Šokugeki no Sóma - Šin no sara

On the one hand, I thought this was the grand finále to everything I have been waiting for since my initial encounter with the Totsuki elite culinary school and the appearance of Azami. However, on the other hand, I am once again looking back and reviewing whether it was really as awesome and impressive as I was thinking it was. It was certainly a big cooking tournament, that was supposed to deliver the best dishes and the ultimate gastronomic experience. Oh, and there were a lot of dishes I had never heard of and will probably never taste (even though there was a special quattro formaggi pizza, for example, which made me immediately get the urge to order something similar - so in terms of whetting my appetite, it worked). After saying all that, was it that impressive, or was it just a pretty ordinary single elimination tournament narrative arc that I liked because there were characters I had been looking forward to seeing again? That is a tough question... In all honesty, I was not even as pumped as I imagined, and just watching how big of a gastronomic orgasm the jury members would have this time around did gradually get less and less interesting. And at the end, Azami's ability which was just pure pure fan service was probably just about at the limit of what I am still willing to accept as funny and not as just stupid. However, it was an intense shokugeki competition and it was pretty much an adequate execution of what I was looking forward to, so I am going to award it another five stars, with the caveat that I am worried about what is going to happen next, because here and now would be a good and, for me, logical ending, even though I am told it is to continue further... We shall see... After the twelfth episode, 8.5/10 (30.12.2019)