Netflix has listed the English dub cast and staff members for the first two episodes of the anime of writer Yūki Suenaga and illustrator Takamasa Moue‘s Akane-banashi manga.

The English dub cast members are:

Darius Marquis Johnson, Matt Shipman, Dorah Fine, Kirk Thornton, and Rich Brown also provide additional voices in the first two episodes.

The English dub staff members are:

Netflix will debut the English dub for the first two episodes on May 17, and will launch later episodes weekly.

The anime’s staff streamed the promotional video for the Karaku Cup arc on Saturday.

The anime began airing on TV Asahi‘s “IMAnimation” programming block on April 4. The anime also has its own “Akane-banashi Global” YouTube channel, where full episodes stream for free in North America and Latin America, after their television broadcast in Japan.

The anime is also streaming on aniverse in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. ADN is streaming it in France, Monaco, Andorra, Switzerland, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Anime Box is streaming it in Spain and Anime Generation is streaming it in Italy. The Ani-One YouTube channel is streaming the anime in the Asia Pacific (excluding Korea and China). Bahamut, ChungHwa Telecom MOD & Hami Video, LiTV & Ofiii, Line TV, My-Video, Catchplay, and friDay are streaming the anime in Taiwan. Bahamut is streaming it in Hong Kong and Macao. Catchplay is streaming it in Indonesia and TrueID is streaming it in Thailand. playmax.mn STAR TV is streaming it in Mongolia. Laftel and Aniplus Channel are streaming it in South Korea.

TV Asahi describes the story:

“With only your voice and body—master the art.”

Akane Osaki, captivated since childhood by the magical performances of her father, Shinta Arakawa, witnesses a shocking incident during his decisive performance for promotion to shin’uchi master rank). Six years later, now a high school student, she sets her sights on becoming a shin’uchi herself—pushing forward in the highly competitive world of rakugo.

A passionate and authentic rakugo drama begins now!

Suenaga and Moue launched the manga in February 2022. Shueisha published the 21st compiled book volume on April 3. The manga was nominated for the 47th Kodansha Manga Awards and the 16th Manga Taisho awards in 2023. The manga ranked at #4 for the top 20 list of manga for male readers in the 2023 edition of Takarajimasha‘s Kono Manga ga Sugoi! (This Manga Is Amazing!) guidebook.

Viz Media‘s Shonen Jump service and Shueisha‘s MANGA Plus service both publish the manga in English. Viz Media is also publishing the manga in print.

The manga made the American Library Association’s (ALA’s) Young Adult Library Services Association’s (YALSA) 2024 list of Great Graphic Novels for Teens, and The New York Public Library also named the manga on its Best Books list for teens in 2023.

Source: Netflix via @animedubupdates.bsky.social‬

Hiroyuki Takahashi, a former teacher and organizer of the March 28 “otaku anti-war protest,” reacted on Friday to Japanese singer Masayoshi Ōishi‘s comments on the protest. Takahashi said, “What stood out to me the most, was his comment that most otaku probably don’t participate in such events, so as to not cause trouble for their oshi [loosely translated, their idols, favorite characters, or objects of their fandom].”

Takahashi helped organize the #OtakuNiYoruHansenDemo (#Anti-WarProtestByOtaku) in front of the National Diet Building of Japan’s legislature on March 28. The theme of the movement is, “Don’t turn a world in which our oshi exist into a battlefield.” Organizers said that 3,800 people attended the March 28 protest, including manga creator Kentarō Takekuma (Super Mario Adventures) and voice actor Maya Okamoto.

Illustrator Katsuya Terada (Blood: The Last Vampire, The Monkey King, Zeiram) and manga creator Nozomu Tamaki (Dance in the Vampire Bund) are among the artists who drew illustrations to support the protest:

Takahashi expanded on his response to Oishi’s comments in a followup post:

[Oishi] said, “Anti-war protests by otaku casts too broad a net. It makes it seem like all otaku are like that.” But what’s the problem with people thinking otaku are anti-war? Do otaku support war? And does calling yourself an “otaku” automatically mean you speak for all otaku? It raises a lot of questions.

Oishi gave his thoughts on the March 28 otaku anti-war protest in the second segment of his radio program Young Town Kayōbi (Young Town Tuesday) on March 31. The singer said, “I’m not saying the anti-war protest is wrong, or being an otaku is wrong, but when you combine the two, I feel like it becomes complex.”

Oishi further suspected that the otaku with whom he regularly interacts are those who are used to oshi in the current Reiwa era (since 2019) and “probably have the mindset they shouldn’t participate in protests like this because it might cause trouble for their oshi,” due to perceived tarnishing.

Oishi continued his comments saying fans who do not participate in anti-war protests are not in the wrong but may see that as counter to their oshi activities. The singer also acknowledged some otaku will participate in anti-war protests while not carrying the otaku label. “What I found tricky is [otaku] casts a wide net,” referring to train, idol, military, and anime otaku.

Oishi’s main worry about the use of “otaku” for the March 28 protest were the perception from non-otaku: “I worried if non-otaku saw this news and think, ‘Oh, so all the otaku gathered for an anti-war protest,’ that would be problematic.” He was also worried this would cause a rift among otaku between those who take part in protests and those who don’t.

The musician pivoted to how people can engage in anti-war or pro-peace activities at the end of the segment. Oishi said, “It’s not right to just think, ‘Well, then I can’t do anything,’” and noted his creation of anime songs is a method for him to participate in such activities. “I’ve come to think earnestly contributing to the anime industry, even just a little, through my own creative works might be the best pro-peace activities I can do,” he added.

On how those not involved in the anime industry can take part in pro-peace activities Oishi said, “I think the best thing you can do is just keep supporting your oshi.”

The March 31 program is available on the Oishi Masaya no MBS Young Town YouTube channel:

Separately, Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino gave his thoughts on ongoing wars and the possibility of authoritarianism in Japan in Tokuma Shoten‘s Animage magazine on April 10.

Sources: Hiroyuki Takahashi’s X/Twitter account (link 2), Masaya Oishi’s X/Twitter account, Oishi Masaya no MBS Young Town YouTube channel, Tokyo Shimbun via Yaraon

Let’s have a look at what ANN readers consider the best (and worst) of the season,
based on the polls you can find in our Daily Streaming Reviews
and on the Your Score page with the latest simulcasts.

Keep in mind that these rankings are based on how people rated individual episodes of the current season, not on the overall quality or popularity of the series.
Only the titles legally streaming in North America and popular enough are being ranked, so the bottom of the list might represent ‘watchable’ rather than ‘bad’.
Series that lack enough user votes will not qualify for the ranking.
See the notes for further details.

Don’t forget to head over to Your Score to rate the episodes you’ve watched this week

Episode Rankings for the week of April 29-May 5

Along the actual ranking for this week’s episodes, this graph chronicles the change in position from week to week.
While some series are stable, others swing wildly in the rankings depending on the strength of each episode.
When a series has no episode for a given week, the previous week’s episode is used instead as a placeholder.
The first episode of each series is considered as part of the first week, even if it really streamed during the second week.
Click on the numbers to highlight a particular series.

Series Cumulative Ranking as of May 5

Each week’s ranking takes into account the scores given to previous weeks’ episodes.
As we reach closer to the end of the season, each series’ rank will start to solidify and we’ll get a look at the real winners and losers.
Click on the numbers to highlight a particular series.

Notes

Disclaimer: the rankings are just an average of opinions, published for entertainment and information purposes.
ANN makes no claims regarding statistical significance or invulnerability to spam.

The rankings are computed using the Ranked pairs method,
with the variation that unrated titles are considered as abstentions instead of lower than the rated titles.
This roughly means that if, out of all people who rated both A and B, 60% preferred A, it will be ranked higher than B.

The rankings indicate relative quality (A is preferred to B), not absolute quality (B is good/bad).
While the titles are ranked from ‘best’ to ‘worst’, sometimes the difference between #1 and #10 can be very thin.
So if your favorite is near the bottom of the list, don’t take it personally.
It doesn’t mean it’s a bad show, it just means that ANN readers, on average, have preferred the ones above.

If a series has no episode for a given week, we use the rating data for the previous week’s episode in order to compute the weekly ranking.
This is not officially counted as a position in the ranking (it has no impact on the cumulative ranking), but it makes it easier to compare weeks if they each have the same number of series ranked.

It should be noted that long-running series (and sequels) have an advantage in the sense that only people who like the series are still watching it, and they are likely to give each episode a high rating.
But if such a series is going through a low-quality filler arc, the season will get low rankings that are not indicative of the true overall quality of the series.
Conversely, there are fewer people rating the show so it’s less likely to have enough votes to qualify for the ranking.