@Toraish:
All that means is that you, personally, don't observe all the things that makes a character or a story enjoyable to you. It doesn't mean that they don't exist. The same can be said about a morning when you wake up, take a cup of coffee or fruit juice or whatever you prefer to drink, go outside and enjoy a warm sunny morning when the air feels nice and birds are singing. It feels good, and the fact that it is good makes you happy. But take away the singing of the birds, the sunshine, and the drink, and it suddenly gets pretty forgettable because the things that could make it good aren't there.
Say, on the basis of the first chapter, did you get at all excited or interested in Souma's story when you saw him compete against his father, the restaurant's owner, and swear that he would beat him one day? Or did he seem cool to you when he managed to scrape together enough ingredients from the destroyed larder to rise up to the challenge and make a meal that appeased the people that wanted to buy them out? He sure did to me. And you know what, that's exactly the depth that I'm talking about here. I don't mean Nausicaä style contemplation on humanity and nihilism, or even Vagabond's level of profound self-examination - what I mean that Souma has an awful lot of things that make it seem cool. Right now, I would say it's the coolest manga on Jump.
It's just easier to use more concrete terminology when you're trying to make a point because it's more precise. :P
ya, but i mean that this stuff shouldn't be counted. i mean, when i tried the first few chapters, ignoring the perv, soma looked like a cool dude. enjoyable. if i recall correctly, that depth u're talking about wasn't obvious. he was just enjoyable. and i could say the same for naruto, ichigo, & luffy, where the first chaps showed them initially to have the same coolness as soma (here it's about opinions though). a naruto fan (i'm not one anymore) can tell u the first chapter showed how naruto was shunned, how cool he was promising to become hokage, how emotional it was between him and iruka, etc… u can't feel all that from the beginning, and u can't convince me the japanese who voted had the same thought u had while reading, and not just my opinion (cool and enjoyable).
lolz. ya, i get u. sorry about that. i didn't mean any offense. i'm just bad with terminology like that.