Anthony Bourdain’s 2012 graphic novel, Get Jiro, has received the Adult Swim treatment, with a new animated series bringing the chef and author’s enigmatic protagonist to the screen. And of course, it’s set in a world where cooking rules.
It’s been a long road for the adaptation, almost a decade of conversations, approvals, a writer’s strike, and finally, two years of production — all notably after the famed chef’s passing in 2018. Created by filmmakers Alessandro Tanaka and Brian Gatewood, this unashamedly bloody series transports us to a dystopian future where the ruling class is something only Bourdain (and his co-writer Joel Rose) could come up with: chefs.
Mashable was lucky enough to view the first two episodes at Get Jiro‘s SXSW London premiere. And friends, from the very first scene, you’ll be hungry.
Genndy Tartakovsky breaks down the animation of “Fixed” while drawing his iconic characters
In this cutthroat future Los Angeles, economic collapse has left one only non-virtual experience: food, which means it’s big business. Chefs are revered as gods. Waiting lists for the top restaurants are years long, with coveted spots to die for. Here, the stakes are a little higher than the Chicago Tribune review in The Bear. Food itself is scarce, meaning ingredients are precious. Hospitality groups are run like crime syndicates, with fresh produce providers treated like drug suppliers. Fish markets are hushed affairs with blacklists. Armed chefs patrol their turf in veste de chef outfits and terrorise anyone who dares to grow their own ingredients at home.
Here, we meet the mysterious sushi chef, Jiro (voiced by Brian Tee), who has just moved from Japan set up shop in LA’s lawless Outer Rim. Class divide rules this city, with all the fanciest restaurants located within the Inner Rim. However, such a societal divide will not stop Jiro from making pristine, top-level sushi — with no soy sauce allowed. (Seriously, a man could lose his head for such a request — and that would be a health code violation.)
Mashable Top Stories
“The spirit and the energy of Bourdain loom very large on this series.”
From the very first moments of episode 1, the team’s animation, editing, cinematography, and foley skills are on full display, using Bourdain’s narrative as a jumping off point but finding a new style — though the chef’s signature adoration for both the beautiful and grotesque is absolutely here. Clean lines and visceral sound effects make every slice of salmon, the process of making rice, and the plating of perfect nigiri a feast for the senses. If you’re a fan of kitchen/cooking dramas like The Bear, Boiling Point, or Chef, or cinematically-shot cooking series like Chef’s Table, you’ll appreciate the detail these scenes.
“Obviously, we had to get the food right, because it’s Bourdain,” said series co-creator Tanaka at SXSW, who added that the team recruited a friend of Bourdain’s, Matt Goulding, to consult on the show. “He was basically our food guy. Every script, every animatic, every rough cut of every episode went through him,” he said.
Despite being made after his death, Bourdain feels undeniably present in Get Jiro. There are cameos from famous chefs including David Chang, Eric Ripert, and José Andrés. Those who know the chef’s love for meat and disdain for vegetarians will enjoy a storyline entirely based on a rival vegan chef’s empire with harsh, even puke-inducing commentary on meat substitutes. And the production team recruited Bourdain’s Get Jiro co-writer Rose for the writers room, even penning an episode.
“He was kind of always there to make sure that we were doing right by Bourdain,” said Tanaka. “The spirit and the energy of Bourdain loom very large on this series.”
In terms of cinematography in this animation, Get Jiro also leans into Bourdain’s love of cinema, shared by Tanaka and Gatewood, with references ranging from the work of Japanese cinema icons Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu to George Miller’s Mad Max films, and more.
“Bourdain was a huge cinephile. Brian and I also love movies, and so for us, we wanted to explore different genres,” said Tanaka, explaining each episode is its own genre. “We’re constantly making references to movies, cinema history, and to other filmmakers,” he said. “We have an episode that’s coming up that is a prison episode, and we did it all as one take, which in live action, you see it a lot — you don’t often see that in animation. We use a lot of the tools from film in order to make the show.”
Get Jiro will premiere on Adult Swim in 2026, with dates TBC. The graphic novel is available on Amazon.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source mashable.com ’
