Oishinbo is a long-running cooking manga written by Tetsu Kariya and drawn by Akira Hanasaki. The manga's title is a portmanteau of the Japanese word for delicious, oishii, and the word for someone who loves to eat, kuishinbo. The series depicts the adventures of culinary journalist Shirō Yamaoka and his partner, 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 as a response by the publisher to harsh criticism of Oishinbo's treatment of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. Before this suspension, Oishinbo was collected in 111 tankōbon volumes, making it the 10th longest manga released and the seventh 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 130 million copies sold. The series received the 1986 Shogakukan Manga Award for seinen/general manga. It was adapted as a 136-episode animetelevision series broadcast on TV Asahi 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 starring Kōichi Satō and Rentarō Mikuni, and 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."
Characters
The names here are in western order. The official English language manga volumes use the Japanese naming order.
* Shirō Yamaoka is the 27-year-old protagonist of the series. He is a journalist for the Tōzai Newss culture division and the head of its "Ultimate Menu" project. He is only son of world-famous potter Yūzan Kaibara. He is a lazy person unless something concerning food where he possesses deep knowledge.
*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 also the founder and director of the "Gourmet Club." Kaibara is also an artist, and also the author of the "Dictionary of Poetic References." He is modeled after Kitaoji Rosanjin.
Daizō Ōhara
*Ōhara is the publisher of the Tōzai News.
Kyōichi Koizumi
Hideo Tanimura
*Tanimura is the director of the arts and culture department of the Tōzai News.
Tomio Tomii
*Tomii is the deputy director of the arts and culture department
Tōjin Tōyama
*Tōyama is a famous ceramicist and gourmet.
Seiichi Okaboshi
*Okaboshi is the owner and chef of Yamaoka's preferred socializing space.
Mantarō Kyōgoku
*He is a wealthy businessperson and a gourmet.
Noriko Hanamura
Kinue Tabata
Mariko Niki
*Mariko Niki, originally Mariko Futaki, is one of Yamaoka's and Kurita's coworkers. For many early volumes she romantically pursues Yamaoka. When Yamaoka realizes her intentions in the chapter "The Spirit of the Sardine," Yamaoka tells her that he is not interested in marrying her, even though if he did, he would gain financial and social advantages. The Futaki family, at that time, did not have a male heir. In Japanese tradition, wealthy families without male heirs adopted one of the husbands into the family, so he could become a male heir. The Futaki family wanted Yamaoka to marry into the family so he could become the male heir. Teruko reveals this to Yamaoka in the chapter "The Spirit of the Sardine."
Dr. Iwakura - Dr. Iwakura is Tanimura's former elementary school classmate.
Tatsunojō "Tatsu" Hanamikōji is a homeless man. He collects leftovers from various restaurants in Ginza, so he knows which ones have the highest quality food. He introduced Yamaoka to Okaboshi's restaurant.
Arthur Brown is an American friend of Yamaoka and Kurita. He speaks very strange Japanese. He does not use correct grammar, and he uses archaic Japanese and does not properly use idioms.
Haru' is the wife of Ozawa. Both had been previously married, and remarried each other. Out of habit he calls her "Haru-san."
In the Japanese language, the members of the Futaki family are distinguished by the honorifics. The grandfather is "Chairman Futaki," the father is "President Futaki," and Mariko is "Futaki-san."
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 à la Carte series were published from January 2009 to January 2010. These editions are thematic compilations, making the English editions effectively a best of the "best of." These volumes are:
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 Daiichi 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 effects flowing from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
