Shokugeki no Souma: Gou no Sara

First of all, I am not going to write an interview as long as the bible, I just wanted to say some things about this anime so here we go: First things first, the reason someone should watch this anime is pure for enjoyment. If you are looking for an anime with a great plot, character development or a stunning romance this isn't it, but if you just want to watch a fun food porn anime you're at the right address. there are going to be some spoilers so be aware: first of all, I don't agree with everyone on how 'shit' this anime was. Let me firstly clear one thing up. I'm not saying I liked Noir being added tot the anime, in fact the anime would've been so much better off if they just would've added something else then Noir, it was just plain shit. They didn't have a good motive, characters were garbage, and overall just garbage No underworld chef even cooks with a chainsaw or with exploding ovens it just was so dumb to even look at. And I believe 99% of people who saw this season will agree with me on that. The story also didn't make sense. After BLUE they suddenly tell stories about the illegaal goods, like i didn't even care anymore don't waste time on the last episode on these bullshit stories and just make a good ending how hard is it. Second of all, I don't know if people will agree with me on this one and I don't know if anyone's even gonna read this review, but here's one thing that really bothers me (with more anime btw). I really would've loved to see a future soma and Nakiri together, or even just a kiss. It would've made the ending so much better. Just a little more emotion, maybe a secret love rivalry between Nikumi, Nakiri and Megumi. Not in a harem way of course but to twist it up a little. I understand that this isn't the kind of anime you need to watch if you want such a story, but I believe there was a lot of potential there. Also, they could've made something way better out of the whole Asahi Saiba is the son of Azami thing. Like a kind of small drama thing. But again, this isn't the anime for that. But if they would've let the Noir bullshit thing go there'd be a lot of screen time left for other thing such as one of the ideas I just mentioned. but yeah overall I liked the anime as it brought me joy, but for me I would've liked more romance between soma and Nakiri, and less bullshit like Noir.

The hype surrounding the Fifth Season of the Shokugeki No Souma series was not nearly as high in comparison to its preceding seasons. As many of the series devoted fans already knew the conclusion to the story and hence the expectation going into the series was whether or not the studio would deviate from the manga. While there were many slight changes to the over-arching story, the ending still left an unsatisfying taste to a majority of viewers. Personally, the ending did not bother me too much as it tied in loose ends and gave us more character interactions that were not featured in the original manga. To critique the Fifth season, it's important to look at both the good and bad moments and how that affected my personal time watching it. The GOOD: - The use of the original OSTs provided viewers with a sense of nostalgia, in a way it brought me back to why I loved the series. Food Wars has always been about interactions between characters through this concept of food. The Fifth season delivered on that by providing us several great character moments between both Erina and Souma but also the series supporting cast. - The animation quality was generally consistent though of course one could not help but mention that it has dropped in comparison to its predecessors. - The flashbacks throughout the battles really showed how far the characters have come and the difficult journey that they have experienced. Again taking us back to the how the original season started. Character development for this season is plentiful not only for the main characters that we have been devoted to but also the newly introduced antagonists of the season. - Some pleasant story changes that deviated from the manga made it so that the anime felt different which was a good thing. This meant that you could not always expect what's going to happen which helped build anticipation every week. The BAD: - It felt as though I was watching every battle at an incredible speed. This was particularly disappointing as some battles concluded in the span of five minutes which made it difficult to truly digest what had happened. This is mainly attributed to the fact that the season limited itself to 13 episodes and so a lot of story was crammed in each and every episode. This fast-paced continued on for the ending episode too as the series had to tie in as many things as possible in order to conclude its story. This meant speeding up certain story elements which I felt should not have been done. For example, the final confrontation between Erina and Souma should have been its own standalone episode. By speeding up such important moments within the story, it gave less meaning and depth to the final confrontation between the two characters that basically started the series. - The BLUE ARC should have definitely come in later but of course the mangaka is already finished with the series and so it had to be adapted into the anime. The premise is in good in a sense that we get to see different styles of cooking from a variety of new characters but also from different cultures as well. Adding diversity to the series. However, due to the constraints of this tournament type of story, it meant that certain characters had to sit out. While the anime gave a reason for why some characters were not present, the Blue Tournament should have been a much bigger event involving more of the cast. Seeing as it was heavily foreshadowed in the previous seasons as well. Overall not much could be done as most of us already suspected how the story would unravel. Regardless, it has been a very enjoyable series to watch and while the fifth season is clearly the series' weakest - it is still not as bad as most people think. Definitely should give the whole series a chance even if the ending may not satisfy your true taste.

(This 4/ 10 is my rating for this particular season only) Why, why did you do this to me food wars? Now I wish I didn’t watch the show and was not a really big fan of it, cause this last season is a nightmare to food wars fan. For a really invested fan to hate a series is no silly thing. I will say I started watching Food wars when season 3 was about to air, it instantly became one of my favorite show. It was a show I suddenly started to love, the characters, the cooking were so enjoyable. What was appreciable about the show was it had a concept which I haven’t seen in a battle shounen before, this show made cooking f-ing interesting and cool. You get hyped when someone is cooking, it’s not that common. So I will just give my rating of the previous seasons to put it out of way, Season 1 – 8.5/10 – I freaking loved it. The arcs were so good; those types of arcs were the best arcs in food wars. Season 2 – 9 / 10 – the tournament arc – this arc was successful in keeping the pressure of who wins. We saw the characters trying to grow their skills with passing time. Season 3 – 7.5 / 10 – this is the turning point of food wars, the first half was good as usual, but in the second half, they introduced a villain for the show for the first time. Even though it was enjoyable I didn’t wanted the show to go that way. Season 4 – 7/ 10 the series definitely got a little weaker this season, in terms of production and the way the plot went. The show became too serious; the fun of school life was completely gone. It’s like there is politics inside the school. Now the final season: I really hated this season, I wish it didn’t exist. Also, I am one of those who already were informed the last arc was bad, but loving the show I was like even if it was bad, I don’t think I am going to hate it? But boi I was wrong. Main problems with the BLUE arc. (SOME SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY) • The whole plot of the arc was dog shit • The cooking battles were so degraded. For the previous seasons, we get to see them going and doing the process of making the food, but this arc was so rushed every match ended so fast. Even the final battle ended in 5 minutes, No pressure or buildup. • I don’t know where the mangaka found the so-called ‘underworld’ from. The distinction he added between people of the underworld and others felt like differentiating humans and outer space aliens. It almost feels like he found out about underworld from some Reddit comments or something, it was cringe to watch when the noir chefs just look down others like they are not even the same species. Even if some people are big criminals, we can’t separate them from regular persons this much, but here it was just chefs, how different is going to make where they work. • The absurd types of cooking methods and tools introduced in this arc almost made me wonder if I am watching some “underworld” version of the show. The main antagonist of this arc has a superpower. If he holds other's cooking tools he can acquire their cooking skills in an instant, his brain works that way. If this doesn’t feel like some asspull fest, I don’t know what is. • Ending was missing so much, the soma as a character again failed to reach his goal. The focus was given to Erina even in the final battle, I understand at that situation she had some reason to win but we can’t just forget about our MC for a sudden brought up matter. • The number of characters who just got demoted to worse than side character level was large. Most of the cast was just background characters for this arc. Characters like Hayama, Ryo just got butchered, they were not given growth even though these two of three finalists in the autumn elections. • Story 3 very bad Was this intended to be a meme? The BLUE arc, just one arc just completely butchered the series. It was so bad that if it was intended as a parody series from start then this arc is a 10/10. The stupid superpowers, the ridiculous cooking (like using explosives), the lack of tension and buildup, demoting so many characters to background scenery, the ridiculous concept of underworld chefs as something normal people are so different to, etc. just made up this arc. • Art and animation 7 - good Art and animation were weak in this season compared to the first 3 seasons. It doesn’t matter anymore cause the story side was already bad. • Matches or Battles – 5 not ok the matches were so short so that the cooking sequences were just only each person using their crazy cooking tools. Many important, even the final match was so short, the characters made their food in the background just in an instant. The blue winning food was not even shown to us • Sound 8 very good The osts were good like always. • Character 6 fine This arc just threw away so many characters we came to love and focused on only a few which was not even done well when we reached the end. The number of characters who just got demoted to worse than side character level was large. Most of the cast was just background characters for this arc. Characters like Hayama, Ryo just got butchered, they were not given growth even though these two of three finalists in the autumn elections. • Enjoyment 4 bad I really hate this arc/season, this just ruined a show I really cared about and its characters. • Overall rating of the series – Food Wars – 6/10 (wasted potential to a really awesome and good show) A show which was really fun and good in its prime stages, which just got destroyed with the final arc its every appeal. I will say season 1- 3 alone is still 8.5/ 10, the later seasons affected it and mage to 6/ 10 I recommend people to watch this series up to season 4 and then watch the final episode of season 5. In short, this is another example of a long-running shounen that just got butchered with the final arcs. (I am so pissed and sad)

In a first time, take in consideration that SNS is my favourite shonen, but i'll try to be the most objective possible about this season. In a second time, sorry if i'm making misstakes (i'm french ^^). I will make 2 parts in this review, one without any spoilers, and a second with spoilers. NO SPOILERS : Food wars was forever for me a fantastic tale of cooking and fights endlessly, with alot of strange sounds, that you can't watch that show with family (or you can, nobody will judge you), so when J.C Staff made an announcement on a 5th season, I was a little undecided, the manga has been criticized a lot in the past and therefore the author rushed the end. So when I figured out that J.C Staff was definitely going to outdo the manga, I wasn't disappointed. This season is a good old shokugeki, but, y'know, the characters introduced in this season are a lot less interesting than the previous ones, but that was to be expected considering that this is the last season and they will never have the time to develop in 13 episodes, this season is only fights in a loop with a touch of romance. So for people who haven't seen the season yet, there is no reason to go back, but don't think you will see the best thing of your life, or you will be disappointed. SPOILERS : - Story : 6/10 The big problem in this season, i said before that the adaptation was better than the manga, but the readers know that the hotel arc with Megumi and Soma which would have been adapted at the start of the season has been replaced by an episode at the beach which we could clearly do without since it does little to advance the plot (except when Doujima announces the Blue, but they could replaced by a lot of other possibilities). Now the Blue arc, that famous arc which has been criticized a lot because he took all the season. I must admit that this is really one of the less good arcs in SNS if you want to see the plot move forward (like me). I cant talk too much about this, this is only fights but the really good thing here is about Erina, she's completely trapped between her mother and Asahi, everything was calculated, she cant admit too that Soma could beat him (even she know) because she's worried and she understood why her mother left with her "superpower". And for the end, I think that >90% of the people wanted to see an Erina x Soma, and a lot of people was disappointed. But if you take care of some sentences at the end, the studio did, for example Erina said that she will not lost against Soma for a loong time (i guess i dont need to help you more nah?) and in a other side from the 2 episode of SNS S1, Joichiro is talking about "how to be the best chef", the fact that a chef dedicates his cooking to the person he cares about the most, and that was exactly the same with Mana/Azami. I add too that the irradiation is really TOO MUCH in this season, when it was funny in the previous seasons. Tbh, J.C Staff couldn't catch up for all the mistakes made by the mangaka and they somehow limited the damage. - Art : 9/10 Art style change too much from the first season but this is more and more enjoyable to see and i have not too much thins to say about it. - Sound : 10/10 Anime : Food Biggest quality : OST Really, i said before that SNS was a fantastic tale of cooking, it was more because the sound can make us travel everywhere and with a lot of GOOD SONGS HELL YEAH. Personally, with Fairy Tail, SNS is the anime with the best OST because you can listen them in every situations, if someone tells me that there will be an anime with epic musics on an food anime that make orgasms , I will have run away from this individual. ("Dish of God" is the best OST of SNS by far, and "Rough Diamonds ~Starry Stagiaire ver.~" can make me travel faaar away. - Character : 8/10 I really like Saiba Asahi from the first episode, i knew that he was a bad guy but if you didnt watch the manga first, the antagonist is correctly introduced with the good people. But compared to Azami, he is really mediocre in the present, compared to his backstory. (But now Azami looks like a lovely dad) Now I will talk about Erina, because i have a lot of things to say about that girl. I didn't really like the character in a first time, but i started to like her (c'mon i'm talking about the character) since the 3rd season to become my favourite character of SNS. I think that she have one of the biggest evolution in the history of shonen (take a look on the Ep2 of the S1 and the last episode, it looks like this is not the same character) and boi, she still have her horrible personnality since the start, and that's why i love this. In this season Erina begins to realize more and more the problem with her divine palate and starts to panic more and more about her mother because she knows she will not be able to satisfy her and start to bet on Azami because Erina thinks that Azami is the one who can satisfy Mana, but he wants to marry Erina because she is the one who can satisfy his cook (and Asahi is playing with that, that's why i did this repetition). Soma, the protagonist, didn't change but yes, this is Soma. We can notice that Soma have also more and more affection from Erina. - Enjoyment : 8/10 Then, i remembered the plot but not how it was brought. I forget some scenes who was insanes and makes me hyped after all, that's maybe because this is my favourite shonen? I swear that if there was a confirmed ship with a kiss/confession at the end, I will have given a better mark because it looks like they brought it since s3 for not much in the end, a bit sad but not disappointed after all. - Overall : 8/10 For me it was really not the best season, but i think that is the less good, however I think that you can't pass by this season after all. Shokugeki No Soma was one of the iconics shonens in this last decade, the best shonen of all time for me for all the feelings that this anime given to me. Now it's a page that turns to discover new animes. I need to thanks all the people who worked for the project. I hope that you approved this review, i tried to be the most objective possible. I also hope that i'm not too bad in English too, thatk you for reading this far.

I've got a weird relationship with the last season of Food Wars! that's basically: it was average but I enjoyed it. So, the Shokugekis in this season weren't great, I have to say. It may have something to do with the fact that I've been watching this anime for a long time, and I'm used to the style so at this point it isn't exciting, but I don't think that's why. The content of this season was way too outlandish. Food Wars! has always been surreal but never ridiculous, at least not on the scale it was this season. I couldn't get excited about the food being made or the battles going down because it was all too absurd. The overarching story of the BLUE tournament was interesting enough, and the prompts for the Shokugekis were cool. The story that developed Souma and Erina was mostly well done, and the writing was mostly supportive of the ending. It did feel a little overblown and a little convoluted, but I still enjoyed watching the characters struggle and prosper. The ending of the series itself was what I expected based on the manga's ending that got talked about when it was first published. I don't know that this season was the best thing in the world for finishing out the characters. The goals they had throughout the rest of the series kind of got lost, and a different conclusion was presented that was supposed to account for every loose end. Unfortunately, that didn't work out that well. That being said, I was fine with what happened this season, probably because I wasn't too invested in the ending. This season didn't feel like the Food Wars! we started out with, but it was still fun to hang out with the characters one last time. Farewell to Yukihira Souma.

TOT: 8.95 (9) **Score methodology >>Item (weighting): x (out of 10) = z (weighted score) Story (20%): 8 = 1.6 Character (15%): 8 = 1.2 Art (25%): 9 = 2.25 Sound (5%): 8 = 0.4 Enjoyment (35%): 10 = 3.5 **Note on ‘Enjoyment’ This is based on personal taste, use this list of my favourite anime for reference: Ano Hana, Hyouka, Death Note, Ergo Proxy, Noragami, Tokyo Ghoul, Food Wars, Fire Force, Black Butler, Ghost Hound **Review [SPOILERS] Story: The story culminates with Souma surpassing his dad, though indirectly. It shows the arduous journey, and Souma's relentless determination to grow. It didn't make use of a direct win with his dad, which elevates its significance. Character: clearly well developed as it is the entire premise of the show Art: great, nothing to complain if not too many freeze frames Sound: very good as always with this show Enjoyment: I come from a culinary background, so enjoyment is guaranteed given it is accurate.

This review is for Food Wars! as a whole. There’s a common saying that goes something like “Gimme the food, stop explaining it to me.” I’ll admit, the first two seasons of this show was actually thrilling and fun. When I’m still new to this concept, the amazing animation of the food as well as the creativity behind the reactions were refreshing to watch. However, during the first season I have noticed how quickly I found the constant explanation of the way the character made the food to be extremely irrelevant and boring. I’m no food aficionado, so most of these talking made no sense to me. I tolerated this for a while, but starting from the 3rd season I found myself spamming my forward key to skip over the explanations. It’s sad that I’m aware of the amount of research that the creators put into this show, but I just can’t help not giving a dime. At season 4 I pretty much only watch for the plot, and the food didn’t look that appealing anymore. Even worse, the story was a textbook shounen, which made the outcomes of 90% of the shokugeki predictable. Like for season 4 I pretty much predicted the outcome of every single match. I did find Soma to be fun and interesting, but he, like other characters in the show, weren’t that special. And then season 5 had some attempts to spice up the predictability of the show, but in the end it ended up being even worse than the previous seasons due to wasting its potential with a bland villain that’s bo different from other previous villains. Overall, people seem to like this show, but honestly I’m so glad that this repeated food stuff finally ended. 1st plate: 7/10 2nd plate: 7.5/10 3rd plate part 1: 6/10 part 2: 6.5/10 4th plate: 6.5/10 5th plate: 4.5/10 Overall: 6/10

This season is completely forgettable. My biggest problem is that it doesn't contributes anything new to the serie, in fact, the things that offers actually substracts. All the character development that Erina has in the previous seasons, season five is in charge of erased it. She starts as some vain girl who growed up thinking that she was the best in the culinary world because of his divine tongue. Despite of that, she doesn't enjoy cooking, she only sticks to the recipe and nothing more. When she meets Soma, the world she known it's turned upside down. She starts to enjoy proving new things, and discover that not everything has to follow the recipe and the new things comes from "breaking" the rules, she even challenge his own father... and all that for what?? For nothing, because in the last season she is like a puppet again. In fact, this last path introduces an antagonist UNNECESSARY that doesn't contributes NOTHING to the story, and comes out of NOWHERE, he weren't even introduced by the story before lol disastrous.

A few months have passed since I've finished Shokugeki no Souma: Gou no Sara. Back then I didn't do a review, but decided once and for all to put my thoughts on paper. While this review, and the score I've given, is for the last season, being the finale of the series means that I'll be talking about the series as a whole in this review and my experience with it. It all started many years ago, in 2017. I’m not sure how, but I’ve heard about this Shonen about cooking competitions. Back then I wasn’t that much into cooking, since then I’ve watched some Masterchef seasons, but nothing more than that. Yet, when I watched Shokugeki no Souma I was pleasantly surprised. The show made every cooking competition an epic battle full of action and it was a lot of fun to watch. The characters, while nothing too special, are a fun cast to follow through the seasons as they progress in their studies and hone their abilities, each and every one of them with different styles, techniques and personalities. As far as story goes, it has always been over the top. A gastronomy school where you can bet anything, including expelling, on a cooking contest? That’s nuts. But I don’t think anyone here would disagree that we can, and have, accepted weirder for the sake of entertainment. One of the main problems with Shokugeki no Souma is the lack of stakes. When you can put averything on the line, it becomes obvious that the protagonist won’t lose. That’s not a problem that’s exclusive for Shokugeki no Souma, tho, after all, do you really think Naruto would ever die in the middle of the series? He can’t die, without Naruto there’s no, well, NARUTO. The way to avoid this problem is to put side characters into danger and make the viewer fear for them, not for the protagonist. To be fair tho, Shokugeki no Souma managed to avoid this issue by having way more grounded situations, where the bets weren’t that big and the win far from guaranteed. The focus of the show has to be on the cooking. While not always realistic, the way they explain the ingredients, techniques, preparations and how everything comes together to make something bigger than the sum of its parts makes you believe that you could potentially try to replicate those recipes yourself. Even if the result is predictable, the curiosity to see what they will cook next is enough to make you keep watching. So, with all of that said, what happened? I adored this show, with Stagiare, at the end of Ni no Sara (Season 2), being, in my opinion, the high point of the series. From there, it only went downhill. As the series progressed, stakes got higher and, as such, the story got predictable. If the protagonist can’t lose, then the protagonist won’t lose. That leads me to the second problem, what a like to call the “Naruto effect”. As the series goes on, Souma becomes more and more the spotlight of the series, being the one to save everyone when things get rough, and when you finally think a side character will have its time to shine, it doesn’t come through. I really wanted to see more of some characters. The story as a whole became just too surreal. Like I said, it has always been over the top, but it becomes more and more ridiculous as time goes on, to the point where is hard to take anything serious. Finally, the cooking fights became rushed and dumbed down. We no longer had detailed explanations of ingredients, techniques and such, instead the characters cooked and the side-characters spend a whole bunch of time repeating the same lines over and over to show how good the dish was. With that, the fights became boring and uninteresting. I no longer wanted to see the next dish they would come up with. All of that is reflected on the score each season received. As of the moment of writing the user scores went, chronologically, 8.28, 8.19, 8.12, 8.06, 7.76 and 7.34, with a noticeable drop at Shin no Sara (Season 4) and Gou no Sara (Season 5). Season 5 in particular highlights everything that went wrong with the series. Character making ridiculous bets, minutes from each episode focused on repetitive character reactions and ecchi scenes, and a story that’s predictable from beginning to end. Overall, Shokugeki no Souma is a series I will always remember as a series that I loved, with 2 incredibly good seasons at the beginning, but also as the series that disappointed me with its final ones. It’s hard for me to recommend Shokugeki no Souma to new viewers knowing how it ended up, even if I know the first 2 seasons are amazing. With that said, Gou na Sara is a disappointment in so many ways and a horrible ending to what could have been a great series otherwise.

The story was... okay? Don't get me wrong, I love this series and I love the adventure that is Yukihira's culinary life while at Totsuki. However, the matches all ended up with predictable outcomes, some dishes were made repeatedly and the equipment used by some of the chefs make absolutely zero sense whatsoever. We all know this is what we are here for mainly. Food so appetising and delicious it quite literally removes your clothing. You know the speal - this is what you are here for and that is exactly what you get. The music in this season was good, but not nearly as enjoyable as the previous seasons. The same style is kept and it fits the aesthetic, it just felt a little bit lackluster. Erina Nakiri (God Tongue, Erinacchi, Director of Totsuki, Ice Witch, 10th Seat of Elite Ten, The Zero Seat of Elite Ten) - "She will become the greatest masterpiece since Tōtsuki Culinary Academy was founded." Megumi Tadakoro (Dunce, Légumes Koro-pok-guru, Légumes Zashiki-warashi, Légumes Snow Fairy, Touhoku's Hopping Hare, Mama Megumi) - "Just make it while thinking of a person important to you, if you do that, your dishes will become a lot tastier." Souma Yukihira - "Ermm... I'm Souma Yukihira. Truth be told, I didn't expect to be admitted in this academy, but I don't plan on losing to some bunch that has never stood in front of clients. I'll use all of you as stepping stones. Now that I'm here, I'll take the top." Takumi Aldini (The One Who Cuts Through the Horizon of Flavours) - "You said you were a 'pro'. Then, as another pro, I can't lose to you!!"

The perfect way to throw away an anime Fights, characters and plot in general developed very quickly. It was even absurd to see it It started with the first seasons in a very good way and then the quality of the plot went down The animation in general was good; this last season it was too fast. The nerfed of some of the most important characters was incredible. The other characters that at one time were the best we're simply forgotten Supporting character fights were continually sped up The inclusion of new enemies did not serve to give depth to the story, but simply to make it more absurd. I think the only reason I saw this anime was because of the love and expectations (although not very high) of the previous seasons

Overall: 6.8 / 10 Unfortunately, we arrive at the last saga of this beautiful work, but with a satisfactory ending by the J.C. STAFF who did a good job implemented an "original" epilogue that matches quite well for its closure. Regarding the season in general, I have felt quite disappointed in a certain way, since in terms of the decline of the story and its development it has been announced with a plot that although it serves to finish tying up some more ends to the story, either It ends up being completely consistent and contributing much more than its prequel, in addition to losing that essence when preparing culinary competitions or preparing the same dishes that gave a good bonus to the work. On the characters side it is similar, we have new members like the "Noir" with the same Asahi, but all this cast is used only to create an atmosphere of drama in the story, but the reality is that most of them are too flat and superficial. Perhaps what hurts me the most is that they show relatively little of Asahi's childhood and growth. At the same time, the same happens with characters that are no longer on the scene, such as Tamako (Souma's mother) who never just developed that childhood and mourning for both Souma and his father, which was a great emphasis to create a good "feeling" they waste it on the viewer. In short, I consider that it ends up being a fairly regular adaptation but with the plus of being the last installment and with that Happy end it masks a little more the shortcomings of the program. In Total quickly reviewing its seasons, I would dare to say that it is an anime that begins from highest to lowest in quality, but that despite everything continues to maintain that entertainment about the dishes and the kitchen that pushes you to continue watching it (and the shipeo of Erina x Souma of course this :p).. En Español: General: 6,8 / 10 Llegamos a la ultima saga de esta linda obra lamentablemente, pero con un final satisfactorio por parte del estudio J.C. STAFF que hizo un buen trabajo implemento un epilogo "original" que concuerda bastante bien para su cierre. En cuanto a la temporada en general me eh sentido bastante decepcionado en cierta forma, ya que en cuanto al decaimiento de la historia y su desarrollo ah sido anunciado con una trama que si bien sirve para terminar de atar algunos cabos mas a la historia, tampoco acaba siendo del todo consistente y que aporte mucho mas que su precuela, además de perder esa esencia a la hora de la preparación de las competencias culinarias o la elaboración de los mismos platos que daban un buen plus a la obra. Ya por el lado personajes es similar, tenemos nuevos integrantes como los "Noir" con el mismo Asahi, pero todo este elenco no se utiliza mas que para crear un ambiente de drama en la historia, pero la realidad es que en su mayoría son demasiado planos y superficiales. Tal vez lo que mas me duela es que muestran relativamente poco de como fue la infancia de Asahi y su crecimiento. A la vez esto mismo pasa con personajes que ya no están en escena como Tamako (la mama de Souma) que nunca acaba de desarrollarse esa infancia y duelo tanto de Souma como de su padre que era un gran hincapié para crear un buen "feeling" en el espectador e lo desperdician. En fin considero que acaba siendo una adaptación bastante regular pero con el plus de ser la ultima entrega y con ese Happy end enmascara un poco mas las falencias del programa. En Total repasando rápidamente sus temporadas me atrevería a decir que es un anime que comienza de mayor a menor en calidad, pero que a pesar de todo sigue manteniendo ese entretenimiento sobre los platos y la cocina que te empuja a seguir viéndolo (y el shipeo de Erina x Souma claro esta :p ).

The fifth and final season of Shokugeki no Souma was a little underwhelming throughout the whole anime and was really running out of ideas. The plot was interesting but the characters they came up with were lackluster and just not making sense. I usually give very detailed reviews for anime but there is not much that I want to discuss since it is the fifth season of the anime. I just want to point out certain things. The soundtrack was alright, I did not really like the OT but I enjoyed the piano piece of the old OT in the ending of the last episode. The ending. The ending I think was really good, bringing everyone together and giving the fans what the want with the relationship between Soma and Erina and the happy ending for everyone. I really enjoyed that. Erina having her family together was amazing and Soma still wanting to keep learning to be the best. I wished that they expanded on the other characters like Megumi. However, I was very satisfied with the ending but the plot throughout was just boring to me. The characters. The new characters were too extreme for me. A chainsaw, metal juggling balls that go so fast that it can generate heat? I know this anime is extra and suppose to be crazy, but those Noir characters were just too crazy that I didn't enjoy it. A whole guillotine? Like I enjoyed the diversity but it wasn't good. I really did enjoy Erina's character arc that now she is fighting for her mother and for her to please her. Saiba Asahi's character development was also good but I didn't care for him too much since he was a new character. Soma's character development was also non-existence in the sense that I was confused about what he was fighting for. Erina? His mother? The ability for him to run his restaurant? I don't know but I still really enjoyed the characters. Overall, I really did like the series especially the previous seasons. I just think that this last season was not as great as the other seasons and that they could've ended it last season but I really did enjoy this extra plot with her mom and everyone coming back together.

Look, it was predictable. But that still doesn't undermine the fact of how satisfying it was to finish the series. It made me reminisce of the years I spent watching it. It is like a satisfying ending that leaves a hole in you heart, yearning for more, yet knowing you won't receive it. But it leaves you with a heartwarming feeling of sadness and bliss. The series may have serious predictability problems, but the story is so so so good. Just empty your mind and enjoy the story instead of nitpicking on how predictable it is, take in the story, absorb the characters. End the series on a positive note ;)

This review is more of an overall series review rather than for this season in particular. But to speak to this season specifically, while I don't think it is as good as some of the previous ones and the overall cooking aspect seemed to take a backseat to plot sometimes, it was still a very much enjoyable watch. I've been watching this series ever since it started. Right around that time I was just getting into cooking and watching this show really helped push me further into the world of cooking. I can't quite place a finger on what exactly it was, but between trying out recipes I saw on the show, using or adapting cooking techniques they showcased, or just adopting the mentality towards cooking it promoted, I have a large part of my love for cooking owed to this series. It is by no means a flawless show and it did have its dips here and. But taken as a consummate whole I think the character developments (and payoffs), as well as the love for cooking, really speak volumes. I can't say how much I appreciate the ecchi for giving me a laugh, but also not feeling gratuitous or out of place. I'm sure some people will look at it and say "typical anime" but you know when to expect it and it's done for a purpose here (well besides fan service but who's complaining). Ultimately this is my brief love letter of appreciation for this series. While I certainly wish that this wasn't the end, I can't say how happy I am that this show got a proper ending and didn't end up being stretched out until it became old or just got left on a cliffhanger forever. While it might not be for everyone, this was a seriously inspiring show and I highly recommend to anyone looking for a good laugh, some fun cooking and just an overall great time!

I see a lot of people voting this a 4/10 and I don't see why. They took an anime from a manga that the author legit gave up on and did an anime-only ending that was good enough to an extent. Story: The story was magnificent for every single season besides this one. in this season it seemed as if there were no other characters besides Yukihira, Asahi, and Erina which makes the plot a little one dimensional. There was a clear goal for this season of food wars and it was for Yukihira to win BLUE, but as soon as they got to the final battle winner takes all the climax of the entire season. They just flat out ruined it. They took a battle which should have been one of the best of the series and just didn't do it. There was no suspense on who would win and no cooking montage. But instead, they put a very food wars twist on the climax and made it a funny and jokey scene that honestly was fine with me. All the battles weren't enjoyable at all and quite frankly they were jokes besides the team-up battle and the semi-finals. Art: What can I say, there won't ever be another anime that makes me want to eat my screen as much as food wars did. A personal preference thing I had was the fact that I just didn't like the way some of the characters looked this season. Like Yukihira and Erina looked off-putting, but that is just a personal thing and I know they were supposed to look like they were older. Now animation-wise there was just something off about it that I couldn't quite grasp. I never could figure out what was so wrong. Sound: No complaints here. Every song they used shot a wave of nostalgia through my entire body like the slowed-down OP 1 they used at the end of episode 13. Of course, the cooking noises were on point. The foodgasms sounded as great as ever. Characters: Oh boy, where did I start? It felt as if they removed 95% of the cast that we all knew and loved for the last 5 years and replaced them with the main antagonist and a bunch of forgettable villains who have no other personality trait besides loving Asahi. I missed Alice and Kurokiba's shenanigans and the entirety of the Polar Star Dormitory. Why build up so many characters just to leave them behind? Enjoyment: Not going to lie to you guys. I'm extremely biased towards this anime. As it is my first ever anime that I sat through all 5 years watching so I grew up with it. SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT: That being said I won't give it a 10 for enjoyment because of two main reasons. Yukihira never beats his dad and Erina never said his cooking was delicious. That is again a personal thing. NO MORE SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT. Conclusion: All in all yes the ending isn't what we all hoped for, but nonetheless, it was a semi-satisfying way to end a really good series. The fights this season may have been absolute garbage and they may have thrown almost 95% of the loveable cast away. But I hope you could look past some of the glaring faults this season had and just appreciate the journey and how we got to this point. Ratings: 1st Plate: 10/10 2nd Plate: 8/10 3rd Plate: 8/10 Train Arc: 9/10 4th Plate: 10/10 5th Plate: 7/10

This season was just a major let down. It started okay but as more of it came out it just ended poorly. After watching this show for years and reading all the manga, I can say that it's a let down. The ending at least was done a little better in the anime than the manga were they don't go over what the side characters did during Soma competing while the anime did. The ending was all over the place and left on a cliffhanger basically. I want a sequel manga were it's Soma older and maybe him dating Erina or something IDK but all in all it was okay but ending was bad.

Ok hear my all the seasons of Shokugeki no Souma was good though I do believe the last seasons story was ok it didn't really correlate well to the previous seasons and couldn't leave an ending and ended off with a cliff hanger because of the bad pacing at the end it was still quite enjoyable with unique characters and unique abilities like FLASH and pretty good fan service over all its like a 6.5 but the other season are like 7-8. Also I really enjoyed food wars overall because it was a food anime and there aren't a lot of food anime only based off food so I liked it besides the last season I just have mixed feelings about it, it was way to sudden on the last season in my opinion and the polar star dorm characters such as Marui didn't have a lot of screen time. All I wish is that some characters should of had more growth such as the polar star dorm characters and Nikumi and that season 5 wasn't so abrupt.

STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE? Shokugeki no Souma: Gou no Sara gives us another plate of some GOOD FOOD ala character development. This tournament arc of a season pits us against the BLUE tournament but also against Les Cusiniers Noirs lead by Asahi Saiba voiced by Jun Fukuyama who wants to wed Erina Nakiri and "rule" the culinary world, but more is to the BLUE tournament that it seems. Shokugeki no Souma: Gou no Sara, LA will say falls under the same flaws it experienced throughout it's previous season but it's one main core strength is nonetheless it's character development in it's character which still stays in the 5th Plate when they go throughout the anime, be it the main cast's camaraderie or internal character development or regression for the plot in order to do so. Case in point Erina's main goal for winning BLUE which is in contrast to her in Totsuki arc right down to her methods and personality taken in this arc. Though LA will say this is again an Erina-centric arc once again with her taking centre stage even though she's technically awy for about half of the anime. But nonetheless Souma, Megumi and the rest of the new Elite Ten does have bit parts with Souma being in a more narrative focus role as protagonist this time. As for villains, we have Asahi as our main villain and he affects BOTH Souma and Erina in this arc, with Asahi being a former student of Souma's father and even beating his father, all the while he's the biggest threat to Erina in the tournament as well his own goals of culinary domination concerning Erina. Though LA sees Asahi as a step down from Erina's father from the previous season, his "main culinary power" is something that outshines Subaru's culinary mimicry to the point of absurdity. Nonetheless though the anime has some scattershot focus towards it's characters (mainly Souma and Erina), it is one part due to the weird tournament rules that caused that to happen. The animation from JC Staff is back and thankfully reduced it's panning shots once again but still noticeable sometimes. Shokugeki no Souma: Gou no Sara's animation does have some odd derps here and there with it's quality but it's "expected animation" for Souma by this point and at least the food animation was and is still great to look at to amazing detail. The voice cast is back and really the only new addition to the Souma cast would be Jun Fukuyama who does a decent job as the smug snake like character of Asahi. Nonetheless Shokugeki no Souma: Gou no Sara's voice cast is more or less back and overall..decent voice cast with the MVP easily going Hisako Kanemoto for her wide range of emotions throughout this arc. What LA have found out due to the shift in the cooking in this season is that due to many of the writers and staff for Shokugeki no Souma went on pregnancy leave and JUMP wanting one more arc to round off Souma, coupled together with the author needing to rush things, caused the anime to rush things with their battles even more apparent now more than ever and the cooking has focused on cooking styles over cooking techniques. LA can see it but the bigger question would be does the shift in this make this season better than the previous season finale or this one?, well for LA the previous season's finale was a GREAT finale and rounding things up, however this seaosn's ending and what it wanted to focus more on Erina was a nice touch as well as stitching how everything came to be for Erina was also good in this regard. Overall in comparison to previous season's finale and this seaosn's finale...the previous season's finale was GREAT, this season was GREAT...for Erina. So, what does LA think about this season?, it's not bad especially for Erina fans, but does LA find this season superfluous?, ehh not really either as LA said, this season gave MUCH more development to Erina more than anything in a similar method from the previous season did. LA liked Totsuki-hen's finale, this isn't.....that bad either. Meh?...nah more like this season's dish gave off a nice tangy finale with a rushed-like different style of dish from Totsuki's more meaty dish, not horrible just a good lasting after-taste.

As a reader of the Shokugeki manga a year ago, I'm not surprised that the anime would end like this. Judging from the first 3 seasons of SNS, this is comparatively worse, especially because it's obvious how rushed the story is, especially in S5. The pacing in previous seasons was OK and kind of hype-worthy. Any previous competition is better than BLUE, and that shows that SNS has been slowly butchered since Azami took over during the events of S3 and the introduction of Asahi. So, my final ranking for Shokugeki no Souma the anime: S2 > S3 (part1) > S1 > S3 (part 2) > S4 > S5 Series overall is 8-8.5. As much as the ending was butchered, it will still have a special place in my heart as one of my first anime and because of Nakiri Erina. Thank you Asahi, I hate you for ruining the entire plot.