Perhaps fans should look back at the series and remember what made it good.
Summary:
Food Wars is heavily criticized for its trainwreck last arcs.
The manga suffered from the same problem, but the anime also looked noticeably worse than it did in the beginning.
In the end, however, the show still had its amazing moments.
Food Wars! (Shokugeki no Souma) went from one of the beloved darlings of the anime community to a show criticized for its lackluster final seasons. It seems like that’s the only thing it is remembered for these days — and for people who have followed the anime since the beginning, it might seem odd. How did the public make such a complete turnaround? Let’s break it down to see what actually happened.
The opinion on the manga also changed during its final arcs
The shift in opinion started around the third season and cemented itself during the fourth one. Curiously enough, that does not seem to be the fault of the anime. Manga readers also consider these arcs to be the ones where the manga gets worse. With Food Wars getting repetitive, manga readers felt like it was going nowhere. It can also be argued that the premise and the eccentric humor of the manga, which were first a novelty, were getting tiring at that point. However, the opinions were still divisive until the last arc, which was almost universally deemed unsatisfactory by both the source readers and the anime only watchers. Notable criticisms included introducing new plotlines out of nowhere and undoing Erina’s character progression.
The anime started looking worse near the end
There is, however, another reason for Food Wars’ popularity and public reception going down. The adaptation is made by studio J.C.Staff, who, since 2018 or so, often produced multiple anime per season, spreading their resources. Despite being a big studio, they didn’t seem to be well-equipped enough to keep the shows’ production values from going down. This also affected Food Wars, which, starting from around the aforementioned Season 3, looks noticeably worse than it did in the beginning of its run.
It still had it great moments
It is somewhat sad to see a once beloved anime being mostly remembered for its worse parts. Sure, the criticisms aren’t unfounded — on the contrary, they are completely fair — but perhaps fans shouldn’t be forgetting what made the series popular in the first place. The first two seasons (and arguably the third one, too) were an incredibly fun and engaging run, and it can be argued that it is worth getting into just for them alone. After all, since Food Wars ended, there hasn’t been a show to fill its niche of an eccentric cooking anime with over-the-top reactions.
Perhaps fans should look back at the series and remember what made it good.
Summary:
Food Wars is heavily criticized for its trainwreck last arcs.
The manga suffered from the same problem, but the anime also looked noticeably worse than it did in the beginning.
In the end, however, the show still had its amazing moments.
Food Wars! (Shokugeki no Souma) went from one of the beloved darlings of the anime community to a show criticized for its lackluster final seasons. It seems like that’s the only thing it is remembered for these days — and for people who have followed the anime since the beginning, it might seem odd. How did the public make such a complete turnaround? Let’s break it down to see what actually happened.
The opinion on the manga also changed during its final arcs
The shift in opinion started around the third season and cemented itself during the fourth one. Curiously enough, that does not seem to be the fault of the anime. Manga readers also consider these arcs to be the ones where the manga gets worse. With Food Wars getting repetitive, manga readers felt like it was going nowhere. It can also be argued that the premise and the eccentric humor of the manga, which were first a novelty, were getting tiring at that point. However, the opinions were still divisive until the last arc, which was almost universally deemed unsatisfactory by both the source readers and the anime only watchers. Notable criticisms included introducing new plotlines out of nowhere and undoing Erina’s character progression.
The anime started looking worse near the end
There is, however, another reason for Food Wars’ popularity and public reception going down. The adaptation is made by studio J.C.Staff, who, since 2018 or so, often produced multiple anime per season, spreading their resources. Despite being a big studio, they didn’t seem to be well-equipped enough to keep the shows’ production values from going down. This also affected Food Wars, which, starting from around the aforementioned Season 3, looks noticeably worse than it did in the beginning of its run.
It still had it great moments
It is somewhat sad to see a once beloved anime being mostly remembered for its worse parts. Sure, the criticisms aren’t unfounded — on the contrary, they are completely fair — but perhaps fans shouldn’t be forgetting what made the series popular in the first place. The first two seasons (and arguably the third one, too) were an incredibly fun and engaging run, and it can be argued that it is worth getting into just for them alone. After all, since Food Wars ended, there hasn’t been a show to fill its niche of an eccentric cooking anime with over-the-top reactions.
