Great art, great story, great characters, and great recipes. I can't understand why anyone thought it's not realistic (besides the oneshot, of course), there's even a famous japanese professional chef collaborating with them to create the recipes. I'd recommend this to anyone and everyone.

While some may get turned off by the amount of ecchi in this manga, you should realize that the artist started out by drawing H manga. This aside, the art is very good including the expressions of the characters, from the laid back Souma to the icy Alice and the rest of the cast. There's enough comic relief and silliness sprinkled about, but there are also serious moments. I also appreciated that the author doesn't introduce too many characters but gradually inserts them into the story as it progresses. Souma isn't a perfect cook but he knows how to learn from his mistakes. I'm looking forward to seeing him compete for a spot in the elite council later on .

It's very charming, and the main character, Souma, is hard to hate. The art is top notch. It's quite creative and diverse, once you see the dishes, your mind will be blown. The manga does contain an enormous amount of ecchi, but if you don't mind it, this manga will be absolutely enjoyable. I wasn't bored by the 30th chapter. I feel like there was constantly a new challenge every few chapters, and personally, I like that kind of pacing. There are tons of gag reliefs that I fully enjoy. All in all, A+ for story, characters, and delicious-looking food.

49 chapters in and loving every second of it. Character progression of the protagonist is reminiscent to that of Beelzebub; not from weak to strong, but from badass to even more badass.

Looking through the previous comments, it seems people think this falls short as a cooking manga because it fails to be informative or the material presented is just BS. But considering the amount of "how to" pages in the chapters I really cant imagine this being pulled out of someones @ss. Every single dish is made through some elaborate technique or unique ingredient, knowledge a layman shouldn't be familiar with.

And for those who think this isn't informative, you must be smoking some illegal Brazilian sht because you are out your dam mind. The basic formula for SnS is presenting a dish, then explaining the techniques the chef used, ingredients of choice, and a brief history of the ingredient or what it's most commonly used for - a procedure that takes a couple of pages.

... Last updated on February 3rd, 2014, 10:06am

I agree with previious comments that some of the dishes don't have cooking sense, but I still think is funny and for now I'll keep reading and see how it turns out...
Yet as you keep reading you realize that what it lacks is compensated with how well it expresses emotions and builds the atmosphere..

... Last updated on November 19th, 2013, 12:36pm

This is a MANGA. Whether the techniques, how what foods cooked from what ingredients using what methods, it's not wrong AT ALL even if the author wants to make them unrealistic. Oh please, this is MANGA, not a cooking guides written in manga style. Seriously mixing things with real pro's point of view might be wrong, because a manga is something to be enjoyed, not something to be judged.

At least we didn't see genuine meats produced from vegetables or vice verse, did we. (please note I can't cook at all)

And hey, battle manga? Haha, "battle". ridiculous. It's competitions, duh. What's wrong with competition. Competitions occur in real life. And actually, how would you make an interesting and long running manga out of cooking manga without competition, I mean, "battle" element on it? Can you tell me what manga / anime / tv show / reality show / any story / show about cooking as the main theme that did not involve competition? You can? Now that is what ridiculous.

Well, all those fanservices certainly there to help with the popularity. But imho, those fanservices are better than casual "too much forced and repeated and predictable" fanservices from a certain darkne* manga. (As I'm tired with those ridiculous fanservices manga)

To add a bit about my opinion on the manga... meh, just see what score I gave.

... Last updated on August 6th, 2013, 4:56am

At first I thought "what the?". It's about an elitist school with an examiner that's absolutely childish and unprofessional (she kicks people out without regret even if she approves of their food, just because she is insulted on a personal level).

It gets better though. Yes it's ecchi, but there are half-naked guys too hehe It's not the main focus of the story, without someone pointing it out I wouldn't even know that a H artist drew this.

To all those that call the main arrogant, there's a difference between arrogant and confident. Soma only does talk people down if he feels they deserve it.

... Last updated on July 26th, 2013, 4:11pm

Satire. That is the word I use to describe this manga. Shoukugeki no Soma is, to me, a satirical piece of literature parodying various aspects of manga: exaggerated movements, extremely ecchi 'n sexy women and men all in one spot, crazy scenarios, and more. It's really hilarious, and it just gets the humor right. It knows the basics, and builds up on that to create a really well done comedy/cooking manga. Even if it does add in the usual cliches, it never feels forced. It always seems to have a purpose.

All in all, if you want a good manga with great humor, this is the manga for you.

Hits all the shonen tropes and applies them to cooking, but it manages to keep up all the humor and fun. You'd be surprised how easy it is to fuck up simple concepts, but Tsukuda executes them well. So in essence it shares all wackiness and and exaggeration that sports series do. You pretty much have to take the veracity of such a series with a grain of salt! *Boom cooking pun* If you can't do that then these sorts of series probably aren't for you.

Also regarding fanservice... damn does this series do it well. And I'm not talking about how pretty the art is, although that's certainly a bonus. But this series provides equal-opportunity fanservice in a sense. Rather than being prude and disparaging the natural phenomena of wanting to see sexy things, Tsukuda and Saeki decide to just let both sexes be perverts. Tsukuda and Saeki not only include pretty girls, but also old women, bishonen, overtly muscular men and everything in between. All the while being incredibly creative in the ways they do it.

Give it a go.

... Last updated on June 28th, 2013, 3:11pm

I almost ditched this about 15 chapters in, because I got so bored, but I'm glad I didn't, because that was just about how long it took for me to start caring about the characters. The amount of seriously weird fanservice also goes down somewhat, which I can't help but be thankful for. I guess at least the author is even handed with his nude gender selection - the guys and girls get about the same amount of naked time, no matter how little you want to see it.

... Last updated on September 14th, 2015, 7:06pm