"Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma" - Review of a food anime

For a guy who considers himself a pop culture junkie, I must confess I've never gotten into Japanese comics or animation, better known as manga and anime respectively. Manga always felt out of reach for me because I don't know Japanese, and I suspected something would be lost in the English translations; I remember feeling confused rather than awestruck when I saw "Akira" back in high school. When I stumbled upon the animated version of the comic series "Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma" recently, I wasn't sure what to expect. It's about a teenage boy's adventures at an elite culinary school where only 10% of the students graduate. The competition is fierce, with cooking duels being issued like samurai battles from feudal times. Luckily for the story's protagonist, Sōma Yukihira, he is a culinary ninja of a chef and is always ready and willing to test his cooking skills against his fellow students, or anyone else. The story plays out like a combination of "Top Chef" and "Dragon Ball Z", with lots of action and drama, and is quite knowledgeable about food with the author consulting with a professional chef to ensure the recipes portrayed are legit. That said, this anime plays up the pleasure one experiences when tasting exquisite food to the point it gives new meaning to the term "food porn' - you will see nude characters in various states of ecstasy from time to time. Whether you're a hardcore foodie, anime fan, or someone who likes their food programming on the wild side, "Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma" won't disappoint.