The 5th season (or "Fifth Plate," as it's titled) of Food Wars! Shokugeki No Soma is being served, with new episodes premiering on Crunchyroll Fridays at 9:30am PDT. Judging from the season premiere, it looks like the final season of the anime is trimming the fat of the source manga in aggressive ways.

No Side Quests This Time

First, let's back up to Season 4 of Food Wars! That season concluded the great 8-vs-8 battle with Central, where Soma, Erina and the other "rebel" student chefs fought to decide the future of Totsuki Institute. In short, the rebels won, and Soma and Erina made for a truly bizarre team against the top two Elite Ten members. The third-years in the Council all graduated, and their seats were claimed by five newcomers. Soma took the 1st seat, Megumi claimed the 10th and so on.

The manga and anime alike skimmed through this, and the manga launched a short but amusing side quest that involved Soma and Megumi traveling to a resort town whose diners were struggling. A mysterious tourist was defeating them all in cooking battles, and Soma and Megumi confronted him: a burly American southerner with some serious culinary skills. He was sure that a petite girl like Megumi couldn't challenge him, but she could, and she won him over with gumbo.

Seasons 4 and 5 saw fit to trim this idea down to the bones: the final episode of Season 4 presented a summary version of this mission, and the first episode of Season 5 didn't mention it at all. Megumi's victory was reduced to bullet points, and after the excitement of the 8-vs-8 Shokugeki, that's for the better. We don't need to linger on a side quest.

RELATED: 5 Years of Food Wars: How An Anime About Cooking Became a Household Name

Mysterious Saiba

Not only did the Megumi-vs-American battle get reduced to bullet points, but Asahi Saiba, the new villain, has a different introduction this time around. In the manga, he appears right after Megumi's victory, seeming like a nice fellow at first. However, he is a ruthless and borderline criminal chef who has insidious plans. He takes on Soma in a Shokugeki... and wins. He's more powerful than any member of the Elite Ten, and as an outsider, he's mysterious, too.

Soma knows one thing for sure: he wants to take on Saiba again and win. The stakes are raised even higher when Saiba insists that Erina become his bride soon. He's putting a lot of pressure on her, and she is scrambling for a way to deal with this menace. Does this carry over to the anime's 5th season?

RELATED: How the Team Behind Food Wars! Serves Up Anime's Most Beloved Dishes

So far, it doesn't. Saiba had a brief cameo at the end of season 4, and in season 5, he is properly introduced. Forget his Shokugeki with Soma or his menace to Erina; he looks like an ordinary fellow on the beach, and he's the newest and most popular teacher at the school. This allows season 5 to get off to a quick and deceptively fun start on the sunny beach, as opposed to taking things slow with the manga's extra scenes. After the huge 8-vs-8 battle, viewers might not be in the mood for quick and dirty scenes like Soma's disastrous Shokugeki with Saiba, and instead, they'd rather get on with the next big thing. They get that with the exam on the beach, and the invitation to take part in the esteemed BLUE competition.

In short, Season 5 does away with the tire-spinning scenes of the manga and thrusts Food Wars! anime viewers into the meat of the matter, no appetizers necessary.

KEEP READING: From Dr. Stone to Vinland Saga: Inside Anime's 'Edutainment' Trend