Iron Wok Jan! Anime's 'Alternate' Promo Video Reveals New Cast Member, Ending Song
The official website for the television anime of Shinji Saijyo's cooking manga Iron Wok Jan! (Tetsunabe no Jan!) presented an "alternate" version of the anime's main promotional video and a key visual on Wednesday. The video announces a new cast member, and it also announces and previews the ending theme song "Naita Akuma" (The Devil Who Cried) by singer EMUNIMINI. This new version of the video features Nichido Otani, the story's food critic with Japan's most refined taste and worst personality, giving a spirited commentary of Jan's cuisine.
Tomokazu Sugita joins the anime's cast as Ryūji Bitō, a wandering Chinese cuisine chef who challenges other chefs of different Chinese restaurants in cooking competitions. He is known by the nickname "XO Sauce Ryū."
The anime's staff also announced that the series will stream on the Anime Times, ABEMA, U-NEXT, and Anime Hōdai services in Japan from July 5 at 6:00 p.m. JST (5:00 a.m. EDT).
The original Iron Wok Jan! manga centers on a brilliant young chef named Jan Akiyama, who works at a top class restaurant where he is constantly challenging Kiriko Gobanchō, the granddaughter of the restaurant's owner and a great chef in her own right. While Kiriko believes that food should be made with the customer in mind, Jan believes that cooking should be used for competition.
The anime will star:
- Kikunosuke Toya as Jan Akiyama
- Ikumi Hasegawa as Kiriko Gobanchō
- Kōhei Amasaki as Takao Okonogi
- Kenjirō Tsuda as narrator
- Masuo Amada as Nichido Otani
- M.A.O as Celene Yang
- Takahiro Sakurai as Kei Sawada
- Taishi Murata as Tomohide Jun
- Yūsuke Kobayashi as Yuji Kawahara
Ei Aoki (Fate/Zero, Aldnoah.Zero, Girls Bravo, Wandering Son) is directing the anime at TROYCA. Makoto Uezu (Akame ga KILL!, Assassination Classroom, Scum's Wish, KonoSuba – God’s blessing on this wonderful world!!) is in charge of the series scripts. Masako Matsumoto (Aldnoah.Zero, Overtake!) is designing the characters and also serving as the chief animation director. Tomoki Kikuya (Bocchi the Rock!, Oblivion Battery) is composing the music. The seven-member dance vocal group "Genin wa Jibun ni Aru." is performing the opening theme song "Hien" (Fire Banquet).
Additional staff members include:
- Cuisine Animation Directors: Atsushi Okuda, Chihiro Hanamura
- Action Animator: Ryūichi Makino
- Art Director: Ken Naitō
- Color Key Artist: Mariko Shinohara
- Compositing Director of Photography: Ryosuke Tsuda
- CG Director: Mitsutaka Iguchi
- Editing: Shota Migiyama
- Cuisine Supervision and Coordinator: Takako Satō
- Cooking Science Supervision: Naoya Higuchi
- Sound Director: Jin Aketagawa
- Sound Effects: Masami Baba
The anime will premiere on July 5 and will air on Sundays at 5:30 p.m. JST (4:30 a.m. EDT) on TV Tokyo and its affiliates.
Saijyo ran the original manga in Akita Shoten's Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine from 1995 to 2000, and Akita Shoten published 27 volumes for the series. ComicsOne published the first 13 volumes of the series in English from 2002 to 2005, before DrMaster acquired the license and published the remaining volumes from 2005 to 2007.
Saijyo also published the Tetsunabe no Jan! R: Chōjō Sakusen (Iron Wok Jan! R: The Summit Operations) manga in Weekly Shōnen Champion, and Akita Shoten published 10 compiled book volumes for the series. Saijyo launched the Tetsupai no Jan! spinoff manga in Takeshobo's Kindai Mahjong magazine in August 2015. Bingo Morihashi is credited for the spinoff manga's script. Takeshobo published the manga's seventh and final compiled book volume in March 2018. Saijyo launched the successor manga Tetsunabe no Jan!! 2nd (Iron Wok Jan! 2nd) in 2017, and ended it with its seventh volume in 2020.
The manga franchise has over 10 million copies in circulation.
Sources: Iron Wok Jan! anime's website, Comic Natalie
