Food Wars! The Fifth Plate
食戟のソーマ 豪ノ皿 (Shokugeki no Souma: Gou no Sara)
- Ecchi
- Gourmet
- School
- Episodes
- 13
- Duration
- 23 min per ep
- Aired
- Apr 11, 2020 to Sep 26, 2020
- Status
- Finished Airing
Synopsis
With Azami Nakiri and the former Elite Ten removed from power, Tootsuki Culinary Academy begins to regain its balance thanks to Souma Yukihira, Erina Nakiri, and their fellow rebels. Peace doesn’t last long, though, as a new challenge rises to the forefront: BLUE, a high-stakes contest where young chefs chase international recognition.
As Souma and his friends enter the competition, they’re met with unfamiliar trials and formidable opponents. Standing in their way is Asahi Saiba, a chef tied to the underground group Noir—an adversary who has already bested both Souma and his father in a Shokugeki.
Otaku Consensus
Otaku Consensus: The Fifth Plate keeps the franchise’s core pleasures intact under Yoshitomo Yonetani and J.C.Staff: heightened food reactions, character-driven rivalry, and the BLUE finale’s tournament structure still deliver clear weekly hooks. The verdict is still the franchise’s weakest plate: critics and fans consistently point to a visible drop in adaptation quality and pacing, with the Noir/Asahi escalation feeling underseasoned compared with the cleaner emotional landing of Season 4.
Why You Should Watch
Watch The Fifth Plate if you want Food Wars at its most battle-shounen: cooking treated like a ranked combat sport, with teenage chefs, exaggerated techniques, and ecchi “foodgasm” spectacle pushed into near-superpower territory. It scratches the same competitive itch as Kuroko’s Basketball or Yu-Gi-Oh!, but swaps courts and cards for knives, plating, and judge reactions. This is best for completionists who care about Souma, Erina, and the Tootsuki cast enough to see the anime’s endgame, not for viewers looking for the franchise’s tightest season. The 13-episode run is lean, loud, and increasingly absurd, especially once the show leans into Noir-linked opponents and circus-like culinary gimmicks. If you want gourmet anime without restraint, this is the chaotic finale plate.
Key Characters
- SSouma Yukihira
Souma remains compelling because his confidence reads less like destiny and more like a working chef’s appetite for trial, error, and public embarrassment.
- EErina Nakiri
Erina gives the final season its prestige-versus-instinct tension, functioning as both elite standard-bearer and emotional counterweight to Souma’s improvisational style.
- AAsahi Saiba
Asahi is the season’s most divisive figure: a Noir-linked rival built to escalate the series from academy politics into almost superpowered culinary antagonism.
What Makes It Stand Out
- 1
J.C.Staff and director Yoshitomo Yonetani return for the final TV season, keeping visual continuity with the earlier anime even as fan reception cooled sharply by Season 5.
- 2
The season’s defining structural choice is the BLUE competition, which shifts Food Wars away from school governance and into an international contest format with higher-profile opponents.
- 3
AniList’s tag spread captures how extreme this installment becomes: Food at 94%, Nudity at 72%, Super Power at 60%, Circus at 60%, and Assassins at 34%, a combination that signals culinary anime operating with battle-anime logic.
- 4
At 13 episodes, The Fifth Plate is a compact final cour, but its broadcast window stretched from April 11 to September 26, 2020, giving it a noticeably unusual airing footprint for a one-cour season.
- 5
Its database profile reflects a popular but cooled finale: MAL lists it with 299,902 votes, a 7.31 score, rank #3080, and popularity #429, while AniList records a 72/100 score and 2,260 favourites.
Fun Facts & Trivia
- Fun fact 1
- The original work credit remains unusually food-specialized: Yuuto Tsukuda is credited for the original story, Shun Saeki for the original character designs, and Yuki Morisaki for original work assistance, reflecting the franchise’s long-running culinary consultation angle.
- Fun fact 2
- Tomoyuki Shitaya and Atsushi Komori served as chief animation directors, giving the final season dedicated oversight for character consistency across its 13 episodes.
- Fun fact 3
- The production staff listed for this season includes assistant director Youhei Suzuki, art director Kouichirou Bizen, director of photography Yutaka Kurosawa, and production desk Aoi Terayama.
- Fun fact 4
- Fan commentary around The Fifth Plate is unusually blunt for a sequel to a hit: one common recommendation is to watch Food Wars but stop at Season 4, which many viewers feel already provides a cleaner endpoint.
- Fun fact 5
- Critical writeups often frame the season with cooking metaphors, calling it “undercooked” or “lacking seasoning,” a fitting shorthand for the main complaint that the finale has ingredients fans recognize but less satisfying execution.
Studios
- J.C.Staff
