Shout Out / Food Wars!

This is a list of Shout Outs in the Food Wars manga.

The series contains the following:

• When Soma Yukihira and Megumi Tadakoro meet Kanachi Konishi for the first time, he is shown pale and slumped on a chair in a recreation of the much-parodied Joe's death scene from Tomorrow's Joe.
• In the first assignment of the Training Camp Arc, alumnus Fuyumi Mizuhara can be seen sitting à la Sherlock Holmes or L in a few of the panels.
• In Chapter 19, when Yuuki Yoshino makes a quip about how the Training Camp is hell, the next panel features ogres and demons, with Yuuki wielding a wok like a shield and a butcher knife like a sword, all the while wearing an outfit like the Hero of Dragon Quest III.
• When the alumni of Tootsuki are introduced at the beginning of the training camp, Kojiro pointed out one student and expels him on the spot, not unlike what Kuroyanagi almost did to Azuma in the employee entrance exam. Even the reason had to do with their hair, and in the case of Takitate Gohan, the smell.
• When the other graduate chefs taste Shinomiya's cabbage rolls, they have a Magical Girl Transformation Sequence that's a blatant shout-out to Sailor Moon. And Gin Doujima, the biggest, buffest guy there, is one of the ones in a dress. Donato gets to be Tuxedo Mask.
• After Koujirou Shinomiya tastes Megumi's dish, he has a Flashback to his childhood and his mother, resembling the climax to Ratatouille after Anton Ego tastes Remy's dish.
• At one point, during a Dream Sequence, Satoshi Isshiki imagines Soma returning from his Training from Hell looking muscular, with the drawing of seven stars across his chest, in a more masculine art style, all very reminiscent of Fist of the North Star. And don't forget that their dorm's name is also Polaris or North Star.
• In the breakfast buffet trial using eggs, the introductory splash panel to chapter 29 features a personified egg wearing a cap, cape and facial expression similar to M. Bison, with Soma wearing a Hachimaki and outfit akin to Ryu, Megumi being dressed like Cammy and Yuuki dressed like Chun Li. Likewise, the Eye Catches for Episode 14 has other characters dressed in outfits from the Street Fighter cast.
• During Gin Doujima's speech in Chapter 33, there is an Imagine Spot of Soma wandering in a desert amidst a sandstorm, while wearing clothes similar to Ging Freecss'.
• At the end of the Training Camp Arc, Koujirou states he wants to be the first Japanese chef in France to achieve a three-star rating for his restaurant, a reference to the world-famous Michelin Guide; the references continue in Chapter 211 with regards to its structure and reputation, though its name is changed to "World Gourmet Organization". In Episode 15, Koujirou explicitly drops the organization's name.
• When Satoshi describes Etsuya Eizan to Souma in Chapter 41 upon being asked about him, Etsuya looks like Himekawa of Beelzebub. Even Souma Lampshades it.
• Haubi Foods, the name of the Sendawara twins' company, looks like a mashup of House Foods and S&B Foods, the major brands for pre-made curry in Japan.
• For the cooking lesson with the children post-Fall Classic preliminaries, Soma carves several vegetables into figurines, one of them being a very detailed MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam, not to mention one of the boys is playing with a RX-78-2 Gundam figure and wears a Cundam shirt.
• Speaking of Gundam, the sound that accompanies the episode numbers in season 3 of the anime is the same as a Newtype Flash.
• The Story of Isobe Isobee:
  • The book Zenji Marui is holding in Chapter 55 is called Le Guide Culinaire by Georges Auguste Escoffier, a Real Life cookbook that streamlined French cuisine.
• In the Imagine Spot when Ryoko Sakaki taste-tests Soma's bento dish in Chapter 63, she's being cradled by Isobee, based on the titular character in the Story.
  • One of the endings of chapter doodles was a reference to Isobee's Chapter 3.5, where Isobee was trying to find a more comfortable way to sit.
• Chapter 69 Flashback regarding Ryou Kurokiba's restaurant and his rules in the kitchen are similar to that of the "Soup Nazi" from Seinfeld.
• Chapter 71 concludes with Ryou and Megumi facing off with their respective food-based Fighting Spirits, yelling "HOTA HOTA HOTA!" and "EBI EBI EBI" as they punch wildly a la JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, in the appropriate art style.
• Senzaemon Nakiri's "foodgasm" in Hisako Arato and Akira Hayama's quarterfinals match has him imagining himself as Ultraman with Hisako dressed up as a giant monster turtle.
• In Chapter 81, Soma briefly imagines himself as a lawyer if he were to quit being a cook, and is depicted with him shouting "Objection!" while giving the pointer finger.
• The introductory panel for Chapter 84 features Subaru "Benkei" Mimisaka dressed as a monk wielding a naginata fighting against "Ushiwakasoma" as plain clothes Samurai, a reference to Musashibo Benkei and his master Ushiwakamaru of Japanese folklore, the latter being the childhood name of Minamoto no Yoshitsune.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • Akira goes against Ryou in their semi-final match by using "Aroma Combos" in a Trading Card Game fashion, with the cards structured like the ones used in the franchise. One of Ryou's monster cards resembles a Bulbasaur.
  • In an Imagine Spot for the following chapter, Ryou is depicted as a tiger resembling Kogenta of the Byakko from the anime Onmyō Taisenki.
• For the Fall Classic finals, the first Imagine Spot features the judges at a big, clean swimming pool. Gin and Senzaemon are wearing the same swimming trunks, the latter flashing his washboard abs and Gin diving into the pool. Meanwhile, Leonora Nakiri has her hair in a ponytail while holding a stopwatch. All this is a reference to Free!.
• In the next chapter, the judges make a comparison between Ryou and Akira respectively using Cloud Strife, wearing the same outfit from the game and wielding the Buster Sword, and Zidane Tribal in a tribal outfit (no pun intended).
• The introductory splash panel to Chapter 106 features Hisako standing on the shoulders of a Humongous Mecha; the machine itself resembles the titular Tetsujin #28.
• In Chapter 129, while Soma explains how Terunori Kuga's booth is too popular to fully accommodate its customers, a mother and her two children are seen complaining about the long waiting line. The three of them are dead ringers to Hana and her kids, Ame and Yuki.
• The way the salmon is depicted in the Imagine Spot of Chapter 157 of it blasting Megumi's clothes off is a parallel to the Wave-Motion Gun used by the eponymous Space Battleship Yamato.
• World Gourmet Organization examiner Anne's Imagine Spot in Chapter 212, after tasting Nene Ninokuni's soba dish, is her leaping into the air in the same pose◊ as Makoto Konno.
• One of volume 24's extra drawings has Erina and Soma splash Takumi with paint. The picture is a twofer; they make a Squid Girl reference by asking him "nurekaena-ika?"^note Squid Girl's Verbal Tic is adding -ika and their outfits and painting gear don't look out of place on a Splatoon character.
• Soma and Terunori's costumes for the intro panel of Chapter 218, from the metal headband, wielding a staff and the former sitting on a moving cloud are obvious references to Sun Wukong.
• The barbarian outfit Rindou wears in Chapter 220's imagine spot is visually similar to the Barbarian Armor from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
• Megumi's shown reading a Captain Ersatz table tennis-themed version of Aim for the Ace! in her spare time. For that chapter's spread, she and Koujirou are drawn in the latter's art style.
• Soma's field of swords during the Imagine Spot in Soma's match against Soumei Saitou is a blatant reference to "Unlimited Blade Works", with each sword (or other armaments) representing one of the influences in Soma's cooking. This is further emphasized by the fact that these swords break during the battle, forcing Soma to grab more, just as Archer did against Lancer and Shirou Emiya did against Archer.
• The Le Cuisiner Noir chef Sarge's "carving knife" in Chapter 290, made in a deliberate fashion of Chainsaw Good, is an obvious inspiration of the "Chainsword" from Warhammer 40,000.
• Another Dragon Quest reference pops up for the Imagine Spot in Chapter 308: the judges turn into various monsters from the video game series, one of whom dresses up exactly like a Healslime.

The Spin-Off series "Etoile" contains the following:

• In the first chapter, the land shark whom Koujirou challenges to a cooking match turns into Lady Oscar after tasting his dish.

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