UPDATE May 2020: Please see the newest article for the anime’s status: Food Wars! Season 5 Episode 3 release date. The remainder of this article remains as initially published.
The official website for the Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma Season 5 anime series has announced that the Food Wars! Season 5 Episode 3 release date will be delayed due to the ongoing SARS-COV-2 coronavirus pandemic.
The anime’s official website and Twitter account will be announcing the new TV anime schedule when the decisions are made.
“<IMPORTANT INFORMATION> The broadcast and simulcast of Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma the Fifth Plate will be delayed due to COVID-19,” tweeted the Food Wars! Season 5 Twitter account on April 17, 2020. “We will announce ep.3 broadcast/simulcast time on official twitter and website.”
In the meantime, Japanese TV stations will be broadcasting the first several episodes of the fourth season of the Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma anime series.
Japanese TV stations Tokyo MX and BS11 will be running Food Wars! S4 Episode 1 on April 24, 2020, Food Wars! S4 Episode 2, in May 2020, and Food Wars! S4 Episode 3 on May 8, 2020.
Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma: The Fifth Plate (Shokugeki no Soma: Go no Sara) is being produced by animation studio J.C. Staff.
Director Yoshitomo Yonetani is helming the final anime season. Writer Shogo Yasukawa is writing the scripts, while character designer Tomoyuki Shitaya producing the art.
The Food Wars! Season 5 opening (OP) music theme song is “Last Chapter” as performed by nano.RIPE, while the ending (ED) is “Crossing Road” as performed by Mai Fuchigami.
Many TV shows delayed for spring 2020 anime season
Yesterday, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a national state of emergency. Many anime studios’ schedules have suffered from cascading effects due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the mitigation efforts by all nations.
Many studios outsource parts of the production process to contractors located in China and South Korea. Sometimes compositing is outsourced entirely, and these companies handle multiple projects at the same time.
Due to the interlinked nature of the production process, the progress rate for many studios has decreased dramatically to the point that rescheduling is necessary.
The Food Wars! Season 5 anime is just one of several major anime that have suffered delayed. Re:ZERO Season 2, Sword Art Online: Alicization Final Season, and No Guns Life Part 2 have all been pushed back to later dates.
It’s possible that some anime will be delayed until July 2020 at the earliest. But if conditions do not improve by the summer, then it’s possible some projects could be pushed back again to October 2020.
Such delays will inevitably impact the plans for other anime planned for 2021.
The Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma Season 5 story is the final ending
Created by writer Yuto Tsukuda and illustrator Shun Saeki, the Food War! Shokugeki no Soma manga series ended in mid-2019 with Chapter 315 in Volume 36.
However, there was a three-chapter epilogue called Food Wars Shokugeki no Soma ~ Le Dessert, bringing the total number of chapters for the entire story up to 318.
Food Wars! Season 5 is adapting the final 52 chapters of the main manga, which is comprised of two short story arcs, and the finale is the BLUE story arc.
Presumably, the anime will adapt the final three chapters of Shokugeki no Soma ~ Le Dessert epilogue although it’d be nice if the anime expands on the premise to give a better ending.