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A new teaser trailer and first look at footage from the TV anime Shin Oishinbo are out, and the main cast has been revealed for the first time. Yohei Azakami voices Shiro Yamaoka, Hitomi Sasaki plays Yuko Kurita, and Akio Otsuka takes on Yuzan Kaibara. The series is scheduled to air in 2027.
That’s 35 years since the previous anime went off the air. The manga, written by Tetsu Kariya and drawn by Akira Hanasaki, ran in Shogakukan’s Weekly Big Comic Spirits and has topped 135 million copies in circulation. Now its full-blown sequel is in motion.
The casting to pay attention to is Yuzan Kaibara. Akio Otsuka, the real-life son of Chikao Otsuka, who played Yuzan in the original series, is inheriting the role. When the news broke on September 24, his comment was simply: “Yes, again. I’ll take over.”
I’m one of those people who read Oishinbo cover to cover over and over off the shelves at a manga cafe. That showdown between the Ultimate Menu and the Supreme Menu is finally moving again, with voices attached, after 35 years. Let’s break it down.
Who’s in the Shin Oishinbo cast? Voice actors for Yamaoka, Kurita, and Kaibara
Yohei Azakami plays Shiro Yamaoka, Hitomi Sasaki plays Yuko Kurita, and Akio Otsuka plays Yuzan Kaibara. The cast was unveiled for the first time alongside this new teaser trailer.
| Character | Voice actor | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Shiro Yamaoka | Yohei Azakami | Reporter in the Tozai News culture desk. A slacker most of the time, but deeply versed in food |
| Yuko Kurita | Hitomi Sasaki | Yamaoka’s colleague, chasing the Ultimate Menu alongside him |
| Yuzan Kaibara | Akio Otsuka | Head of the Gourmet Club. Yamaoka’s biological father |
Akio Otsuka’s comment is short, but it lands hard.
Yes, again. I’ll take over.
Source:AnimeAnime (comment from Akio Otsuka, from the September 24 announcement)
The original Yuzan Kaibara was played by his father, Chikao Otsuka. Now his son is taking the part over. Normally that’s the kind of thing you note as a neat bit of casting and move on, but in Oishinbo the feud between father and son is the spine of the story. The inheritance of a role and the theme of the work have collapsed into each other. That’s not an overlap you can shrug off as coincidence.
When does Shin Oishinbo air? Production setup and animation studio
It’s scheduled for 2027. Shin-Ei Animation is the presenting producer, with animation production handled by SynergySP and Vega Entertainment.
According to the official announcement, this full sequel — the first in 35 years — is being made under Shin-Ei Animation’s production banner. The copyright line reads “Tetsu Kariya, Akira Hanasaki / Shogakukan / Shin-Ei Animation ‘Shin Oishinbo,'” which tells you the rights and production axis sits with Shin-Ei. The actual animation work is a joint effort between SynergySP and Vega Entertainment.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Title | Shin Oishinbo |
| Air date | Scheduled for 2027 |
| Source material | Written by Tetsu Kariya, art by Akira Hanasaki; serialized in Shogakukan’s Weekly Big Comic Spirits |
| Copies in circulation | More than 135 million |
| Presented by | Shin-Ei Animation |
| Animation production | SynergySP x Vega Entertainment |
Now the caveats. All we have on timing is “scheduled for 2027” — no season, no network. Whether this goes out on nationwide terrestrial TV or leads with streaming will change how the show reads quite a bit. Nothing to do but wait for more.
Where does the story pick up? The Ultimate Menu showdown and newcomer Ichiro Dan
The story carries on the culinary war between the Tozai News’ Ultimate Menu project and the Supreme Menu led by Yuzan Kaibara. The ’90s atmosphere is staying put, too.
There’s a new wrinkle on top of that. Ichiro Dan, the young president of Daikensha, shows up to referee the showdown. Dan falls for Yuko Kurita at first sight, and an agonizingly slow-burning romance with Yamaoka gets tangled up in it. Picture a love triangle running crosswise through the vertical axis of the food battles.
The dialogue in the teaser has real tension to it. Yuzan says, “The Ultimate Menu is finished, then,” and Yamaoka fires back, “If the fight against the Supreme Menu keeps going, that means I still get a shot at settling the score with Kaibara.” From the opening minutes, the show isn’t hiding the fact that these food battles are where a father and son settle things.
What I personally want to credit is the decision not to drag the setting into the present day. Oishinbo‘s food battles were inseparable from the bubble era and the wobbling values that followed it. Continuing the story while keeping that air intact feels like the right call, doesn’t it? Mind you, a guy on his second divorce has no business holding forth on where a romance plot is headed, so I’ll keep quiet about that part.
What is Oishinbo? The weight of a sequel 35 years later
Oishinbo began serialization in 1983 and stands as a landmark of Japanese manga built entirely around food. It has surpassed 135 million copies in circulation.
Protagonist Shiro Yamaoka is a reporter on the Tozai News culture desk. He’s a slacker by default but freakishly knowledgeable about food, and together with his colleague Yuko Kurita he works on the paper’s Ultimate Menu project. Standing in his way is his own father, Yuzan Kaibara, who presides over the Gourmet Club. A father-and-son conflict waged through food is the theme running through the entire series.
The previous anime ended 35 years ago. A work that readers kept coming back to not just as a font of food trivia but as a story about parents and children, masters and apprentices, craftspeople and their trades is returning to TV as a true sequel. Rebooting a 100-million-plus-copy IP after a 35-year gap is one hell of a bet.
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Shin Oishinbo cast and release window: everything we know
To recap: the TV anime Shin Oishinbo is scheduled to air in 2027. The cast has Yohei Azakami as Shiro Yamaoka, Hitomi Sasaki as Yuko Kurita, and Akio Otsuka as Yuzan Kaibara. A new teaser trailer and first footage are already out.
The manga is written by Tetsu Kariya with art by Akira Hanasaki and ran in Shogakukan’s Weekly Big Comic Spirits, with more than 135 million copies in circulation. Shin-Ei Animation is the presenting producer, and animation production is handled by SynergySP and Vega Entertainment. It’s a full sequel arriving 35 years after the previous anime ended. The story picks up the Ultimate Menu versus Supreme Menu rivalry, with Daikensha president Ichiro Dan joining as a new character (as of October 2026, based on official announcements).
The single biggest draw here is the handover of Yuzan Kaibara. Chikao Otsuka to Akio Otsuka — a role passing from a father to his actual son, in a series about a father and son who can’t stand each other. The weight packed into “I’ll take over” only works the way it does because it’s this particular show. Keeping the ’90s atmosphere instead of relocating the story to the present is another choice that doesn’t miss the core of the manga. On the other hand, adding a romance thread built around Ichiro Dan could just as easily dilute the tension of the food battles. I’ll hold that judgment until the series actually airs.
It’s scheduled for 2027. The network and the season are the next things to watch for.
Snicker Kitamura
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