Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma (Japanese: ??????, Hepburn: Shokugeki no S?ma, lit. "S?ma of the Shokugeki") is a Japanese sh?nen manga series written by Y?to Tsukuda and illustrated by Shun Saeki. Yuki Morisaki also works as a collaborator, providing the recipes for the series. Individual chapters have been serialized in Weekly Sh?nen Jump since November 26, 2012, with tank?bon volumes being released by Shueisha. As of November 2017, 27 volumes have been released in Japan. The series is licensed by Viz Media, who has been releasing the volumes digitally since March 18, 2014, and released the first volume in print on August 5, 2014.
An anime adaptation by J.C.Staff aired between April 3, 2015 and September 25, 2015. A second season named Food Wars! The Second Plate aired between July 2, 2016 and September 24, 2016. The first cour of the third season, referred to as Food Wars! The Third Plate aired between October 4, 2017 and December 20, 2017. The second half premiered on April 9, 2018.
Video Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma
Plot
Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma tells the story of a boy named S?ma Yukihira, whose dream is to become a full-time chef in his father's neighborhood restaurant and surpass his father's culinary skills. But just as S?ma graduates from middle school, his father, J?ichir? Yukihira, gets a new job that requires him to travel around the world and closes his shop. However, S?ma's fighting spirit is rekindled by a challenge from J?ichir? which is to survive in Totsuki Teahouse Culinary Academy, an elite culinary school where only less than 1% of the students manage to graduate. After securing himself a spot at the Academy, S?ma is placed in a dormitory called Polar Star where he meets several of the key characters in the series. The episodes focus mainly on S?ma's interaction with the many talented students at the Academy and a variety of adventures that allow him to grow further towards his cooking goal.
In the Academy, the best chefs are promoted to seats on the "Elite Ten" (Or council of ten in the English dub), a council of the most promising students. Learning that his father was not only a student of Totsuki, but also the second seat in the Elite Ten; Soma plans on becoming the best at the academy. Students can initiate a "Shokugeki" (Or Food War in the English localization) with any other student or alumni; a cooking fight with stipulations on the line. Battles fought in this way could be for cooking utensils, elite ten membership, or even expulsion from the school.
Maps Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma
Characters and settings
The characters in Food Wars! revolve around students of Totsuki, and the wider culinary world. Characters have specific traits, nicknames and styles of cooking. For example, Ikumi Mito specializes in cooking with high quality meats; and is such known as "The Meat Master"; whereas Etsuya Eizan is known as "The Alchemist"; due to his cooking using methods to "negate" the flavor of his opponents' dishes.
The series is mostly set in T?tsuki Culinary Academy; which is located in Tokyo, Japan. The Academy is a wide-ranging resort; which also contains many research societies; cooking classrooms, and large arenas used for shokugeki's. The only accommodation on campus is the home of the protagonist Soma, the Polar Star Dorms; where characters have to impress the warden with their cooking to gain entry and win a room in the dorms. Totsuki also run a chain of resort hotels; with the biggest being the Totsuki resort; run by Gin Dojima, which is visited during the course of Soma's first year at Totsuki.
Soma grew up, and lived in the Sumired?ri Shopping District before attending Totsuki, where he worked at Restaurant Yukihira with his father. Despite the restaurant being closed for long periods of time for Soma to attend Totsuki, it is shown that the cafe is still very popular with locals who flood in when Soma returns to air the shop out. The shopping district is shown to also have a lunchbox store, a beer store and a printing shop; however there is likely more areas to this shopping district not yet shown.
Media
Manga
The manga began as a one-shot in Shueisha's Weekly Shounen Jump in April 2012 and then began as a series in November 2012. The first tank?bon volume was published on April 4, 2013. As of November 2017, twenty-seven volumes have been published. Viz Media has licensed the manga for North America and published the first volume on August 5, 2014.
Anime
An anime adaptation was announced on October 2014 by Shueisha. The anime was directed by Yoshitomo Yonetani at J.C.Staff with Shogo Yasukawa as the series scriptwriter and starred Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as the main character, S?ma Yukihira. Crunchyroll began streaming the anime on April 3, 2015. Sentai Filmworks licensed the anime for digital and home video release in North America. For the first fourteen episodes, of the first season. The show's opening theme was "Kib? no Uta" (????, The Song of Hope) by Ultra Tower, and the ending theme was "Spice" (????, Supaisu) by Tokyo Karankoron. From episode fifteen onwards, the opening theme was "Rising Rainbow" (??????????, Raijingu Reinb?) by Misokkasu, while the ending theme was "Sacchan's Sexy Curry" (?????????????, Sacchan no Sekush? Kar?) by Seiko Oomori. A 25-minute original video animation was bundled with the 19th volume of the manga, which was released on July 4, 2016.
A 13-episode second season, titled Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma: The Second Plate (?????? ???, Shokugeki no S?ma: Ni no Sara) aired between July 2, 2016 and September 24, 2016. The second season's opening theme song is "Rough Diamonds" by SCREEN mode, and the ending theme song is "Snowdrop" (???????) by Nano Ripe.
The first cour of the third season aired between October 4, 2017 and December 20, 2017. The first opening theme song was "Braver" by Zaq, and the ending theme song is "Kyokyo Jitsujitsu" (????) by Nano Ripe. The second half premiered on April 9, 2018. The second opening theme is "Symbol" (????) by Luck Life, and the ending theme song is "Atoria" (????) by Fo'xTails.
Video games
Food Wars! has produced two games released in Japan. Shokugeki no Soma: The Dish of Friendship and Bonds (?????? ???????, Shokugeki no Soma: Y?j? to Kizuna no Hitosara) is a visual novel developed by FuRyu and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It was released for the Nintendo 3DS on December 17, 2015. A teaser trailer was revealed on May 24, 2015.
The game features an original story that takes place in Europe while characters from the series interact among each other. In addition, the characters will be voiced by their respective voice actors from the anime. Gameplay requires little interaction from the player as most of the duration of the game is spent on reading the text that appears on the screen which represents either the dialogue between the various characters or the thoughts of the protagonist. Like many other visual novels, players will go through all kinds of situational events as the original story unfold.
Shokugeki no Soma: The Ultimate Recipe (?????? ??????, Shokugeki no Soma: Saiky? no Recipe) is a mobile game published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game was released for iOS and Android on August 17, 2015.
Reception
It was number twelve on the 2014 Kono Manga ga Sugoi! Top 20 Manga for Male Readers survey and it was number three in the Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics of 2014. The Anime News Network gave the anime series a B; citing the art as being very good, and that Soma is a very likeable protagonist. They however opined that the amount of fanservice might put some readers off, and considered some instances of fanservice uncomfortable and unnecessary.
Volume 1 has sold 139,657 copies as of April 28, 2013; volume 2 has sold 176,682 copies as of June 16, 2013; volume 3 has sold 238,590 copies as of August 18, 2013, volume 4 has sold 252,975 copies, as of September 22, 2013; volume 5 has sold 271,570 copies as of December 22, 2013; volume 6 has sold 277,726 copies as of February 23, 2014; and volume 7 has sold 279,364 copies as of April 20, 2014. As of May 2, 2018, it was revealed that the manga had 14 million copies in print.
References
External links
- Official anime website (in Japanese)
- Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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