By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
When it comes to anime fanservice there’s shows where it’s over-the-top and excessive, such as Highschool of the Dead, and then when it’s restricted to only one or two characters, and you can basically tell who it’s going to be the moment they appear on screen (Naga in Slayers, Nico Robin in One Piece, etc.). Then there’s Food Wars!. The cooking school anime treads the line between being an outright ecchi and a shonen with great jokes, fun characters, and one of the best heroes in anime, Soma Yukihira. Well, all that, and even on Disney+ via Hulu, clothing gets blown off on a regular basis because the food is simply that good.
Food Wars! Brings Shonen-Style To The Kitchen
Food Wars! brings all of the standard shonen story beats and tropes to the elite Tōtsuki Culinary Academy. Soma wants to follow the footsteps of his legendary father by ascending to the schools’ Council of Ten. To do so, he has to win multiple shokugeki, cooking competitions, that play out like Iron Chef turned up to 11. It’s fun seeing traditional shonen battle special effects applied to gorgeous plates of food, and then there’s the bizarre, dream-like moments whenever someone eats food and experiences an orgasm.
When the food is really, really good, it’s shown as pure, clothes bursting pleasure. It’ll either be too much for you to handle, or you’ll start laughing as they get more absurd as the series goes on. Amazingly for an anime, the one that involves tentacles is fully clothed.
Joining Soma along his journey to be the very best are his fellow students, including Erina, the granddaughter of the school’s director, Megumi, Soma’s best friend suffering from crippling shyness and social anxiety, but don’t worry, she gets over it. As the series expands, the world grows beyond the walls of the academy to include a criminal gang of chefs in league with the Yakuza. It’s as goofy as it sounds, and it is glorious.
Finally An Anime Faithful To The Manga
The anime corrects some of the pacing issues from manga, particularly the “Fall Festival” arc that drags on a little too long, and removing some filler arcs form the manga, which is the exact opposite of how this usually goes. Oddly, for a series that borders on ecchi at times, Food Wars! the anime did away with the “Hot Springs” arc. A few other moments are shuffled around, but nothing major.
What is a problem, is trying to watch all of Food Wars! on streaming. Crunchyroll has Season 4, Season 5, and the Season 1 OVA available, while Disney+ has Season 2. Currently, the only way to catch everything is to buy the out of print Blu-Ray set. The series was originally licensed by HDIVE, and then, after Season 3, Crunchyroll, with each season requiring a different streaming agreement. Though it’s broken up into little chunks scattered across the services, Food Wars! is a fun watch and well worth grabbing on Blu-Ray if you want a show that’s a little different. Combining shonen battle sequences, gorgeous food, and copious fanservice, there’s nothing out there quite like Food Wars!.
