Aug 21, 2025
A true HIDDEN GEM!!
This anime is really underrated and in my opinion, that’s a shame.
Mister Ajikko is a cooking and competition anime that’s pretty basic on the surface, but actually quite surprising, I’ll come back to that in a bit.
Let me give you a quick summary of the anime first!
The anime starts in January 1987. In a small Japanese neighborhood lives Ajiyoshi Yoishi and his mother Noriko. Since the death of his father 5 years ago, Yoishi has taken over the family restaurant, Hinode.
One fine day, a man stops by to try Yoishi’s food, but what Yoishi doesn’t know is that this encounter will
...
completely change his life.
Now let’s go over the pros and cons of this anime so far:
✅ Pros:
Animation: It’s good. Honestly, the anime looks nice overall, but the beginning (around the first 20 episodes) isn’t that great visually. That said, I actually find the character designs in the anime more appealing than in the manga.
OST: The soundtrack is really solid. But again until around episode 25, they reuse the same tracks a bit too much.
Cooking: Okay, obviously this is expected for a cooking anime but OMG, the food is portrayed so well! If you’re curious about Japanese (and Asian Food in general) cuisine, this anime is a must-watch.
Story: It’s fairly classic, but some character backstories are interesting. The story really focuses on values and how foundational and important cooking is in this world. I also love how the timeline is clear and trackable the anime starts in 1987, and the months are often mentioned throughout.
❌ Cons:
Characters: Strangely enough, despite the solid world-building, the characters themselves aren’t that interesting...
Additions: The anime isn’t exactly a faithful adaptation of the manga, they added two totally unnecessary characters (Mitsuko & Shigeru), who are absent in the original manga.
Speaking of characters, I’ll introduce a few (the only ones deep enough to be worth highlighting):
Ajiyoshi Yoishi: The protagonist. Pretty strong-willed and with a good heart. He can come off as selfish at times (especially early on), but he definitely has good moments and shows solid character development overall.
Murata Genjiro (Ajiou): Head of the Ajiou organization (King of Taste). He consistently plays his mentor role toward Yoichi, for whom he has a lot (too much? xD) of attention. His backstory (episode 75) is quite sad but I won’t spoil it here.
I won’t go into the other characters, because honestly, I don’t think they’re the anime’s strong point (which is why I’m not giving it a 10/10).
All in all, Mister Ajikko is a very good anime fun, joyful, interesting, and most of all, one that truly deserves to be way more popular!
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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