(Nitsuj): Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. It’s your boy, Nitsuj.
(Shizuku): And your girl, Shizuku. I hope you’re hungry because we’re serving up a review of bizarreness in the form of Fighting Foodons.
(Nitsuj): Previously, we saw Chase defeat Cole Slawter in a one-on-one battle. However, Cole Slawter vowed revenge against his adversary the next time they met. Can Chase rise to the occasion and defeat him? Let’s find out as we continue Fighting Foodons.
(Shizuku): In episode 14 Cole Slawter returns to fight Chase and Fried Ricer. He manages to exploit Fried Ricer’s one weakness, seafood. Yep, Fried Ricer is afraid of seafood (Nitsuj: Ichthyophobia as the nerds call it). In order to conquer his fears, Chase puts Fried Ricer through some intense training with the help of the others. When it’s time to battle Fried Ricer manages to fight through his fears but is still no match for Cole Slawter’s Foodons. Chase tries once again to summon Fruit Turtle. At first, he fails, but then Fruit Turtle finally appears and together with Fried Ricer manages to defeat Cole Slawter and return him back to his original form, a bear (https://youtu.be/kONmDCla6Nc?si=6tMh7OCr1g_UP2Qp). Cole Slawter’s defeats reaches Gorge and the remaining Big 4 with Rose Marinade next on the chopping block.
Episode 15 sees the group climb a mountain hoping to find the Grub Guru a famous chef in the region. As they climb the mountain they come across a kid being attacked by a bunch of swine Foodons serving the empire. They rescue the kid and enter his village which is being plagued by a sickness known as swine flu (Nitsuj: Ohh~ this anime predicted the future). They need a chef to cook food that will heal everyone and Chase offers to venture out into the mountain to grab ingredients and rescue everyone. Coco goes with him (any excuse to be alone with her man). As Chase and Coco search the mountain for herbs, Clawdia leads an assault on the village with her pigs (that’s a lot of bacon). The pigs fuse together to form one giant pig and break the walls of the village just as Chase and Coco return. While everyone fights, Chase cooks the meal for the villagers and feeds it to them to save their lives. Everyone manages to defeat the giant pig (Nitsuj: We cooking some good bacon tonight) and Clawdia retreats.
For episode 16 the group has arrived in the city of Gladburger which is anything but glad. The empire came in and took over the place. They forced the adults to work day and night abandoning their kids. This resulted in the city becoming a ghost town with the kids sad that they don’t get to spend time with their parents or share a meal with them. While the empire gives them food the kids don’t want to eat it (Nitsuj: Yes, that’s slave food. Don’t eat slave food). They decide to throw a dinner party for the kids (Nitsuj: Complete with subpar entertainment) and cook them hamburger steaks. Once Marinade hears about this she sends the Burger Brigade Foodons to take them down (who are a complete rip-off of the Power Rangers. (Nitsuj): That’s right. Even Fox wasn’t afraid to make fun of their biggest show at the time. (Shizuku): Although Power Rangers would get the last laugh at the end). The Foodons in a hard-fought battle where they manage to free the Burger Brigade from Marinade’s mind control and they head to join the Rebel Chefs. However, during all the chaos, Pie Tin, Oslo, and Kayla get captured and taken before Marinade where she decides to use them to lure out Chase and finish him once and for all.
So at the start of episode 17 Miranade succeeds in brainwashing Pie Tin and Kayla (Nitsuj: Why would you accept food from the enemy? You know it’s evil). Pie Tin and Kayla force people to work and even capture Albert. When Chase finally arrives he challenges them to a cook-off with Marinade setting the rules. For the next three days they’ll be competing to see who can serve the most chicken noodle soups (Nitsuj: Pretty sure Food Wars stole this idea. Also, they’re really serving ramen. (Shizuku): Another proud moment of 4Kids localization. It goes up there along with calling rice balls jelly donuts). So the cookoff begins with Pie Tin and Kayla taking a big lead while Chase spends his time preparing his noodles (https://youtu.be/jzA092H8Afk?si=QhEEMd2JJXgCkcuf). Chase continues preparing his ingredients for two days straight while Pie Tin and Kayla take a commanding lead. Finally, on the third day, Chase starts selling his soup and manages to catch up to Pie Tin and Kayla but he’s down by one bowl. Chase doesn’t panic and instead gives two bowls to Pie Tin and Kayla where they taste it knocks their socks off and returns them to normal. Chase gets the win but Marinade won’t stand for defeat anymore.
It’s the battle against Marinade in episode 18. She releases an army of dragon dumplings to fight our heroes. Chef John’s mask gets destroyed and we find out that he’s been Jack this whole time (why did he keep his identity a secret? The same reason a D&D master tries to kill people in a campaign. For kicks). Marinade combines her dumpling dragons to form an even stronger dragon known as a deluxe Foodon that’s just too powerful for them to beat. Even with the help of Fruit Turtle the Foodon still can’t beat it. Oslo sends everyone out to find a purple pepper, a special power topping that will give Fruit Turtle incredible power. However, it comes with consequences. While Fruit Turtle will be able to win the power it unleashes will be kicked back toward it and it’ll be destroyed in the process (Nitsuj: Eh, go ahead. It rarely listens to Chase anyway). Faced with no other option, Chase uses the purple pepper on Fruit Turtle and it defeats the dumpling dragon while destroying itself in the process. With the battle won Gorge appears in the sky and returns Marinade back into her original form, a two-tailed fox. Gorge takes his leave but he vows to defeat Chase.
In episode 19 with the loss of Fruit Turtle, Chase will have a hard time dealing with Gorge. Oslo says they’ll have to create their own deluxe Foodon which requires four Foodons in order to make. The trick is finding that fourth Foodon and sadly Chase wants no part in this. After losing Fruit Turtle, Chase loses his will to fight and decides to give up (dude, get over it. Besides, that turtle only came out when it wanted to). They go to seek the help of a retired combat chef named Davy and his Foodon, Shrimp Daddy, to find a clue on the fourth Foodon they’re missing but they get interrupted by Grill who has come to fight them. After a chase, it finally gets revealed that the meatballs are the fourth Foodon they need for their deluxe meal. So they combine Shrimp Daddy, Sir Dumpling, the dumpling dragon, and the meatballs to form a brand new dragon Foodon called Feastivus. This Foodon forces Grill to retreat for the time being but he vows to return. Davy gives Chase Shrimp Daddy and the journey continues with a renewed fire being lit under Chase.
Episode 20 sees Grill send Clawdia to destroy the meatballs (from comic relief to main stars that have a hit on them. Truly an inspirational story). There’s really not that much to say about this episode. Clawdia tries to capture them, but she fails. Although the Foodons she uses are pretty good. I like how one can shapeshift and keeps fooling everyone and the other one just happens to be Jambalydia’s old Foodon that was captured by the empire but they manage to convert it back to good.
(Nitsuj): In episode 21 Grill tries to crush Jambalydia and the Red Peppers. Using a robot masquerading as a member, the robot goes to Jambalydia’s hideout in order to get the contact list of their agents. Luckily, Clawdia followed the robot back to their hideout and captures the robot believing it to be an actual spy of the Red Peppers (oh this does not end well kitty cat). They follow her all the way back to the Grill’s hideout where they fight and save the real member of the Red Peppers but Fried Ricer gets captured in the process.
Episodes 22-23 give us the final battle against Grill. But first, Chase and the others rescue Fried Ricer (Shizuku: Probably best to get back your strongest Foodon). As they chase after Grill they get stopped by Clawdia who sics Fried Ricer on them. The gang gets forced to fight Fried Ricer where not even three Foodons can take him down (kick his ass you idiots). Luckily, Chase manages to break the mind control device on Fried Ricer and return him to normal. The group then goes after Grill who is in the process of building a giant robot (Nitsuj and Shizuku: It’s a Gundam!) in this technologically advanced city built by robots (they have robots in this world who run their own city? I have so many questions. (Shizuku): And I have no answers). Grill activates his giant robot and reveals his robotic form to everyone (Shizuku: Why do I feel like he was created by Eggman or Wily?). Grill fuses with the giant robot and fights against our heroes where not even Feastivus can defeat this robotic nightmare of kitchen appliances. Luckily, they manage to short-circuit the robot to make it useless (where this was the early 2000s so it falls in line). This forces Grill to abandon the robot and he tries to escape but the robots stop him and destroy his body to return him to his true form, a bat (Shizuku: Definitely created by Eggman). With Grill defeated this just leaves Gorge as the last baddie to beat.
In episode 24 the group have arrived at Gorge’s castle. Oslo helps them sneak in where he reveals that the castle once belonged to him. It turns out Oslo was the King of All Food and used his knowledge and skills to help everyone. However, he was overthrown by Gorge who was his best student (following the Sith code I see). After making it inside the castle they get confronted by Clawdia who unleashes two powerful steak Foodons on our groups. In a tough fight (not as tough as a two dollar steak mind you) Chase and the others manage to win and Clawdia gets punished by Gorge who leaves her for dead to fulfill his scheme of controlling the world via mind control from space. Chase feeds Clawdia some fried rice and this in turn returns her into a human (Boo~. (Shizuku): Will you just admit already that you’re a furry and get it over with) and her real name is Dia.
In the final two episodes, Gorge launches himself into space to release his mind control ray on the planet. With the help of Dia who is a rocket scientist, Chase and his friends get launched into space to fight Gorge without a spacesuit (you need heat and air up there! (Shizuku): We literally have food fighting in this universe. Logic means nothing in this world. Fuck logic, it’s boring). Chase and his friends fight against Gorge where he fuses with a powerful Foodon that overpowers Feastivus. With their backs against the wall, Oslo and the people of the world send Chase their hopes and dreams and summon the Foodon, Palator, the embodiment of all good food. Chase fuses with Palator and together they defeat Gorge and fall back to Earth totally unharmed. Gorge accepts his defeat and Chase gets named the new king of All Food. But sitting on a throne all day just isn’t his style, so he goes off on a journey with his friends. The End.
Final Thoughts
(Nitsuj): Looking back, Fighting Foodons isn’t as bizarre as I remember it being, but it’s not a good anime either.
(Shizuku): The anime is poorly paced, the dub is cringe/bad, the characters aren’t interesting, the fights aren’t intense, and they don’t take advantage of this concept as much as I would have hoped. Even side stories such as Chase and Coco don’t get an ending.
(Nitsuj): While the anime isn’t straight-up awful it’s a tough anime to sit through and hasn’t aged well. It really leaves no impact on you and you’ll quickly forget all about it after you watch it. This honestly feels like what would happen if you combined Food Wars with Pokémon and tried to put as little effort into it as possible. From what I heard this anime was originally made to be a cheap parody that got a good chuckle out of people in Japan, but the dub tries so hard to make this a cheap ripoff and give us jokes that aren’t funny.
Final Score
(Shizuku): My final score for Fighting Foodons is a 4/10.
(Nitsuj): I’m giving it a 3/10. This brings the final score to a 3.5/10. This is an anime that’s best left in the past. There are better Pokémon parodies worth checking out over this one.
(Shizuku): Unless you want to get a cheap laugh seeing classic VAs recognize voicing these characters this is an anime I don’t recommend.
(Nitsuj): Now if you’ll excuse me. I’m hungry and in the mood for some fried rice. That’s the only good thing I’m taking away from this anime. Thanks for reading and we’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.