A new Weekly Shonen Jump anime adaptation has finally made its way to Netflix this Spring, and it’s at the perfect time as it has also kicked off a whole new arc. It’s been a great season of new anime thus far as the Spring 2026 anime schedule has seen a few properties from the pages of Shonen Jump making their long awaited anime debuts. But there’s been one franchise that has gone under the radar as it hasn’t been as widely watched on bigger platforms as seen with the other releases.
The anime adaptation Yuki Suenaga and Takamasa Moue’s Akane-banashi has been thus far as it’s only been available for streaming with YouTube. But now the franchise is set to get a whole new wave of fans now that Akane-banashi has made its Netflix streaming debut with a new English dub release. With the first two episodes out now, and new episodes releasing weekly, now’s the time to check it out.
Akane-banashi Episodes 1 and 2 is now streaming with Netflix, and it includes the English dub release as well. This is perfect timing as with the newest episode of the anime now airing in Japan, Akane-banashi has officially kicked off a major arc for the series. The newest episode has kicked off the Karaku Cup from the original manga, which sees Akane taking on her first major tournament. This squarely puts her up against her biggest rivals (which we’ll see in action with the Karaku Cup), and you can check out the trailer in the video above.
Ayumu Watanabe directs the Akane-banashi anime for studio ZEXCS with Yu Harima serving as assistant director, Kii Tanaka providing character designs, Michihiro Tsuchiya overseeing the scripts, Kikuhiko Hayashiya supervising its Rakugo, and Akio Izutsu composing the music. The English dub cast includes the likes of Abby Trott as Akane Osaki, Xander Mobus as Shinta Arakawa, Rebecca Wang as Masaki Osaki, Brook Chalmers as Shiguma Arakawa, Evan Michael Lee as Issho Arakawa, and more as the series continues.
Akane-banashi might not seem appealing to most fans at first because it’s focused on the traditional Japanese performance art of Rakugo, but there’s a reason it’s been a success in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. Much like other major franchises from the past that weren’t focused entirely on action like Bakuman, Hikaru no Go, Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma and more, Akane-banashi takes a career path and injects it with the action focused spirit of other fighting focused titles.
Much like the first major tournament arc beginning in the latest episodes now streaming with YouTube, Akane-banashi carries a lot of that spirit and finds a visually and narratively exciting way to show off what makes the performance art so special to all those involved. We’ll see it brought to the next level with the anime release as the series continues, and now fans on Netflix can finally see why.
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