Food Wars Creators Reveal How They Created Each Characters' Reaction Faces

Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma instantly drew lots of attention with its debut in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump. Not only did it promise a fun series where the "fights" of the series were cooking bouts to see who could make the best dish, but the exaggerated presentation of the series kicked everything up a notch. Hilariously, these reactions also incorporated plenty of fan service as the series became known for how elaborately each food tasting sought to disrobe its characters. But how did this concept evolve to the later full nude reveals in the final moments of the series?

Speaking with ComicBook.com during Crunchyroll Expo 2019, series creators Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki broke down the process of how they bring each reaction to life and how these reactions eventually grew even more outrageous as the series rolled on.

As series writer Tsukuda explained, the creator duo worked along with their editor to decide on each reaction, "Mainly Saeki-sensei, the editor and me decide the outline during our [meeting], and then we improve the detailed image of the reaction after the story is consisted. It is decided firstly according to the dish, and we also try to include the gap between each character's personality and their reaction to add some humor. They don't come spur of the moment at all, but we struggle to squeeze them."

Illustrator Saeki explained that they did have to struggle with the reactions at first, "Three of us, Tsukuda-sensei, the editor and I, provided ideas and squeezed them at first. Besides the standard reaction which is just 'disrobing,' you can also see some variations and combinations. It was very tough to make up characters reaction matching to dish with respecting each food battle and storyline."

Tsukuda and Saeki put a ton of thought into each exaggerated reaction to the tasty foods, and while it might seem like it was just pure fan service at first, this look behind the scenes further gives fans a hint at just how much thought went to every little detail of the series. It's why fans were so bummed when the series finally came to an end.

Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma was originally created by Yuto Tsukuda with illustrations by Shun Saeki for Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 2012. The story follows Soma Yukihira, a young chef who one days wants to get good enough at cooking to take over his family diner from his father. But when he graduates from middle school, his father shuts down his diner and tells Soma to enroll into Totsuki Academy, an elite cooking school where only one percent of students who enroll actually graduate