Oishinbo

• Name — Oishinbo • Ja Kanji — 美味しんぼ • Genre — * Cooking • Comedy

• Type — manga • Author — Tetsu Kariya • Illustrator — Akira Hanasaki • Publisher — Shogakukan • Magazine — Big Comic Spirits • First — October 1983 • Last — May 12, 2014 (indefinite hiatus) • Volumes — 111

• Type — tv series • Director — Yoshio Takeuchi • Producer — Hidehiko Takei (NTV) Yoshio Katō (Shin-Ei Animation) • Writer — Ryūzō Nakanishi Yasuo Tanami Haruya Yamazaki • Music — Kazuo Otani • Studio — Shin-Ei Animation • Network — NNS (NTV) • First — October 17, 1988 • Last — March 17, 1992 • Episodes — 136 • Episode List — List of Oishinbo episodes

• Type — tv film • Title — Oishinbo: Kyūkyoku Tai Shikō, Chōju Ryōri Taiketsu!! • Director — Iku Suzuki • Writer — Haruya Yamazaki • Music — Kazuo Otani • Studio — Studio Deen • Network — NNS (NTV) • Released — December 11, 1992 • Runtime — 90 minutes

• Type — tv film • Title — Oishinbo: Nichibei Kome Sensō • Director — Iku Suzuki • Writer — Haruya Yamazaki • Music — Kazuo Otani • Studio — Studio Deen • Network — NNS (NTV) • Released — December 3, 1993 • Runtime — 89 minutes

• Type — live film • Director — Azuma Morisaki • Producer — Shigehiro Nakagawa Renji Tazawa Junichirō Hisaita Katsuhiko Takemasa Osamu Kamei Hisaomi Saitō • Writer — Toshiharu Maruuchi Masao Kajiura • Music — Takayuki Inoue • Studio — Shochiku • Released — April 13, 1996 • Runtime — 105 minutes

• Type — tv series • Title — Shin Oishinbo • Studio — Shin-Ei Animation

• Portal — yes Oishinbo is a long-running Japanese cooking manga series written by Tetsu Kariya and drawn by Akira Hanasaki. The manga's title is a portmanteau of the Japanese word for "delicious", 美味しい, and the word for someone who loves to eat, kuishinbō. The series depicts the adventures of culinary journalist Shirō Yamaoka and his partner (and later wife), Yūko Kurita. It was published by Shogakukan between 1983 and 2008 in Big Comic Spirits, and resumed again on February 23, 2009, only to be put on an indefinite hiatus after the May 12, 2014, edition in the weekly Big Comic Spirits, following harsh criticism of Oishinbos treatment of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. Before this suspension, Oishinbo was collected in 111 tankōbon volumes, making it the 18th longest manga released and among the best-selling manga series in history. The series was a perennial best-seller, selling 1.2 million copies per volume, for a total of more than 135 million copies sold. The series received the 1986 Shogakukan Manga Award for seinen/general manga. It was adapted as a 136-episode anime television series by Shin-Ei Animation that was broadcast on Nippon Television from October 1988 to March 1992, followed by two sequel anime television film specials in 1992 and 1993. A new anime television series adaptation titled Shin Oishinbo has been announced It was adapted into a live-action film directed by Azuma Morisaki, starring Kōichi Satō and Rentarō Mikuni, which premiered on April 13, 1996. The manga is licensed in English in North America by Viz Media. In March 2016, writer Tetsu Kariya announced on his blog that he wanted to end the manga after it returned from hiatus. He wrote that "30 years is too long for many things" and that he believed "it's about time to end it."

Oishinbo is a drama featuring journalist Shirō Yamaoka who works for the Tōzai Shimbun. He is a cynical food critic who is tasked by the newspaper's owner, along with the young Yūko Kurita, to provide recipes for the "ultimate menu". During their search, they encounter Yamaoka's fastidious and demanding father, Yūzan Kaibara, a famous gourmand who tries to sabotage Yamaoka's project.

The character names listed here are in western order of family name last. The official English language manga volumes use the Japanese naming order of family name first. • Shirō Yamaoka • Kazuhiko Inoue • Played by Toshiaki Karasawa (1994 show), Masahiro Matsuoka (2007 show) • Shirō Yamaoka a 27-year-old journalist for the Tōzai Newss culture division and the head of its Ultimate Menu project. He is the only son of the world-famous potter and gourmand Yūzan Kaibara. He was forced to cook in his father's Gourmet Club when he was still at school and he resents his father, blaming him for his mother's early death. He once destroyed his father's paintings and ceramics because he believed his father cared more about food and his reputation than his family. Yamaoka appears lazy and uninterested unless it concerns food where he possesses a deep knowledge. • Yūko Kurita • Mayumi Shō • Played by Yuriko Ishida (1-3), Yasuko Tomita (4-5) (1995 show), Yuka (2007 show) • Kurita is Yamaoka's co-worker and assists him in the Ultimate Menu project. She is often seen with Noriko Hanamura and Kinue Tabata, and together they are referred to as the "Culture Department Flower Trio". Kurita later marries Shirō Yamaoka and they have two children together, Yōji and Yumi. • Yūzan Kaibara • Chikao Ōtsuka • Played by Yoshio Harada (1), Tōru Emori (2-5) (1994 show); Ken Matsudaira (2007 show) • Kaibara is Yamaoka's father and rival. Kaibara trained Yamaoka, but the two had a falling-out. The relationship worsens when Kaibara begins to work for the Supreme Menu project of the Teito Times, a rival newspaper. Kaibara is the founder and director of the Gourmet Club. He is also an artist and the author of the Dictionary of Poetic References. He is modelled after Kitaoji Rosanjin. • Daizō Ōhara • Osamu Saka • Ōhara is the publisher of the Tōzai News and initiates the Supreme Menu project. • Kyōichi Koizumi • Seizō Katō • Editor-in-chief of the Tōzai News. • Hideo Tanimura • Shunsuke Shima • Tanimura is the director of the arts and culture department of the Tōzai News. • Tomio Tomii • Osamu Katō • Tomii is the deputy director of the arts and culture department. He is known for his buck teeth and baldness. His son's name is Hitoshi, who's known for his glasses, bowlcut hair and freckles and he studies in Class 5-B alongside classmate Masashi, who is the victim of this class' bullying. • Tōjin Tōyama • Kōsei Tomita • Tōyama is a famous ceramicist and gourmet and is married to the much younger woman, Ryoko. • Seiichi Okaboshi • Norio Wakamoto • Okaboshi is a talented young chef and the owner of Yamaoka's preferred place to socialize. • Fuyumi Okaboshi • Yōko Asagami • Fuyumi becomes Okaboshi's wife and runs the restaurant with him. • Ryōzō Okaboshi • Toshihiko Seki • Seiichi's younger brother who works as a chef in Kaibara's Gourmet Club. • Mantarō Kyōgoku • Takeshi Watabe • A wealthy businessman and a gourmet who lives in Osaka. • Noriko Hanamura • Rei Sakuma • She is a friend of Yūko Kurita and one of the "Culture Department Flower Trio". • Kinue Tabata • Rin Mizuhara • She is a friend of Yūko Kurita and one of the "Culture Department Flower Trio". • Inspector Nakamatsu • Norio Fukutome • A Police Inspector with a gruff exterior, but he is quite soft-hearted and forms a friendship with Yamaoka. • Tatsu-san • Reizō Nomoto • A homeless man who collects leftovers from various restaurants in Ginza, so he knows which ones have the highest quality food. He introduced Yamaoka to Okaboshi's restaurant. His full name is Tatsunojō Hanamikōji. • Tokuo Nakagawa • Ryūji Nakagi • He is the head chef of the Gourmet Club. • Kairakutei Burakku • Takeshi Aono • An American food writer and researcher who gets acquainted with Yamaoka and Kurita when he is in Japan studying tofu dishes. He later becomes a rakugo artist and takes the name Kairakutei. His original name is Henry James Black but he also uses the pen name Stan Black. • Terue Yumemi • Minami Takayama • One half of a manzai comedy duo. She marries Kairakutei Black and they have a daughter together. • Mariko Niki • Saeko Shimazu • Mariko Niki is a co-worker of Yamaoka and Kurita who writes for Touzai Graph a weekly pictorial magazine. Her family is very wealthy. Her father is Takashi Niki, the president of one of Japan's biggest banks. She studied at a university in Paris and transferred back to Japan from the Touzai Paris office. To the dismay of Yūko Kurita, she pursues Yamaoka romantically but he is not interested in marrying her. Later, she marries a freelance photographer named Kinjō. • Teruko • Rihoko Yoshida • Teruko is Mariko's aunt. Mariko believes her difficult personality is the reason she's still unmarried. However, eventually she marries a novelist called Katamori. • Chairman Niki • Hisashi Katsuta • Mariko's grandfather and chairman of the Nito Financial Group. He believes he should have a say in who Mariko chooses as a husband. • Arthur Brown • Akira Murayama • A friend of Kairakutei Black and an editor for an American magazine. He often asks Yamaoka and his colleagues for help when he writes articles about Japan. His Japanese is strange as he uses archaic words and odd expressions.

The manga was adapted into an anime television series produced by Shin-Ei Animation that ran on Nippon Television from October 17, 1988, to March 17, 1992, for 136 episodes. The series was followed by two television specials: Oishinbo: Kyūkyoku Tai Shikō, Chōju Ryōri Taiketsu!! was aired in December 1992 and Oishinbo: Japan-US Rice War was aired a year later in December 1993. A new anime television series adaptation titled 'Shin Oishinbo' was announced by Shin-Ei Animation during the Abema Anime Matsuri 2026 livestream event on September 19, 2026, commemorating its 50th anniversary.

• Oishinbo: Kyukyoku no Menu 3bon Syoubu (Family Computer, 1989, developed by TOSE) • Oishinbo: DS Recipe Shuu (Nintendo DS, 2007, published by Namco Bandai Games)

The manga is licensed in English in North America by Viz Media, which published the first volume in January 2009. Seven volumes from the Oishinbo A Ra Karuto series were published from January 2009 to January 2010. These editions are thematic compilations (and include stories from across the timeline), making the English editions effectively a best of the "best of." These volumes are: • Oishinbo: Japanese Cuisine, Vol. 1 (January 20, 2009; à la Carte volume 20) • Oishinbo: Sake, Vol. 2 (March 17, 2009; à la Carte volume 26) • Oishinbo: Ramen & Gyoza, Vol. 3 (May 19, 2009; à la Carte volume 2) • Oishinbo: Fish, Sushi & Sashimi, Vol. 4 (July 21, 2009; à la Carte volume 5) • Oishinbo: Vegetables, Vol. 5 (September 15, 2009; à la Carte volume 19) • Oishinbo: The Joy of Rice, Vol. 6 (November 17, 2009; à la Carte volume 13) • Oishinbo: Izakaya: Pub Food, Vol. 7 (January 19, 2010; à la Carte volume 12)

In April 2014, Oishinbo featured a story about the Fukushima nuclear accident called "The Truth of Fukushima". In this story, characters who visited the nuclear plant suffer nosebleeds that don't stop, and they conclude that the government should help people move away from the area because of the radiation. This prompted an intense backlash, both from local governments in Fukushima and across Japan; even Shinzo Abe weighed in, calling the claims "baseless rumors". The publisher had included statements along with the story from the Fukushima prefectural government and radiation expert Ikuro Anzai, objecting to the story for misleading people and noting that discrimination against Fukushima residents and products was doing far more harm than any radiation in the area. Despite these statements, Kariya stood by the story in the midst of the controversy, saying he had researched Fukushima for two years and could "only write the truth," but noted that he was not expecting such a strong reaction from the public. The following month, Shogakukan Inc. put Oishinbo on hiatus, its last appearance being the May 12, 2014, edition in the weekly Big Comic Spirits. Although the halt of publication coincided with the controversy, the editorial staff stated they had scheduled the hiatus beforehand.