If you watch Shokugeki no Souma for a while, you start to notice a repeating pattern.  Souma-kun achieves something which surprises people, gets a bit ahead of himself and challenges someone, biting off more than he can chew in the process.  He initially gets smacked down but doesn’t hang his head or even frown because of it – he takes extra determination from his failure, pulls an all-nighter plotting his comeback (sometimes alone, sometimes with help) and comes back stronger than ever.  The final results vary, but the form of the conflict is usually very similar.

Now normally, that might pose a significant problem for a series – repetitive is repetitive after all.  But I can’t hold it against Food Wars, because that whole sequence pretty much defines who Souma is a character.  And who he is as a character defines Shokugeki as a series.  Souma strikes a rare balance between confidence and humility, and that’s what makes him so likeable – he’s not falsely humble (he knows damn well how good he is) but he owns his mistakes and embraces areas of ignorance as an opportunity to get even better.  If you have a guy who can do that without coming off as a Marty Stu or arrogant and cocky, you have a hell of a good lead.

That said, Souma-kun definitely finds himself in over his head going up against smarmy Kuga and his army of the proletariat.  His finishes a horrendous dead last on the first day of the Moon Festival – one of only a few stalls not to make money.  Surprisingly, one of the others is the power trio of Alice, Hayama and Kurokiba – though perhaps not so surprising, given how poorly Hayama and Alice coordinate on the event.  Alice’s molecular gastronomy skills are legend, but they’ve never been shown to be this impractical before.  My favorite part of this sideline is Kurokiba’s efforts to train Hayama in how to manage her.  The other other big names all do much better, even if Isshiki keeps the focus on having a good time.

The other interesting twist here is the interest Nao takes in Souma’s efforts to save his situation.  Souma does what you’d expect him to do – take to the streets at night after the festival ends, giving away free food and trying to find something that works.  Nao has been very one-note as a character up to now, a freakshow – so it’s interesting to see she and Souma have something approaching normal human interaction.  She and Souma cross-pollinate for a bit, and Souma eventually ends up revealing the second dish that helps him move up a few places at least on Day 2 – a noodle dish called Danzi (Ta-a), made by repurposing the ingredients from the black pepper buns.

That was a good idea, but basically a face-saver – if Souma is going to no more than scrape by, it seems he’s going to have to confront Kuga head-on.  That means with Szechuan, it seems – a re-imaging of Mapo Dofu as a sort of defense of his father’s honor (and style of cooking for the common people).  Just what Souma has in mind with late-night back-alley transactions with shady strangers isn’t clear, but it seems to wind up with him back at the Yukihira Diner overnight – which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me to be honest, unless I’m totally misunderstanding the geography of this setting.  I’ll be curious to see what that’s all about…