As the sun turns and water continues to be wet, so too do new seasons of the raunchy cooking battle anime Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma continue to manifest. Just as the previous season of the series had started to wrap up, Weekly Shonen Jump swooped in to tease an important announcement for the series, which was revealed on December 22nd at Jump Festa ’20 to be — surprise, surprise — a fifth season of the anime! We already knew that the follow-up series would be premiering in April of this year, but thanks to a new issue of Weekly Shonen Jump we now know the identities of the opening and ending song performers for the fifth season of Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma.
The 11th issue of Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine revealed the artists responsible for the theme songs of the fifth season of the food-fueled anime, titled Shokugeki no Sōma: Gō no Sara. While nano.RIPE are usually responsible for the ending songs of this series, this season they’ll actually be performing the opening theme song for the show, instead. Its title is “Last Chapter.” The ending song, “Crossing Road,” will be performed by Mai Fuchigami. The singer and voice actress has contributed her acting talents to series like Planet With and Outbreak Company.
The recently completed fourth season of Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma was titled Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma: The Fourth Plate and premiered on October 11th of 2019, running for a total of 12 episodes. Like the rest of the series, it was produced by J.C. Staff and directed by Yoshitomo Yonetani, with Shogo Yasukawa serving as series script supervisor and Tomoyuki Shitaya continuing as character designer. Crunchyroll streamed the season as it was airing.
Yūto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki launched the manga Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma in Weekly Shonen Jump way back in 2012. The manga would continue to run until June of this year, where it ended its main Weekly Shonen Jump run. After that, Jump Giga published a special three-chapter epilogue titled Shokugeki no Sōma: Le dessert, just last week.
The manga has gone on to be adapted into three television anime series. The first anime season, running for 24 episodes, aired in 2015. After that, the sequel season Food Wars! The Second Plate went on for 13-episodes starting in July, 2016. The third season, Food Wars! The Third Plate, premiered back in October 2017 but was split into two parts. The second part of the season didn’t premiere until last year, in April, 2018. Crunchyroll streamed all three series as they aired, and Sentai Filmworks has licensed all three series.
Crunchyroll describes the story of the series:
“Shokugeki no Soma centers on Yukihira Soma, a middle school student who is determined to surpass his father’s culinary skills. One day, his father decides to close down their family restaurant and hone his skills in Europe. Before leaving he enrolls Soma in an elite culinary school that is extremely difficult to enter, with a graduation rate of only 10 percent. Will Soma be able to improve his skills, or will the kitchen prove to be too hot?”
