Get Jiro, based on a graphic novel co-written by Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose, is an adult animated series that launches on HBO Max later this week. The show is set in a dystopian near-future Los Angeles where most human experiences have moved into virtual reality, but food remains the last holdout as a sensual pleasure the digital world cannot replicate. This scarcity has transformed master chefs into powerful figures operating like crime lords, with people willing to kill for restaurant reservations.
The protagonist is Jiro, a taciturn and exacting sushi chef and biker who operates without moral restraint. The series opens with him decapitating a customer for committing the culinary offense of dipping fish in soy sauce. Violence throughout the show ranges from cartoonish to graphic, employing food-related implements and methods including cheese graters, deep frying, and creme brulee blowtorches. The narrative involves competing law enforcement agencies—the City of Angels Health Department and the Alcohol, Firearms and Food agency—both wielding significant power and engaging in turf wars over food supply control.
The show employs exaggerated visual comedy with barrel-chested men and stylized female characters drawn in an intentionally broad comic-book style. Tenderness in animation is reserved for detailed food scenes, with careful depictions of dishes like pot-au-feu and katsu sando that trigger emotional reactions from diners. The series maintains a satirical tone throughout, combining camp sensibility with underlying social commentary. Bourdain’s influence is evident beneath the pulpy action sequences, as the narrative critiques how food becomes a marker of class status and a tool of power and control. The show has been characterized as blending elements of pulp fiction, crime drama, and dark comedy into an irreverent meditation on food culture and urban conflict.
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