When will the Food Wars! Season 5 anime serve up the final Fifth Plate of the popular Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma anime series? That’s a question worth asking now that the ending of Yukihira Soma’s story is in sight now that the Food Wars! manga has concluded.
Unfortunately, the Food Wars! Season 5 Episode 3 release date was delayed due to the ongoing SARS-COV-2 coronavirus pandemic. The initial announcement made in mid-April 2020 was for an indefinite delay.
Thankfully, the animation chefs at studio J.C. Staff have already set the timer for the future release of new episodes. Anime fans won’t have to simmer too long since it’s been confirmed that the fifth season will be rebroadcast from Episode 1 starting in July 2020. (Click the link or see the release date section below for more details.)
The official title for the fifth season is Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma: The Fifth Plate (Shokugeki no Soma: Go no Sara). Voice actors Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Hisako Kanemoto, Minami Takahashi were part of the announcement as well as manga creator Yūto Tsukuda.
The Japanese cast and staff are returning. Director Yoshitomo Yonetani will be helming the final anime season once again. Writer Shogo Yasukawa is writing the scripts, while character designer Tomoyuki Shitaya is also returning.
Leaked scans of the Food Wars! Season 5 announcement. Pic credit: Weekly Shonen JumpThe Food Wars! Season 5 opening (OP) music theme song will be “Last Chapter” as performed by nano.RIPE, while the ending (ED) is “Crossing Road” as performed by Mai Fuchigami.
Based on the anime’s progression through the manga source material, it’s very likely that Food Wars! The Fifth Plate will be a single-cour anime season. What’s a “cour,” you might ask? For those unfamiliar with the lingo, a “cour” is a three-month block of TV broadcasting based on the physical seasons usually composed of 10 to 13 episodes.
The Fourth Plate was only 12 episodes long. The finale, Food Wars! Season 4 Episode 12, released on December 27, 2019.
This article provides everything that is known about Food Wars! Season 5 (Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma Season 5) and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
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Updated June 1, 2020: Food Wars! Season 5 rebroadcast plans announced.
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Updated May 12, 2020: Food Wars! Season 5 delayed even more.
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Updated April 17, 2020: Food Wars! Season 5 delayed.
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Updated March 2, 2020: Added Food Wars! S5 key visual.
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Updated February 27, 2020: Added exact Food Wars! Season 5 release date.
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Updated February 6, 2020: Added Food Wars! S5 OP and ED.
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Updated December 21, 2019: Added key visual for Food Wars! Season 5 anime.
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Updated December 19, 2020: Food Wars! Season 5 confirmed!
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Updated December 16, 2019: Added Jump Festa 2020 news.
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Updated November 25, 2019: Revised article based on BD/DVD announcement.
Food Wars! manga compared to the anime: Will the Fifth Plate finish the manga’s ending?
Created by writer Yuto Tsukuda and illustrator Shun Saeki, the 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.
The official English translation of the manga series by VIZ Media is up to Volume 33 as of December 3, 2019.
In later seasons, the anime kept up a specific pacing by skimming or skipping certain chapters, but it animates the main beats of the story entirely.
Additionally, the anime reorganized the Regiment de Cuisine matches so that concurrent events flowed better in comparison to the jumping around and flashbacks that occurred in the manga.
The Fourth Plate had an original ending to a certain degree. In a behind-the-scenes Crunchyroll documentary, the animation staff at J.C. Staff said, “This may be a little bit of a spoiler, but I have written an anime-original scene for the final episode of Season 4. It’s not a delusion scene, but a very real, dramatic scene. And [manga creator] Tsukuda-sensei really liked it, so I’m really satisfied with it. I hope everyone looks forward to the final episode of Season 4.”
Where in the manga is the anime right now? With the fourth season, Food Wars! The Fourth Plate, the story picked up again with the events from manga Volume 26. By anime Episode 6, or halfway through the single cour of the Fourth Plate, the anime had adapted the manga’s story up through Chapter 243 of Volume 28. The fourth plate’s Episode 12 ended by adapting Chapter 263.
Where does the ending of the fourth season leave Food Wars! Season 5? Including the final three chapters of the manga’s epilogue, the anime has 55 chapters left to adapt. Otherwise, the final 52 chapters of the main manga comprise two short story arcs and the finale is the BLUE story arc. Based on the pacing so far, Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma Season 5 will likely have 13 episodes in total.
(It’s currently unknown if the anime will adapt the final 3 chapters of Shokugeki no Soma ~ Le Dessert in the main TV show or if it’ll be released as a final Food Wars! OVA episode. The spoilers section of this article provides a basic overview of the epilogue chapters.)
Of course, manga readers are hoping for an original anime ending that changes the story after the Regiment de Cuisine arc. The BLUE arc left some manga fans with a bad taste since it went to edgy extremes with cooking, and some critics claim the later chapters suffered from poor writing, but that’s another story entirely.
Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma Season 5 release date
The original Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma Season 5 premiere date occurred on April 10, 2020 (April 11, effectively), the spring 2020 anime season.
Unfortunately, the Food Wars! Season 5 Episode 3 release date was delayed due to the ongoing SARS-COV-2 coronavirus pandemic.
“Due to the effect of the spread of COVID-19, further broadcast of the fifth plate will be postponed until July 2020,” stated the official Twitter account for Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma. “Further information will be announced as soon as the new date is fixed. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
Rather than resuming with Episode 3, the entirety of Food Wars! Season 5 will be rebroadcast from the beginning. Episode 1 will air on July 3, 2020, which means Food Wars! Season 5 Episode 3 will come out on July 17, 2020.
In the meantime, Japanese TV stations will be broadcasting the fourth season of the Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma anime series. Japanese TV stations Tokyo MX and BS11 began running Food Wars! S4 Episode 1 on April 24, 2020, which should continue until July 2020.
In addition, the total number of episodes has still not been confirmed.
The key visual for Food Wars! S5 released in early March 2020. Pic credit: J.C. Staff
Food Wars! The Fifth Plate anime spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
Considering how the manga’s plot is laid out, it made sense for the fourth season to finish adapting the Promotion Exams story arc and leave a future story arc for a single-cour Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma Season 5. The Fourth Plate had a good stopping point, especially considering that the next two story arcs are short and focused on hot springs and beaches.
The story skips ahead four months later to when things start getting a little spicey (and we’re not talking about the food). Erina ends up sending Megumi and Soma to investigate a mystery at a hot springs resorts town, but the two find themselves sharing a single bedroom!
Yes, the Food Wars! anime will be checking off both those boxes with the finale! Although, it could be argued that the Food Wars! OVA 3 released back in 2017 already fulfilled that role.
原作コミックス「食戟のソーマ」第24巻アニメＤＶＤ同梱版のビジュアルを公開！予約締切は3月5日！創真たちの温泉旅館での休息！おあがりよ！ https://t.co/MHDvVSX2Mp #shokugeki_anime pic.twitter.com/UEl1ZZLaEF
— 『食戟のソーマ』TVアニメ公式 (@shokugeki_anime) December 5, 2016
Eventually, they unmask the dastardly “villain” behind the crimes involving chefs. It turns out a new organization called the Les Cuisiniers Noirs (Midnight Chefs) is behind the mystery of the hot springs. They are an eccentric group of chefs who work for criminal groups in environments where one mistake could result in death.
And wouldn’t you know it, it’s not long before Soma finds himself challenged by a school teacher named Suzuki working at Totsuki Culinary Academy. Absurdly, Suzuki openly talks about making Erina his wife! He’s not kidding because he sends Erina multiple flower bouquets per day and he claims that only his cooking can please Erina’s God Tongue.
But the shocking part is that Suzuki wins the Shokugeki against Soma! That shouldn’t be too surprising since Suzuki has a connection to Soma’s father, never mind his hidden agenda for Totsuki.
Suzuki likes to goad competitors into wagering their own cooking knives so he can add them to his personal collection. But he’s not simply collecting them. The young man has a skill called Cross Knives where he absorbs the essence of a chef’s cooking abilities by taking their knives.
The second years are in the middle of the final exams, which is challenging enough by itself but now there is the prospect of entering a world youth cooking competition called BLUE ( Bishoku Leading Under-35 Entrance). While it sounds like just another cooking competition the stakes have never been higher.
Erina agrees to marry Suzuki if she loses to him in the BLUE competition. What’s more, the Les Cuisiniers Noirs kidnap Erina and take her to their hideout since it turns out the Noirs will also be competing at BLUE.
Soma also has a personal stake in BLUE. His father, Joichiro, visits and offers to give Soma the Yukihira diner. But Soma says he will not inherit Yukihira unless he wins BLUE since he believes he wouldn’t be worthy otherwise.
The stakes also get personal because the ending of the entire story features Soma vs Erina Nakiri!
The ending of the Food Wars! anime could easily adapt the final three chapters of the Shokugeki no Soma: Le Dessert sequel since it’s basically just an epilogue. The first chapter takes place right after the events of BLUE while the second chapter explores the past of certain characters. The third chapter also peaks into the future of Soma and other characters.
Unfortunately, Shokugeki no Soma anime fans will have to wait until the Food Wars! Season 5 release date to watch what happens at the ending. Let’s just be glad J.C. Staff did not make audiences burn out on the stove. Stay tuned!