Food For the Soul Anime - First Impressions

Written by Rei Caldombra 5/2/25 Video: https://youtu.be/Y_6-1_jNAzg

If this is your first time seeing a first impressions of mine, for these I give my thoughts on an anime airing during the current season based on the first 3 episodes. As well as try to explain in what ways I would / wouldn’t recommend giving it a try. There will be some spoilers concerning the characters, plot and themes from the 3 episodes. And please keep in mind that first impressions are just that, early impressions based on what I think is a fair amount of time to judge a show. 

Today I’m talking about Food for the Soul / Hibi wa Sugiredo Meshi Umashi / Hibimeshi. Short summary of the show- Our main character is an awkward foodie who struggles to get herself to do what she wants due to a fear of change. But when she gets dragged into the Food Culture Research Club, her life develops more flavor.

This is a solid cute girls do cute things hobby show with some emphasis on food. This leans more on the living life side of the spectrum than the hobbyist side of things. The closest vibes I would give it are to Yuru Camp, with them both sharing the comfy goofy club vibe and engaging in traveling and food. But with a less detailed focus on the main activity. Just like the club itself in-universe, the food research that they claim to focus on is very light. But it should be noted that I don’t think it’s tricking you into thinking it’s more food focused outside of the title. The opening and ending both show off moments not concerning food. It is actively going for the more holistic enjoyment of life that also includes food. I think it executes on the good vibes very well. Its jokes are pretty solid so far too.

I’m gonna talk briefly about each of our core club members, as I really like focusing on the characters. We have a very nice group of 4 here who generally fits into the expected character archetypes for a CGDCT (it will become 5 but we haven’t gotten there yet), where almost everyone has gotten a good amount of focus to show what makes them endearing and cute. The group’s vibes and dynamics remind me a lot of Kessoku Band from Bocchi the Rock. Except you swap Shinon with Yui from K-on. 

Our main character Mako Kawai falls into the awkward and anxious character type and is pretty great so far as a main character.

She is not as exaggerated as other introverts such as Hitori Gotoh (Bocchi the Rock) or Bocchi Hitori (Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu), she has some struggles that other people wouldn’t but overall is fairly functional. But you could say she has some screws loose that lead to some good jokes. Like how she has internal discussions using the mascot Mokotaro from her favorite Youtube food show. She’s the true foodie of the group, showing real passion for food. It’s cute to see her get really excited. With her being so change-adverse, I was hoping this would be a bit closer to Yuru Camp in that she has a more distant role like Rin at the beginning. But I still like how it played out instead. Overall, she is a solid main character so far. I hope we continue to delve into her anxiety and aversion to change, as I am a little afraid that at least her social anxiety point has already sort of been solved. I hope she doesn’t plateau early and end up falling flat as an engaging main character.

Next we have two flavors of goofy goobers who bring in the goofy energy and solid comedy. A smart goober and the dumb goober. I’ll start with my favorite character of the 4 and the smart goober, Tsutsuji Higa.

Fuwa fuwa hitsuji (she does have some strong similarities to Watame Tsunomaki now that I think about it)

She has the big and floofy type of hair style I love. In her own words, she lives for ukulele and energy drinks. And loves sheep-based things. She’s just along for the good vibes with friends. Her name is very close to hitsuji, which means sheep in Japanese. She’s very cute and funny. To compare her to someone else, she feels a bit like Ryo from Bocchi the Rock but smarter and more pleasant to be around (this is a joking insult towards Ryo to be clear). She is goofy and very laid back like Ryo, but has more restraint. Her presence brings a lot of great comedy just like Ryo from both of the previously mentioned traits. Love her, would put high on the list of anime characters I’d want to be friends with.

For the 2nd of our two goofy goobers, we have the genki girl Shinon Agawa.

Not much going on in that head tbh.

She has boundless energy, an upbeat attitude, and is a total idiom. Yui Hirasawa is the clear comparison to me personality wise. They may be moe dumb, but their good vibes and ease at taking action keeps their groups together and moving forward towards something. She is good so far as a character in this archetype, but I won’t say as good as Higa and Kowai as of now. She has her pon and lack of wisdom jokes and pairs with Higa to bring disruption to the club as shenaniganizers and tom fools. She’s a little confused, but she has the spirit.

The next character has her eye on them like officer Earl.

For our last member we have the responsible and mature one of the group, Kurea Furutachi.

She has gotten the least amount of focus so far, so I really can’t say a lot about her personality. She reminds me a lot of Nijika from Bocchi the Rock. She holds a similar role of keeping the goobers in line and the group focused on the task at hand. She has the strongest connection with food outside of Mako and also shares having a food service job with her, so I hope we can delve more into their similarities and differences as we learn more about her. Hopefully she does not take too long to get more focus, as we have a 5th member on the way eventually. I have seen series like these have the mature and competent character felt like the writers struggled to come up with appealing and compelling things for them to do. With Train to the End of the World, their responsible member was the one who I felt didn’t get quite enough focus and appeal compared to the others. Hopefully that doesn’t happen here with Kurea.

These 4 I think have a great balance as of right now, which is part of why I compared them to Kesoku Band.

To end off on the character related discussions. In my Winter 2025 Anime Season Roundup I mentioned that I want the show to make the characters being in college rather than high school (the usual) feel different and be used substantially. So far, I don’t think it does. But I won’t harp on this point so early in. We could very well get a lot of college specific shenanigans down the line. I wanted to mention it but I’m not docking points over not having that satisfied yet. Establishing all the more important concepts like the characters, themes and plot points are more important. And those have all been established well. 

This show nails the fun and wholesome vibes that CGDCT goes for. It’s enjoyable to watch these characters do whatever they’re doing and appreciating each other’s company. My favorite scene so far of the show is when they cook in episode 2 while Higa plays the ukelele. That scene had that extra bit of wholesome magic to it that elevated it to the best of what this genre has to offer. I hope we can get more stand out scenes like that one. But I do have more to say on the cooking that I’ll get to soon.

To briefly touch on the events of the first few episodes. It was feeling very standard at the beginning, but the twist at the end of the first episode helped a lot to get me looking forward to the next episode. Comparing it to similar series like Yuru Camp, I like that it starts out in a rougher spot. The club is at its very foundation and they did not have a collective vision for the club. It was fun watching them stumble through becoming a club then between episodes 2 and 3 giving us a taste of what we can expect. I think this is a solid set of initial episodes.

When it comes to the visuals, it is pretty middle of the road as far as I can tell. Not spectacular but the characters never feel stiff and lifeless and have a good amount of exaggerated expressions and movement. Backgrounds generally look nice and detailed, though usually static. But for a show that wants to revel in the beauty of food, it is not quite doing enough. This show does not have the art and animation chops for the cooking that other shows have. It is not bad looking, but if your goal is to focus on cooking, you really need to lean into that. It doesn’t give the viewer the desire to try to eat the food through the screen like Yuru Camp does or provide as much detail on the process at least as of the first 3 episodes. So one knock I have to give the show is that Yuru Camp does food better even while focusing on a larger number of activities. It is still fun to watch the girls indulge in food when they do, but it does make you think that it could be executing on this niche far better.

I want to end off talking about the show’s ending. I absolutely adore this ED, it is ridiculously wholesome and cute.

It really captures the feeling of the shows that just want to show off the happiness found in enjoying your time with others, doing what you love. It is good vibes to the max, it just makes me feel super happy. Especially when they go to karaoke, that’s my favorite part. From the way they walk to the activities they do, everyone shows off who they are as characters here. This is a clear contender for my favorite ED of the year. Simple but perfect.

In conclusion, I think this show is very solid as a cute girls do cute things hobby show. The characters are all fun and likeable so far. The focus on food is less substantial than I expected, but I still think it executed on the comfy good vibes very well. But it may not work for everyone. This is very much a CGDCT show first, foodie show second. As someone who loves this subgenre, I have no issue with it and am having a great time with this show. But if your sole motivation for checking this one out is because it puts emphasis on food, it may not be worth your time. If you don’t specifically like the CGDCT / comfy slice of life kind of stuff, I think you’ll find it boring and not satisfying enough from a foodporn or in-depth gastronomy standpoint. 

But I don’t want to make it sound like I am not recommending the show, I truly do think it’s great! I almost passed over it this season but am really glad I didn’t. If you are a CGDCT and/or comfy slice of life aficionado like me, definitely give the show a try! But if this type of show isn’t your cup of tea, I don’t think it’s a good fit. I would recommend Yuru Camp over it as a starter to CGDCT hobby shows or just as a general recommendation if you haven’t seen it. But this is still a great one! And to briefly mention one more CGDCT hobby show involving traveling, this season also has Mono. I will not be doing a first impressions of it and am planning to do a full review of it. And in my Spring 2025 Roundup I’ll have to give a verdict on which one of these two I think is better. So keep an eye out for those!

Thanks for reading! I enjoy doing these first impressions and have done quite a few of them, but I don’t exactly have a format, checklist, etc. for them. I’m happy to hear if anyone wants to share their thoughts on what they enjoy hearing from first impressions reviews. Like if I should go more in depth on the main characters like I did here, talk more about specific scenes rather than try to limit the spoilers as much as possible, too long or too short, stuff like that. Feel free to check with some of my other first impressions if you haven’t before and let me know if you think there’s specific things I’ve done that you like, dislike etc. This is the last one I will be doing for this season, but I’ve been doing them for awhile now and plan to continue as long as I continue enjoying them. I can’t promise to make changes or do exactly what you’d like, but I’d love to hear what y’all think and I’ll try my best!

My Patreon if you would like to support me and the website: patreon.com/ReiCaldombra As a free member you can get notifications for posts on Blog Under a Log and videos on my YouTube channel. If there are any polls running you can vote as a paid member. But any support is greatly appreciated :)

Why I recommend Yuru Camp so much: What Makes Yuru Camp Special? — Blog Under a Log

Lots of Cute Girls Do Cute Things in here: My Top 10 Favorite Kirara Anime — Blog Under a Log