Welcome Back to the Bed and Breakfast for Spirits

Watching Kakuriyo -Bed & Breakfast for Spirits- is like staying at a nice hotel. Each scene takes place in an elegant ryokan, or traditional Japanese-style bed and breakfast. The cast is comprised of colorful, friendly characters focused on hospitality. And each meal is treated as the show's main event—both ingredients and finished dishes are beautifully drawn and described. It's been seven years since the 26-episode first season of Kakuriyo -Bed & Breakfast for Spirits-. The josei anime about a plucky girl who brings her human cooking to the kakuriyo—the hidden realm—while resisting the advances of a handsome ogre hotelier (called the Master) is reminiscent of other iyashikei anime about spirits, like Mushi-Shi or Natsume's Book of Friends. At Otakon 2025, fans got a sneak preview of the anime's long-awaited season two.

Perhaps since it's been such a long time between seasons, this premiere episode was less of a new story than it was a who's-who retrospective. Through standard narration, heroine Aoi reintroduced the viewer to the ever-expanding cast of yokai at the Tenjin-ya inn, all while serving up mouthwatering Japanese dishes at her eatery, Moonflower.

Seven years have passed for the viewers, but in Aoi's world it has only been half a year. The first season began with cherry blossoms in full bloom; in this episode she and the Master collect fallen maple leaves to decorate Aoi's dishes. This episode also implied that the story might put a pin in collecting new characters like Pokémon and delve deeper into the characters we've already met. After conducting a roll call of every character in the story so far, the B-part of this episode expanded on the backstory of Kasuga, a kind, softspoken tanuki who was one of the first employees of Tenjin-ya to befriend Aoi. Later, Aoi reflects that she “still doesn't know anything about the Master,” implying that this season might explore more of his still-mysterious background the way the first season gave us a complete picture of 9-tailed fox Ginji.

Following the premiere was a Q&A with Katsuyushi Konishi, who voices the Master. Konishi shared his concerns that after seven years, he'd lost his knack for the Master's distinctly deep voice, and was reassured by the audience that his delivery was consistent.

“I was thinking, 'I don't think I played him the same.' Everybody else who saw it said, 'You were exactly the same as before.' But I find myself wondering, 'Was I though?'” he said through a translator. “I'm not the same person that I was seven years ago.”

Need a refresher on season one before season two premieres this October? Kakuriyo -Bed & Breakfast for Spirits- is streaming now on Crunchyroll.