Studio: J.C.Staff
Episodes: 9 (on-going)
Director: Yoshitomo Yonetani
Genre: Ecchi, Shounen, Comedy
This review of Food Wars! Fifth Plate was sponsored by our friends at dimsum entertainment. Thank you for the review copy!
Summary
Our protagonist Soma Yukihira attends Totsuki Culinary Academy, a school for elite students of the culinary world. During his time at Totsuki, he strives for improvement by competing in various cooking battles known as “shokugeki”. Now, Soma is in his second year of high school and is currently the first seat of the Totsuki Elite Ten Council.
In this final season of the show, the students at Totsuki are invited to join “BLUE”, a world cooking championship where young chefs from around the globe gather and compete with each other. However, the competition turns out to be anything but ordinary. With new rivals and challenges ahead, how will Soma and his friends overcome the hurdles that they are up against?
What you need to know about Food Wars! Fifth Plate
- The animation is very well-done, especially when it comes to the food. In contrast to the manga, where the artist is only limited to shades of black and white, the anime will definitely whet your appetite with its realistic visuals that are accompanied by the perfect sound effects. Of course, the series’ well-known ecchi (Japanese slang for playful erotic scenes) moments are back as well!
- Like many other series, the opening and ending themes of Food Wars hint at the main focus of the story. As observed in both the opening and ending, Soua and his friends will face new opponents, who are known as the Les Cuisiniers Noirs (also known as midnight chefs or ‘Noirs‘ for short). Besides that, there are also snippets of Souma and Erina’s families, in particular their mothers, who will very likely make an appearance in the anime like they did in the manga. Of course, the moms’ faces are blurred out to be kept as a surprise before the actual reveal.
- Judging by the episodes released, the anime will follow most of the storyline from the original manga, with an additional twist on some aspects. For example, some events that occurred in the manga were only touched upon lightly in the anime, and vice versa. If you’re curious to find out what the differences are, feel free to start reading from Chapter 264 of the manga!
- Newly introduced characters like the Noirs were given more screen time in the anime than in the manga. The animators also used the luxury of moving visuals to enhance the presentation of the Noirs as they used their special tools to prepare dishes. This allows the story to become more rich content-wise as it helps build up tension and illustrate the difference in skill between the Noirs’ chefs and normal chefs.
- Last but not least, the question on everyone’s mind is ‘will Soma marry Erina?’. As both characters did not get married in the manga, to the disappointment of many fans, rumours are flying around saying that Erina will actually marry Soma in the anime instead. Based on the many subtle changes the anime has made to the manga’s storyline, there’s a high chance that this could actually happen, but there’s no real guarantee.
Trivia
- Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, episode 3 was delayed to July 17 instead of the initial release date on April 24. The episodes that were supposed to be released on the following weeks were replaced by reruns of the previous seasons.
- The Food Wars! anime came about when anime producer Noriko Dohi approached the series’ publishing company, Shueisha, for the rights to an anime adaptation. The manga series had been very popular when it was first published, and Dohi had happened to pick it up as a result. After reading the manga, she thought it would also be very popular as an anime.
- An official fanbook was released on 5 October 2019 with the title Shokugeki no Soma Last Fanbook: ~creators’ spécialité~. The book contains the creators’ insights on various aspects, such as the relationships between each character and the overall storyline.
Verdict: Watch it!
In a nutshell (no pun intended), Food Wars never fails to appeal to and amuse fans with its amazing food illustrations, as well as its usage of erotic scenes to describe the deliciousness of a dish. As a fan that has been following the series since the beginning, it’s definitely one of the best-written shows I’ve ever seen.
What will be awaiting us at the end? Guess we’ll have to watch to find out!
Food Wars! Fifth Plate is now available on dimsum entertainment. Head on over to dimsum.my to check it out now!
