TV Asahi has announced the anime adaptation of Yūki Suenaga and Takamasa Moue’s Akane-banashi manga will premiere in April 2026. In addition, a trailer and key visual were released, and more cast and staff members for the Akane-banashi anime were confirmed.
The cast and staff of the Akane-banashi anime include:
Cast
- Anna Nagase as Akane Sakurazaka
- Takuya Eguchi as Karashi Nerimaya
- Rie Takahashi as Hikaru Koragi
- Jun Fukuyama as Shinta Arakawa (Toru Osaki_
- Nobunaga Shimazaki as Maikeru Arakawa
- Chiaki Kobayashi as Koguma Arakawa
- Yohei Azakami as Kyoji Arakawa
- Seiichiro Yamashita as Guriko Arakawa.
Staff
- Original Work: Yuki Suenaga, Takamasa Moue
- Director: Ayumu Watanabe
- Assistant Director: Yu Harima
- Series Composer: Michihiro Tsuchiya
- Character Design & Chief Animation Director: Kii Tanaka
- Sub Character Design & Chief Animation Director: Yasunari Nitta
- Chief Animation Director: Hisashi Kagawa
- Costume Design: Noriko Shimazawa
- Prop Design: Yoshinori Iwanaga
- Art Design: Shuhei Tada
- Art: Takumi Sakurada
- Color Design: Saori Goda
- Photography Director: Yuta Nakamura
- Editor: Kiyoshi Hirose
- Sound Director: Noriyoshi Konuma
- Music: Akio Izutsu
- Rakugo Supervision: Kikuhiko Hayashiya
- Animation Studio: ZEXCS
Suenaga and Moue launched the Akane-banashi manga in February 2022. Viz Media releases the manga in English and describes the story as follows:
Akane unintentionally stirs up a scandal when she’s discovered taking informal lessons from her father’s former teacher, Shiguma Arakawa. And she’s about to make even bigger waves because she is about to begin her first steps in climbing the ranks of a rakugo performer from zenza opening act to shin’uchi headliner is exchanging her secret lessons for formal training. But she’ll still have to finish high school and navigate her relationship with Shiguma’s existing apprentices, all while learning that becoming a stellar rakugoka takes much more than just being good at performing!
