Open Discussion: Underrated yet interesting character(s)
The previous discussion got some good responses, so I decide to make another! This one is about SnS in general.
The question is:
Which character(s) in this series that is actually (or potentially) interesting to explore, in terms of cooking or personality (the fun one or complicated/deep one) but was not executed very well in the series thus making them underrated or falling into one dimensional trope or mere fanservice material?
Feel free to write down your thoughts as long as you want!
I’d say unless your name isn’t Soma, Erina or Asahi, then prepared to be shafted for the remainder of the series post Beach Exam arc.
A major gripe of the last arc was that the entirety of the timing was both off and just plain wrong. This is especially made obvious since it we ended having to go through a third “tournament” arc for 50+ chapters, after reading through two mini arcs and a major 99-chapter section for the manga.
The point that I’m trying to make is that we never actually got a break as readers and fans of the series because we never got to experience every teenager in the cast be in a high school setting or doing regular teen stuff.
We barely saw the Polar Star dorm mates, originally casted as supporting characters namely because they lived with the main protagonist pre-BLUE arc.
Each dorm member had their own characteristic that could’ve been shown more. Not to mention that 90% of them were chosen for the Autumn Elections preliminary rounds. The judges were even impressed enough to give them their own monikers.
Yuuki had her high spirits and friendliness.
Ryoko’s gracefulness.
Isshiki’s constant encouragement for his juniors.
Shun’s interchanging stoicism.
Marui’s culinary knowledge.
Daigo and Shoji’s loyalty towards the dorm’s eminence.
All of those traits were also minimally shown during the Central arc as well. The other student characters were also affected, even after becoming honorary members. Seriously, when was the last time we saw a panel involving Fumio? The last time she was mentioned was after Soma’s rematch with Hayama.
We never got to see another Soma vs Hayama vs Ryo battle. Nor have we even gotten the chance to look at a Hayama vs Ryo vs Alice one either.
Such a big cast of supporting character were eventually downgraded to one-dimensional reaction extras with barely or any dialogue.
We didn’t even get to see them graduate, despite the implication that the 92nd generation would break the 1% graduation rate in the school’s history.
I think another great disservice for the series was that none of us fans got to see Soma’s stagnation. He help win back a school and got the First Seat at the end of his first year. Then gets selected and participates in BLUE in his second year. For just a few panels, we see him actually not be sure of what else he can do because he already surpassed Joichiro so much faster then he could realize. There could’ve been a few chapters where we see Joichiro and Soma travel together and have some conversations and try to workout whatever is going on inside his mind. Joichiro always had a great respect for his son’s innate vigor and seemingly endless persistence. That would’ve been a great plot thread to follow on especially since stagnation was used a cautionary tale (Shinomiya’s) and later something that led to a full-on, unforeseeable change in regime (Joichiro’s). It would’ve been a treat to see Soma showing another side of his happy-go-lucky self and finding a way out of it, with the help of his dad, who knows all too well of it.
A great bonus would’ve been seeing Takumi and Megumi being the 2nd and 3rd seats and holding down the fort and splitting the tasks meant for the first seat on top of performing their own.
I wasn’t against the Erina becoming headmistress - I actually liked it. However, what I didn’t enjoy the fact that we never see her in a position discussing the politics of running Totsuki or what in the curriculum she thought needed to change.
The Elite 10 rankings also got frustrating to look at. Eizan and Nene managed to seats back after voting in favour for and defending Central in a high stakes cooking battle royale.
I also wonder if because of Alice’s/Ryo’s/Hayama’s constant seat switching also impacted the process of the paperwork they were required to do as members. Not to mention that those seat were the bottom of the top 5...so maybe they had more responsibilities to take care since they had the higher seats.










