The show might become more known as Foodgasm by the time it’s done. The show goes into detail about the recipes used, and the eater’s reaction to eating the food is what provides the ecchi tag to the series. While that of course is the initial appeal, I think a lot of people will like Yukihira Soma. He’s a kid brimming with confidence and doesn’t flinch at the threat of a “Shokugeki” from other and more popular students at Totsuki Academy.

An issue I had with the manga will surely pop up in however long this series goes on for, which is the stakes attached to each battle. Everything early on was a “win or get kicked out” situation, which immediately lowered the drama as you knew Soma wouldn’t lose. The series is still fun in spite of this, I’m satisfied with J.C. Staff acquiring this, and I hope you enjoy the series as much as I’ve enjoyed reading the manga.

First of all, the people complaining about how this looks different from Kyoani’s 2006/2009 The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi are idiots. Not only is this being adapted by a different animation studio, but they are adapting a manga drawn by Puyo which contains his take on Noizi Ito’s original character designs. Second, I’m not particularly excited by this adaptation. Being the Haruhi fan that I am, I’ve collected several volumes of the Yuki-chan manga, and the best I can say about it is that it’s pretty much official fan fiction. The premise is a “what-if” scenario wherein the world shown in the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya was the real world all along. When it comes down to it, this is a love story for fans of the Kyon x Yuki ship, with some mild comedy thrown in. I can’t even get excited for this as possibly inspiring a third season of Haruhi since this is merely a promotional tool for the Yuki-chan manga and there hasn’t been any new Haruhi novel content in about four years. It will be nice to hear all the Japanese actors reprising their roles, and fans of Yuki will get the pleasure of hearing her in something other than her monotone. Rather than this though, I’d recommend every Haruhi fan check out the laugh out loud riot that is The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-chan manga which is also by Puyo.

I believe DxD is past the point of being a trendy “but it’s actually good!” series and has become one of the best in its genre. Season 2’s capability to tell a half-decent story has helped me enjoy DxD more on the whole. Most shows in its genre are entirely about what DxD’s selling point is, which is why it’s impressive to me when a show like DxD can tell a story that’s entertaining to go along with what the primary sales pitch of the series is. While it’s not an entirely bad thing for an ecchi show to be ecchi-centric and not reliant on strong storytelling, I feel like most shows could benefit and have more staying power, relevance and sales if they just took an ounce more time to develop a story that’s written and told well enough.

If you were to look at this anime solely by its synopsis, you might just label this as a generic scifi anime. It is just about some superhuman individuals fighting off monsters coming from another dimension invading our world. In a given year, we problem have at least 7 or 8 titles that read similarly. The reason my interest has peaked when looking into this show is because it comes from Naitou Yasuhiro who created both Trigun and Gungrave. Also it is being directed by Matsumoto Rie who directed one of the best shows from 2013, Kyousougiga. Those two coming together could produce something fantastic and BONES is a great studio backing them. I hope they are able to create something great because a good action scifi anime has become increasingly rare these days.