The fall season of anime on Crunchyroll is well underway, and many popular anime titles are taking off, or they're back for another season. This includes not only the mega-popular My Hero Academia and Black Clover, but also Food Wars! (also known as Shokugeki no Soma). This popular cooking anime uses the competitive culinary world as the setting for some wild Shonen-style action, and now in season 4, the stakes couldn't be higher!
Meanwhile, there's a debate to settle: just who is the Best Boy of Food Wars? There are many gentlemen in this show aiming to be the next master chef, but only one guy can achieve the title of Best Boy. He will be the one who's the most popular, coolest, kindest, and of course, a talented and creative chef! It comes down to Soma Yukihira and Takumi Aldini, so let's see who has the most merit.
10 Soma: diner experience
It's one thing to take a leisurely afternoon to cook something at home for dinner. It's another thing to work in a fast-paced family restaurant where the lobby is packed with hungry patrons! Many of Soma's classmates sneer at him for his family diner background, but they're making a mistake.
Soma learned how to handle pressure, disaster, and sudden changes during this line of work, and it's saved his hide more than once. Take, for example, his last-minute success in the breakfast cooking challenge during training camp at that hotel. He was falling way behind, but served all 200 meals with just seconds to spare!
9 Takumi: charming Italian theme
Let's be honest: almost everyone loves Italian food, and the anime world seems enamored with it. Many different series (such as JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) salivate at the thought of Italian cuisine, and Takumi and his brother Isami are ready to serve. These brothers are half Italian, and they ran a restaurant in Italy until moving to Japan to enroll at Totsuki.
If it's Italian, Takumi can cook it, and no one can resist the aroma! Italian food is his guiding light, but his cooking isn't totally inflexible. He can get a bit creative with it. And speaking of which...
8 Soma: I can cook anything
While Takumi has learned to become more flexible with his Italian cooking, Soma is truly a jack of all trades. Unlike most of his classmates, he doesn't have a "thing," unless you count dinner experience. Soma is not dogmatic about his cooking; he's ready to learn just about anything, and no knife, ingredient, or oven is too exotic to incorporate into his cooking.
With every shokugeki, Soma adds a new recipe idea to his mental cookbook, and this allows him to create some truly unique and creative dishes that beat the competition.
7 Takumi: I'll beat you one day!
A fierce rivalry is a Shonen staple, and the genre is packed with famous examples old and new. Some rivalries are mutual, and in other cases, one of the rivals is more interested in competition than the other. Takumi's rivalry feelings are pretty much one-sided, but he's not annoying or bratty about it.
It's charming and fun, and it motivates him to become a better chef. And unlike some people, he's not low enough to cheat or sabotage his rival! And besides, Soma was pretty conceited during the opening ceremony. Can we really blame Takumi for wanting to take him down?
6 Soma: good cheer
"Grin and bear it," as they say. Well, Soma does more than that! He's competitive and driven, but he's not stubborn or obnoxious about it. In fact, Soma really knows how to keep his cool, and he's not one to hold petty grudges, either. He takes every challenge with a smile and an upbeat attitude, and it's really inspiring to see.
He can make friends with just about anyone, and even after a humiliating defeat, Soma bounces right back in no time. This also makes him practically immune to taunts or intimidation. He's just too nice a guy to take the bait.
5 Takumi: he learned to mimic chefs
Takumi suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Mimasaka, but he did learn from it. Mimasaka's "thing" is to spy on other chefs and learn every fine detail about their personal life and cooking, and make a dish that's similar to (but slightly superior to) that of his opponent.
He has won 99 shokugeki battles this way, and his victory over Takumi made a clean 100. But later, Takumi learned to do this too, and it served him well later on. Soma isn't the only one who learns on the fly!
4 Soma: team VIP
Minor spoilers, since this goes into manga territory. The fate of Totsuki hangs in the balance as an 8 vs 8 shokugeki launches, and Soma and Erina are the top two chefs on their team. Soma takes down the Elite 10's 6th seat, Nene, and beat her at her own game: soba noodles.
Next, Soma vanquishes the sushi master Somei Saito, and he and Erina form an unbeatable duo to take down Rindo and Eishi to win the whole thing! He and Erina both deserve a huge high five for that, and they ensured a prosperous future for Totsuki that day.
3 Takumi: took down Eizan
Soma has defeated a few Elite 10 members, but Takumi took down one himself! This cooking battle was a real nail-biter, but this Italian chef saw it through to the end. His opponent was a crafty one, who used a healthy dose of artichokes to try and make Takumi's dish disgusting to the taste buds.
It looked like Takumi was trapped... until he turned the tables and cooked a dish that treated Eizan's own dish as a first course, with Takumi's own being the second! Takumi didn't just win, he made Eizan his ally of sorts, a humiliating blow for the Elite 10 member.
2 Soma: inspirational
Not only is Soma an upbeat and confident guy, but it rubs off on others, too. Megumi Tadokoro hails from a coastal region, and she's experienced with seafood and home-style cooking. The girl's got talent, but she's deathly afraid of competition and her tough classmates.
Soma, though, extended a helping hand and boosted Megumi's confidence, and her prowess as a chef skyrocketed. She went from a near-dropout to a contender in the final 8 vs 8 shokugeki, and now she's the 10th seat on the new Elite 10 council! Don't forget how she very nearly bet Ryo, who is known for his ultra-vicious fighting spirit.
1 Takumi: he's on the council too
Soma is the 1st seat once the new Elite 10 is formed, while Takumi is the 7th seat. But really, Soma was pretty much guaranteed a spot, being the main character. The other nine slots are the ones the other characters have to fight over, and Takumi secured his place in the new council.
Those are some serious credentials, and he even ranks above Council veterans like Nene and Eizan! Now, from here, Takumi is bound to get many more challenges, and we're sure he'll happily accept them all!