Jaimini's Box have also stopped scanalating SWJ manga's, sounds like (most likely) Mangaplus lawyers got in touch with them. Odd time for this to happen, as for me personally I've put off reading the latest chapters of Academia and One Piece for over a month now, and finally got bored enough to catch up.

Maybe i'll subscibe to Mangaplus, but maybe it's time to drop all things SWJ completely.

Same here, I thought for a moment when Gramps told Erina to Tell the boys he'd be back in a week, it was a clue that they were married and had a son, but sounds like that may have been a translation error.

Edit: Also what's with the gramps still being alive, six yeasr not a hint that he was still alive, no phone calls, no flashback, no dishes inspired by him. nothing at all.

The ending was like the manga in many ways, half baked, started off well, is undercooked in the center and somehow rushed and overcooked at the top, and after all said and done, forgettable.

Final chapter up at Viz. While it was a good chapter to get a good epilogue for all the other charactors but felt like a cop out where Souma was involved. We never even get to find out if Souma ever got Erina to say his dish was better...heck we don't even know if he ever beat her in a challenge. I understand his reasons changed but considering this was one of the first things Souma prmoised he'd do, it would have been nice to know.

It would also be nice to know about the personal lives of the gang, sure they are all successful, but are they married, got kids, I'd have thought at the very least we'd get to know Alice and Ryo's fate, but even that was kept professional. There was heaavy hinting going on between Souma and Eria's relationship, but it still sounded like they were still not at the stage of admitting anything.

I know the second half reveal does leave a disgusting taste in your mouth, but I found the reveal to he hilarious, it cheered me right up, it really does run in the family and not sure if there were many who shipped Asahi/Erina (and I'm sure they were some.) but there chances of that happening just got nuked. (see Kishi you can find a solution to everything if you try hard enough.)

I also liked the small touch how they felt the need to retcon Tamako's haircut from the early chapters. Tomako looks a lot like Hisako there.

Maybe they wanted to write the epilogue without the pressure of producing a 20 page mange every week to do it justice, with a monthly manga they can take their time with the content and make a shorter contained ark without worrying about a cliffhanger every 20 pages. or maybe they intended to end it last month but with the fourth season getting green lit, they wanted a bit more content to take them to the start of the season.

Have to say I am surprised how soon the fourth season is going to air, usually they take longer between announcement and airing, but it's airing this Autumn, I hope Risa Taneda returns to voice Erina, her replacement, while extremely talented didn't quite suit the role as well as Risa..

The first chapter in the epilogue might actually be better than the accumulative content of the entire previous arc. The schools moving in the right direction, Erina is behaving like you expect her to behave, Megumi new found confidence is clear for everyone to see, and Souma is doing what I expected him to do years ago.

Maybe this was what the original plan always was, and it was the editors that pushed the new direction that sucked. Next chapter we finally get to get a more detailed look at how Jouchirou met his wife.

Artwork look different though, everyone looked younger and softer(?), not sure what to make of Erina's new hair style though.

First year: Souma Vs. Erian and the Elite/Capitalistic School System

Second year Souma Vs. Azami and his Socialist School System.

Third Year: Souma Vs. the international community and the Blue.

This is similar to how I expected the manga to go, before Azami was introduced, though more, first year they got a taste of the elite 10 and it was the second year that they really battled with them, and last year focusing on a International competition, then final battle against his old man and Erina.

After Azami was introduced, I was partially hoping that Souma would actually get expelled, and we'd see a time skip, where Souma returned and was equipped with the skills needed to take on the new regime, with the way the manga felt it never really felt like we saw a convincing growth period that put Souma at the same level as someone like Eishi, and even despite being the number one seat in the last arc, he never felt like he really should be there.

Well the main manga is now over, as far as finale goes this was a odd one, on one end, I'd be happy with this kind of ending if it felt like the arc itself was resolved, it went from a adopted son that we'd never heard of, to a mother we'd never read anything about to a despair that again never was touched on before, to pretty much ending on the same tone as the previous arc, with Erina getting over her parent issue and butting heads with Souma again, the blue competition became irrelevant, it could very easily be considered a filler arc.

Though for me the Building stripping was probably the funniest thing I've ever read, it's took a concept that was ridiculous and took it to a whole new level, Super seiyan stripping.

http://www.abyssalch...railer-released

New tales game was finally reveal yesterday at MS's conference, I'm liking the new art direction the game is taking, while I will miss the anime look of the previous games, they've been using the same style for over a decade now so a change was due, though I'm not sure I'm happy about them dropping the ia at the end of the name, should be Tales of Arisia.

Hopefully we get more details seen, the characters look like Ludger from xillia 2 and the female lead looks like Laila from Zesteria., hopefully we will find out more during the Tales festival if they are still taking place in mid June.

Yeah I'm not buying, because as you've said the writing never supported that. No one besides Soma or Alice ever challenged Erina or her ideas of perfection, so the very notion of raisng an entire generation of chefs that could bring Erina out of despair from her god tongue is rendered moot

Yeah if anything with the exception of Souma (and Alice with her use of technology) the rest of the Jewel generation were all similar to Erina in how they stayed close to traditional cooking methods, and it was Souma who broke them out of their conventional thinking methods and helped them grow, so even if they were to challenge Erina they'd be swatted aside like every other challenge put in front of her.

Also maybe I'm wrong isn't the despair and so called storm that's consuming Erina have everything to do with her mothers reintroduction and have nothing to do with the God Tongue she posses?

So we finally find out what the old mans plan was, aaaaand i'm not sure I'd consider it a plan at all, wasn't it the job of the school to gather the best talent from around the world anyway? It's the most elite gourmet school in the world so you'd expect the most talented upcoming chefs to go there, and if Jouchirou never gave the go ahead the plan would have completely failed, because not a single one of these talents considered going up against Erina to challenge her, (well Hayama probably would, and Alice was going to challenge her no matter what.) Without Souma, they'd all go to school together, Megumi would get expelled, and the rest would graduate. Even with Souma if Azami never came in, Erina would only really interact with Souma and Alice who'd continue to challenge her, everyone else accepted that Erina was in a different league to them, and did their own thing.

Only three more chapters to go, even though it does appear to be the end for the manga, (though it could be the end of the arc, they do sometimes pull these kind of stunts.) I can't say I'm all that surprised that it is ending, but at the same time it feels like they left plenty of unfulfilled potential on the table, the grown of pretty much everyone seems half baked, even Souma who despite being the number one seat never felt like he really should be there.

Who knows maybe it will return as a monthly manga or something, oh well let's hope the mangaka takes his time to plan the long term direction of their next manga better  and not just run itself of a cliff like Souma did.

That has to be the most anti-climatic end to a supposed ultimate chef, Asahi doesn't sound like he should have beaten Jouchirou at all, so I can't help but wonder if Jouchirou lost on purpose knowing he'd aim for Souma next, maybe he hoped to help both his sons, one to grow as a chef and the other to grow as a character.

I'd completely forgotten that this was the semi-final and the final will be next, lets see if the final will atleast somewhat redeem this mess of a arc even if a little bit, or if it will be a disappointment.

Gotta say the personality doesn't completely surprise me, always had the feeling she would be a tomboy who was bad at cooking. Though I'm with Phantom_999 here, I was hoping for more interaction between the family members, from that flashback it could have very well been a random kid from the neighbourhood who hung out at the diner as he enjoyed watching the customers reaction to Tomako's cooking, and Jouchirou could have just been the regular chef.

It might be too much to ask for a mini-arc or side-story sometime in the future how Jouchirou ended up in a small diner in Japan, and falling in love with a girl who failed more times than she succeeded, though I can imagine it had something to be with her constantly challenging him despite the difference in skill, and falling in love with her ability to stand up and continue despite constant failures.

Edit: I will say this though, with the wild hair, you could imagine her being the daughter of Souma and Erina.

So ultimate (possibly the penultimate) two battle dishes consist of a Pie and a fried rice dish, are we sure this isn't a ultimate dish for a student on a budget battle?

Oh well at the very least we are finally going to get to find out who the person was that tamed Jouchirou.

Interesting chapter, though that could be because from the League of villains, I only seem to like Himiko, even if she does appear to have a few screws loose, not sure why I can see a interesting relationship building between her and Deku, not necessarily romantic.

His reasoning still don't justify the means he used, specially as I would argue his method could accelerate Erina's spiral into despair, as having a global standard where dishes lack creativity, her god tongue would get tired of the same flavours, and would seek something more, and with everyone at the same standard it would be impossible for her to find it.

Also it might have had a better impact if this was done 2 years ago, instead of 12 months after the arc is over, when it just sounds like a retcon put in to make us try to like the lousy parent, because that's what Shounen manga's have to do, they have to justify the bad parenting.

Seeing parallels with Souma and Erina in that flashback, so it should mean that Souma and Erina are all but confirmed, but if this mangaka has been taking with Kishimoto or ended up with his editors, it means this is all a red herring and the final pairing is Megumi and Souma.

I had to praise last weeks chapter, so it's natural this weeks chapter was a disappointment, out of all the foodgasm dishes this looked like the least impressive one to date, it looked bang average with a bunch of different idea's thrown into a pie crust...kinda laughable that this is meant to be the ultimate dish from all the dishes we have seen in the manga to date and it looked more like a dish a student would throw together on a late Friday night, just throwing in everything that was left in the cupboard.

So, remember last chapter where Asahi had that weird shounen spirit guidance from all those cheif he defeated? Well...Souma got his this time from the various servers and mentor he had from working in restaurants telling him to keep going.

I thought that part was acknowledgement from the mangaka that he knows how stupid Asahi's ability is with him gaining the original users skills b stealing their knives.

I liked this weeks chapter, it was probably the best one in the arc so far, though it doesn't take much to be that. It was back to basics. I wonder if this is going to be the final arc, with Asashi it feels like they've painted themselves into a corner, and it will be difficult to continue with any other challenges after this.

Just when I think the manga can't piss me off any further it manages to to so even more. Now we have, what the mangaka is trying to play off as some next level cooking tricks but come off as a cheap party trick, Also the way Megumi's resolve and determination was brushed aside pissed me off as well.

Asahi might just be the worst antagonist I've ever read in a manga, he's not well written, he lacks any redeeming features, he's more annoying than anything else, he's OP in a bad way, like he was written by a OC by a 12 year old fanfic writer, he makes the filler enemies in all animes look like masterpieces in comparison. I thought Azami was one of the worst antagonists I'd read in a popular manage, but compared to Asahi he was CP9 level.

So what I got from this weeks chapter, All development from the past two plus years of reading a crappy arc was undone in one chapter, and we are back to the beginning, the mother may have an alternative reason to pushing her daughter in this arc, and Asahi is still lame and somehow manages to make Azami look like a genius level antagonist.

Really stating to regret not dropping this manga a couple of years ago, and now I'm too invested in it to drop it.

No, they just been basically sparing/having a friendly competition with each other, and using Takumi's knife as a excuse to turn it into a Shokugeki. Not any title matches. Those three have been going at each-other as well over using their seats as the ante for their Shokugeki. It could be they are were given a seat, and don't feel a need to clime the rankings since their all friends.

 

I would have preferred his brother since we rarely see him at all. Megumi is the second girl so she always going to have at least one match in a tournament. That brother as a satellite character does not have that. 

I wasn't talking about them fighting for seats, I was talking about how Takumi was fighting with Souma on a daily basis and was beating him almost 50% of the time, someone that close to Souma in ability should be higher seated not seventh.

Also I was talking about Megumi instead of Souma when the brother was kidnapped, of course it should have been little brother but the plot was for him to be in dispair having no support, and that's why I thought Megumi would have been better.

As for this weeks chapter....I am pissed off right now, all this time no mention of her mother and this is the crap we get, it's a friggin joke. well on the bright side we can now rest easy that Azami wasn't a scumbag who seduced a innocent girl and then dumped her once he got a position of power, instead he's a scumbag that got together with another piece of trash and somhow managed to produce a child who isn't completely messed up, it just takes gramps value up a notch for taking Erina away from those two.

Then again I wouldn't be surprised if the subplot for mother abandoning her child was because she was jealous of her daughters ability or couldn't handle her daughter critiquing her cooking or something equally petty that the mangaka will think will make us feel sorry for her, but will do the opposite, like how Asami's backstory made him look more pathetic instead of actually understanding his reason for abusing his daughter.

So why is someone who has been trading blows with the number one seat only the 7th seat? It's genuinely baffling how Hayama, Ryo and Alice are all ranked higher than him but have been reduced to comic relief since the time skip and not played a part in the manga's progression since they all got expelled.

I get the reason to include Souma was because of the relevance to the knife, but I think having Aldini pair up with Megumi would have been better, they did show they work better together in their training, and it would have given them both a time to shine without Souma being involved.

Aldiini's match reminds me of his match against the Copycat, so I'm guessing this battle is meant to show his growth about how he deals with mind games being played against him...again, as wasn't that the same set-up against Eizen as well?