Food Wars! is a great anime with a big drawback: it’s impossible to watch without getting hungry. In this clip from the new Crunchyroll documentary on the making of the show, Dayna Akahara, who works in J.C. Staff Studio for the Food Wars! Design is responsible to the viewer through the detailed and meticulous process of drawing the best-looking food from anime.
The series focuses on junior chefs training to become the new elite cooking world, and the young chefs are constantly challenging each other to one-on-one contests. Since the show is about chefs, the dishes they prepare must be excellent. Of course, since the series is based on a manga, the animators have a point of reference, but static black and white drawings of food are not the same as the animation by J.C. Staff.
As it turns out, the process of animation of each food begins with a mountain of inquiry. In the clip, Akahara plays with an Alligator Ramen court appearing in the third season of the series. It takes everything from the texture of each hand-drawn noodle to the colors of the real broth when working on the bowl. For the alligator meat herself, she used both the manga and a true alligator to make sure it looked right.
Akahara explains that she views the food herself as a guest star in every Food Wars! Episode. Every time a new dish is added, it is important that every piece is correct so that we understand how the character handles it. And most important, every new dish looks delicious. With all these complicated details in each dish, it’s no wonder that the spectators are hungry. This is always their goal, according to Akahara.
The Food Wars! The documentary is now live on Crunchyroll’s YouTube channel and will feature on Crunchyroll and VRV on December 13th.
