Anime Update: ‘Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma’

Fierce cooking, specialty dishes, the quest to be the most awesome chef, an all-out food war, and a lot of gratuitous-magical-girl-style nudity is what we should expect from the upcoming ‘Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma.’ Could this be the Iron Chef X Hell’s Kitchen X Shonen parody we’ve been waiting for!?

Based on the manga of the same name, the show will follow the story of young protagonist Sōma Yukihara – whom even the completely uninitiated won’t be surprised to find is on a quest to become a full-time chef more legendary than his own father. Like many Shonen anime of similar themes, he’s gotten himself into an extremely selective school (culinary academy) in which only around 10% of the students end up graduating – somewhat explaining the “war” bit of the title.

Will it be good? Wellll I’m a bit skeptical, but if I’ve learned anything from parody anime of the past, it’s that they can sometimes be complete gems like ‘Excel Saga’ and ‘Hetalia,’ or unbearable and facepalm-worthy flops like ‘Shinesman.’ (Don’t worry, I still found ‘Shinesman’ hilarious despite how much of a failure it was). Tropes abound and wordplay jokes to spare, we can stay tuned for more and hope that the show might make it’s way to North America after it premiers in Japan this April as a part of Warner Bros Anime’s Spring lineup.