‘Get Jiro’ brings Anthony Bourdain’s graphic novel to TV (and we saw the first 2 episodes)

Anthony Bourdain’s 2012 graphic novel, Find Jirogot the Adult Swim treatment, with a new animated series that brings the chef and writer’s mystery character to the screen. And of course, it’s set in a world where cooking rules.

It’s been a long road to adaptation, almost ten years of negotiations, approvals, a writer’s strike, and finally, two years of production – all notable after the passing of the famous chef in 2018. Created by filmmakers Alessandro Tanaka and Brian Gatewood, this unabashedly bloody series takes us to a dystopian future where only Rosel Bour can reach his ruling class. top: chefs.

Mashable was lucky enough to watch the first two episodes of it Find JiroLondon’s SXSW premiere. And friends, from the first scene, you will be hungry.

In this grim future of Los Angeles, the economic collapse has left only one unreal experience: food, that is big business. Chefs are revered as gods. The waiting list for top restaurants is many years, with desirable places to die for. Here, the stakes are a little higher than the Chicago Tribune review Bova. Food itself is scarce, which means ingredients are precious. Hospitality groups are run like criminal syndicates, and suppliers of fresh produce are treated like drug suppliers. Fish markets are hushed up on the blacklist. Armed chefs patrol their area the chef’s chef clothes and scare anyone who dares to grow their own ingredients at home.

Here, we meet a mysterious sushi chef, Jiro (portrayed by Brian Tee), who has just moved from Japan and set up shop in LA’s lawless Outer Rim. Class segregation rules in this city, with all the best restaurants located within the Inner Rim. However, such social differences will not stop Jiro from making clean, high-quality sushi – no soy sauce is allowed. (Worsely, a man would lose his head with such a request – and that would be a health code violation.)

“The spirit and energy of Bourdain is so great in this series.”

From the opening moments of episode 1, the team’s animation, editing, cinematography, and foley skills are on full display, using Bourdain’s narrative as a stepping stone but finding a new style — or the chef’s signature homage to good and bad is truly here. Clean lines and visceral sounds make every slice of salmon, the process of making rice, and the plating of the exquisite nigiri a feast for the senses. If you like kitchen/cooking dramas like Bova, The boiling pointor chef, or a cinematically-shot like cooking series Chef’s tableyou will enjoy the details of these scenes.

“Obviously, we had to get the food right, because it’s Bourdain,” said series producer Tanaka at SXSW, who added that the team hired Bourdain’s friend, Matt Goulding, to consult on the show. “He was our food guy. Every script, every animatic, every bad part of every episode went through him,” he said.

Despite being made posthumously, Bourdain feels undeniably present Find Jiro. There are cameos from famous chefs including David Chang, Eric Ripert, and José Andrés. Those familiar with the chef’s love of meat and disdain for vegetarians will enjoy a story based entirely on the reign of a rival vegan chef with scathing, even inspirational comments about meat substitutions. And the production team hired the Bourdains Find Jiro fellow writer Rose of the writers’ room, even writing an episode.

“He was someone who was always there to make sure we were doing right by Bourdain,” Tanaka said. “The spirit and energy of Bourdain is so great in this series.”

About the cinematography in this movie, Find Jiro and draws on Bourdain’s love of cinema, shared by Tanaka and Gatewood, with references ranging from the work of Japanese cinema icons Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu to that of George Miller. Max is crazy movies, and more.

“Bourdain was a huge cinephile. Brian and I love movies, so we said, we wanted to explore different genres,” Tanaka said, describing each episode’s genre. “We always refer to movies, the history of cinema, and other filmmakers,” he said. “We have an upcoming episode that’s a prison episode, and we did it all as one take, which in live action, you see a lot – you don’t often see that in animation. We’re using a lot of tools from the film to make the show.”

Find Jiro will premiere on Senior Swimming in 2026, dates TBC. The graphic novel is available on Amazon.