Review of Food Wars! The Fourth Plate

Solid 5/10, perhaps a 4/10 but I'm going to be generous and give it a 5 as I have seen worse anime with a higher rating. So uh where to begin? Is this season bad? No. Then is this season good? No. Honestly, I'm rather stuck where to put most of this. I have thoroughly enjoyed the other seasons of this anime and was looking forward to getting more sequels but this one should not have been one. I have been extremely confused and rather irritated at how most of the shows nowadays are all 12-13 episodes, it's not that big of a deal butwhere it bothers me is when a show releases, let's say a second season. A 12 episode second season. You watch it and you feel like that it isn't a second season. Then 2 months later in the seasonal section you see *enter anime here* season part 2. Then you're just sitting there like "what?"

Well, that's basically what has happened with this anime. Why can't you just release it all at once? It would make sense if the source was not far along enough but with Shokugeki no Souma, the manga was finished by the time this season started airing. The Fourth plate is not a season. It should not be a season. The story, the pacing, everything about The Fourth plate belongs in the middle of a 24 episode season because that is exactly how it feels like it should be. It begins exactly in the middle of the conflict, continuing on from the previous season. Literally, no joke, right immediately into the dramatic conflict. This should have been part of Season three, otherwise, everything seems out of wack. The pacing is severely slow but at the same time I feel like it is for no reason, let me explain.

Shokugeki no Souma is a cooking anime. Season's 1 through 3 showed them cooking, detailed scenes about the cooking, the ingredients, the frustration (if any) as well as the person eating the dishes ecchi or shounen like reactions. It was good, it was enjoyable, that was made this series so enjoyable. HOWEVER, The Fourth Plate does not do any of that. Unlike the previous seasons, there is no focus on cooking. They start cooking, the evil chefs insult the main characters, one or both are done, the judges eat, decide the winner and the show moves on. Very rarely do they even focus on the cooking, most of the time the scene immediately goes from starting the cooking to done and it's like "What are you even doing?". I was very disappointed with this season.

Moving on from that rant, a lot of people said that they felt the animation quality went down. I don't really feel that way. The mix of terribly slow and terribly fast pacing at the same time, as well as the not focusing on the cooking as the previous seasons did, may have felt to some as if the animation quality went down but, personally, I don't feel that way.

The whole season focuses on one shokugeki between the rebels and the new elite ten. With this story shattering competition, you would think that you would feel some sort of tension as you're not quite sure whether or not the main characters would actually be able to pull through, as this show does a good job of not making the main characters invincible in battle BUT the tension is 0. I felt no tension whatsoever, the pacing is just that bad. Even when one of our "heroes" lost their battle, nothing. The pacing is just awful.

My overall jurisdiction over this season? Watch it immediately after, and as part of the Third Season, not as a fourth.