Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj where today were looking at them much anticipated season 4 of Food Wars. Produced in 2019 this was easily the season that everyone was hyped for. This is where the manga reached it’s climax as we got to see the Rebels take on Central in the battle not only for the school but for the future of the culinary world. Let’s see what happens in season 4 of Food Wars.
Opening and Ending Theme
Our opening this is “Chronos” by STEREO DIVE FOUNDATION. Alright, so far the season is off to a good start. This was a real good opening, it honestly does sound like the final arc of the a series. The song really does capture the uncertainty of the battle our heroes find themselves in, but at the same gives us hope that they can pull off the impossible. My only complaint with this song is that I couldn’t understand what the singer was saying in the first half of the opening, but during the second half I was able to hear him well.
For the ending, we get the return of Nano.ripe with “Emblem”. This my second favorite ending in the series. The beginning of the song always sent me on a trip down memory lane as I remembered the first I saw these characters and see just how far they’ve come over the course of the series.
Episodes 1-5
We start the fourth reason with a quick recap of what happened in the last episodes of season 3. After that, we move on to the second round of the team Shokugeki. Representing the Rebels we have Kuga, Tousuku, and Mimasaka (the dark horses of the team). Representing the Elite 10 we have Eishi, Rindou, and Saitou (bringing out the big guns). Kuga takes on Eishi where their theme is green tea leaves, Tousuku takes on Rindou where the theme is cayenne pepper, and Mimasaka takes on Saitou who have a tuna theme going on and is Saitou’s field of expertise as he’s a sushi chef who follows the code of bushido. Throughout the episode we mostly focus on the match between Tousuku and Rindou. We discover that Rindou’s specialty is rare cuisines. Yep, she’s a one of kind chef who travels the world looking for the rarest of ingredients to make her dishes. In fact, that’s the only reason why she sided with Azami in the first place. With his connections, Rindou will have access to all the rare ingredients she wants and the resources necessary to hunt them down. Well that and because she has a crush on Eishi (one’s like a holy knight, the other is like a barbaric goddess. Makes you wonder what their kids will be like. Berserkers maybe). We see her actually kill and gut an alligator live in order to get the alligator meat and she did it perfectly for her dish (scene here: https://youtu.be/yOLlmmovh-I). As for Tousuku, we see that he’s the master of a ramen shop and is honestly a guy who hates competitions. He hates Shokugekis, so what compelled him to fight beside Souma and the others? Souma’s determination. Souma literally challenged Tousuku to see who could make the best ramen dish (well this can only end in failure for Souma) and lost a number of times until he eventually passed out from exhaustion (scene here: https://youtu.be/XEeFwmpUbK0). Tousuku was impressed with Souma’s passion to keep going despite knowing that he would lose this battle (it wasn’t about winning. It was about gaining respect. Even though Souma lost he still won) and agreed to join their cause.
Things take a bad turn for the Rebels in episode 2. Mimasaka and Tousuku present their dishes along with Saitou and Rindou where they both unfortunately lose despite their best efforts (and Mimasaka’s incredible mimicry of Saitou’s dish. He’s gonna work for the FBI someday. Scenes here: https://youtu.be/-GiQUJMUo8Y, https://youtu.be/78BbU2jolx4, and https://youtu.be/gdEAwJWfyZI). This just leaves only Kuga standing and with him going up against a guy like Eishi the chances are slim (and because the shonen law dictates that Eishi must lose to Souma and no one else).
At the start of episode 3 we see Kuga lose to Eishi which means the second round is Central’s complete victory (scene here: https://youtu.be/7cTimfL6H8Q). But even in defeat the Rebels managed to wear down Rindou, Saitou, and Eishi to the point where Rindou and Eishi have to sit out for tomorrow in order to recover their strength (you incompetent donkeys, get back out there and cook). The next round comes the next day with Souma, Megumi, and Takumi representing the Rebels and Saitou, Momo, and Eizen (asshole) representing Central. For the first match it’s Souma against Saitou where their theme is butter and they both decide to make a rice signature dish. Takumi is going up against Eizen where their theme is beef and Megumi takes on Momo where their theme is apples.
Episodes 4 and 5 focus on Megumi and Takumi. We focus on Megumi first where we see she actually received some personal training from Shimoniya (I can only imagine that being a horrifying yet enriching experience for her. Scene here: https://youtu.be/eitQdtckWck) and presents a good dish to the judges, but not enough to win the match as she lost 2 to 1 (scenes here: https://youtu.be/PYY__tZ2YYE and https://youtu.be/eZr4RK_s9Ds and yes, I really do feel that she got cheated out here). We move to Takumi and Eizen’s match where once again Eizen does an underhanded tactic (again? Why!? There really is no need for you to cheat) to make sure Takumi didn’t get enough of the ingredients he needs but it turns out Takumi tricked him for his dish which is a 4-meat pizza (oh yes, you will believe an Italian can make great pizza) which just crushes Eizen’s dish to give Takumi a satisfying victory over that asshole (scenes here: https://youtu.be/TAJB-b4lylU and https://youtu.be/BTSknNb-KqA).
Episodes 6-9
Episode 6 gives us a battle of the samurais between Souma and Saitou (if I’m being honest, this might just be Souma’s toughest Shokugeki. With the other Shokugekis Souma had confidence that he could win, but here, you can just tell he was unsure he was gonna win). Saitou, the more polished and proper samurai against Souma the irregular and undisciplined samurai (it’s like what would happen if Mugen and Jin from Samurai Champloo had a cooking contest with each other). Saitou delivers his dish which is an amazing seafood rice bowl (scene here: https://youtu.be/KMOlhMMDAJ8. Ohh~ watching this anime on an empty stomach is torture. Every time I watch this anime I want to go to my kitchen and start cooking the dishes they make because they look so good. Too bad I don’t have the ingredients). We do get to see Saitou’s past where we find out he’s just like Souma in a way. He was raised by his mom who was a single parent and ran a small but successful sushi restaurant. Thanks to her, Saitou got accepted into Totsuki where he studied hard to one day help his mom in the restaurant. One day, Saitou’s mom received an offer to train at a famous sushi restaurant and she accepted only to be treated to a nightmare. The restaurant was very old school and adhered to the traditions of old which was never allow women into the kitchen (cooking at home is fine but at a restaurant, know your place woman). Saitou’s mom was instead forced to do chores and was never allowed to step foot in the kitchen. Eventually, she collapsed from exhaustion and became bedridden, but Saitou in no way took this lying down. He took over his family restaurant and sliced through every sushi restaurant out there until he became known as the best sushi chef in the world (fish everywhere beg for this man to slice them up should they find themselves up for sale). Now it’s Souma’s turn to present his dish which is toasted-butter pilaf Inari sushi (ahhh~ I hunger for you). His dish was so impactful that it made the judges hungry again (the same judges who just got done eating a sushi dish). We see that Souma’s dish is a culmination of everything he learned at Totsuki and from everyone he’s ever faced off against (this leads us to a Fate/stay night reference. Scenes here: https://youtu.be/4po5j6FIO7o and https://youtu.be/c91KeK4ausc). Souma beats Saitou and it’s now a 4 on 3 situation with the Rebels having the advantage.
Erina finally makes her presence known in episode 7 as she enters the next round and takes on Momo (avenge Megumi) who is very angry from her last match against Megumi (as you should be dammit. You know you got lucky last round. That was Megumi’s victory, and you know it). Isshiki takes on Eishi (wild rabbit) and Takumi takes on Rindou (spear squid. No offence to Takumi and Isshiki but you guys are the sacrifices for this round). The theme for Erina and Momo’s match is brown sugar where Momo goes all out and creates a grand cake with everything edible on it (scene here: https://youtu.be/SW1vfYnsph8, it’s a fortress of cuteness and sweet deliciousness). Erina presents her dish, souffle pancakes (which looks amazing). While Momo’s dish overwhelms everyone with cuteness, Erina manages to surpass her in the flavor department (scene here: https://youtu.be/xG9IawftkUI) and explains why she was so irritated by Megumi. It’s because Megumi presented a dish that was unconventional and nearly beat her. It’s puzzling to her, how could something so unconventional turn out so great? Just like Erina before her, Momo has stuck to conventional methods. Stay within the norm and follow what was instructed to you to create a dish. An understandable and good approach to cooking but sometimes it’s nice to go off the eaten path and try to present something new. Who knows, you may just discover something innovative. Erina wins and Azami announces a change in judges with him as one of them (no! You’re gonna be biased for your team).
So in episode 8 Azami gets announced as the new judge along with two sexy ladies named Decora and Courage, two renowned WGO adjudicators who were actually the ones who trained Anne in the past. While Decora and Courage vow to be fair and unbiased, Anne demands that she be allowed to stay on as a guest judge (that seems fair). While everyone is mad about this, Souma welcomes this change as it gives him and the others a chance to show him what they’re cooking is all about (plus this shows just how scared he is. He was expecting this to be a blowout and now here we stand. 4 on 2 with your side close to losing). Getting back to the cooking, we see Rindou is pretty upset that Azami is interfering (obviously. This is her battle, not his) but that doesn’t stop her from finishing her dish along with Takumi at the same time. Takumi’s dish is the calamari ripieni (scene here: https://youtu.be/SMAy29S1-RM. Yume: I don’t know what that is, but I heard calamari and you got my attention). Takumi’s dish is good but pales in comparison to Rindou’s causa one of the most classic Peruvian cuisines out there. Her dish is ecstatic and easily wins over the judges giving her the win. We’re now down to Isshiki and Eishi where I have to admit Isshiki is at huge disadvantage. Isshiki specializes in Japanese cuisine which sadly isn’t big on using rabbit meat or any meat for that matter. Eishi who specializes in French cuisine is at an advantage as rabbit meat is actually quite common in French food. Despite this disadvantage Isshiki presents his dish with a smile on his face all while having fun and enjoying himself. He presents his dish which is a simple Japanese soup which managed to turn the pungent rabbit meat aroma into something amazing and captures the beauty and taste of Japanese cuisine. We also get a backstory where Isshiki reveals that the reason he can enjoy cooking so much is thanks to Nene. As a child he was told to be the best of everything and that caused him to hate cooking until he saw Nene who was passionately working on her skills and this inspired him to keep cooking (he loves her).
So as you would imagine in episode 9, Isshiki loses to Eishi and gets stripped down to nothing but his loincloth (Mira: Oh~ that’s one tasty Japanese dish. (Yume): I’ll have what you’re having). It’s now two on two with the final bout being different. Instead of having the cooks face each other one on one it’ll be a two-course meal. The first one serves the appetizers while the second one will be the main dish. The final bout will take place tomorrow where cooks can use any ingredients they want (present your best and nothing less). As everyone rests and prepares for tomorrow’s bout we see the teamwork between Erina and Souma isn’t going so well as they can’t decide who’s doing what (those two should just make out and get it over with). We actually do get a chance to see why Eishi partnered up with Azami. At a young age Eishi was obsessed with perfecting his cooking and this obsession carried him all the way to the number one seat at Totsuki. At first, things were great, but something started to change within Eishi. He started to get pissed at people for critiquing his food. While all his dishes received great reviews, he knew that deep down they weren’t his best and to have everyone constantly praise him for crappy work just ate at him (no pun intended). In his mind, he felt that people were praising him because he had the top seat at Totsuki. Eventually, he met Azami (like meeting the devil himself) who got into Eishi’s ear and put everything into perspective for him. Whether or not he took advantage of Eishi in his distraught state remains a mystery, but one thing is for certain, Azami saw himself in Eishi and tried to put him on the same path as him. The next day comes and Souma and Erina play rock paper scissors to decide who does what with Erina winning so she gets the main dish while Souma gets the appetizer.
Episodes 10-12
The final round begins in episode 10 as Rindou and Eishi are in perfect sync with each other while Souma and Erina seem to be battling each other (it’s like looking at two different marriages. One has had years of practice and each person knows what the other one can do thus developing a great level of trust between them. The other is a young marriage where the couple loves one another but can’t help but compete against each other). However, Eishi and Rindou make one fatal mistake, they serve their dishes first (which might as well be a death flag in this series). Rindou serves her appetizer which is a mushroom Mille-Fueille with Duxelles Filling (I have no idea what I just wrote but it sounds delicious. Scene here: https://youtu.be/7AdVX0_OrL8). Eishi serves the main dish which is Sauce Chevreuli a delicious dish that satisfies Azami that his explanation about this actually makes people strip without their knowledge (scene here: https://youtu.be/f9GZTP0sMTE. (Baron): I want that! (Nitsuj): Don’t be tempted by the devil). As for Souma, he takes advantage of Erina’s God Tongue to prepare his appetizer. Normally, Erina would praise him for this except he’s going completely off script with what she originally wanted him to do. Souma presents the appetizer which honestly looks like a hunk of meat a cartoon caveman would eat (and something Souma would totally make). The dish is actually a Pate de Campagne wrapped in steak and bacon and has a few other things that just creates an explosion of flavor in your mouth (scene here: https://youtu.be/Q1sqWcHVIMw). Souma’s dish is so good that it strips Decora and Courage and even Azami admits that this dish is almost on the same level as Eishi’s dish, however, he belittles Souma for presenting a dish that would serve as a main dish which ruins the entire course (basically, Azami is saying Souma screwed himself and Erina). Souma however doesn’t think that way and tells Erina that the dish she’s currently making won’t be enough to beat Eishi because it’s not her specialty. He tells Erina to treat this as a Shokugeki between him and her, and create a dish that will beat him.
In episode 11 Erina decides to go with Souma’s flow (yeah, I never thought the day would come either). She reorganizes her plan and prepares a whole dish from scratch that would be considered her specialty. At the end of the time limit she presents her specialty dish an egg and rice bowl (the same dish that she mocked as a B-rated meal). Right away, Azami mocks the dish and refuses to eat it (seriously man, go to hell) but Erina provokes Rindou and Eishi to try their two-course meal and they accept. They start with Souma’s appetizer which is good and then try Erina’s dish which thanks to Souma’s appetizer only helped to elevate her dish to the next level (scene here: https://youtu.be/dpg-u8ge4pk). The dish easily brings Rindou and Eishi to their knees but Azami still refuses to try her dish still believing that it’s complete garbage (okay, I gotta ask, what did Erina’s mom see in this man? It can’t be his looks nor his personality so what is it?). Erina reveals that her dish has a second form (this isn’t even my final form~), transforming rice seasoning (scene here: https://youtu.be/re0hkAvptDQ, oohhhhhhh~). This finally gets Azami to try her dish where the dish is so good that it strips everybody down below including Azami (good God man you wear a speedo? For God’s sake man you’re not a male stripper). In the end all three judges chose Souma and Erina’s dish which gives them the win which means the Rebels won.
In the final episode Azami takes his leave (and I have to admit I like the way he leaves. He just puts his clothes back on and leaves. He doesn’t whine or complain. He accepts his loss like a man with grace and class. However, he still refuses to accept their way of cooking). With the Rebels’ victory everyone who was expelled gets re-admitted into the school and the Rebels get to become the new Elite 10 (scene here: https://youtu.be/UZvJ9PfjECE). The question now is who’s going to be the first seat (how about the lovebirds who earned us this victory? I’m totally on board with them sharing the seat together)? Everyone votes for Souma to be the first seat and in a shocking twist Senzaemon has decided to remain retired and nominates Erina as the new director of Totsuki (she’s still a student. Oh screw it, you do you anime. Scene here: https://youtu.be/zLnWBXcPmMQ). Erina accepts and Souma announces that he’ll take on anyone in a Shokugeki any time anywhere. A few months pass and we see Souma and the others have become second year students. The third years have moved on and are following their own paths in life, everyone’s adapting well to being second years as well as their new roles as the Elite 10, and our two lovebirds are always yelling at each other (they’re going to be such fun parents when they get married. Scene here: https://youtu.be/XkZc3m5QkPM).
Current Thoughts
And that was season 4 hands down the most exciting part in the series so far. This is where the stakes have never been higher. It’s Souma and his friends taking on the top students in their school with everyone against them and pulling off a victory. I like seeing the Elite 10 cook as well as everyone else this time around. Eishi’s plight is sad and understandable as there are a few times where this has happened in real life whether it be a celebrity getting praised for an otherwise bad movie or a game company winning multiple awards despite a majority of people not liking their game but getting the reward because of their position in the industry. It was cool to see Erina in action and team up with Souma to form the ultimate team and defeat Azami. Like I said earlier, I did like how Azami handled his defeat. He didn’t whine, complain, or have an over-the-top outburst. He just walks away accepting his defeat, but still refusing to accept their way of cooking because he’s too grounded in his ways and believes that they are right. Out of all the seasons this was the one season that ended on the strongest note and if this would have ended the anime here as well as the manga, I think everyone would have been happy about. Sadly, the series continued when it really didn’t need to, but that’s a season for another time. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.