In the Drops of God anime, a single glass of wine can feel almost divine.
Paired with sweeping classical opera music that lends an air of gravitas, every tasting becomes something more than indulgence—it becomes a search for meaning.
In this world, the path to divinity begins with a single sip. Our protagonist Kanzaki Shizuku, however, would vehemently disagree—at least at the start of the story where all this begins.
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The anime adapts Drops of God (Kami no Shizuku), a Japanese wine-themed manga written by Tadashi Agi—the joint pen name of siblings Shin Kibayashi and Yuko Kibayashi—and illustrated by Shu Okimoto. The manga has a total of 44 volumes across 439 chapters that ran until June 2014.
It was first published in Weekly Morning by Kondasha in 2004, the same year that Bartender came out in Super Jump by Shueisha.
The Drops of God anime: What to expect in the story
Despite debuting more than 20 years ago, Drops of God surprisingly never got its anime adaptation until now. Instead, it received several live-action adaptations over the years.
The first was a Japanese TV drama, Kami no Shizuku, which aired on Nippon TV from January to March 2009. Starring Kazuya Kamenashi as Shizuku Kanzaki, the series ran for nine episodes and brought the wine-focused story to a wider television audience.
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More than a decade later, the franchise received a new interpretation with the 2023 international series Drops of God, produced through a collaboration between Japan, France, and the United States and released globally on Apple TV+.
This version reimagined the narrative by introducing a French protagonist named Camille while keeping the central rivalry over the legendary wines at the heart of the story.
The original story centers on Shizuku Kanzaki, the estranged son of a renowned wine critic. After his father passes away, Shizuku discovers that the late critic’s vast wine collection will be inherited by whoever can correctly identify twelve legendary wines described through poetic clues, known as the “Twelve Apostles.”
His chief rival is Issei Tomine, a talented wine critic who had been adopted by Shizuku’s father shortly before his death.
Their rivalry eventually leads both men on a quest to uncover the legendary wine referred to as the “Drops of God.”
The manga became a worldwide phenomenon and even had a real-world impact on the wine industry, with bottles featured in the story often seeing spikes in demand after appearing in the series. The anime could very well inspire the same.
The Drops of God anime review: Is this worth your time?
Get treated to swirling visuals and animation
I don’t usually watch food or drink-centered anime because if you’ve ever played Genshin Impact at 11pm (or Final Fanstay 15 for that matter), you would know how dangerously tempting supper becomes.
My first brush with any alcohol-induced anime came last year when I took a chance on the 2024 reboot of Bartender Glass of God—and loved it. While it still hasn’t convinced me to try the Singapore Sling despite being Singaporean, I became very interested in every other drink that Ryu made in the 12-episode series.
So when I got the chance to dip into the first episode of The Drops of God anime for this review, I took it because I’m still on the quest to find God in all the liquor I’ve been drinking.
Besides being hit with high octave opera in the first few frames, you’ll quickly notice that The Drops of God anime style, colors, and tones used are very 2000s, which stays true to the original manga.
Produced by Satelight, this is the same studio behind Fairy Tale, Log Horizon, and boys love anime, Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!.
Known for their bold use of color and lighting, Satelight excels at dramatizing moments, creating cinematic, immersive worlds where CGI and 2D animation blend seamlessly in action-packed or highly stylized scenes.
This works perfectly for The Drops of God anime, where the first sip in wine tasting transforms into a defining moment of revelation, aroma, flavor, and emotion, unfolding like a symphony on the palate.
You must understand—it’s always challenging for anything olfactory or gustatory to be translated onto the screen, especially in animation. Prepare to be amazed by how creative director Kenji Itoso weaves Eishi Segawa’s music with fantastically colorful visuals—especially since both rivals spend much of each episode tasting wine.
A once in a lifetime voice actor cast
Kanzaki Shizuku is actually not voiced by a seiyuu (Japanese voice actor by profession). Instead, we’re going full circle—the original Japanese actor who played him in the live-action series Kami no Shizuku, is back to lend his vocals.
Also a singer, model, host, and producer, it is Kazuya Kamenashi’s first-ever voice acting role in his illustrious 28-year long career in the entertainment industry.
More often seen playing lead roles in TV dramas (Shoutai, The Scales of Justice, I’m Your Destiny), he splits screentime with veteran seiyuu Takuya Satou (Zayne in Love and Deepspace, Albert James Moriarty in Moriarty the Patriot, Ayato Yuri in Yarichin Bitch Club), who voices Issei in The Drops of God anime.
On top of all this sexy talent, we have Maaya Uchida (Fischl in Genshin Impact, Hiyori Iki in Noragami, Christine in Lazarus) playing Miyabi Shinohara who eases Kanzaki into the world of wine that he’s completely unfamiliar with despite being the son of a world-renowned wine critic. She even sings the ending song, Kami no Shizuku!
The final critique
As far as Spring 2026 anime goes, The Drops of God anime could’ve well flown under your radar. After all, we’ve got a couple of returning blockbuster titles like ReZero Starting Life in Another World Season 4, Dr Stone: Science Future Part 3, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 4, and The Beginning After the End Season 2.
As if those aren’t enough, there’s also new hype anime like Witch Hat Atelier and Liar Game.
The Drops of God anime isn’t here to compete with any of these titles. If you want something different that may be out of your comfort zone where you learn many new things about wine, its real world production, and the vineyard business, this is definitely worth your while.
Drawing a parallel, I started Bartender Glass of God being totally uninterested in hard liquor. Colored by society’s often negative portrayal of drinking at bars, I was glad that Bartender had completely changed my mind by the end of the series.
| THE GLASS OF GOD ANIME REVIEW | SCORE |
| Story: narrative and writing | 8/10 |
| Characters | 7/10 |
| Visuals and animation | 8/10 |
| Music and sound | 7/10 |
| Pacing and structure | 8/10 |
| Overall | 7.6/10 |
I’m not a big fan of wine either—so I’m expecting The Drops of God anime to change my view as well. And while it may sometimes be difficult to imagine just how velvety and viscous one sip may be, at the very least, you can be sure that your ears will be treated to voice acting that’s smoother than fine wine.
And while it’s too early to say from just one episode, I would definitely want to see increasing levels of love-hate tension between Shizuku and Issei. After all, fujoshis are the best appreciators of well-pressed grapes.
Catch The Drops of God on Crunchyroll from Friday, April 10, 2026 with weekly episode releases.
