Food Wars! Season 1

The anime series Food Wars! emphasizes culinary skills over brawn, with battles inspired by kitchen experimentation instead of martial arts. Soma Yukihira works in a small but popular family-owned restaurant, where he regularly loses to his father in contests to see who can make the best, or most terrible, dishes. After graduating from middle school, Soma is shipped off to the prestigious and grueling Tohtsuki Academy, where he immediately makes enemies by proclaiming his intention to become number one. But even with his extreme confidence and bravado, Soma is a kind team player who would much rather have friendly rivalries, and he quickly fits into the quirky Kyokusei dorm, which is populated mostly by misfits. Country-girl dorm-mate Tadokoro Megumi becomes a sort of secondary protagonist, as Soma and friends face test after test while striving to avoid being weeded out of the academy. The animation shines and the show features good if unexceptional character design (albeit with a tedious focus on busty women). Based on the manga by Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki, Food Wars! has spawned both print and OVA spin-offs. Presenting all 24 episodes from 2015 in separate dual-language DVD and Blu-ray editions, rated TV-14, this is recommended. (L. Martincik)