You know you’re onto a good thing when your primary complaint about it is that there isn’t enough of it. That’s as true of an excellent meal as it is of the second season of Food Wars!, a return to the delectable Dragonball Z meets Iron Chef silliness that defined its excellent first season.

This season is trimmed down to 13 episodes – half the size of the previous course! – and given its indulgent, oh-so-anime predilection for drawn out drama, that amounts to a small amount of story but plenty of hyperbolic animations of food. That the majority of season two is spent resolving the finals established at the end of season one is undeniably a disappointment. Food Wars! willingness to resolutely venture off the beaten track is a large part of its charm. Reduced to its core ingredients, the show remains as outlandishly entertaining as ever, and manages to throw a few twists you mightn’t expect into the mix along the way.

I particularly appreciate how Soma has matured into a great anime protagonist (even if it’s at the expense of many of the supporting characters). He’s cocky and hyper-talented, generous and hard-working, but also prone to hubris and self-doubt.