Food Wars! Vol. 1

With the help of culinary consultant Yuki Morisaki, this first-time author/illustrator team brings back intense culinary competition unseen in manga since Yakitate!! Japan. Soma Yukihira enjoys youth and its promise as he works in his family’s humble neighborhood restaurant, dueling his father in original-dish competitions. When developers buy out the business, Soma’s father decides its time for Soma to live up to his potential as a chef.He shutters the restaurant and sends his son to the premier culinary high school in Japan. It turns out to be full of wacky people with skills as deep as their pockets. Forced to see there’s more to food than taste and cockiness, Soma meets a variety of people, mostly women, who bring out the best and worst in him as his creativity brings him through cooking challenges that hold his future in the balance. The cooking “battle” scenes are as energetic as anything in superhero comics, and the food is drawn to look mouthwatering and refined. Orgasmic tasting scenes up the recommended age bracket beyond YA , and the recipes between chapters are temptations in themselves. Shonen competition manga at its best, this is a breath of fresh air against seasons of lackluster shonen manga, and should be a breakout hit. (Aug.)