Sleepy Impressions: Food Wars!
Food Wars!, AKA Shokugeki no Souma in Japanese, is the most intense cooking anime I've ever seen. It's also the ecchiest, complete with ahegao. Who knew so many Japanese people could climax from eating good food? I sure didn't.
But I'll try to keep this post at least somewhat family friendly (it's too late). Food Wars! is about a middle school boy named Souma Yukihira working with his father in their family restaurant and competing over whose cooking skills are better. Souma also tries to ward off land sharks trying to put them out of business, but it results in disaster. In the end, Souma's father decides to close the shop and move for a business opportunity. Souma proceeds to graduate middle school and begin attending culinary school.
I'm not really sure how it's possible to skip an entire high school of education before going straight to culinary school, but okay. Perhaps we should have started with an older boy graduating high school for our protagonist, but that's fine. I'll go with it.
Aside from all the over-the-top ecchi reactions to eating food, even with the guys, I actually thought this show was pretty interesting. I thought it'd make me hungry, but it actually just made me want to cook. I liked how Souma explained his techniques for his potato/bacon dish. I hope he'll explain more interesting dishes so that I can try them myself.
The execution of this show is where it really gets its charm, I feel. They made the entire concept of cooking seem intense, like it's a huge achievement. They did a great job on the atmosphere in that regard. I just wish they wouldn't mix erotic reactions into it... Not that there's anything wrong with eroticism in anime, but not everyone wants to relate that to food. It does give it a little unique perk, though, I suppose.
Souma's determination to keep the family restaurant in business really appealed to me, too, but that's more of a bias with me. I like characters that can inspire hard work. The show made me laugh out loud a couple times, so I'd say it was pretty funny, too. The animation was average.
I thought it was a pretty good start, overall.
First Impressions: Above Average
