Food Wars! – Shokugeki no Soma Vol. 3 (Story by Yuto Tsukuda and Art by Shun Saeki) (a J!-ENT Manga Review)

foodwars-3

“Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma” vol. 3 features Soma and friends taking on the Totsuki Resort culinary test, but right before the test, a chef declares himself Soma’s rival.  Highly recommended!

 /></b></a></p> <p style=

© 2012 by Yuto Tsukuda, Shun Saeki. All Rights Reserved.


MANGA TITLE: Food Wars – Shokugeki no Soma Vol. 3

STORY AND ART BY: Story by Yuto Tsukuda and Art by Shun Saeki

FIRST PUBLISHED IN JAPAN: SHUEISHA, Inc.

PUBLISHED IN USA BY: VIZ Media, LLC/Shonen Jump Manga

RATED: T for Older Teen

RELEASE DATE: December 3, 2014


The “teamwork and friendship-building” camp from hell begins! While most students are already petrified by the threat of instant expulsion for low marks, the unveiling of the teachers responsible for judging their dishes ratchets their fear to a whole new level! Just which fear-inducing teachers hold the culinary futures of Soma and the rest of the Polaris crew in their hands this time?

Also includes the one-shot “Your and My Romance Consultation.”


Soma and his friends from Polaris arrive at the exclusive Totsuki Resort Hotel, where only a handful of institute grads work at if they manage to graduate.

The first assignment is to find the ingredients inside a close area, prepare them and present them to Chef Hinako Inui.

But immediately making himself known to Soma as his rival is Takumi Aldini, a chef who has spent his life protecting his family restaurant, Trattoria Aldini.

What happens when these two clash in their first cooking battle?

Find out in volume 3 of “Food Wars! -Shokugeki no Soma”!

What is “Food Wars! – Shokugeki no Soma” about?

In 2012, writer Yuto Tsukuda and artist Shun Saeki created their manga series “Shokugeki no Soma” which continues to be serialized in “Weekly Shonen Jump”.

The manga was voted #3 in the Nationwide Bookstore Employees “Recommend Comics of 2014” in Japan and voted #12 in the 2014 “Kono Manga ga Sugoi!” Top 20 Manga for Male Readers survey and continues to be a popular series in Japan.

With a total of eight tankobon volumes released in the U.S., Viz Media will be releasing the first manga volume titled “Food Wars! – Shokugeki no Soma” in North America in August 2014.

The series revolves around a young teen named Soma Yukihara who works for his father, chef Joichiro Yukihira, at their local restaurant.

Trained to cook at an early age and known for trying to combine various foods together as experiments, Soma has been known to cook dishes that make people feel they have tasted the best food ever to touch their tastebuds. But his goal is to someday beat his father in cooking.

But with landsharks trying to get control of the land to build condo units where the restaurant is located, one day while returning to the restaurant, everything inside is removed.

While Soma wants to rebuild, his father tells him that he will be closing the restaurant for two or three years to travel and as for Soma, he is enlisted in Totsuki Saryo Culinary Institute where the elite of the elite attend and less than 10% of its students ever graduated.

But his father gives Soma a stern message, if he can’t make it at Totsuki Saryo Culinary Institute, he will never beat him.

Determined to prove to his father that he can graduate as an elite cook, Soma is still looked down by his fellow students and faculty because unlike them, he is not wealthy and his family did not own a four or five star restaurant.

But Soma is determined to prove them wrong.

As the second volume focused on Soma meeting his fellow cooks and making new friends at the Polaris dorm, volume three focuses on Soma and his Polaris Dorm friends visiting the Totsuki Village to compete with other chefs in order to work at the Totsuki Hotel, where under five people have passed the test.

But as Soma and friends are getting ready, a young chef named Takumi Aldini makes himself known to Soma and becomes his rival.

And now, the two must compete in their first battle against each other by passing the first challenge at Totsuki.


As a big fan of manga series about food and the culinary industry, “Food Wars! -Shokugeki no Soma” is a series that I absolutely enjoy.

For one, you have an antagonist that was cooking since he was young, often experimenting on different foods, even know that all his combinations are not always successful. But he also was brought up in a family restaurant and has to attend a school of elitist who think their food is the greatest and that they are more refined because they are wealthy.

So, it’s pretty awesome to see how far these people will put him down and until they eat his food, their reaction, and probably this may be the best word to describe their reaction to his food as “orgasmic”.

With the third volume of “Food Wars – Shokugeki no Soma”, the stakes are much higher as Soma and his fellow Polaris team must go to Totsuki Resort and compete in a cooking test, where only a handful have passed the test and become the best in the culinary world.

And immediately before the test is to begin, a young chef named Takumi Aldini and his younger twin brother Isami immediately challenge Soma and see him as a revival, because like Soma, they spent their life protecting their family restaurant.

And Takumi wants nothing more but to beat Soma… Of course, Soma has no intention of losing.

In addition to the first two competitions featured in volume 3, Shun Saeki’s debut “Your and My Romance Counseling” from Jump Next! (2011 Spring Issue) is feature as a special story.  The storyline deals with a young man named Kobayakawa wants to tell his classmate Yui Kawai that he loves her…but instead, he confesses to liking someone else.  What happens when Yui tells Kobayakawa that she will counsel him in order to help him tell the girl he likes that he loves her.

So, you get two awesome stories in volume 3 of “Food Wars! – Shokugeki no Soma”.

For volume three, the storyline by Yuto Tsukuda has been nothing short of enjoyable. This is a fun manga that left me craving for more and Shun Saeki’s artwork is energetic, fun and also a bit suggestive (which I suppose is subjective to the individual).

Overall, “Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma” vol. 3 has turned out to be one of my favorite manga titles of 2014. I can’t wait until the next volume! Highly recommended!

 /></b></a></p> <p style=