Story:
If you’ve ever seen a battle shounen you pretty much know what you can expect from Food Wars. The only difference is that the characters cook instead of fighting. Even though that sounds like the lamest concept ever, it works surprisingly well. Instead of specific fighting styles they have different styles of cooking, which is something that allows for a far bigger variety than punching faces ever could. After watching the first season I kind of wonder why nobody else thought of this before. Well, there is Toriko, but that’s not exactly the same. The idea of cooking battles is as genius as it is simple. The show is able to play all the usual tropes straight but have them feel fresh because of how they are presented. You have the hyper-talented underdog protagonist, the top level jerkass rival our hero wants to beat, the greatest generation ever, a tournament arc, and so on and so on. The gimmick to lure in viewers are the infamous foodgasms, which I could have done without, but hey, it attracts viewers so why not. They kept them at an acceptable level though. However, as good as Food Wars is at playing the shounen genre straight with its different approach, it has one flaw that can make the show tiresome at some points. The cooking duels can’t have much of a variety in terms of how they are structured. People cook, judges eat, they rate. This is especially noticeable near the end when dozens of characters have their food rated in the Autumn Elections. There is only so much you can do with judges saying how truly great that stuff it before you wish they would just go on already. For now, that is a neglectable minor problem, but it could prove crucial in future seasons. While we’re at the subject of seasons, I hate cliffhanger endings and sadly, Food Wars has one. It ends after the preliminaries, before the knock out stage of the tournament.
9/10
Art:
The term food porn that has been attached to Food Wars is not only because all the hot chicks get naked and cum every time they eat something yummy, but also because of how good the food looks (you know, the original use of the term). It’s hard to watch this anime and not get hungry, so you might want to postpone watching until after your diet. Since I am as skilled at cooking as an amputated monkey, I have no idea how true to original the dishes are, but for me, they look convincing. The characters all have a unique look, which is a necessity for a huge cast, and they look pretty good. The animation is somewhat mediocre at times, but definitely above the line of minimum requirement.
8/10
Sound:
The first opening song isn’t really anything special, but it is somewhat catchy, I give it that. Same goes for the first ending song as well. I did not care about the second opening or ending, they were pretty forgettable to me. The voice actors are all very solid, but nobody stands out in my opinion. That’s not a bad thing, most of the characters fall into stereotypes anyway, so it’s well enough they sound accordingly. The cooking sound effects were pretty good and added to that damn hunger building up while watching. In terms of sound, Food Wars is a solid production without any remarkable highs or lows.
7/10
Characters:
The cast of Food Wars is big and colorful, not only in visuals but also in personality. Sure, none of them are incredibly creative or groundbreaking in any way, but much like all the shounen story stereotypes, they work in this environment. I would even go so far as to say the fact that they are mostly stock characters makes them more likeable in general. In some cases, the standards were tweaked a little to make them feel less unoriginal, like with the protagonist Souma. He is as competitive and wholesome as you would expect, but he is a lot less cocky and brash, something I am incredibly thankful for. In addition to that, he loves to snark around from time to time, again making him feel way less obnoxious as other shounen leads.
However, I was not very happy with Erina as the obvious girl-the-hero-will-end-up-with. I have seen far too many tsunderes in anime and they are always the major love interests, repeating the same boring, unfunny jokes over and over and over again. I especially dislike when the writers kinda forget about the whole dere part, which is kind of the whole point of the archetype. As the show isn’t over yet, I can obviously not tell what the creators have in mind with Erina, but by the impression I got during season one, I can safely say that she is a shitty written character. Again, I may be proven utterly wrong later on, but that is what I see here.
Nikumi is a much better tsundere (and a more classic approach too). I enjoyed the femme fatale/tomboy mix up they tried with her, adding timidity towards Souma on top of that. She’s like a cool, unique Frankenstein monster of stereotypes. Wait, doesn’t this already qualify as…gasp…realistic? Let’s move on to my favourite stock character, the shrinking violet. Megumi is great at that, being the hard-working, backbone-less sunshine. Unlike others of her kind, she gets to showcase her talents on multiple occasions, which creates a nice feel good moment for the viewer. I constantly had the urge to cuddle her, so I’d say she worked exactly like she was supposed to (though I’m easy to bait with these characters).
Let me cut myself short here and let me summarize the cast as a whole, otherwise we’ll be here next Tuesday. Almost all characters are either unique or well done variations of known archetypes and most of them are likeable. They also all have at least a short time with the spotlights on themselves, which prevents them from feeling like a waste of time when they don’t add anything to the scene or current plotline. For a shounen, the cast is very good.
9/10
Enjoyment:
Food Wars was a surprisingly entertaining anime, that kept its flow going and I never grew tired of it until the very end, when the whole episode was just judges praising the food. I usually don’t like shounen very much as almost all of them follow the same basics over and over again. This show does it too, but with the little twist of turning the whole thing into cooking, it made itself feel fresh. Most of its flaws are small and neglectable and the fanservice tolerable (though this may be a different story if you have a general aversion towards this). As with many other shows, the question is how long it can keep up the good work, but for the first season, I can say that it was quite enjoyable.
8/10
Overall:
8.2/10
