Oishinbo

オイシンボ

Aired: 1988

A television anime adapted from the gourmet manga written by Tetsu Kariya and drawn by Akira Hanasaki. Broadcast on the Nippon TV network, it follows Shiro Yamaoka and Yuko Kurita of the Tozai News culture section as they pursue the Ultimate Menu, a flagship project for their newspaper. Spanning Japanese cuisine and global food culture, the series explores cooking science, the philosophy of ingredients and respect for producers, using food to reflect human nuances and social issues. Produced by Shin-Ei Animation, it became a defining long-running show that helped drive the bubble-era gourmet boom.