Oishinbo

Oishinbo (美味しんぼ) is a long-running cooking manga written by Tetsu Kariya and drawn by Akira Hanasaki. The manga's title combines the Japanese word for delicious, oishii, and the word for someone who loves to eat, kuishinbo. The series depicts the adventures of culinary journalist Shirō Yamaoka and his partner (and later wife), Yūko Kurita. It has been published by Shogakukan between 1983 and 2008 in Big Comic Spirits, before resuming again on February 23, 2009, and collected in 104 tankōbon volumes. The series was a perennial best-seller, selling 1.2 million copies per volume, for a total of more than 100 million volumes as of January 2009. It received the 1987 Shogakukan Manga Award for seinen/general manga. It is licensed in English in North America by Viz Media, which published the first volume January 2009.

The series was adapted as a 136-episode anime television series broadcast on TV Asahi from 1988-10-17 to 1992-03-17, plus two sequel anime television specials.

Seven volumes have been translated into English from January 2009 to January 2010. However, these editions are selected volumes from the 美味しんぼア・ラ・カルト (Oishinbo A la carte) series, which are thematic compilations (and thus jumping back and forth in continuity), making the American edition effectively a "best-of of a best-of".

These volumes are:
 * Oishinbo: Japanese Cuisine (January 2009; A la carte volume 20)
 * Oishinbo: Sake (March 2009; A la carte volume 26)
 * Oishinbo: Ramen & Gyôza (May 2009; A la carte volume 2)
 * Oishinbo: Fish, Sushi & Sashimi (July 2009; A la carte volume 5)
 * Oishinbo: Vegetables (September 2009; A la carte volume 19)
 * Oishinbo: The Joy of Rice (November 2009; A la carte volume 13)
 * Oishinbo: Izakaya: Pub Food (January 2010; A la carte volume 12)

Main characters

 * Shirō Yamaoka (山岡 士郎)
 * Yūko Kurita (栗田 ゆう子)
 * Yuzan Kaibara (海原雄山)
 * Daizo Ohara
 * Kyoichi Koizumi
 * Hideo Tanimura
 * Tomio Tomii
 * Tojin Tozan
 * Seiichi Okaboshi (岡星精一)
 * Mantaro Kyogoku
 * Noriko Hanamura
 * Kinue Tabata
 * Mariko Niki (近城まり子)
 * Inspector Nakamatsu (中松警部)