Ho Yay / Food Wars!

A totally platonic invitation to taste-test Erina's cooking.

Food Wars easily lends itself to Ho Yay and Les Yay in addition to the Male Gaze Fanservice it's best known for:

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The Guys

Takumi/Soma

• Arguably the biggest one online courtesy of the Jump Yaoi Fangirls. He is obsessed with Soma and does not appreciate Soma taking any other rivals, but himself. Make of that what you will.
• First is Takumi's (one-sided) rivalry with Soma, who gets jealous whenever Soma has other rivals besides himself.
• In the Japanese version, Soma usually calls everyone by their last names (he only calls Ikumi by her nickname because it amuses him), only calling Takumi by his first name without any honorifics.
• During the training camp, Takumi rushes to the Public Bathrooms to catch up with Soma, and he is disappointed when he learns that Soma isn't alone there.
• Also in the training camp, Takumi's reaction to learning that Soma challenged an alumnus is nigh-identical to, and simultaneous with, that of Ikumi. Who has a blatant crush on Soma.
• Later in the Main Tournament of the Fall Classic, Takumi blushes and smiles with joy when Soma finally acknowledges him as his rival and finishes their match in the Finals.
• His friends are confused because Soma refuses to give Takumi any kind of pep talk after being defeated by Subaru. Actually, Soma is the only person in the group who understands how Takumi feels and knows he will get over the frustration by himself. Soma eventually agrees to a Shokugeki with Subaru to recover Takumi's mezzaluna and all the other 98 knives.
• Before his duel with Subaru, Soma goes to the apartment of the Aldinis and tells Isami to deliver Takumi a message: An invitation to watch his match.
• It's later revealed that Etsuya Eizan (the Ninth Seat of the Council and the one in charge of arranging the matches), intended to provoke Soma by exploiting his and Takumi's rivalry, in hopes that Soma would want to avenge his defeat.
• By the time of the Red Leaf Hunt, the first thing Takumi says to Soma is to criticize his messy hair. Then he gets hyped once he learns that Soma was Shinomiya's intern. Too passionate for being just a rival.
• For the Full Moon Banquet, Takumi and Isami pulled a Big Damn Heroes moment, and Takumi, without any kind of practice, could keep Soma's pacing perfectly, which took Subaru three days to study. Maybe Takumi has been watching Soma a lot?
  • The anime adaptation expands this by having a scene where Takumi gets jealous of Ikumi being thanked by Soma, complaining that Soma didn't ask him for help. Isami promptly tells him offer his help directly next time.
• In Shokugeki no Soma ~à la carte~, Takumi ends up improvising his duel dish with some canned mussels he previously bought. Later, Isami mentions that the situation reminded him of Takumi's match with Soma and how he also did the same during the Training Camp and on how this shows just how much Takumi loves Souma. (Yeah, it literally says love).
• In the anime adaptation OVA, Takumi spends a lot of the episode thinking on what Soma would do, especially during his Monjayaki match against the old man. Also in this version, Soma appears in the end and Takumi blushes hard when Soma comments that he would like to taste that monjayaki.
• After Soma successfully saves the dorms from demolition, Takumi arrives there with Isami quickly. While the girls thought that he was there to scold him as usual, instead Takumi softened his voice and said that he would have done the same in his situation. Soma immediately tells him to join the party.
• Soma suggested to his roommates to go watch the Shokugekis against the members of Central, which the others were quick to reject. It was only because Takumi offered to go with Soma that the others agreed to do so.
• After many reminders of Takumi to Soma to not engage in a Shokugeki and just stick to recon, both of them, at the same time, go to confront the Central members who were bullying the defeated student. They were standing side by side and using the exact same words.
• Takumi, who usually ends up embarrassing himself every time he tries to look cool in front of Soma, successfully gives "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Rentarou. Soma reacts by being sincerely impressed with him, to which Takumi slightly blushes.
• After clearing their second exam in the Promotion Exams, the group has free time before boarding their trains. Soma and Takumi decide to go together to sample food, with the narration box even calling them again "The Diner Duo". They only get Erina and Megumi to join them because they want to order more food.
• In Chapter 201, Takumi is able to make Soma start taking the fake Shokugeki seriously with determination in his cooking. Soma even says "You're the only one that can get me this fired up!" as he begins to throw down.
• In the OVA 3, Megumi invites everyone to the ryokan she was working at during Stagiaire. Takumi and Ikumi humbly say that they don't want to give Megumi that much trouble until Isami points out that both got equally excited when it was Soma who invited them to the trip. Both start to deny it with a blush. Considering that Takumi gets equally embarrassed as Ikumi, who has a crush on Soma...
  • Later Takumi gets jealous when he finds out that Soma didn't join him in the hot springs because he went on a fishing contest with Ryou and Akira, and goes after him in the woods. By the time he returns to the inn and finds both Soma and Isami in the hot tubs, Takumi nags at him some more (one could easily think he got into jealous girlfriend mode).
• During the Eizan vs. Takumi Shokugeki, Soma is the first one to realize his pizza was inspired by Isami because of the mezzaluna motif, showing how well Soma got to know Takumi at this point.
• In Chapter 297, Takumi needs a partner who complements his cooking and brings out his best, namely his twin brother Isami. Then he realizes that the Noirs kidnapped Isami, so he wouldn’t be able to help his brother. Cue to the next best choice to bring the best out of Takumi: Soma to the rescue. When Soma offers to help Takumi, the latter replies in a cold Tsundere manner.
  • To top things off, Takumi’s opponent has a team of Drag Queens. While he isn’t weirded out because he is used to having gay customers hitting on him, he is intimidated because he never had seen so many in one place.
• In Chapter 299, Takumi and Soma present a mousse shaped like a yin-yang symbol, using turtle and cheese. In the same way, two halves of a moon (as in two white halves) represent Isami and Takumi, the yin-yang represents Soma’s dark to Takumi’s light.
  • It’s revealed in the flashback that Takumi not only won back his mezzaluna once, but it has been shifting between Soma and Takumi the entire time. At one point, Isami tells his brother to let Soma keep it for a while if they are at it again. Takumi just blushes furiously.
  • Whenever one loses the corresponding match, neither refuses to accept victory and encourages the other for a rematch, like the Competition Freaks they are.
  • The binding ingredient that made the combination work is crushed kaki no tane, the snacks used by Soma on their first match.
    Takumi: (while holding a Kaki no Tane with a warm smile) Well, I suppose it wasn’t all in vain. The time we’ve spent together ever since we met.
    Soma: Did you say something?
    Takumi: No, don’t worry about it.
• In the third part of Le Dessert Epilogue, it has been seven years since everyone graduated from Totsuki. As soon as he got the news that Soma was back in Tokyo, Takumi got excited because he and Isami were just arriving in Japan the same day.
  • During the final foodgasm shot from Soma’s gross concoction, Takumi is the third most prominent reaction after Erina and Megumi, where everyone gets molested by a giant squid.

Ryou/Akira/Soma

• Following the preliminaries, Akira/Soma, Ryou/Akira, or Ryou/Akira/Soma. Right after the Autumn Election, Ryou and Soma insisted on dropping by Akira's house for more than a whole week, either to analyze their respective dishes, discuss who should have placed Second, or just plainly hang out with him. Despite Akira often complaining about them, he never actually booted them out.
• After Soma makes him realize that he isn't alone and Soma made the dish with Akira in mind, the first thing he remembers with fondness after his memories with Jun, is his time with Ryou and Soma, and how much fun he had with them.
• In the anime version of the Moon Festival, Ryou and Akira are shown enjoying Soma's pork buns with the others (except Erina). While Ryou, as usual, says that he could have done it better, Akira guesses correctly the spices used while complimenting Soma on them.
• During the Beach Exams, Akira makes a warm smile while watching Ryou and Soma (along with Takumi) cook furiously against each other.
• In the OVA 3, Soma goes fishing with Akira and Ryou, which makes Takumi jealous. The three spend most of the episode trying to catch the biggest fish in the lake.
• In the OVA 5, Soma says aloud that they should have invited Akira to join them at the bathhouse.
• In the Anime's Season 5, the reason why Akira and Ryou don't attend the BLUE finals is that both are on a mission (along with the rest of the Elite Ten and some alumni) to take down the Noir chefs. During the time both are doing their surveys, both start to talk about Soma's unbreakable spirit, and how they both recognize him as the leader of their generation.

Ryou/Akira

• Ryou Kurokiba and Akira Hayama's rivalry was so intense that they even dismissed Soma as their rival, focusing too much on the other.
• After not seeing each other for a month, Ryou and Akira immediately started to provoke each other.
• During one of Ryou's Stagiaire flashbacks, he gets livid because of the irony of being assigned to a Curry House, immediately thinking about Akira and how much he irritates him. Alice immediately knew he was thinking about Akira because of this.
• During the Moon Banquet, Ryou keeps telling Akira to humor Alice in a more mellow tone, in contrast to all the times they bicker with each other.
• Before the Team Shokugeki, Ryou and Alice immediately forgave Akira, despite Akira still not feeling worthy of being with them again. Ryou then demanded Akira a rematch, since he got jealous that Soma already got his chance to get payback. Akira smiled back and promised to take on him anytime.
• By the time Akira, Ryou, and Alice entered their second year, and each got into the Elite Ten, the three of them had been constantly shuffling seats because they kept challenging each other. Akira gets to smile more around them, especially every time Ryou challenges a Shokugeki.
• The Final Chapter 315, shows Ryou and Akira in the same panel looking at the sky. The anime expands on this, explaining that both were on a mission together, dealing with the Noir chefs along with Subaru and the other members of the Council.
• Season 4's ending has Ryou and Akira lying next to each other during the group shot.

Ryou/Soma

• The anime made a lot of takes of Ryou staring long at Soma.
• During the Finale of the Autumn Election, Ryou insisted on dueling with Soma to break the tie and who gets second place. Soma responds in the same enthusiastic manner.
• In OVA 5, Soma and Ryou spend most of their time at the bathhouse having thumb-wrestling challenges in the nude. Soma wonders in the middle if Ryou is getting cold under the waist.

Akira/Soma

• In Chapter 190, Soma tells Akira flat out that his motivation in cooking in their shokugeki is to leave Akira at a loss for words apart from "It's delicious!" ... which is a phrase that Soma has generally reserved for Erina. Many fans kept thinking back to the "cook for someone you love" saying Jouichirou mentioned before as well...
• After Soma helps him remember why he cooks, Akira imagines him as a winged god granting a blissful Akira revelation.

Satoshi/Shun (and the rest of the Polar Star Guys)

• After a brief interaction where Shun confronts Isshiki, noting that he wasn't really giving his best in his impromptu cook-off with Soma. Additionally, Satoshi is the one whom Shun has talked to the most.
• In OVA 1, Isshiki convinces the guys to have a group trip to Tokyo Skytree, because he wants to build strong bonds with them (strange enough, they went without the girls). Shun is the only one who asks if it is necessary, while the others are enthusiastic about their day.
• In the Anime, Isshiki's booth is shown, and apparently, he decides after the first day of sales to transform their hot pot tent into a ikemen host club, as in "pretty boys serving women as butlers". The description in Shun's photo (written by Isshiki himself) reads "Mysterious and Charming".
  • He did the same for the others' photos. Daigo "Sexy Sideburns", Shoji's "His gaze cuts like a knife", and Zenji "Intelligence is the True Measure of a Man".
• Much later, after defending the dorms from Eizan, Shun tries to brush off the compliments from Ryoko and Isshiki, which makes Isshiki tease him even more.
• When Isshiki faces Julio Shiratsu with an eel-themed dish, he explains that the ingredients were made by all his dormmates. In particular, when referring to Shun's smoked garlic, he says "What's more, it's soaked in Ibusaki-kun's earnest passion".
  • ... And Aoki and Sato's sweat^note Because they served as Shun's assistants by cutting and carrying the wood to his workshop. Both immediately tell him that the phrasing of that sounded weird and gross, while Shun gets a confused expression.

Gin/Jouichirou have a long history together.

• After meeting Soma, Gin starts noticing some patterns like his last name sounding familiar and the way Soma carries his bag over his shoulder, thinking immediately about Jouichirou. It's only after confirming the relationship that Gin smiles and remembers his days with him at the dormitory.
• When Gin and Jouichirou finally see each other after so many years, the first thing Gin does is scold him for not getting in touch with him after so many years and then greet him. Then Jouichirou drags him to have some drinks and talk.
• When coming up with the idea of making a simulation of a Team Shokugeki, Gin suggests a well-structured pattern to form the teams, and Jouichirou goes ahead and suggests deciding the teams with straws. Gin quickly gets frustrated and starts nagging at him, exactly like Takumi and Erina react to Soma.
• During their days as students, Gin and Azami watched how Jouichirou was gradually burning out. When Gin finally realizes how broken Jouichirou is because of all the expectations, he can only cry and tearfully apologize to him.

Gin/Koujirou

• Despite not knowing each other for some time, Gin was quick to notice Koujirou's stagnation, even before Shinomiya himself.
• Gin managed to convince Koujirou to travel all the way to Hokkaido and train the remaining rebels. Despite Koujirou having his own reasons to help, Gin appreciates the fact alone that he actually did come.

Isami/Takumi

• There's also the Twincest fan girls regarding the Aldini brothers; it's as popular as Soma/Takumi.
• Takumi is always saying that Isami is his other half.
• The angriest Takumi has been was when Subaru insulted Isami to his face, swearing to take revenge for this.
• Also THIS pin-up art◊ that came with the Fratelli Aldini lightnovel.
• In Shokugeki no Soma ~à la carte~, Isami spends most of the episode jokingly teasing his brother. Also for their Omurice lunch at the Cosplay Cafe, Isami drew chibis of them with ketchup... with a big heart.
• During the Eizan vs. Takumi Shokugeki, Takumi's pizza was inspired by Isami because of the mezzaluna motif, with Soma as the first person to notice that. By the time the bout finishes, Isami runs to Takumi's arms to hug him.
• In Chapter 297, Takumi regards Isami as his best half, because he is the person who can bring out the best of him. When Isami is kidnapped by the Noirs, Isami recognizes his role in Takumi’s cooking, and Soma is the only person who is the second best at that.
  • Once again, the cover of the chapter has them both lying on the floor with their mezzaluna.

Koujirou/Soma

• As of Chapter 110, Soma and Shinomiya Kojirou had developed an intense rivalry while still remaining civil and challenging towards each other, showing that they're also Birds of a Feather (both are Fiery Redheads, Challenge Seekers and Sore Losers who want to perfect their own skills beyond the limits.
• Instead of scolding Soma or giving him any feedback, Kojirou coldly gave him the ultimatum to sink or swim. As Soma bounces back on his own and keeps getting better, Kojirou thinks to himself that it is exactly what he expects from Soma.
• When Soma says "I'm lucky I get to train at your restaurant, Senpai," Kojirou gets flustered and tells Soma "Shut up and just carry the cabinet!"
• When Soma wears a proper chef uniform for the first time, Kojirou stares at him and says "It suits you better than I thought it would". He gives the excuse of hoping that he could get a good laugh at Soma, but then shrugs it off and brings the topic back to the pre-open
• Kojirou spends the entire night training Soma in French cooking techniques. Make of that what you will.
• When Kojirou tried Soma's dish, he had an instant foodgasm that blew his clothes off. Even so, he admitted to Soma that his level still wasn't enough to make it into the menu, but instead of rejecting him, he offered to show how he would make it better, to Soma's delight (Hinako and Lucie point out that Kojirou should be more direct and tell Soma that he wanted to help him perfect the dish). By the end of Soma's week at SHINO's, Soma, excitedly, calls him "Shinomiya-shisho" (or "Master"), to which Kojirou has to deny any reaction in front of the others teasing him. By the time it gets included in the menu, it can be seen that Kojirou called it "Quail with Risotto and egg A La Crazy Boy".
• In an extra, Gao and Lucie start mocking their boss because he is using Soma's menu again. Koujirou only replied with a "You got a problem with that?"
• During the Central arc, Soma thinks about how even "Master Shinomiya" gave him more leeway in the kitchen. The scene cuts to Shinomiya at SHINO's Tokyo with Lucie, who asks what's up with Shinomiya. Shinomiya says he's irritated but doesn't know why.
• When Kojirou comes down to Hokkaido to coach the rebels and Soma sees him, the first thing Soma does is introduce "Master Shinomiya" to his dad, like a girl presenting her new boyfriend to her parents.
• Soma also keeps coming by during his breaks to see how Kojirou's doing with Megumi
• Kojirou only agreed to coach the rebels before the Régiment because he is mostly doing it for Soma (also for Megumi's sake, as well as his staff), despite claiming it's for selfish reasons. Soma gets really excited to see him, still calling him "Master" and Kojirou only gets flustered by that.

Satoshi/Soma

• Isshiki is quick to welcome Soma to the dorms
• Soma immediately wants to challenge Satoshi as soon as he learns that he is in the 7th seat of the Elite Ten. It's later revealed that Isshiki held back during the duel because he felt Soma was special.
• Isshiki gives an accurate speech about why Soma is so hated by the students. The Tranquil Fury at the way the other students see Soma is evident by the look in his eyes when saying this.

Others

• Subaru has collected data on Soma and Takumi, including shoe size AND underwear pattern.
  • After his defeat to Soma, Subaru becomes completely loyal to Soma out of gratitude, since Soma refused to let him quit cooking, even giving him the approval he was looking for. Because of this, Subaru didn't hesitate to help Soma twice without complaining.
  • After Takumi defeats Eizan, he later gives credit to Subaru for giving him the idea to study and anticipate his opponent's thinking process. Subaru then reacts by stating excitedly that Takumi can be an even better stalker.

• Middle-school student Mitsuru Soutsuda, who has a big admiration for Soma. He even prepared lunch for him, with some girls questioning if they have "that kind of relationship".
  • Mitsuru is a big fanboy of Soma. He admires Soma for the exact same reason most of the school looks down on him and is so excited to taste Soma’s test runs that he forgets to actually sample them, eating the whole dishes instead.
  • After realizing that he accidentally gave Subaru more information on Soma through his own data for the article, he cries in despair, fearing that he may have cost Soma's career.
  • By the time of the Moon Banquet, Mitsuru readily accepts featuring Soma's booth in the culinary guide with a lot of enthusiasm, as a way to compensate him for the Tournament.

• As we also see, Shino's Sous-Chef Abel instantly gets jealous of how carefree is Soma around Koujirou, mentioning that he himself had to work hard for Koujirou to start treating him nicely.

• There's a lot of bickering between Daigo and Shoji, as the two are always seen picking fights on each other Like an Old Married Couple. Also this◊ is their Foodgasm shot in the first ending.
  • Both of them are staring directly at Isshiki's shaking butt and cheering during the first Polaris dorm party.

• During the Autumn Election party at the Dorms, Isshiki was attending to the guests in his Naked Apron mode. Takumi and Isami keep alternating their attention between Isshiki's face and his butt.
  • By the next time they attend a Polaris party, both of them have already gotten customed to seeing Isshiki stripping, with Takumi commenting with a smile that he is always surprised when it happens, while Soma also says that "It wouldn't be a party if Isshiki didn't do that".

• In Chapter 150, Azami finally reveals that he was a former resident of the Polaris Dorms. The only reason he didn't object to its destruction (he didn't order the demolition, but it also was included to the reformation plan) was because Jouichirou wasn't there anymore. He then starts going on detail why he admired him so much, and that's the only moment where he shows any kind of sincere affection when talking.
  • In Chapter 151 he actually calls Jouichirou "his Dear Saiba-Senpai" and reveals that all of his actions are apparently aimed at avenging him.
  • Chapter 194: Azami is positively giddy when Jouichrio offers to serve under him should he lose their Team Shokugeki.
  • The flashback chapters showing Jouichirou, Dojima, and Azami as Totsuki students together shows that his admiration of Jouichirou ran deep even back then, including his Lethal Chef quirk. Azami’s expressions when talking to Jouichirou are a bizarre mix of infatuation and yandere tendencies.
  • Later he's revealed to carry a copy of their photo together on his person and stares longingly at it, just like Erina does.
  • In an indirect way, Jouichirou admits that he took care of Asahi because he could feel he had a familiar feeling with him. Then they discover that Asahi is Azami's illegitimate son.

• Tsukasa/Soma
  • In Chapter 161, Tsukasa gives a demonstration to a classroom and randomly picks Soma as his aid. Soma manages to keep up with Tsukasa, like he did with his dad, Megumi and Shinomiya
  • In Chapter 162, Tsukasa wants Soma as his assistant badly enough to bet the first seat in a Shokugeki to get him to join Central.
  • During BLUE, Tsukasa is relieved when he sees Soma as one of the few familiar faces in the tournament since he was feeling anxious. After the mini market round, Tsukasa treats Soma for some ice cream. While both are having a friendly chat to catch up, Takumi looks at them with jealousy.
  • After Tsukasa is defeated by Asahi, Soma only approaches him with a cup of tea to comfort him. Tsukasa then requests Soma to defeat Asahi in the next round.

• Chapter 255 gives us Azami/Tsukasa. Azami recruiting Tsukasa is basically a seduction. He started by piquing Tsukasa's interest with a vague putdown then engineered a whole bunch of "accidental encounters" to meet Tsukasa. The second time they met, Azami drove his convertible sports car right next to a walking Tsukasa and said what a coincidence it was that they met again - a scene right out of a romantic comedy. What followed can only be described as methodological courting with Azami asking to be on First-Name Basis with Tsukasa, Azami lamenting the fate of the great artist with Tsukasa to finally exploiting Tsukasa's frustration with the current state of Gourmet to get him fully on his side.

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The Girls

• On the girls' side, we also have Erina as the main target of both Hisako Arato and Nao Sadatsuka.
  • With Hisako is a more subtle relationship, since she acts as Erina's loyal secretary. Hisako's reactions towards Erina resemble a Yamato Nadeshiko to her boyfriend, while Erina gets really depressed if Hisako isn't there for her.
  • At one point Erina has to ask Hisako while she's staring at her. Hisako says she's just noticing something different about Erina's expression, but the scene just so happens to take place while Erina's stripped down to her underwear in the locker room.
  • The second ending "Sacchan no Sexy Curry" shows Erina passing all the other characters and stopping only when she sees Hisako. It then promptly goes through a slide show of all the times they've spent together while the lyrics give a sorta possessive vibe.
  • And there's also Nao, who is more direct and proclaims that she wants Erina to scold her, also forming a hatred towards Hisako out of pure jealousy, which ironically ended up with Nao developing a crush on Hisako instead.

• Also the way Hinako is always looking at Megumi with predatory eyes.

• Taki grabbed Sonoka's boobs and called her "Tit monster". Judging by Sonoka's reaction and Taki's attitude about it, it's safe to assume that it happened often.

• Yuuki is often hugging Megumi or crying on Ryouko's lap.

• Ikumi admires Erina. Really, really admires her. She even blushed, stuttered, and ran away in embarrassment when she told Erina how she felt about her.

• Erina/Megumi has a considerable following as well:
  • Megumi gets initially nervous by being partnered with Erina for Stagiaire. To her own surprise, Erina is polite and respectful towards her, unlike her usual aloof attitude towards anyone except Hisako.
  • Erina gets touched when she learns that Megumi willingly gave Soma her mangas so Erina could read them without knowing each other at that point.
  • When Erina dresses up like a Hot Teacher to give the Polaris residents a crash course before their exams, it's Megumi (and Yoshino) who gets the blushing Reaction Shot.
  What is she wearing?! That looks hot!
  • Characters using cooking techniques they learned from their friends and opponents is fairly common in the manga, but Erina goes one step further: She names the dish she prepared in her shokugeki with Momo after Megumi, who is quite touched by the gesture.
  • When Megumi is about to face Asahi, she demands Asahi leave Erina alone if she wins, otherwise, she will stop being friends with Erina. When Asahi wins, he decides to void the condition, revealing to Megumi that he will marry Erina if he defeats her. Megumi is more shocked about Asahi wanting to marry her than anything.

• Megumi's foodgasm from chapter 267 has her lounging naked in a bathtub full of cash with two naked girls snuggled up against her.

• Someone has to admit, the way Ikumi acted towards the female judge in the preliminaries in the Autumn Election was likely rather... forward in terms of things, especially with her throwing her bikini top-clad chest in her face while talking her into eating the meat.

• Miyoko Hojo's introduction scene, where she does a Wall Pin of Love to Megumi and says "I'm interested in you."