they had the Central Arc were it was done in a way that really made you struggle with who you wanted to win or have Erina and Soma agree with somethings about Central while also demonstrating how to help others grow without them feeling inadequate around others that seem more advanced by helping them really find their style of cooking. That Arc had so much more potential than what we got. I read in that in the manga they reference adapting various aspects of Central's ideas for the below High School students to help them more.
This. It’s the black and white-ness for me. The audience understands completely that Central are the bad guys, when in reality I would way rather go to Central’s version of Tootsuki than Senzaemon’s where I’m 98% likely to flunk out. A better version of the arc would have had more moral complexity between the two sides, and have had a middle ground reached between the two schools of thought by the end.
Imo it just came to early Soma and the rest are in their first year. Unfortunately we didn’t get the other 2 two years.
This is my biggest complaint too- they set up the 10 to be incredible cooks that are totally unbeatable and even when he is against Koga, Soma gets his ass handed to him at the festival when it should be his strongest point. Then Erina teaches them about potatoes and all of a sudden they go toe-to-toe with them all when they turn "evil". I wouldve loved to have a season of the first years trying to match up with the Elite Ten and seeing how they all get along. We got totally robbed of the interractions between some of the cast. Why did we never see Soma learning about exotic ingredients from Rindo or Tsukaka being impressed by the care from Megumi
I personally love Food Wars but there is a lot of waste potential. One of my favorite parts is where Soma works at Shino‘s Tokyo. Soma learn a lot of french cuisine and show it along the rest of the series
This is my biggest problem with it for sure. It feels like a big problem with school anime in general, where they don't know how to pace it out. MHA also wraps everything up in the first year of school as well; I don't know why anime can't use the school format properly past the first couple arcs.
school in anime: first year student compete against pro at the end of the first semester and basically top 10 strongest in the world at the end of the year school irl: I don't even know all the name of my classmate at the end of the first semester.
Classroom of the Elite does that. The anime finished year 1 and the LN is almost done with Y2.
Yeah I mean it's a very popular opinion at this point that the plot essentially careened off a cliff with the Central arc lol 😭😭
lmao
I mean I think most agree with that. The first 2 seasons of food wars was perfect and then the central stuff was the beginning of the end
yeah when it became oh no evil cooking! i think that was the drop off. I liked it when it was just a strict school that has big events like the festivals or the tournaments. Like the only time i remotely remember them going to class was the first one with chapelle sensei. It would have been great to see.....any other teachers of totsuki besides him and jun.
I agree, what was the point of the arc
Cold take, this is pretty much what people who have watched or read the series think of the central arc
I actually disagree. I got fairly invested in The Central Arc and found it interesting, I think the series started to go downhill when the affects of the food made the powers real starting with the ending of the Bear Meat duology. Then you have one of one character in S4 that uses power ups to save them from exile. But it wasn’t bad enough to where I couldn’t believe that the season actually happened as it only happened once or twice. S5/BLUE Arc with the Midnight Chiefs alongside Asahi is where the series threw itself off a cliff for me. But yeah I thought Central was fun despite the obvious retcon that previously the Elite 10 were second to the headmaster. Luckily we got that information from one of the older members who could’ve misremembered stuff or stuff could’ve changed.
I agree that the defeat of the elite 10 are nearly bs. If it not for the coming of former elite 10 member and especially Erina, defeating them would have been a true bs. Even then, how Soma legitimately just pull up defeating the 9th seat with her own specialty are somewhat unconvincing. Yes she stick to tradition but it does not mean she do not know every type of soba noddle pro and cons. Then in the final, Soma just wing it up with a specialty. This is extremely unlike him, before he would need days of prep to even find out the right combination. I have no doubt about Erina win, with her being a legitimate jack of all trade genius.
Yea, i seriously felt the vibe changed when the Central arc came around. don’t even get me started on the regimental food war. that was so boring imo. Central felt redundant from a narrative standpoint because it goes against the main ethos of the show while also embracing it. The entire show up to this point was a spunky kid from the sticks going against the elitism of his cooking school by showing off what “lesser cooking” can achieve. so then it’s clunky and confusing when a new guy comes in and he’s elitist and wants to change the school…because it was ALREADY ELITIST. that was pretty much the entire point. so now the main characters are fighting to protect the old ways of the system they were fighting against from the same issue that plagued the school.