Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. It’s time to continue are look at Food Wars. At the end of the last review we saw Souma take his first real lost at the school. It made him realize that he’s a big fish in the culinary world, but there are much bigger fish out there and he has a long way to go before he can measure up to them. Let’s see how this lost will affect the future and continue with Food Wars.
Opening and Ending Theme
The second opening is “Rising Rainbow” by Misokkasu. A much better opening than the first up in my opinion. This opening does feel more intense and sets the mood perfectly for the next arc as we realize that thing are starting to get serious and we’re starting see more chefs break out from the pack and become real rivals Souma. I really do love the bass guitar in the background.
The second ending is “Sacchan no Sexy Curry” by Seiko Oomori. Out of all the endings in this series, this is by far the strangest of the bunch. It’s slow and has a very melo theme which underplays the theme of the song and the funny yet creepy imagery the ending shows. As far as endings go it’s okay, but they’re much better endings out there.
Episodes 13-16
The training camp continues on the third day where Megumi has found a sense of confidence in herself in her cooking and Souma now knowing the feeling of defeat is now determined to work harder than ever (yesterday’s defeat is today’s motivation). Everyone from the Polar Star dorm survives the third day of the camp however once all of their activities are completed they’re told to all come to a meeting (someone’s going home) where Dojima gives them their test for the fourth day of the camp. Their test is to create a new breakfast menu for the resort and then serve it tomorrow at 6am sharp (I take it we’ll be getting no sleep tonight?). The main ingredient is egg and they’re free to make whichever cuisine they want as long as it features egg. So everybody rushes to the kitchens to prepare a dish that will be pleasing for customers. Some people have luck deciding on dishes while others are lost, tired, and unsure about their dishes. Souma creates a few dishes until he finally decides on one and gets approached by a girl who’s skin and hair is as white as snow (it’s the snow lady! Don’t look into her eyes Souma) who takes an interest in his dish but says to herself that he’s going to fail tomorrow. The next day comes where Souma and Erina (still an unbearable bitch) are put in the same station together. Dojima announces that the judges are kids, adults, chefs, and everyone in the resort and the young chefs are required to serve 200 people in 2 hours to get a passing grade (200 people! Are ya mad man!? They could barely serve 50 in an hour what makes you think they can serve 200 in 2 hours?). The judging begins with all of the main casts getting customers except for Souma who has pretty much screwed himself over big time (you dun fucked up Souma).
In episode 14 we see how Souma screwed himself over. He made a fluffy soufflé omelette, which isn’t a bad dish but not the best dish for a buffet line. At a buffet your dishes don’t get eaten right away. The customer decides when they’ll take your dish. Souma’s soufflé while good can only be enjoyed the moment it’s been completed. Anytime after that the dish goes bad and nobody wants to eat it (and that is how Souma screwed himself over). There’s also the fact that Erina is sharing a station with him and her dish is stealing away all of Souma’s customers (scene here: https://youtu.be/BhuFyVX-MAs, say what you want about her but that girl can cook). As the clock ticks away everyone seems to be getting their 200 servings while Souma still hasn’t sold one dish and he only has about 30 minutes before it’s over. Rather than panic he takes a deep breath and prepares a new batch of dishes to win the crowd over all he needs is one customer to say wow and that little customer happens to be a little girl (call the cops). With that little girl’s help the crowd begins to rush over to Souma’s dishes and in order to keep the crowd enticed he begins creating multiple dishes at amazing speed right in front of everyone (I love watching that boy cook). With only 2 seconds left to spare Souma manages to serve 200 people and pass (scene here: https://youtu.be/0xuHE4EjYYk) where he gets approached by that albino girl from last episode who we find out is named Alice and she’s actually Erina’s cousin (well I can see the family resemblance. Mostly in the asset areas). Alice’s style is to use cutting-edge technology and science to make her dishes taste great (science and food don’t belong together). After that meeting the training camp continues (no more! No more~! I can’t take it anymore) where at the final event of the evening the remaining students receive a banquet courtesy of the alumni for surviving the camp (congratulations you reached the center of the labyrinth. Enjoy your meal because the next level of hell awaits you).
Not much to say about episode 15. The camp is finally over and the students are returning to the academy (out of one hell and into another). Souma misses his bus as does Erina because she went back to her room to get an important picture of her as a child with Joichirou who was apparently her chef when she was younger and now that she’s a teenager might have a crush on him (he’s old enough to be your dad! Go for the son). This also explains why she has such high standards for food and perfection. To her, Souma dad’s cooking was the best food she ever tasted. It was in a sense perfection in her eyes so now she expects everyone to have that same perfection. Enter Souma who makes excellent food but is well Souma. The two get a ride back to the academy where he arrives back at the dorm with the others where his father is preparing a meal for everyone (scene here: https://youtu.be/1NVdr_zFrag, the girls have fallen for him and the boys have a man crush on him). We find out that he’s actually an alumnus of the academy and was actually the second seat right behind Dojima. Together these two led their dorm to many victories and expanded their dorm throughout the academy (it was truly a golden age). We end the episode the next morning with Souma’s dad calling Souma to the kitchen for a cook off.
Not much happens in episode 16. Souma and his dad have their cook-off with Megumi, Fumio, and Satoshi as the judges. The theme is breakfast and they’re free to make everything they want. Souma creates an apple risotto while his dad creates a special ramen (fun fact, in some cultures of the world people eat ramen for breakfast). Souma’s dad wins overwhelmingly making this Souma’s 490th lost in a row to his dad and he handles it like a man. He doesn’t whine or get mad he accepts his defeat, writes it down, and recognizes the mistakes he made in the cook-off. While Souma’s dish was good it only met the minimum satisfaction of the people eating it. His dad on the other hand went for maximum satisfaction. He took into account everything for the judges such as what they did yesterday and how tired they still would be in the morning. After his victory Souma’s dad leaves but before going he leaves a message for Souma telling him to air out the family diner every now and then (loser has to work the diner).
Episodes 17-20
Episode 17 opens up with Kurase, Souma’s normal childhood friend who secretly has a crush on him (code name Harem Member #0). She’s sad because Souma isn’t around and wonders if he’s doing alright (oh trust me he’s doing fine. Giving girls orgasms and building up his harem evermore). Just as she’s wondering, Souma pops out of the family diner airing out where everyone rushes over to him and begs him to make them some food since they missed the taste (wow Souma, you and your dad turned them into some food addicts). He makes them all some food where everyone notices that Souma has become a little bit more mature and reliable. Eventually Souma notices that the shopping district is quite empty and he finds out from the district chairman that all of their business has been stolen by the train station ever since they installed their own mini city mall in the station and one of the stores there is selling some good karaage (Japanese deep fried chicken, fish, or other meat) which is running the shopping district out of business. Concerned for the people, Souma decides to use his vacation to come up with a new dish to beat their karaage and Kurase’s friend forces Kurase to help him out hoping to bring the two closer. Realizing he’s dealing with meat (oh God are they bringing her back?) he decides to call in a specialist to help them out, Ikumi (the meat is back and delicious as ever). She happily agrees to help out and arrives the next day where she’s mad to see Kurase there to help them (scene here: https://youtu.be/se0hshA3Kts. Man, it’s like comparing a super model to an elementary student. One’s sexy while the other is cute. Which is your preference?). They go to the train station and meet the owner of the karaage shop Kinu (who has the face of a mischievous fox) and openly tells them what makes their karaage so great confident that they won’t be able to topple her and even mocks them (she has just made a powerful enemy). They return to the diner and decide to start making samples to surpass her karaage until Kurase says that they should focus on the shopping district instead of the train station. All this time Souma thought he had to compete with Kinu on her home turf but in truth he doesn’t. Just focus on the shopping district and give customers what the train station can’t give them.
Not much to say about episode 18. Souma, Ikumi, and Kurase create a karaage that beats Kinu’s shop by making it look a tortilla so you can eat it as you shop and walk home from school. Because of this everyone stops going to Kinu’s shop and instead go the shopping district where the other stores take advantage of this situation and revive the shopping district (see what happens when you mock Souma?). With this, Kinu’s shop is finished and Souma returns to school where he gets called in by Etsuya the holder of the ninth seat in the school’s Elite 10 (man Souma, you have a habit of making enemies out of the Elite 10). Apparently Etsuya is mad at Souma for crushing Kinu’s store because Etsuya was their consultant who was trying to take over the area for profit (should’ve factored in the Souma factor). He tries to get Souma to work for him but Souma says no angering Etsuya. He says that one day he will crush Souma but for now Souma should get ready for the school’s Fall elections which he will be participating in.
In episode 19 we see Souma as well as a few other students from his dorm and friends will be participating in the Fall elections. There are 60 contestants total and have been split up into two groups of 30 where the top four chefs of each group will move on to the main tournament which is a cook-off between each other. The theme for the preliminaries is curry and since Souma doesn’t know much about curry he goes to visit Professor Shiomi a studier of spice as well as a former student of the Polar Star dorm (so even after graduating you can’t escape this place). We meet her where we see she’s not only the adult and smaller version of Megumi (sisters separated at birth. That, or the reunion of mother and daughter) but she also carries a grudge against Souma’s dad (he left you at the altar, didn’t he?) because his dad always used her as his taste-tester for his horrible cooking which scarred her for life (but you still like him to this day). We also meet her assistant/adoptive child Akira a dark-skinned boy from India (more on him later) who has an amazing nose on him. While Shiomi comes up with different cooking techniques Akira puts them to the test to see if they work or not (they make a good team I’m not gonna lie). While Shiomi goes on a tangent about different spices (listen closely, there will be a test at the end and the reward is fanservice pictures of the females in this anime) Akira shows them by making dishes of curry that amaze even Souma. It finally gets revealed that he’s also in the Fall elections and is also aiming to be the top chef at the school saying that while Souma’s cooking is good it won’t be enough to make him the best (he ain’t wrong. (Mira): But he isn’t right either). Souma leaves thanking him for the lesson and decides he’ll repay him by making an even better curry dish at the election.
Really not much too say for episode 20. Everybody in the elections works on creating their dish over their break until finally the elections where we find out that they’ll be placed into 2 groups of 60 people and only the 4 with the highest score from each group will advance (well we already know Souma and Akira will advance. Megumi is a maybe so all that leaves is 5 or 6 spots left open).
Episodes 21-24
Once again there’s not much too say about episode 21. We see everyone cooking their dishes. We mainly focus on the B Group and the main cast as well as a few side characters in this group. I have to admit it is cool seeing these different styles of cooking and seeing the many dishes everyone is making (I’m getting hungry just watching them cook all these dishes).
For episodes 22-24 all we get is cooking as the students compete. We see everyone from the Polar Star Dorm get a chance to shine before getting beaten out (yeah, they’re really stretching this out, but to their credit they knew they were getting a second season and this was a good stopping point for the first season and like I said previously it is cool to see all these different styles of cooking as well as dishes being made. It makes me want to get up and try them out). In the end we see that Souma, Megumi, Takumi, Akira, Alice, Ryo (Alice’s assistant), Hisako (Erina’s assistant), and one new character are the participants in the Fall election (scene here: https://youtu.be/AefG72o_gCc).
Current Thoughts
I’m gonna try something new here. Seeing as how this is a long anime, I figure I give my current thoughts after each season. Food Wars so far has been a great anime. It has great characters, a good set up, and delicious food for all of us to try. The first half of the anime does a good job of establishing the character of Souma. He’s an outsider in the world of cooking. He wasn’t born into a wealthy family or comes from a prestigious family of cooks, he’s an average guy who lived a normal life and loves cooking. I like his laidback personality and the fact that he remains true to his roots. He’s not ashamed of his background. While everyone views it as a weakness, he sees it as his strength. The dishes he creates are creative and innovative. His victories are won through his hard work, knowledge, and willingness to think outside the box. His relationship with Erina is funny and she serves as the perfect foil to him. She constantly looks down on his cooking expecting to get a rise out him, yet he just smiles at her and treats her nicely which in turn makes her angrier. Despite her attitude and outlook on Souma’s way of cooking, they still make her a likable character as we see she gained her love of cooking from Souma’s dad and her spoiled attitude and outbursts are cute and funny. The second half of the season does a good job at expanding on the other characters while still showing Souma’s growth as a cook. He takes a hard defeat, but rather than mope around he uses that to motivate himself. He’s felt defeat a number of times at the hands of his dad so he knows what it’s like to lose and knows he still has a lot to learn and that he’s not the best. The rest of the characters are also good. Megumi starts off as a character with little to no confidence. Always clinging to Souma for support until she slowly starts to gain confidence and become her own cook that’s able to stand on her own. Takumi is similar to Souma, but different enough where he doesn’t come across as a copy of Souma and I like the friendly rivalry they have with each other. I also like Ikumi and how she has her own redemption at the end of her arc where she loses but comes out as a better person from it and ally of Souma.
The dishes that they make in this anime look so good. I get hungry just looking at them and the recipes they use to make are all real. The foodgasms are a lot of fun and give us our dose of fanservice for this series as the girls in this anime are all beautiful and animated well. The music is good as is the animation, and the comedic moments do get a good chuckle out of me. So far the anime has been good and I look forward to seeing what happens next. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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