Azami Nakiri

Azami Nakiri

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Azami Nakiri
Kanji	薙切 薊
Rōmaji	Nakiri Azami
Alias	Azami Nakamura - Original Name
Professional Information
Status	Alive
Gender	Male
Family	Senzaemon Nakiri (Father-in-Law) Erina Nakiri (Daughter) Sōe Nakiri (Brother-in-Law ) Leonora Nakiri (Sister-in-Law) Alice Nakiri (Niece)
Personal Status
Generation	71st
Occupation	Director of Tōtsuki Culinary Academy (former)
Media
Manga Debut	Chapter 131
Anime Debut	Episode 42
Voice Actor	Shō Hayami

“	By this time tomorrow, all shall be complete. This is Japan's gourmet food kingdom and I am its new king	”
—Azami Nakiri to Senzaemon Nakiri.

Azami Nakiri (薙切 薊(なきり あざみ), Nakiri Azami^?), né Nakamura (中村(なかむら), Nakamura^?) is the biological father of Erina Nakiri. He is the former Director of Tōtsuki Culinary Academy, having manipulated the Elite Ten into ousting his father-in-law, Senzaemon Nakiri, from the position. He would later be ousted himself and replaced by Erina as Director of Tōtsuki.

A Tōtsuki Academy Alumni and a former member of the Golden Age of the Polar Star Dormitory, Azami started out as a 3rd seat of the Elite Ten Council as a freshman before being promoted to 1st seat during his second year.

Appearance

Azami has slick black hair with a streak of white hair swept into the back. He is pale-skinned with black eyes and a notably grim looking face. In his high school days, his white streak of hair was a long bang that went down his face.

Upon his introduction, Azami’s outfit is predominantly black, consisting of a trench coat, vest, undershirt, leather gloves, slacks, and shoes. His tie is silver in color.

Personality

Azami is an egocentric, autocratic, and elitist snob who is morbidly obsessed with culinary perfection. He is disdainful of almost everyone, even many wealthy owners of eminent culinary businesses as in his view, they cannot appreciate "True Gourmet", Azami's term for his absolute culinary perfection. To Azami, "True Gourmet" is only meant for the select few who can appreciate its perfection: anything that does not meet his standard is pig's food, and is unworthy of being called cuisine.

His calm and collected exterior only serves to bely his near psychopathic tendencies. He treated Erina's "God Tongue" as a mere tool to achieve his selfish goals, using both physical and psychological abuse to shape her to his ideals. Azami's manipulative and controlling behavior was a defining trait of his administration, allowing and employing corrupt tactics to eliminate resistance. Azami showed no remorse for his actions, even after being ousted as the director by the Rebels.

Much of Azami's mindset stems from his idolation of his senpai Jōichirō Saiba. Seeing Jōichirō as the ideal of a perfect chef, Azami was deeply affected when Jōichirō prematurely left Tōtsuki. Believing that Jōichirō had been broken by his pursuit of culinary innovation, Azami came to deem all forms of culinary creativity as impurities. This, combined with his high standards for cooking, led him to view the culinary world was rotten and starting his revolution.

History

During his high school years, Azami attended Tōtsuki and was a member of the Polar Star Dormitory Golden Era. It is mentioned that Azami had won the Tōtsuki Autumn Election for first years. In his first year at Tōtsuki, he obtained the 3rd Seat of the Elite Ten Council under the third years Gin Dōjima and Jōichirō Saiba, becoming the first student in Tōtsuki's history to join the Council as a first year. Saiba inspired Azami due to his unique talent and natural genius. However, a certain incident involving Jōichirō caused Azami to believe that the culinary industry was rotten and needed to change. In his second year of Tōtsuki, he obtained the 1st seat.

In his adult life, he later married into the Nakiri family and sired a daughter named Erina. After finding out her latent abilities, Azami began subjecting Erina to a brutal training regime, forcing her to compare dishes and throw away all the contents of the dishes that were inferior. If Erina showed any sort of resistance, he was not above using physical force to ingrain his doctrine of food into his daughter. To ensure that Erina would comply, Azami cut off her contact with the rest of the world, including her cousin and only friend Alice. Eventually, Senzaemon caught wind of Azami's abuse and promptly exiled him from the Nakiri Family and the Tōtsuki Culinary Academy. Save a few newspaper articles and word-of-mouth knowledge, Azami's entire presence in Tōtsuki was effectively erased, leaving no trace of his history.

In the meantime, Azami began to create a culinary business and community solely for the wealthy in America and began to expand his business into the East, Middle East, and southern Asia. Despite his excommunication from Tōtsuki, Azami managed to contact the Elite Ten Council shortly before the Moon Banquet Festival and proposed to them to make himself the director of Tōtsuki.

Plot

Moon Banquet Festival

Main Article: Moon Banquet Festival Arc

Azami, after many years, finally returned to Tōtsuki on the fifth day of the Moon Banquet Festival. At the time, Erina was running a booth which Azami paid a visit to. Upon arrival, he greeted his daughter and walked into the main dining room. In a matter of seconds, Azami insulted the patrons, claiming that they were unworthy to eat her food. Even when confronted by Shingo Andō and Natsume Sendawara, Azami coldly continued to insult and reject their accomplishments. He explained his view of cuisine to that of appreciation of fine arts, something that requires an artistic sense, quality of character, and proper education. Eager to see how much his daughter has grown in skills since his excommunication, Azami promptly sat down at an open table that Erina had left open for Jōichirō Saiba in case he came, despite her attempts to protest. Just as Erina nearly began to serve Azami, Sōma Yukihira paid the booth an unexpected visit as well. Not knowing who he was, Sōma asked Azami if he could share the table with him, prompting Azami to lose interest and leave the establishment. As he left the booth, he was stopped by a posse of cars lead by Senzaemon himself. The father- and son-in-law got into a heated argument about their respective visions of what Tōtsuki should be for the culinary industry. Although Senzaemon was nearly able to force him to leave, Azami brandished an official document signed by the Elite Ten Council. In it, six of the ten members including Eishi Tsukasa and Rindō Kobayashi, the current first and second seats, voted to have Azami appointed as the new director of Tōtsuki. The only 4 who did not vote in favor were Satoshi Isshiki, Terunori Kuga, Tōsuke Megishima, and Erina. With the majority of the Elite Ten backing him up, Azami walked away, declaring himself the new "King" of Tōtsuki.

Central

Main article: Central Arc

News of Azami's replacement of Senzaemon quickly spread across campus and was officiated within a few days. At his appointment speech, Azami stated that he was honored to now carry the reins of Tōtsuki and was eager to set the Academy forward on a "better" path. Though his friendly and caring facade was welcomed warmly by some of the attendees, some of the more notable guests were uncertain to the true sincerity of his words and his impending actions. Azami quickly went to work pulling Erina back under his wing, first by relieving Hisako of her duties as Erina's Secretary, opting to take that role for himself. Despite Erina's clear upset feelings over his decision, she was ultimately unable to stop Azami. Later, Azami received word from his aide, Shawn Aida that Erina was missing from her room. Without showing any form of concern, he figured that Alice smuggled her out, but was fine with the news, even canceling the plans he had for her the next day. At his first meeting with the Academy board, Azami introduced his new education method for Tōtsuki, much to the shock of the board members. His new format for the Academy requires all students to cook dishes selected by a Central group. Ultimately, all students will be able to learn to cook Elite Ten Council-worthy dishes. Although most of the board members opposed, Roland Chapelle especially, his format was nonetheless put into immediate effect. Additionally, he officially disbanded all seminars and Research Societies on campus. Finally, he targeted the Polar Star Dormitory, forcing them to close down.

After the Yukihira Vs. Eizan Shokugeki ended, Central announced that the seminars and Research Societies could avoid their disbandment with a Shokugeki with the promise of neutral judging. That night, Azami paid Polar Star Dormitory a visit here he was greeted at the entrance by Sōma. Azami let himself into the dormitory and immediately headed to the dining hall where he found Erina and the other Polar Star residents. Immediately the residents rushed forward to block him from Erina, but after beckoning her to come, Erina walked to him. However, instead of taking her back to the mansion, Azami merely petted her head and assured the residents that she could stay in Polar Star as long as she wanted. After Fumio greeted him, Azami revealed that he was once a Polar Star resident himself back in his heyday, much to their shock. However, Azami warned them that their short lived victory is but a prelude for an impending "checkmate". As he prepared to head back to the Nakiri Mansion, he was confronted by Sōma who was curious as to why Azami was targeting a place that he possibly could have had an emotional attachment to. Azami brushed him off, saying that it does not belong in his world, albeit in it's current state. However, he reminisced the Golden Days when he spent it with a respected senpai of his, stating that Jōichirō Saiba and his dishes "shone with a brilliance" that still remained in him over 30 years later. Upon hearing this, Sōma informed him that Jōichirō was his father. Taken aback slightly, Azami wondered what he meant and Sōma restated that Jōichirō was his father. Just then he noticed Erina, who was experiencing a heavy amount of shock herself, and the two wondered how the other knew Jōichirō. After Sōma's claims were confirmed with a picture of him and Jōichirō, Azami pondered on this news for a bit, he realized that there was more to the story than just mere coincidences of the age of their children and Erina's exposure to Jōichirō. As he prepared to depart, he told Sōma that his revolution was all for the sake of correcting the "rotten culinary world" that "tainted his dear Saiba-senpai."

A few days later, Azami continued with his plans, next by officially dismissing Satoshi Isshiki, Terunori Kuga, and Tōsuke Megishima from their positions as Elite Ten Council members since they did not agree with his ideas. However, Satoshi had left a little present for him by revising the Shokugeki condition in order to prevent corrupt judging. While most clubs continued to shut down thanks to his Central enforcers, several managed to win thanks to the efforts of some 92nd Generation. Noticing that the 92nd Generation standouts were stronger than past generations, Azami began planning ways to take them down in the upcoming Promotion Exams.

Promotion Exams

(to be added)

Cooking Style

Azami himself has not been shown cooking. However, he has considerable skill considering that he obtained the 3rd Seat of the Elite Ten Council as early as the fall of his first year at Tōtsuki and later achieved 1st Seat in his second year.

Skills

• Persuasion - Azami has great powers in persuasion, skillfully able to convert people into believing his doctrine and vision for the culinary industry. However, the means in which he achieves this can vary, especially in the realm of ethics. He is known for using extortion, fear tactics, and even verbal/mental/emotional torture to achieve this. The effects have had a varied effect on individuals, from Erina having a long-time fear of her father or Urara Kawashima having her whole personality flipped.

Trivia

• Azami (薊) literally means "thistle". Nakiri (薙切) uses the kanji for "to mow down" (薙 Na) and "to cut" (切 Kiri).