Title: Food Wars: The Fifth Plate
Director: Yoshitomo Yonetani
U. S Distributor: Sentai Filmworks, Section 23
U. S. Release Date: April 12th, 2022
Format: Blu-ray / 13 Episodes / 325 Minutes
Genre: Slice of Life, Cooking, Comedy
Age Rating: TV 14+
Overall Personal Rating: A-
Synopsis
Food Wars! The Fifth Plate contains episodes 1-13 of the anime directed by Yoshitomo Yonetani.
The first semester of the second year is coming to a close, and finals have begun! It seems that Soma and his classmates have been dealt a recipe for disaster: in just three days, they must make at least 3 million yen (approximately 27 thousand dollars) at the restaurant they’ve been assigned.
However, while other teams have been placed in restaurants that are already in operation, Soma’s team receives a dilapidated property that must be restored first! But that’s only a minor challenge compared to what comes next, as the top students from all levels of Totsuki compete to become one of the school’s three representatives at BLUE, one of the world’s most legendary culinary competitions! Tempers flare, surprise ingredients abound, and someone’s sure to get burned in most heated cook off of all in the fifth and possibly final season of Food Wars!
Commentary
Food Wars! The Fifth Plate is exactly what I expected. Plenty of drama and struggle between Soma, Erina and new instructor with hidden desires and plans to change their lives forever. Of course I enjoy all of it and find the food to be interesting, I am convinced that the real star of the show is the wonderful characters that have been developed and molded into something very special. Over the course of five seasons we have become very comfortable with the cast and their odd personalities. Almost all of them have found a level of likeability and positive personas that make the series very easy to watch and engage in.
I found The Fifth Plate to be a little too predictable at times and would have liked it to find a new way to provide drama and comic relief, but I still this this season is a hit. I particularly enjoyed the ending. Some apples don’t fall far from the tree!
Overall Grade: A-
Even though I really enjoyed the story and character development I did feel as though there was a slight reduction in production quality. Some of the computer graphic were way too flat and hard edged and made me lose interest what was going on. I know that there is often a decline in production quality when a series is winding down, but I do feel that it did do a disservice to Food Wars, The Fifth Plate.
As a complete package I have to give the offering high marks for giving us what we expect and leading us in a direction that makes us feel good in the end. If you haven’t seen The Fifth Plate yet then it is a must. You won’t be disappointed!
