Akihito Yoshitomi is drawing a new Eat-Man manga, and it is tied to the anime rather than the other way round. The official X account for EAT-MAN The Over Order announced on Monday that the spinoff will be called Desert-Dessert From EAT-MAN The Over Order and will begin in the January 2027 issue of Kodansha’s Monthly Shonen Sirius, which goes on sale November 26.
Yoshitomi is credited on both sides of the project. He wrote and drew the original manga, and on the new anime he handles scripts and original character designs. The manga announcement came from the anime’s own account, not from the magazine, which tells you how the two productions are being marketed: as one package.
What the anime side looks like so far
Shunji Ōga is directing at Studio Cab. His credits include Romance of Three Kingdoms, several Soreike! Anpanman films and chief director duties on Golgo 13. Satoshi Hirayama, who worked on Cat’s Eye season 2 and the Lupin III specials, is adapting Yoshitomi’s designs for animation.
Masashi Ebara returns as Bolt Crank, the role he played in both earlier adaptations. That is the one piece of casting confirmed so far.
The manga it all comes from
Eat-Man ran from 1996 to 2002. Bolt Crank is a man who can eat anything and reproduce it from his right hand, which turns lunch into weaponry and makes him very hard to kill. Viz Media published part of the original in North America.
Two anime followed, in 1997 and 1998. Bandai Entertainment put out Eat-Man ’98 on DVD with an English dub, and Discotek Media later released both shows on subtitle-only DVD. Crunchyroll has streamed both since 2019.
Yoshitomi returned to the property with Eat-Man The Main Dish, which began in Monthly Shonen Sirius in May 2014 and ended in 2019 at six volumes. So Desert-Dessert lands in the same magazine that carried the last Eat-Man serial, which is a sensible home for it.
His other work includes Ray, published in English by ADV Manga, and Blue Drop, which became an anime of its own. He also drew Cyborg 009 Vs. Devilman: Breakdown, the manga version of that crossover anime, collected in a single volume in April 2016.
Why a manga first, anime later
Trailers usually get a manga adaptation a few weeks before broadcast, as a promotional push. Here the manga starts on November 26 with no premiere date attached to the anime yet, which puts the comic out in front of the show.
A spinoff manga built around an upcoming anime is not a rare move for Kodansha this season. The day before this launches, a Rainy Day Serenade side story begins in Kiss, and that series has its own anime coming in 2027. Publishing a comic first gives the animation team something on shelves while production runs.
That order makes sense for a property like this. Eat-Man has an older readership that remembers the 1997 and 1998 shows, and Monthly Shonen Sirius is where those readers already buy magazines. A serial running months ahead of the anime gives Kodansha something to promote while the animation is still in production, and gives the anime a monthly reminder on newsstands.
It also gives Yoshitomi a second crack at his own creation. The Main Dish ended in 2019, seven years ago, and this is his first Eat-Man serial since.
What is not confirmed
There is no word yet on how long Desert-Dessert will run, whether it is a full serial or a short tie-in, or whether it retells the anime’s story or fills in around it. The title suggests something looser than a straight adaptation, but that is a guess and Kodansha has not said.
No English release has been announced either. Viz’s licence covered only part of the original run, and the later Main Dish never came out in English, so a Western edition of this one is not a safe assumption.
Source: Anime News Network, citing the EAT-MAN The Over Order anime’s official X account
Featured image: Announcement visual for the EAT-MAN The Over Order spinoff manga Desert-Dessert, shared by the anime’s official X account, via Anime News Network.
