Souma of the Asian Halberd 4

Ah, competition. It’s funny because this school really isn’t about learning—just like universities. If people didn’t need degrees to get a good job, would any non-academics go to university? It’s all about the prestige of graduating—and the fewer people who graduate from your institute there are, the more prestigious their status becomes.

also it’s the only way to write a shounen manga so

You see, like ST&RS, Souma has an innovative concept—which will probably get it axed. The only way it can continue is if it amasses a devoted fanbase. To do that, Souma has to continually offer things generic shounen readers like—namely, fanservice, tsundere ojou-samas, and weekly tests of Souma soming some things up.

Then, after it becomes a regular series, finally, finally, we’ll have ‘food battles’ that take 30 chapters to resolve as Souma spirals down a vicious cycle into the realms of the Reborn because jesus

there is no such thing

as a food battle

my god

P.S. SPECULATION TIME. the reason why the gramps has a scar on his left eye and Soma has a scar on his right eyebrow is because when Soma was three, he held a knife but accidentally stabbed himself in the face. then he accidentally stabbed the gramps in the face. the end