Akane-banashi Season 2 opens the zenza arc at Yasaka-tei in its first teaser, adding Taku Yashiro and Yoji Ueda for January 2027
ZEXCS' rakugo drama revealed a Season 2 key visual and teaser PV on October 25, confirming a January 2027 start on TV Asahi's network and BS Asahi. Taku Yashiro and Yoji Ueda join the cast.
In rakugo, a performer's first rung is zenza, the apprentice who opens the bill and does the backstage chores, and that is where the first teaser for Akane-banashi Season 2 picks up. The rakugo drama's official X account released the PV and a new key visual on October 25 and confirmed that the season begins in January 2027, airing on TV Asahi's 24-station network, BS Asahi and other channels. The exact premiere date is still to come.
The new arc follows Akane Osaki after high school, when she formally joins Shiguma Arakawa's school under the stage name Akane Arakawa and reports to Yasaka-tei, a busy traditional rakugo theater, to train among seasoned shin'uchi, the art's top rank. The key visual places her in front of Yasaka-tei with a caption pointing her toward the shin'uchi stage, and the campaign's English tagline promises "nothing less than the living history of Rakugo."
Two voices are new. Taku Yashiro plays Asagao Konjakutei and Yoji Ueda plays Hassho Tsubakiya; both were announced during Kaiko Ichiban, a Season 2 information special on TV Asahi's animation YouTube channel featuring Anna Nagase and Takuya Eguchi. Nagase is back as Akane and Eguchi as Karashi Nerimaya, with Rie Takahashi (Hikaru Koragi), Jun Fukuyama (Akane's father, Shinta), Masaki Terasoma (Shiguma) and Tomokazu Seki (Chocho Konjakutei) among the large returning cast.
Studio ZEXCS returns, with Ayumu Watanabe directing, Yu Harima as assistant director, Michihiro Tsuchiya on series composition, Kii Tanaka handling character design and chief animation direction, and Akio Izutsu composing. Professional rakugoka Kikuhiko Hayashiya again supervises the rakugo itself.
Season 2 was first announced earlier this year. The first season, 12 episodes, premiered on April 4, 2026, and Netflix streams it in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and more than a hundred other territories. Where Season 2 will stream outside Japan has not been said.
The story comes from Yuki Suenaga and Takamasa Moue's manga, serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump since February 2022 and published in English by Viz Media. Its spark is a shocking incident Akane witnessed as a child during her father's exam for promotion to shin'uchi; six years on, she sets out to reach that rank herself.
