From Warner Bros. Animation and DC Studios and starring Brian Tee, Get Jiro! transports viewers to a post-apocalyptic, near-future Los Angeles where culinary culture reigns supreme, and the world’s most powerful figures are chefs. In this society where food is both currency and a demarcation of class, the mysterious sushi chef Jiro (Tee) sets out on a quest for vengeance. With Matt Johnson’s Tony that came out earlier this year, I had to check this one out.
Based on the acclaimed graphic novel by Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose published through DC’s iconic Vertigo imprint, Get Jiro! is a gory good mess. This was like a John Wick animated series, but with a culinary backdrop for the High Table. In this show, the Feds are the Alcohol, Firearms and Food Agency (AFF). Somehow, this world was believable, where the health department is the police and the chefs and restaurants are like organized crime families.
Tee was made for this voice-acting role, playing the straight man in comedy while surrounded by utterly ridiculous situations. More broadly, the performances worked because everyone played their roles seriously within a world that seems completely over the top to viewers. I also appreciated that nearly every Japanese character was voiced by a Japanese voice actor. The performances struck a good balance between drama and humour.
This becomes so much more important when one of the episodes delved into Jiro’s past in Tokyo, where the whole episode was in Japanese with English subtitles. These decisions to go authentic go a long way to promote Japanese or Japanese-American actors in Hollywood, such as including Eugene Nomura, Yoshi Amao, or Yuwi Kim. FX’s Shogun propelled that push for Japanese representation too back in 2024.
As for the animation and art style, Get Jiro! kept it simple with 2D digital animation. But the visual art style reminded me of Archer meets a bit of Studio Ghibli/Hayao Miyazaki. As for the environmental and world design, it felt like a cyberpunk-esque world for the Inner Ring city restaurants meets George Miller’s Mad Max post-apocalyptic wasteland in the Outer Ring restaurants. All these elements painted a beautiful narrative for this John Wick x Kill Bill storyline. Each episode has a sort of kill-of-the-week/episode vibe behind the fights in each episode.
“The food looked very Studio Ghibli delicious, which was what this show was meant to highlight from Bourdain and Rose’s original graphic novel.”
At first, I thought the Archer character designs would be a bit too plain for an expressive show like this one, but it worked well with the carefully crafted framing and colouring. The animation for Get Jiro!, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, and Mercury Filmworks perfectly depicted the food throughout the series. Shout-out to the Canadian Ottawa-based animation studio Mercury Filmworks, which recently worked on The Bob’s Burgers Movie and Hilda animated series. The animation style might not be incredibly appetizing to the eyes, but it accomplished enough to make the food look exceptionally better than the average Western-animated food.
The food looked very Studio Ghibli delicious, which was what this show was meant to highlight from Bourdain and Rose’s original graphic novel. During a panel at SCAD AnimationFest 2026, Get Jiro! executive producers and showrunners Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka, director Rick Morales, and Warner Bros. Animation executive vice president Peter Girardi all mentioned how the food was always the focus for this show.
They also talked about how Bourdain wanted readers or viewers to see how a dish was made within this world and potentially become curious enough to try making it themselves. I can attest that the spaghetti and sushi dishes looked delectable, especially for animated food. The sound design also played a major role in selling the cooking scenes. Every knife hitting a cutting board, the bubbling of liquids in pots and the slicing of meat or gelatinous ingredients came through clearly thanks to the meticulous sound work. I would encourage viewers to watch the show with headphones for a more immersive experience.
“For those who appreciated Mark Mylod’s The Menu satire, they will find something very worthwhile here.”
With ten episodes to build out the world of Get Jiro!, I thought it was paced out well. I enjoyed the decision to explore some of the supporting cast’s backstories, especially for its antagonists: Alison Pill’s Rose and Titus Welliver’s Bob. Pill and Welliver also provided great voice acting performances; I never thought Welliver from Bosch would do voice acting, but it worked perfectly for the macho, gruff voice of Bob.
Get Jiro! was a super punchy, slicing-and-dicing revenge story—filled with ooey-gooey goodness of great-tasting character stories and worldbuilding. For those who appreciated Mark Mylod’s The Menu satire, they will find something very worthwhile here. While I did not read Bourdain and Rose’s graphic novel, it felt like a worthy adaptation and made me interested in reading it afterwards. I would be ecstatic if we could see this food world expand to a worldwide scale, but we will have to wait and see if another season is greenlit. If you thought chefs cannot be gangsters who have organized criminal networks, this show will make it believable for you.
