Kyoto International Manga Anime Fair 2025: Special Ambassadors Nobuhiko Okamoto & Manaka Iwami Appear! "ShibuAni" #59

On ABEMA, "SHIBUYA ANIME BASE" #ShibuAni (read: ShibuAni), episode #59, was broadcast live from 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM on Friday, September 12, 2025.

This time, the show welcomed voice actors Nobuhiko Okamoto and Manaka Iwami as guests, featured a special segment on Yaiba: Samurai Legend, and introduced the Kyoto International Manga Anime Fair 2025 (commonly known as KyoMafu), scheduled for September 20 (Sat) and 21 (Sun), where Okamoto and Iwami will serve as “Okoshiyasu Ambassadors.”

In episode #59, the spotlight was on Yaiba: Samurai Legend, where guest voice actress Manaka Iwami plays the heroine Sayaka Mine. Adapted from Gosho Aoyama’s popular manga, the series depicts the battle between the protagonist Yaiba Kurogane and his rival Takeshi Onimaru.

This episode of ShibuAni thoroughly explored the highlights of Yaiba: Samurai Legend, as well as bringing coverage of the Yaiba: Samurai Legend Senso-ji Ema Dedication Ceremony, held at Senso-ji, a location connected with the anime, on “YAIBA Day” (Monday, August 18).

In the ceremony, Aoyama revealed that since it has been 30 years since the manga concluded, he sought to revamp the anime adaptation: “I wanted to make the pacing better, so I removed all the old Showa-era gags. Deleting words that kids today wouldn’t understand made the tempo much better. Back then, I put in everything I liked, so there was a lot of unnecessary stuff…” he said, explaining how the adaptation was updated for the Reiwa era.

Manaka Iwami, who plays the heroine Sayaka Mine, talked about highlights of the show: “While feeling the passionate spirit unique to shonen manga, there’s this coolness to the protagonist that actually has a kind of normal, relatable side you can poke fun at, and the cast is full of diverse, unique characters who never let you get bored. It’s a truly captivating series.”