Should you watch it? lol yes.
Story:
Aii, so the best way to think about Food Wars is to think about it like a Sports anime. It's predictable. You're in it for easy-to-understand character archetypes, humor, over-the-top everything that will get you hyped for the topic at hand (in this case, cooking), and more often than not, an over-powered lovable protagonist that will have his own problems in other departments other than his skills. What this anime does, like many other anime out there, is dismiss the idea that people of a lower class can bring amazing results, and that's a common theme throughout the show that I don't mind spoiling for you just because it's so obvious. The protagonist Souma is a seemingly lower class child chef from a diner in a bourgeoisie culinary world, and the height of the tension in this show comes from the Pleb Souma showing that he's just as good, if not better, than the high class students that try to oppose him. The plot is endearing and inspiring, no matter how overpowered Souma may be. While the story may be predictable or whatever, calm down. It's a shounen *sports* anime at heart, so of course it's gonna be predictable. It's pretty good at what it does though.
Art:
It's pretty looking. the food looks GODLIKE, and the fanservice is hilariously detailed, looking as if it came out of a fucking high budget hentai or some shit. It's hilarious and universal, so ladies and gay gentlemen, you'll also have plenty to look at here. In any case, the art does a good job of making me want to eat the food that these people are eating and feel the way that these people feel when they're eating said food. The art is over the top and when you can't really have action scenes to making eating seem over the top, the ecchi scenes do a good job of conveying just how good this food is.
On the other hand, *action* scenes come in overlooking the actual cooking and again, this is like watching iron chef on crack. It's great.
Sound:
Voice acting sounds fine; there's nothing inherently bad with it. I can't tell, I can't speak Japanese. The soundtrack is pretty wonderful though just because it seems to be ripped straight out of the melodramatic soundtrack of Iron Chef America, making it feel like I'm watching a live cooking show, so it at least helps with immersion.
Character:
Okay, if you can't tell with the majority of sports anime (yes, I'm still calling this a sports anime), all characters are pretty one-dimensional with a quirk that makes them likeable. That's no different here. As such, you'll probably find minimal character development, which is fine. I'M NOT EXPECTING CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT FROM A SHOW LIKE THIS. Characters are likeable and that's all that matters.
However, shoutouts to Megumi, the cute blue-haired girl that's my main ship for Souma as she gets some pretty refreshing character development throughout the show that climaxes at the end that gets me HYPED for the 2nd season that's scheduled to come out July 2016.
Enjoyment:
I enjoyed it for what it is. It's a super fun anime that's funny and gets me hyped about food. The fanservice is hilarious, but also, it does tone down the nudity about halfway through, showing that it understands that the joke will get old (Self-awareness is good). Do I recommend it? Hell yeah. Is it thought provoking? Hell no. Go in knowing what to expect and you'll have a blast ^_^
-MSYN
