Food Wars The Third Plate Episode 15 Review: Jeanne d'Arc Rises

I mean, what can you possibly expect with a title like this? A History Channel documentary?

Japanese Original Episode Title: 立ち上がる女騎士[ジャンヌ・ダルク]

Plot

Okay, so here we are again at yet another Totsuki challenge (am I the only person who preferred Shokugekis over this nonsensical effort to expel everyone?) where everything is set in order for the REBELS to fail. They are left to pick ingredients at the very end, with the result of having no ingredients at all. Yet, against ALL ODDS, and unlike EVERY SINGLE OTHER TIME, the REBELS manage to pull through and create an entire plate based on potatoes. Speaking of potatoes, before they actually used them for the dish, there were no potatoes to be seen anywhere, am I wrong? Did I miss it?

So yeah, they pass again, and after causing their examiner to dramatically lose his clothing, they get to walk around in Sapporo and enjoy the city and its various pleasures. Mito and Erina have a conversation about how they feel about one another (what), then the candidates are unexpectedly separated into different trains. That’s when they find out that, in order to survive the next test, they will need to go against the Totsuki Elite Ten. First-years against the school’s top students… sounds about right.

Episode Highlights

These guys: Did anyone else completely forget about the existence of these Central lackeys? Seems like even though they got these outrageous hairstyles, they are still way too unimportant for anyone to remember. Sorry!

Snow snow snow: I’m guessing fat Aldini is not gonna be losing any weight during this cour. There is snow wherever the characters go, and that is only natural as the action is taking place in Hokkaido, the Japanese island to the far north. It’s interesting to me as Golden Kamuy is also taking place around there, and it’s the only other anime I’m watching out of the Spring 2018 ones. I have very little knowledge of Hokkaido and its traditions, so it’s a good chance for me to look stuff up. Yay.

Erina’s training: When they started talking about producing dishes of regional cuisine, Erina’s classes on potatoes were the first thing that popped into my head. I love potatoes.

Freaking out about finding ingredients: I mean you guys… You’ve done this before, how many times have you been set loose to find your own ingredients? You’re just gonna sort it out again as you always do, no big deal.

Just fail them already: Why do I have to put up with a whole cour of Totsuki desperately trying to expel the REBELS? If you don’t like them, just kick them out, you don’t really need an excuse for that, do you? It would save you time and drama.

‘Glory to Central’: That was cheese enough for me to barf. And god knows I love cheese.

Ugly examiner: Out of all the art that I’ve seen in the show so far, this episode has one of its poorest examples. The examiner was so cheaply drawn. It made me miss the very first episode where Yukihira made that lady get naked over his food. That was like light years ahead of what I watched today.

Themes & Trivia

Sapporo: The capital of the mountainous northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, Sapporo is the fifth largest city of Japan by population and the largest city on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It is famous for its beer, skiing, and annual Sapporo Snow Festival featuring enormous ice sculptures. It also has a beer museum. Sounds like a fun place.

Odori Park: A park located in the heart of Sapporo. Ōdōri means ‘large street’ in Japanese and the park divides the city into north and south sections. It’s beautiful.

When will this end?

It feels like I’ve been watching the same episode since this cour started. No variety in structure, cheap tricks… Baahhh. What a letdown. At least Akira showed up near the end.

How did you find this Food Wars episode? Let us know in the comment section! And don’t forget to check the rest of the Spring 2018 anime reviews on MANGA.TOKYO!

NEXT TIME: 立ち上がる女騎士[ジャンヌ・ダルク]