Back in February 2022, a manga about a young woman named Akane Osaki who wants to become a ranked rakugo storyteller debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump and now, in 2026, we’ll see an Akane-banashi anime adaptation. ZEXCS announced it is working on the series, and the official site is open. There’s no trailer for it yet.
Since Akane-banashi debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump, both MangaPlus and Viz Media offered chapters of the manga in English weekly, but there’s no confirmation about any company picking up the anime yet. Akane grew up with rakugo, as her father Tohru Osaki constantly performed as a rakugoka under the name Shinta Arakawa and was going through promotion exams in the attempt to reach the highest and most respected rank of shin’uchi. However, during that exam Master Issho Arakawa didn’t promote anyone and instead expelled everyone.
However, Akane still loved the storytelling art. So as she prepared to leave high school, she ended up entering training to become a rakugoka under the name Akane Arakawa. She’s going through the exact same Arakawa School he did. Her goal is to show that her father and his style were deserving of honor and respect, and she wants to become a shin’uchi to prove it.
Here’s the key art.
The series is currently at chapter 169 in Japan, as of August 3, 2025. Viz Media’s continued to release volumes of the manga. Volume 13 will debut on August 12, 2025, and the fourteenth will follow on November 4, 2025.
The Akane-banashi rakugo anime will air in Japan in 2026, and the manga is running worldwide now.
Published: Aug 4, 2025 12:00 pm