Manga Review: Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma, Volume 18, by Yuto Tsukuda, Shun Saeki, Yuki Morisaki

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5-4

Publisher: Shonen Jump Advanced (VIZ Media)

Release Date: June 2017

Volumes: 25+

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. RightStuf.

Volume: 1. 16. 19.

Goodreads Synopsis:

The shokugeki to decide the fate of the Polaris dormitory nears its conclusion! Even with the judges firmly in his opponent’s pocket, Soma puts everything he’s learned from his time at the dorm on a plate, cementing Polaris’s future—or lack thereof—at the institute. Meanwhile, Central makes its move, beginning a full-scale purge of anyone daring to resist! Will Soma survive to take on this next challenge?

Review:

I missed the previous volume, and while I do wish I'd read it, it doesn't look like I missed too much.

We're in the middle of a shokugeki for Polaris house to stay. Of course Soma has decided to challenge one of the seats over it. Though, it doesn't feel like that much of an equal fight, since only Soma is cooking. During all of this, Erina is staying with the Polaris group, and they're all fighting to keep some punks from invading it.

After that shokugeki, the house gets to celebrate. Including their infamous naked apron head of house. We get an interruption by Erina's awful father, and a reveal about who Soma's father is, since apparently Erina and her father didn't realize.

And even amongst all of the seriousness happening—like people losing their seats in the council and rules changing and being challenged and Erina's father being awful—of course this is still a food manga. And so the latter half of the volume starts up even more shokugeki's, with students fighting to keep their houses or clubs. Soma needs to see all of it, but of course he can't help butting in a little.

We met an elite council near the end, and they all seem like serious jerks. I'm looking forward to seeing some justice being made.

Now that there's a serious plot line happening, I'm quite interested in reading more. I really like seeing Erina's relationship with her father, and seeing her mature as she learns who she is and what she can do on her own here.

A review copy was provided by the publisher, VIZ Media, for an honest review. Thank you so, so much!