Ask any of the manga reading staff here at scrmbl what they think of Akane-banashi and you're certain to get a response akin to "one of the best series running in Shonen Jump at current." As such, none of us are surprised to see that an anime adaptation of the series was announced earlier today, if anything we'd be asking why it took so long.
The new anime is slated to drop in 2026 and will be handled by Studio ZEXCS with Ayumu Watanabe at the helm and Yu Harima as assistant director. Kii Tanaka is handling character designs and animation direction with scripts from Michihiro Tsuchiya and music from Akio Izutsu. Kikuhiko Hayashi will be continuing his role from the manga as Rakugo supervisor for the anime.
The currently announced voice cast include Anna Nagase as series lead character Akane Osaki/Arakawa, and her rivals Karashi Nerimaya/Sanmetei and Hiraku Koragi/Arakawa by Takuya Eguchi and Rie Takahashi respectively.
TV Asahi describes the series in their press release:
Akane Osaki, captivated since childhood by the magical performances of her father, Shinta Arakawa, witnesses a shocking incident during his decisive performance for promotion to shin'uchi (master rank).
Six years later, now a high school student, she sets her sights on becoming a shin'uchi herself—pushing forward in the highly competitive world of rakugo.
A passionate and authentic rakugo drama begins now!
The trailer above is our first look at the series, and if we're being honest it looks pretty solid but also doesn't show anything that's truly stand out. We're especially interested in seeing how they handle the actual rakugo segments of the story compared to how they play out in the manga, hopefully we'll get some of that in the next trailer. Either way we're excited that an adaptation of Akane-banashi is coming (even if some of our team thinks a live action drama would have been more fitting) and we'll be waiting with bated breath for more information.
Akane-banashi is slated to begin airing in 2026 on TV Asahi's IMAnimation block.
