Shokugeki no Soma

Shokugeki no Soma or Food Wars is a shonen anime series about the culinary world. It brings a lot of color to this otherwise sparsely explored genre and is a must watch for you anime food lovers! This mouth watering and brilliant show has a great balance of exciting plot points, vibrant visuals and entertaining characters. It also does a great job in involving comedic elements so that it's not just an intense food anime with no other focus. Although Food Wars sounds like an innocent cooking anime, beware as it's very ecchi (suggestive sexual content). And I mean overtly ecchi moments, that can be off-putting. Since this is a culinary show let me put it this way: think of Food Wars as an Oreo Milkshake. You're blending milk, oreos, chocolate, ice cream...but bam someone throws a handful of broccoli in there! The un-necessary ecchi hits just like that broccoli (at least for me), but the rest is so on point.

The plot of Food Wars is not complicated. We follow the story of Yukihira Soma, a chef at his own family diner. Soma has no formal cooking accolades or fancy training but is an undeniably amazing cook. One day his father sends him to a prestigious cooking academy called Totsuki where only elite chefs can survive. Soma decides that he will outperform everyone at this academy but is up for quite a challenge. You get to see really entertaining story arcs about how Soma and his friends train to become better and how the existing egotistical chefs challenge them, only to realize they aren't ordinary chefs. All viewers get pulled into an expertly crafted culinary universe that's fairly educational and full of heated cook-offs. The show is also full of motivational content and unexpected reveals. My favorite aspect is that Soma has no special abilities, he gets his victories through sheer hard work and practice. A quote said by Soma's dad really gets me pumped, "people tend to dislike Soma because he wins but isn't special. Recognizing him means, realizing your own shortcomings and lack of determination."

While I have mentioned the shows ecchi natured drawbacks, I do also want to point out that the format of cooking battle after cooking battle can get tiresome. Food Wars will explain the science behind every chef's cooking, which is great, but can also cause an information overload if you're binge watching. 

    

My personal ratings are:

Story: 3/5
Character Development: 5/5
Dialogue: 4/5
Music: 4/5 
Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall recommendation: One Yukihira special. Glad you liked it! 

Shokugeki no Soma/ Food Wars can be streamed on Netflix or on Crunchyroll based on your region. You can use a VPN to watch on either platform.