Shokugeki no Souma: Gou no Sara

So 13 weeks in and now at the end of Gou no Sara, I never got to a point where I felt this season was as bad as people had hyped it up to be. I waited week after week for it to get awful and it just never came for me. I thoroughly enjoyed every single moment of this final season and saw it as a victory lap of sorts for the series. We saw everyone come full circle this season and show off their development. Of particular importance for me was the growth that Megumi, Erina and Aldini have had. For me, that ... was enough to really enjoy the final season. I understand that this is an unpopular opinion and that's fine, you can judge for yourself, but if you're a fan of SnS, you should definitely give this last season a try.

Production wise, you can definitely tell JC staff started to rely on the established name of SnS instead of actually putting a lot of effort into the show. The panning camera shots, off model characters and other quality control issues are not a huge deal to me, because I personally watch things for the story and how they make me feel rather than as an art critic, but they do exist and are noticeable. I also could feel that pacing was very rushed especially in the final half of the season. It felt like the Shokgeki's were on 2.5x speed and the detail and educational bits that we're accustomed to seeing were just not there anymore. It felt like they instead transitioned to relying on the girls getting naked as our sole source of entertainment during shokugeki's. I was able to overlook this because I'm easy to please, you may not be.

Overall, you can definitely see a dip in quality from SnS season 1 to season 5. It's gradual, it's painful and it's pretty sad because of how well done season 1-3 were. But, it is it the sad reality of ongoing shows. You either die the hero or live long enough to see yourself become Food Wars Season 5. The anime original ending wasn't bad to me, but it wasn't great like how I felt at the end of Totsuki Train either. I was still left wanting more. Despite all the flaws, I still love the series and enjoyed this a lot even with its issues. Shokugeki no Soma Gou no Sara gets 7 foodgasms out of 10 from me.

The fifth and final season of Shokugeki no Souma is arguably the worst season. Even though it has some positives, it has plenty more negatives. The main thing this season has going for it is that it's the final one and that is has a good ending.

The story is one where the cast is now in their second year. It starts off with some standard cooking battles/contests that are reasonably enjoyable. However the anime introduces a new antagonist who wants to marry Erina for no discernible reason. I want to stress this point, no reason is given for his obsession with Erina. However from ... this point on the entire anime revolves around this guy wanting to marry erina. The other characters accept stupid shokugekis that create problems for themselves they could have avoided by simply y'know not accepting them. This creates a false tension created by stupid decisions which is annoying.
Most of the anime revolves around the cooking contest BLUE and the underground cooking organisation Noir. The problem is that the cooking battles are very rushed making it feel like the staff just wanted to cram the final season into as few episodes as possible. After BLUE has finished, there is a nice ending that gives some extra information on the characters and why they acted the way they did in previous seasons which does make it nice to watch.

The characters are somewhat similar as the previous season with the addition of the new antagonist, members of Noir and a new judge. The cooking styles of Noir seem over the top as in seasoning meat with a chainsaw over the top. It all pales in comparison to the new antagonist though who has Subaru's mimicking power without the effort which feels very scuffed.

The animation, voice acting and music are all similar or the same as the previous season.

Overall this isn't a great season. The new characters aren't good, the urgency is fake and created by stupid decisions made by the characters themselves, the cooking battles are too rushed and the cooking methods of the new characters are ridiculous even by this series' standards. On the positive side there is some character development/context and the ending is definitely good.

After watching it until last episode, I know how disappointing this is, really.

The story begins with the introduction of the arrival of summer, the students of Totsuki Academy must fight the first stage of the exam. After that, some teacher comes to Totsuki Academy, his name is Asahi. He's a ugly bastard who are interested with Nakiri's oppai.... And then the last tournament "BLUE" begins.

The story of Souma's mom
Now, what really caught the attention of the personal writer was the telling of the figure of Souma's mom. This is very interesting because in the previous seasons, the figure of Souma's mom has never even been ... shown or even told, her figure seemed to have never even been thought of. So Souma's mom appearance in season 5 is very, very surprising.

There are times when we feel hurt. There are times when we want to run from reality. There are times when we don't want to do anything. We can rest, we can stop but we cannot give up. If you can't get up, ask someone else for help. If we are already destroyed by our own mistakes, then wait for the right time to get back up. If you can't invite other people, walk side by side with them.

This is the last season, I hope you can watch this final series and don't stop at the middle of the season. I know it is torturing you but an ending is not always tragic. If you already read manga, I beg you to don't miss this one, I know you are bored but to judge an anime before you watch it, isn't that weird?