Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma (食戟のソーマ, Shokugeki no Sōma) is a 2015 television anime series based on Yūto Tsukuda’s manga series of the same name with illustrator Shun Saeki. The series was adapted by studio J.C. Staff, and the staff credits include director Yoshitomo Yonetani, series composition writer Shogo Yasukawa, character designer Tomoyuki Shitaya and music composer Tatsuya Katō. The series first aired in Japan on April 2015.
Background:
“Ever since he was little, Soma Yukihira’s main goals have been to beat his father in a cooking contest and take over the family diner. That’s why, when his dad suddenly announces that he’s shutting the restaurant down and sending Soma to cooking school, Soma is shocked. However, Tohtsuki Academy is no ordinary cooking school. This elite institution is filled with culinary giants like Erina “God Tongue” Nakiri, who does her best to keep a lowly short-order like Soma from even making it inside the door. However, if the snobs can dish it out, Soma can serve it up, and when he learns that only a handful of the students manage to graduate every year, he swears that the only way he’ll leave is as number one in FOOD WARS!”
Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, December 2023.
When I got into anime during the early 2010s I was going to University and one of the first things I did was join an anime society and also pick up a subscription to Crunchyroll which was heavily supported by Sentai Filmworks and their catalogue. This was also during the time where simulcasts started to grow and I had more options to watch. 2014 is a pretty interesting era for Sentai as they had the licenses for a lot of intriguing titles.
Around this timeframe was when we saw adaptations of Weekly Shonen Jump shows make more of an appearance and not in the usual format. Shonen shows used to be long-running with no breaks and filler to go in-between the canon material, and it wasn’t a particularly favoured approach by anime fans. So roughly around this timeframe we started to see shonen anime adapted in either 1-cour (12-13 episodes) or 2-cour (24-26 episodes) and one of the first that I had seen that was from the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine was Kuroko’s Basketball which worked really well on the formula. Sport shows in general works best in this manner to avoid affecting its pacing.
The point is, around the time we started to see more of these was the appearance of Shokugeki no Soma, known internationally as Food Wars! which works as a localised name. This Shonen Jump series is quite genius with its premise – a simple individual who cooks really well gets dragged into a food school where he has to succeed or risk being kicked out. I watch a lot of food shows in recent years (mainly Masterchef, Bake Off and also Masterchef Australia) and there’s many different approaches you can have to provide a good dish that stands out so taking that into anime/manga form is a smart move.
Now Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma serialised for a number of years but unfortunately fell down the Weekly Shonen Jump ranks in Japan, which resulted in the story being rushed to a conclusion, but most of the anime seasons are pretty solid and are worth a watch. The show does utilise a lot of balanced fanservice as I like to name it as both the male and female cast get too excited with the food offerings.
Sentai Filmworks picked up the streaming and home video release for Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma for the United States & Canada as well as owning the UK & Ireland rights. For the UK, it was sub-licensed to Animatsu Entertainment, a distributor founded by members of Manga Entertainment UK who didn’t want to be restricted by Starz Entertainment who owned the UK branch at the time. This allowed them to branch out and pick up more titles than before so they got a batch of licenses from Sentai for home video.
As Sentai switched it up by releasing their titles mostly as complete series sets, Animatsu was able to release the complete first season of Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma all in one set as well. The difference here though is that Sentai went over and beyond with the limited edition box set while Animatsu only provided a rigid box and no additional physical items due to costs. Eventually Animatsu merged back with Manga Entertainment UK once Starz made the distributor independent and the series eventually went out of print.
Many years later Anime Limited announced during their MCM London October 2023 panel they had rescued the UK & Ireland home video rights for Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma Season 1 with a new collector’s release. They don’t have the second season nor the others that came after it (Crunchyroll eventually became the main licensor for the final few seasons and OVAs) but there’s room for opportunities.
Collector’s Edition Contents:
Sentai released a limited edition box set years back for their release of Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma Season 1, so Anime Limited were likely locked out on a lot of the assets available as a result. This collector’s edition release may as well be treated in the same vein as a limited edition due to the limited features for the physical items and artwork, but the booklet does have a good amount of content for what it offers.
This release is presented with a rigid box containing an Amaray case to house the Blu-ray discs, and alongside the case is a 36-page booklet as well as a fold-out poster. The booklet contains character designs, information and details about the locations and key visuals from the anime series.
The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The limited edition Blu-ray has 1000 units printed for an SRP of £79.99, and is expected to receive a standard edition Blu-ray release later down the line.
The series was included as part of their 12 Days of Christmas 2023 Early Bird line-up so I ordered it alongside five others. The set was on offer for £44.99 with the Anime Unlimited membership lowering the cost down to £40.49.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with Amaray packaging and clean artwork
- Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
- 36-page Booklet
- Fold-out Poster
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 18th December 2023 (AllTheAnime), 5th February 2024 (General retailers)
The collector’s edition release for Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma Season 1 contains all 24 episodes across three Blu-ray discs, with the encode & authoring done by Sentai Filmworks. The audio options include Japanese with English subtitles and the Sentai Studios English dub.
The yellow subtitles are locked during playback, and the regions are accessible to Blu-ray players set to A & B.
If you have bought the previous UK release by Animatsu, this release pretty much uses the same discs as Sentai never re-released the series.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio |
| Region | A B |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | Yes |
| Discs | 3 BD-50s |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 3:
- Clean Opening Animations “Kibō no Uta (Song of Hope)” & “Rising Rainbow”
- Clean Closing Animations “Spice” & “Sacchan no Sexy Curry”
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma Season 1 is available to purchase on Blu-ray by Anime Limited in the UK & Ireland. The collector’s edition Blu-ray release can be bought through different retailers including Amazon UK, AllTheAnime Store, and Anime-on-Line.
(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)
The Normanic Vault 
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