Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma

Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma (食戟のソーマ, Shokugeki no Sōma, lit. "Sōma of the Shokugeki") is a Japanese shōnen manga series written by Yūto Tsukuda and illustrated by Shun Saeki. Yuki Morisaki also works as a collaborator, providing the recipes for the series. Individual chapters have been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump since November 26, 2012, with tankōbon volumes being released by Shueisha. As of January 2016, 16 volumes have been released in Japan. The series is licensed by Viz Media, who has been releasing the volumes digitally since March 18, 2014, and released the first volume in print on August 5, 2014.^[1] An anime adaptation finished airing on September 25, 2015. A second season has been announced. ^[2]

Plot

Shokugeki no Soma tells the story of a boy named Sōma Yukihira, whose dream is to become a full-time chef in his father's neighborhood restaurant and surpass his father's culinary skills. But just as Sōma graduates from middle school, his father, Jōichirō Yukihira, gets a new job that requires him to travel around the world and closes his shop. However, Sōma's fighting spirit is rekindled by a challenge from Jōichirō which is to survive in an elite culinary school where only 10% of the students manage to graduate, where he meets many amazing students and experiences new events that allow him to grow further towards his goal.

Media

Manga

The manga began as a one-shot in Shueisha's Weekly Shounen Jump in April 2012 and then began as a series in November 2012. The first tankōbon volume was published on April 4, 2013. As of January 2016, sixteen volumes have been published. Viz Media has licensed the manga for North America and published the first volume on August 5, 2014.^[3]

Anime

An anime adaptation was announced on October 2014 by Shueisha.^[4] The anime is directed by Yoshitomo Yonetani at J.C.Staff with Shogo Yasukawa as the series scriptwriter and stars Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as the main character, Sōma Yukihira.^[5] Crunchyroll began streaming the anime on April 3, 2015.^[6] Sentai Filmworks has licensed the anime for digital and home video release in North America.^[7] For the first fourteen episodes, the show's opening theme is "Kibō no Uta" (希望の唄, The Song of Hope) by Ultra Tower,^[8] and the ending theme is "Spice" (スパイス, Supaisu) by Tokyo Karankoron.^[9] From episode fifteen onwards, the opening theme is "Rising Rainbow" (ライジングレインボウ, Raijingu Reinbō) by Misokkasu, while the ending theme is "Sacchan's Sexy Curry" (さっちゃんのセクシーカレー, Sacchan no Sekushī Karē) by Seiko Oomori.

Reception

It was number twelve on the 2014 Kono Manga ga Sugoi! Top 20 Manga for Male Readers survey^[10] and it was number three in the Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics of 2014.^[11]

Volume 1 has sold 139,657 copies as of April 28, 2013;^[12] volume 2 has sold 176,682 copies as of June 16, 2013;^[13] volume 3 has sold 238,590 copies as of August 18, 2013,^[14] volume 4 has sold 252,975 copies, as of September 22, 2013;^[15] volume 5 has sold 271,570 copies as of December 22, 2013;^[16] volume 6 has sold 277,726 copies as of February 23, 2014;^[17] and volume 7 has sold 279,364 copies as of April 20, 2014.^[18]

References

External links

• Official anime website (Japanese)
• Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia