Yūki Suenaga and illustrator Takamasa Moue’s Akane-banashi manga finally comes to fans around the world in the form of a new anime series! Final Weapon has everything you need to know about the Akane-banashi anime, including the weekly schedule, release dates and timing for new episodes, and the cast and staff.
The story of Akane-banashi focuses on Akane, a young daughter wanting to avenge her father in the world of shin’uchi rakugo. In rakugo, everything is expressed in just the performer’s body and words, and after observing what her father is capable of, Akane takes her own first steps to learn and eventually master the artform.
Akane-banashi Anime Release Dates, Exact Premiere Time and Schedule
New Akane-banashi episodes will release on Saturdays at 9:00 a.m. PT / 12:00 p.m. ET on YouTube in North America and South America, along with Netflix and other services around the world. Episodes will be released with English subs and an English dub. Akane-banashi will feature 24 episodes in total across two cours.
Here are the release dates and schedule for Akane-banashi (subject to change):
- First Cour
- Episode 1 – April 4 – OUT NOW
- Episode 2 – April 11 – OUT NOW
- Episode 3 – April 18 – OUT NOW
- Episode 4 – April 25 – OUT NOW
- Episode 5 – May 2 – OUT NOW
- Episode 6 – May 9 – OUT NOW
- Episode 7 – May 16 – OUT NOW
- Episode 8 – May 23 – OUT NOW
- Episode 9 – May 30 – OUT NOW
- Episode 10 – June 6 – OUT NOW
- Episode 11 – June 13
- Episode 12 – June 20
- Second Cour
- Episode 13 – TBA
New episodes of Akane-banashi will premiere at the following times (subject to change):
- Pacific Daylight Time: 9:00 a.m. PDT
- Mountain Daylight Time: 10:00 a.m. MDT
- Central Daylight Time: 11:00 a.m. CDT
- Eastern Daylight Time: 12:00 p.m. EDT
- Greenwich Mean Time: 4:00 p.m. GMT
OP/ED, Cast and Staff
Multi-instrumentalist Keisuke Kuwata performs the opening theme song “Hitotarashi.”
The Japanese cast and staff of the Akane-banashi anime include:
Japanese 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
- Fumihiko Tachiki as Zenshō Arakawa
- Hiroaki Hirata as Ikken Arakawa
- Shizuka Itō as Masaki Ōsaki
- Yumiko Konatsu as Saki Yoshino
- Ryōta Iwasaki as Kimihisa Kashio
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
The English dub cast includes:
English Dub Cast
- Abby Trott as Akane Osaki
- Xander Mobus as Shinta Arakawa
- Rebecca Wang as Masaki Osaki
- Brook Chalmers as Shiguma Arakawa
- Evan Michael Lee as Issho Arakawa
- Rich Brown as Zensho Arakawa
- Kirk Thornton as Ikken Arakawa/Yanagiya
- Mona Marshall as Yoshino
- Clifford Chapin as Kimihisa Kashio/Emcee and Riichi
- Dorah Fine as Mrs. Ozaki
- Matt Shipman as Kaisei Arakawa
- Darius Marquis Johnson as Guriko Arakawa
- Kellen Goff as Karashi Nerimaya
- Anne Yatco as Hikaru Koragi
- Landon McDonald as Maikeru Arakawa
- Khoi Dao as Koguma Arakawa
- Jonathon Ha as Kyoji Arakawa
Where Can I Watch Akane-banashi?
The Akane-banashi anime is streaming in the following regions and platforms:
- Worldwide: Netflix (territories outside of Asia will begin from May)
- North and South America: Akane-banashi Global YouTube channel (free)
- Germany, Austria, Switzerland: aniverse
- France, Monaco, Andorra, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg: ADN
- Spain: Anime Box
- Italy: Anime Generation
- Asia Pacific (excluding Korea and China): Ani-One YouTube
- Taiwan: Bahamut, ChungHwa Telecom MOD & Hami Video, LiTV & Ofiii, Line TV, My-Video, Catchplay, friDay
- Hong Kong, Macao: Bahamut
- Indonesia: Catchplay
- Thailand: TrueID
- Mongolia: playmax.mn STAR TV
- South Korea: Laftel, Aniplus Channel
In Japan, the anime is airing on TV Asahi’s IMAnimation programming block.
What is Akane-banashi About?
Yūki Suenaga and Takamasa 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!
