Food Wars Finally Introduces Soma's Mother to the Anime

Food Wars has been steadily making its way through the fifth and final season of the series, and with the newest episode has finally introduced Soma's mother to the anime. The fifth season has done a bit of shuffling as it makes its way through the final three arcs of the series (even skipping one entirely), and that includes some of the shuffling when it came ot Soma's mother being brought into the series fully. While she had been hinted at before through flashbacks, the anime finally gave us a flashback all about her.

Episode 10 of Food Wars: The Fifth Plate sees Soma readying himself for the coming battle against Asahi in the semi-final round. As he wonders about how he's supposed to be getting ready for all of this (and how to eventually confront the situation between Erina and her mother), he begins to talk about how nostalgic he is for when he used to see his mother and father in the kitchen together at the Yukihira Diner.

Then the anime completely reveals his mother, named Tamako Yukihira, for the first time in the anime series. As mentioned, she had been briefly seen in a few flashbacks before but this episode features her first speaking role in the series. Soma begins to remember the dynamic between his father and mother, and revealed that she was an experimental chef just like Soma and used wacky ingredients.

Soma's desire to become a chef was then seen as an extension of trying to get close to his mother. Wanting to craft a dish that she would say is better than his father's, Soma then put his all into cooking. Unfortunately as the flashback continues, it's soon revealed that Soma's mother had passed away. The two of them had been distraught after losing Tamako for some time, but then started their special cooking competitions as a way to grieve and properly move forward as a family. So it's Soma's mother that really gave him the desire to become a chef, and the desire to surpass his father is what pushes him so hard to be the best.

What did you think of Soma's mother finally making an appearance in the anime? Surprised to see her share so many of Soma's personality quirks? How are you liking the final season of the series so far? 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!