is a long-running Japanese cooking

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series written by and drawn by . The manga's title is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words The series depicts the adventures of culinary journalist Shirō Yamaoka and his partner (and later wife), Yūko Kurita. It was published by

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, comics (manga), non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the Hit ...

between 1983 and 2008 in ''

Big Comic Spirits is a weekly Japanese ''seinen'' manga magazine published by Shogakukan. The first issue was published on October 14, 1980. Food, sports, romance and business are recurring themes in the magazine, and the stories often question conventional va ...

'', 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 as a response by the publisher to harsh criticism of Oishinbo's treatment of the

Fukushima Daiichi disaster The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 a ...

.'Oishinbo' manga on hold after criticism of Fukushima episodes
--

Asahi Shimbun is one of the four largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition and ...

Before this suspension, Oishinbo was collected in 111 ''

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

'' volumes, making it the 10th longest manga released and the 11th

best-selling manga series The following is a list of the best-selling Japanese manga series to date in terms of the number of collected ''tankōbon'' volumes sold. All series in this list have at least 20 million copies in circulation. This list is limited to Japanese ...

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 The is one of Japan's major manga awards, and is sponsored by Shogakukan, Shogakukan Publishing. It has been awarded annually for serialized manga and features candidates from a number of publishers. It is the oldest manga award in Japan, being ...

for

seinen is an editorial category of Japanese comics marketed toward young adult men. In Japanese, the word ''seinen'' literally means "youth", but the term "''seinen'' manga" is also used to describe the target audience of magazines like ''Weekly Ma ...

/general manga. It was adapted as a 136-episode

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series broadcast on

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as (also known as EX and and stylized as TV asahi), is a television station that is owned and operated by the subsidiary of certified broadcasting holding company , itself controlled by The Asahi Shimbun Compan ...

from October 17, 1988, to March 17, 1992, followed by two sequel TV anime film specials in 1992 and 1993. It was adapted into a live-action film directed by

Azuma Morisaki was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Career Morisaki was born in Nagasaki Prefecture and graduated from Kyoto University. After editing the film magazine ''Jidai Eiga'', he joined the Shochiku studio in 1956. Moving from the Kyoto t ...

starring Kōichi Satō and

Rentarō Mikuni (also sometimes credited as 三国連太郎) (January 20, 1923 – April 14, 2013) was a Japanese film actor from Gunma Prefecture. He appeared in over 150 films since making his screen debut in 1951, and won three Japanese Academy Awards for ...

, and premiered on April 13, 1996. The manga is licensed in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...

. 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."

Plot

Oishinbo is a drama featuring journalist Shirō Yamaoka who works for 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.

Characters

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. ; : Played by

Toshiaki Karasawa (real name Kiyoshi Karasawa (唐澤潔 ''Karasawa Kiyoshi'')) is a Japanese theatre and film actor. He made his theatrical debut in the play ''Boy's Revue Stay Gold'' (ボーイズレビュー・ステイゴールド ''Bōizu Rebyū Sutei Gōrud ...

(1994 show),

Masahiro Matsuoka is a Japanese drummer and actor. He is a member of Tokio, a Johnny Entertainment musical group. His nicknames are Mabo and Maa-kun. He starred as Shinichi Ozaki in '' Godzilla: Final Wars'', and comedy series ''Yasuko to Kenji''. Career As a ...

(2007 show) : Shirō Yamaoka a 27-year-old journalist for the 's 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. ; : Played by

Yuriko Ishida is a Japanese actress and essayist from Nagoya. She was the Japanese voice of the title character San from the 1997 animated film ''Princess Mononoke''. She is the older sister of Hikari Ishida, also an actress. Filmography Films *''Gokudo no On ...

(1-3),

Yasuko Tomita is a Japanese actress. She won the Award for Best Newcomer at the 6th Yokohama Film Festival and at the 8th Japan Academy Prize for '' Aiko 16 sai''. She also won the award for best actress at the 9th Yokohama Film Festival for ''Bu Su''. In 1 ...

(4-5) (1995 show),

Yuka Yuka may refer to: *Yuka (music), an Afro-Cuban style of music *Yuka (mammoth), mammoth specimen found in Yakutia, Russia *Manshu Yuka Kogyo K.K. Ssuningkai, a Japanese-German pre-WWII industrial co-operation People *Yuka (name), a Japanese perso ...

(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, and . ; : Played by

Yoshio Harada was a Japanese actor best known for playing rebels in a career that spanned six decades. Career Born in Tokyo, Harada joined the Haiyuza Theatre Company in 1966 and made his television debut in 1967 with "Tenka no seinen" and his film debut in ...

(1),

Tōru Emori is a Japanese actor, voice actor, and theater director. He has appeared in more than sixty films since 1965. Career Emori entered the acting school at the Bungakuza theater troupe in 1962 and came to fame with the play ''Ōmugiiri no chikin s� ...

(2-5) (1994 show);

Ken Matsudaira is a Japanese actor and musician from Toyohashi, Aichi, Japan. His real name is . Career In 1974, he joined Shintaro Katsu's production company and made his debut with the television series Zatoichi as a guest. For a quarter of a century, he ...

(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 , 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. ; : Ōhara is the publisher of the Tōzai News and initiates the ''Supreme Menu'' project. ; : Editor-in-chief of the Tōzai News. ; : Tanimura is the director of the arts and culture department of the Tōzai News. ; : Tomii is the deputy director of the arts and culture department ; : Tōyama is a famous ceramicist and gourmet and is married to the much younger woman, Ryoko. ; : Okaboshi is a talented young chef and the owner of Yamaoka's preferred place to socialize. ; : Fuyumi becomes Okaboshi's wife and runs the restaurant with him. ; : Seiichi's younger brother who works as a chef in Kaibara's ''Gourmet Club''. ; : A wealthy businessman and a gourmet who lives in Osaka. ; : She is a friend of Yūko Kurita and one of the "Culture Department Flower Trio". ; : She is a friend of Yūko Kurita and one of the "Culture Department Flower Trio". ; : A Police Inspector with a gruff exterior, but he is quite soft-hearted and forms a friendship with Yamaoka. ; : A homeless man who collects leftovers from various restaurants in

Ginza Ginza ( ; ja, 銀座 ) is a district of Chūō, Tokyo, located south of Yaesu and Kyōbashi, west of Tsukiji, east of Yūrakuchō and Uchisaiwaichō, and north of Shinbashi. It is a popular upscale shopping area of Tokyo, with numerous intern ...

, so he knows which ones have the highest quality food. He introduced Yamaoka to Okaboshi's restaurant.Kariya, Tetsu and Akira Hanasaki. Oishinbo à la Carte Izakaya: Pub Food. 269.

. His full name is . ; : He is the head chef of the ''Gourmet Club''. ; : An American food writer and researcher who gets acquainted with Yamaoka and Kurita when he is in Japan studying

tofu Tofu (), also known as bean curd in English, is a food prepared by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness; it can be ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', ''extra firm'' or ''super firm ...

dishes. He later becomes a

rakugo is a form of ''yose'', which is itself a form of Japanese verbal entertainment. The lone sits on a raised platform, a . Using only a and a as props, and without standing up from the seiza sitting position, the rakugo artist depicts a long ...

artist and takes the name Kairakutei. His original name is Henry James Black but he also uses the

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

Stan Black. ; : One half of a

manzai is a traditional style of comedy in Japanese culture comparable to double act comedy or stand-up comedy. usually involves two performers ()—a straight man () and a double act, funny man ()—trading jokes at great speed. Most of the jokes ...

comedy duo. She marries Kairakutei Black and they have a daughter together. ; : 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 . ; : 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. ; : Mariko's grandfather and chairman of the Nito Financial Group. He believes he should have a say in who Mariko chooses as a husband. ; :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.

Media

Manga

Volume List

Anime

The manga was adapted into a television anime series that ran from October 1988 to March 1992 for 136 episodes. The series was followed by two television specials. was aired in December 1992 and was aired a year later in December 1993.

Video games

*''Oishinbo: Kyukyoku no Menu 3bon Syoubu'' (Family Computer, 1989, developed by

TOSE () (also called Tose Software) is a Japanese video game development company based in Kyoto. It is mostly known for developing Nintendo's Game & Watch ports and remakes#Game & Watch Gallery series, ''Game & Watch Gallery'' series, various ''Drago ...

) *''Oishinbo: DS Recipe Shuu'' (Nintendo DS, 2007, published by

Namco Bandai Games is a Japanese multinational video game publisher headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Entertainment America and Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and ...

)

North American release

The manga is licensed in

, which published the first volume in January 2009. Seven volumes from the 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)

Reception

In the 1980s Japan had an upsurge in popularity in the ''gurume'' movement, called the "gourmet boom." Iorie Brau, author of "''Oishinbo''’s Adventures in Eating: Food, Communication, and Culture in Japanese Comics," said that this was the largest factor of the increase in popularity of ''gurume'' comics. The series's first volume sold around one million copies. The popularity of ''Oishinbo'' the comic lead to the development of the anime, the live action film, and many fansites. The fan-sites chronicle recipes that appeared in the manga. Tetsu Kariya, the writer of ''Oishinbo'', has said in a 1986 interview that he was not a food connoisseur, and that he felt embarrassed whenever food experts read the comic.

Controversy regarding Fukushima episodes

Responding to severe criticism of Oishinbo's treatment of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Shogakukan Inc. halted publication of Oishinbo, at least temporarily, its last appearance thus being the May 12, 2014, edition in the weekly Big Comic Spirits. Although the halt of publication coincides with the controversy, the editorial staff also claim that it is part of a previously scheduled break. Before its termination, the final chapters of Oishinbo were given credit with bringing to the forefront a franker discussion of

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or through a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'', such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visi ...

effects flowing from the disaster.Manga Comic Forces Japan To Discuss Radiation After Fukushima Disaster
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Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

, updated and accessed May 19, 2014

Notes

References

External links

Oishinbo, a la carte (Spanish)
* {{Shin-Ei Animation 1983 manga 1988 anime television series debuts 1992 anime films 1992 Japanese television series endings 1993 anime films 1993 films Anime series based on manga Anime television films Comedy anime and manga Cooking in anime and manga Seinen manga Shin-Ei Animation Shogakukan manga Television series about journalism TV Asahi original programming Viz Media manga Winners of the Shogakukan Manga Award for general manga