Genre Comedy Illustrated by Shun Saeki English publisher Viz Media | Written by Yūto Tsukuda Published by Shueisha Demographic Shōnen | |
Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma (Japanese: 食戟のソーマ, Hepburn: 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 December 2016, 22 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. An anime adaptation by J.C.Staff aired between April 3, 2015 and September 25, 2015. A second season aired between July 2, 2016 and September 24, 2016.
Contents
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 1% of the students manage to graduate, where he meets many amazing students and experiences new events that allow him to grow further towards his cooking goal.
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 December 2016, twenty-two volumes have been published. Viz Media has licensed the manga for North America and published the first volume on August 5, 2014.
Anime
An anime adaptation was announced on October 2014 by Shueisha. The anime was directed by Yoshitomo Yonetani at J.C.Staff with Shogo Yasukawa as the series scriptwriter and starred Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as the main character, Sōma Yukihira. Crunchyroll began streaming the anime on April 3, 2015. Sentai Filmworks licensed the anime for digital and home video release in North America. For the first fourteen episodes, the show's opening theme was "Kibō no Uta" (希望の唄, The Song of Hope) by Ultra Tower, and the ending theme was "Spice" (スパイス, Supaisu) by Tokyo Karankoron. From episode fifteen onwards, the opening theme was "Rising Rainbow" (ライジングレインボウ, Raijingu Reinbō) by Misokkasu, while the ending theme was "Sacchan's Sexy Curry" (さっちゃんのセクシーカレー, Sacchan no Sekushī Karē) by Seiko Oomori. A 25-minute original video animation was bundled with the 19th volume of the manga, which was released on July 4, 2016.
A 13-episode second season, titled Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma: The Second Plate (食戟のソーマ 弍ノ皿, Shokugeki no Sōma: Ni no Sara), was announced and began airing on July 2, 2016. The second season's opening theme song, titled "Rough Diamonds", is performed by SCREEN mode, while the ending theme song, titled "Snow Drop", is performed by Nano Ripe.
Reception
It was number twelve on the 2014 Kono Manga ga Sugoi! Top 20 Manga for Male Readers survey and it was number three in the Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics of 2014.
Volume 1 has sold 139,657 copies as of April 28, 2013; volume 2 has sold 176,682 copies as of June 16, 2013; volume 3 has sold 238,590 copies as of August 18, 2013, volume 4 has sold 252,975 copies, as of September 22, 2013; volume 5 has sold 271,570 copies as of December 22, 2013; volume 6 has sold 277,726 copies as of February 23, 2014; and volume 7 has sold 279,364 copies as of April 20, 2014.