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Warning: May contain light spoilers for the first chapter. Nut free, however.

This is my review for the beginning of the manga. It is not intended to be a full overview of the story, but instead a focus on what someone knew to the series will experience.

Enjoyment: 4
The beginning is incredibly generic, although the setting seems to at first have some potential. An atheistic, knowledge driven student staying in a shrine? Lots of room for comedic moments as well as self discovery and introspection.
...Except the entire first chapter is fan service. They throw away the MC's characterisation at a whim, with no real buildup or payoff ... to his actions. If you're going to have a moment where he breaks away from his feelings against religion, why do it in the first chapter? Why do it in that way? It feels like there is a strong agenda behind it which is being very blatantly, and poorly, enforced. There are also moments where it shows the MC's hands as being damaged, indicating the effort he has put into something. This is used lightly, and doesn't invoke the feeling of self-sacrifice that the mangaka intends as there is very little weight to these moments.

I am only a few chapters in at this point, but there is another glaring issue with it. 80% of every single panel is speech. Manga is inherently a visual medium where it is far easier than any other form of literature to show rather than tell. However the general panels are lackluster, and the wall of text you are faced with serves to confuse and irritate rather than make you connect with the characters or plot.

Art: 7
On a similar note, the art is actually pretty good at times. It switches to a more emphatic sketch style when something "emotional" occurs, which is quite pleasing to look at. Most of the panels are generic, however.

Character: 1
The characters are bland and utterly uninspired. Each of them is generic from their looks to their personalities. Perhaps this will change as the plot develops, but any drastic differences from the norm will just seem contrived attempts at originality.

Story: 2
The story is... Well, we don't really know yet. A "forced marriage" scenario is common, and an easy plot point to force drama. Is it annoying? Yes. Is it necessary to advance the plot? No. Which really makes you question why it is there in the first place.

Some of these aspects could change as the story develops, but the beginning is incredibly lackluster. A story needs a strong beginning to draw its readers in, and this one seems to have failed in that regard.

Overall: 4

Moving on from the awesomeness of the first season, I expected the second to deliver similar if not better results, especially with all of the hype for the "Autumn Elections" which promised a series of climactic and high-level battles between all of our favorite chefs. However in my eyes, what we were given was nothing of the sort.

Story: 4
To begin with, the story and its progression were highly sub-optimal; sub-average in fact. Whilst the first season had a strong approach to its direction, making you guess at every turn how things would play out, the second has settled into a series of monotonous battles that ... all have the same feel to them. All of the key events have become increasingly predictable, removing a large sense of excitement and wonder that I felt from the first season. Additionally, each episode consists almost entirely of just the battle between the chefs, leaving little room for any actual character development.

Art: 8
Continuing the theme from the first season, the art style of Shokugeki no Souma is still astonishing, and fits the show very well. Looking at the food does genuinely make you want to eat it. The only downfall to the art is the animation, which can appear stagnant at times.

Sound: 5
A theme song that is by far shadowed by its predecessor, along with an internal track that is mostly reused, left this anime lacking in terms of a unique music direction. I no longer feel the tension I felt after watching the first season, or the sense of badassery in the intro, meaning it has lost a lot of its charm for me.

Character: 3
As stated in the story paragraph, this anime has very little besides the battles themselves. Therefore, the characters are often neglected, and very little has happened thus far to further them. On top of this, many of the already defined traits of the characters from the first season have been ignored to a large extent in the name of advancing the plot, leaving the already defined characters seeming devoid of their previous features.

Enjoyment: 6
Despite the huge drop in quality from the first season to the second season, this anime is still quite enjoyable. Although the battles are predictable, they are still heated contests that are fun to sit through. It is not boring, it just lacks the flare needed to make it stand out like the first season did.

Overall: 7
The average across my scores for the previous parts is a 5, but I believe that the overall score this anime should have is a 7. This is because despite its failings, it is still what I consider to be a "Good" anime, which is a cut above many mediocre productions. To those who enjoyed the first season, this should be watched only if you feel the need to see an end to the story. If you felt satisfied enough by finishing the first season, then it may be better to avoid this one entirely.