Food Wars Makes Major Change to Final Arc in Newest Episode

Food Wars: The Fifth Plate has already made some significant changes to the flow of the final arc of the series, and the newest episode of the fifth season has made one of the most notable changes yet. This final arc of the series is one of the most divisive among fans of the original manga, and when the anime initially confirmed it would be taking on this arc there was a hope that the anime would take that chance to clean up some of the more egregious elements from the series' final moments.

Along with changing the order of some of its events leading into the final arc of the series, BLUE, the newest episode of Food Wars: The Fifth Plate changed the initial challenge between Asahi Saiba and Erina by avoiding the kidnapping seen in the original manga instead favoring just a direct challenge in the dead of night.

In Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki's original version of the arc, Asahi officially introduces himself along with his group of underground Noir chefs by kidnapping Erina and challenging her by declaring that they will marry one another when he wins the upcoming BLUE competition. But as we see in the anime, these events have been altered quite a bit. Not only is Erina not kidnapped (but there is a shout out to this through her reacting to Asahi's food), but anime fans have already learned all about Asahi's true identity and the Noir before this point.

As we already have seen with the fifth season, there have been changes to smooth many of those edges. The anime skipped the Hot Spring Investigation arc entirely, and started Season 5 with the Beach Exams (which only served as a weird bump in the road in the manga). So rather than all of these developments happening during the beach exams, there's been a proper build up through the first three episodes.

We will be presumably thrown right into the BLUE with the next episode of the series, so we'll soon see how many more significant changes the anime makes in adapting this divisive final arc of Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma. But what do you think? Did you enjoy the fact that Erina wasn't kidnapped this time around? What other changes would you want to see from the anime? Let us know your thoughts in the comments, or you can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!