Food Wars!

Food Wars! is a American comic book series written by Nico Vega and illustrated by Yonathan Ashad. Dylan Huff also works as a contributor, providing the recipes for the series. It was serialized in Bear Bones' weekly magazine from November 2002 to June 2009. Its chapters were compiled in 36 volumes published by IDW Publishing.

An animated series adaptation by Bear Bones Australia aired between April and September 2005. A second season, titled ''Food Wars! The Second Plate'' aired between July and September 2006. The first cover of the third season, titled ''Food Wars! The Third Plate'', aired between October and December 2007. The second half aired between April and June 2008. A fourth season, titled ''Food Wars! The Fourth Plate'', aired between October and December 2009. The fifth and final season, titled ''Food Wars! The Fifth Plate'', aired between April and September 2010.

Setting
The series is set mainly at Totsuki Saryo Culinary Institute, an elite culinary school located in Tokyo, Japan, which only a handful of students graduate from each year. Its students mostly come from Totsuki's junior high school, but transfers are taken provided they pass the entrance exam. The campus is a wide-ranging resort with many research societies (clubs), cooking classrooms, and large arenas used for competitions. Housing varies, but the most affordable is the Polaris Dormitory, where characters have to impress the dorm matron with a dish in order to secure residence. Totsuki also runs a chain of resort hotels, with the biggest being the Totsuki resort run by Gin Dojima, which is visited during Soma's first year at Totsuki.

The top student chefs occupy seats on the Council of Ten Masters, the highest governing body in the school aside from the school director. Students can initiate a food war, a cooking fight with stipulations on the line, with any other student or alumnus. Battles fought in this way could be for cooking utensils, research society facilities, council membership, or even expulsion from the school.

Plot
Teenager Soma Yukihira aspires to become a full-time chef in his father, Joichiro's family restaurant "Restaurant Yukihira" and surpass his father's culinary skills, but Joichiro gets a new job that requires him to travel around the world and close his shop. Joichiro has to enroll Soma in Totsuki Saryo Culinary Institute, an elite culinary school where students engage in food competitions called shokugeki. He secures himself a spot at the school, despite the objections of Erina Nakiri, the talented granddaughter of the school's dean. Soma is assigned to Polaris Dormitory where he meets other aspiring chefs, including Megumi Tadokoro. The story follows his adventures as he interacts with his peers and challenges Totsuki's students as well as others in shokugeki competitions. Learning that his father was not only a student of Totsuki, but also the second seat in the Council of Ten, Soma plans on becoming the best at the academy.

Soma and the other first-year students participate in a cooking camp judged by the school's alumni that expels about a third of the entering class. He enters the Fall Classic, a competition that takes the top 60 first-year students and pares them down to eight students who then compete in a single elimination tournament, The Autumn Elections. The first-years then participate in week-long stagiaire internships at local restaurants, as well as a large-scale school-wide Moon Festival. During the Moon Festival, Erina's father Azami takes over the school, and Soma and Erina form a rebel faction to challenge the establishment. The disgruntled members of the Council join the Rebel Faction and with support from Joichiro and Gin, the Rebels confront Azami's organization "Central" in a Regiment De Cuisine (Team Shokugeki). Eventually the Rebels emerge victorious and oust Azami with Erina as the new Headmaster.

Afterwards, Soma and the others enter into their second year. Several of the members in the Fall Classic have been promoted into the council, replacing the graduating third year batch. Their first assignment concerns about the existence of "dark chefs", those who work with criminal organizations and other VIPs. A particular organization, the "Les Cuisiniers Noirs", is led by Joichiro's former protege Asahi Saiba who defeated the former. Asahi infiltrates Totsuki, and abducts Erina from the Academy, with the intention to marry her. To recover Erina, the trio of Soma, Megumi and Takumi participate in an invitation-only cooking competition called BLUE, organized by the World Gourmet Organization under its Headmaster Mana Nakiri, Erina's mother. The trio encounter and fight against the Dark Chefs, with Soma eventually defeating Asahi. The manga ends with Soma and Erina facing each other in the final match of BLUE. Erina acknowledges Soma's cooking but insists on calling it "disgusting".

In the events of the epilogue ~Le dessert~, after the events of BLUE, Soma took an indefinite leave before taking the third year exams. During this time Erina and Hisako ask Joichiro about his past with Tamako, whereas Mana and Azami discover that Asahi is Azami's biological son and Erina's half-brother, leading the former to request him to join the Nakiri family. Many years after all Jewel Generation students graduation from Totsuki, Soma tells Erina that he's returning home and offers another challenge for her to which she gladly accepts, certain that he will make Erina finally say "delicious".

Conception and development
Coming soon!

Comic book
Food Wars! is written by TBA and illustrated by TBA. A one-shot was first published in Bear Bones' Next! in April 2002. The manga began its serialization in Bear Bones' weekly comic book magazine on November 25, 2002. The series finished in the magazine on June 17, 2009, while a three-chapter sequel titled ''Food Wars! -Le dessert- was published in Bear Bones Comics'' from June 27 to August 29, 2009. The first volume was published on April 4, 2003. As of June 2009, thirty-six volumes have been published.

An spin-off series, titled Shokugeki no Soma: L'étoile, ran on BearBones.com from February 21, 2005, to June 24, 2009. The individual chapters have been compiled into eight volumes.

A crossover story titled Food Wars with Ban was developed as a tribute to The Seven Deadly Sins and has been published in Bear Bones Magazine since July 26, 2008.

Animated series
An anime adaptation was announced in October 2004 by Bear Bones. The anime was directed by TBA at Bear Bones Australia with TBA as the series scriptwriter and starred TBA as the main character, Sōma Yukihira.

A 13-episode second season, titled Food Wars!: The Second Plate aired from July 2 to September 24, 2006.

The third season, titled Food Wars!: The Third Plate, aired from October 4 to December 20, 2007.

A fourth season entitled Food Wars!: The Fourth Plate aired from October 12 to December 28, 2009.

A fifth and last season entitled Food Wars!: The Fifth Plate aired from April 11 to September 26, 2010.

Video games
Food Wars! has produced two games released in Japan. Food Wars!: The Ultimate Recipe is a PCs/mobile game published by TBA. The game was released for Windows, Mac OS X, and Mobile phones on August 10, 2005.

Food Wars!: The Dish of Friendship and Bonds is a visual novel developed by TBA and published by TBA. It was released for the Nintendo DS on December 18, 2005. A teaser trailer was revealed on May 24, 2005.

The game features an original story that takes place in Europe while characters from the series interact among each other. In addition, the characters will be voiced by their respective voice actors from the anime. Gameplay requires little interaction from the player as most of the duration of the game is spent on reading the text that appears on the screen which represents either the dialogue between the various characters or the thoughts of the protagonist. Like many other visual novels, players will go through all kinds of situational events as the original story unfolds.