Get Jiro! is an unconventional project from the beloved chef and travel host, Anthony Bourdain, that fused his passion for food with his life-long love of comic books. The New York Times best-selling graphic novel is a culinary action story in a dystopian, food-obsessed futuristic Los Angeles, where master chefs wield power like mob bosses and diners are willing to kill for a coveted seat at the table.
Following its premiere on Adult Swim, the team behind the action-packed animated series sits down for a roundtable discussion about how they cooked up its high-octane blend of culinary chaos and animated mayhem. We met with executive producer Alessandro Tanaka , Co-writer Joel Rose, executive producer Brian Gatewood, voice of Jiro, Brain Tee, and executive producer Jordan Blum.
mxdwn: I just have a couple of questions for you guys. So what inspired you guys specifically, like the narrative of the combination of culinary arts and the mafia?
Joel Rose: Anthony Bourdain, just… He brought me this; he used to come to my house every Thanksgiving. And he used to bug me. I met him. He sent me a comic book that he drew and wrote, and I had a little literary magazine, a twin sanding. And I wrote back to her, and the art sort of sucked; like, the writing, the writing was good. And he showed up on my doorway. And… I worked at DC Comics for a while. And, um, he was always bugging me, wanted to do a comic book. And one year, Thanksgiving, he came over and his daughter was sick. So my wife was preparing, you know, doggy beds for them to take home. And he cornered me by the elevator, and he pitched me Jira. Okay. The story. And it comes right over. His soul, the food, and the mafia. He loved Yakuza and Samurai, you know; he was always into Japanese Yakuza movies, um, battles against, um, without honoring humanity, um, Ishi the killer. You know, he had me watch all that stuff. Plus, we both come from well, he was trying to get… He was in the restaurant business. My father was a waiter. I worked in restaurants from the time I was 10 years old. You know, washing dishes and doing stuff. I was trying to get away from the restaurant. He was trying to get into it, and he told me this story about this renegade sushi chef. You know, I immediately thought about your Jimbo, and we were all, you know, we just… had fun. We didn’t expect anything from this, nothing. We just did it on a lark. And then we went to San Diego, and the New York Times came out, and there was the number one bestseller. I work for graphic novels that beat out Superman, Batman, and we were… we were shocked. And then the movie started, you know, the Bourne Brothers had bought the rights, and it started slowly evolving, but in all truth, you know, it was beyond me and Tony at the time, and these guys took over, and I did a fantastic job. I just did everything I could ever ask of it. I think the result- I’m super proud. Awesome.
mxdwn: That’s awesome. I love the history behind it.
mxdwn: How do the writers infuse the food knowledge into the show?
Rose: Everything was sort of drafted out, but I was really insistent that these guys contact Mac to the day. It was a friend of mine, and it was a good friend of Tony’s as well. I mean, we all know each other. And I really insisted that they contact him, because we wanted the food had to be right. We couldn’t be… We couldn’t take our eyes off the prize, ever. You know, we had to be straight on, because I think the whole thing actually hinges on the food, not on the anime, you know, card chases and stuff. That worked really great, but the food was the base of it. And we wanted to get that writing, and they didn’t, and we did. Oh, that’s awesome.
mxdwn: Do you have, like, any visions for, like, future seasons of the series or getting renewed or?
Brian Gatewood: Oh, I mean, we, sure, we would love to continue with New York. I think that was something that sparked to Joel when we 1st brought it up. place to go.
Rose: That was that was Tony and my idea. He said, go to New York after Los Angeles. We never had a chance to do it. But in the future. You still might have it. I hope it does.
mxdwn: So since the industry is a very unfamiliar territory, how can viewers best support creatives?
Brain Tee: Watch the shows? Yeah, watch shows? Watch it again?
Jordan Blum: Tell your family to watch. Yeah, get it on social medias and spread the words.
Gatewood: Yeah, there are so much… There’s so many things dividing people’s attention, right? Now more than ever, you really need to kind of support that stuff to make it stand out and be, you know, seeing that’s how you get more of it.
mxdwn: And my final question is what shows are you guys enjoying right now?
Tee: I thought lanterns rocked.
Gatewood: I’ve been catching up on Slow Horses.
Blum: I like Furious. Ooh, I heard that was good. It was good, yeah.
Rose: I actually been watching Nearly. The Reacher Smith. Nice. I actually think it’s better. Great. Oh, yeah. It will be as fantastic. She’s super sweet, so very, very kind, such a friend. Yeah, such a That’s everything I got for you guys, to be honest. Yeah, great. Throwing that out there for future conversation tonight.
Get Jiro! is airing on Adult Swim.