Overview:
Yukihira Souma is back in the kitchen and battling it out to win the Autumn elections while blowing people’s clothes off with great tasting food.
I reviewed this week to week so if you are interested in individual episode thoughts click here. I’ve also reviewed season 1.
Review:
Season 2’s always have a bit of trouble. Season 1 has usually used all of the real mind-blowing ideas and the fun of getting to know the characters has passed. So how do you make a good season 2? Very few shows really succeed.
That said, Food Wars Season 2 (or the second plate) really does work hard. They continue on with a competition set up in season 1, they introduce new and zany characters to try to compensate for the fact that a large number of the original cast aren’t actually involved in the competition, they ensure there is actually some sense of challenge for our protagonist so he isn’t just zooming through the competition. All of these things really should help season 2 out.
Yet, the whole way through I just found this season lacking. It was at its best when they weren’t in the kitchen and we got to see the characters interacting, but far too much time was spent in the competition. The comedy that really sold season 1 of what is essentially a cooking show was toned down and even the visuals while tasting the food seemed subdued (or at times just so bizarre that they lacked the impact they could have had).
If you are watching this show for Yukihira, then you will get a lot of him. His character growth this season is significant compared to season 1 where he only made minimal gains as a person. However, this focus comes at the expense of every other character and to be honest, Yukihira is not one of my favourite anime characters. I find him pretty obnoxious. While it was nice to see him growing up, I just wanted something to break up his screen time and there just wasn’t anything else happening this season.
There isn’t a lot more to say because if you haven’t watched season 1, this is all kind of irrelevant, and if you have you more or less know what to expect going in.
My recommendation: Can’t help you. If you watched season 1 and want to find out who wins the competition, you have to continue watching. If you don’t care who wins, then maybe give season 2 a miss because it isn’t bringing anything really new to the table and it isn’t as interesting as season 1 was.