Season 5 of Food Wars! is being served up in April 2020 and audiences aren't too excited to bite. The popular cooking anime, written by Yuto Tsukuda, broke into the scene in 2015 and wooed audience's hearts (and stomachs) with its incredible dishes, colorful food animation and diverse characters (not to mention ecchi). The show follows the adventures of 15-year old Soma Yukihira as he battles his way through Totsuki, an elite school for aspiring chefs, for the number one position while accruing friends and enemies along the way.

Food Wars! had seemingly found the recipe for success by repackaging shonen elements such as self-improvement, friendship and battles with a deceptively simple cooking premise. With such a hot start, it's surprising that with the announcement of a fifth season, many fans have been less than enthusiastic, bemoaning the anime's continuation and criticizing the show's decreasing quality.

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These comments are part of the anime's already declining popularity with fewer fans raving over the show. In fact, many think Food Wars! should have ended with Season 4. So, what went wrong?

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Seasons 1 to Season 4 of Food Wars! follow a similar structure in that the viewer watches Soma surviving training exercises and competing in both tournaments and Shokugeki. If the seasons follow a set structure, why was Season 1 received better? The reason is pacing. Take a look at the synopsis for Season 1 vs. the synopsis for Season 4, for instance.

In Season 1, we are introduced to the cast of supporting characters, learn Soma's motivation and follow him through an intensive training camp and then a tournament. In Season 4, Soma and friends oppose Central's regime on a round-by-round basis. Do you see the difference? Season 1 is more dynamic with different conflicts, stories and world-building. This variation makes the pacing feel natural and the progression both exciting and earned.

However, by Season 3, our protagonist was mired in a never-ending conflict with one central villain and viewers are fed Shokugeki after Shokugeki like a 24-course meal. No matter how delicious the dish, the pacing comes to a staggering halt as viewers slog through each episode with the enjoyment of going grocery shopping.

The large cast of characters was one of the anime's biggest strengths as audiences could connect with a diverse range of personalities. Additionally, from the Italian Aldini brothers to coastal village Megumi and (presumably) South Asian Hayama, the character's ethnicities brought a global richness to the cuisine, infusing Food Wars! with a deeper umami. Season 1 gave us a taste of each character's backstory and superbly balanced different characters against each other while building solid character arcs.

However, like many shonen series, the large cast became the show's downfall. Characters that started off with the potential for exciting development began fragmenting the anime's focus on Soma's journey. From Season 3 to Season 4, the story centered around pairing secondary protagonists against secondary antagonists without developing the characters further than the dishes they made.

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Most importantly, the story is finished. The conflict of Season 3 and Season 4 was Azami Nakiri taking over Totsuki and homogenizing cooking. Soma and Erina decisively beat Azami and, per shonen tropes, were able to have a heart to heart with him and make him rethink his evil ways. Soma takes his place at the number one spot in the Elite Ten, Erina is the new Director and the rest of the characters can sing Kumbaya while cooking together.

Food Wars Soma Yukihira Megumi Tadokoro and Ikumi Mito

Stretching our memories back to the first season, the motivation behind Food Wars! was to watch Soma achieve his dreams of becoming number one at Totsuki. He had accomplished this and there were no more conflicts introduced in Season 4, save for a hook about Erina noticing a strange boy. So it's not too difficult to understand why viewers are hesitant about Season 5 because the story is finished and there's not much left to explore.

Food Wars! started out with a bang but slowly lost steam and fell from anime viewers' consciousnesses. Either due to poor pacing, a bloated cast or an uninspiring storyline, fans aren't too excited for Season 5 to premiere. Food Wars! may be a victim of its own success -- trying to ride the hype train a little too long instead of keeping it focused and short.

Regardless of all this, it is still perfectly fine to enjoy Food Wars! and look forward to the fifth season. Despite the anime's flaws, Yuto Tsukada's passion for cooking still shines through the screen and the little details in each panel, in both the manga and anime, show how much effort Tsukada expends on getting everything right. When April swings around, feel free to immerse yourself in Soma's rich culinary world or feel free to give it a pass, knowing that the story has already, effectively, ended.

Food Wars! The Fifth Plate is scheduled to begin airing in April 2020. The fourth season is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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