Now I really do feel like Rakugo is dragging it’s feet as we have an episode focused on Yakumo which by all accounts feels like a retread of the last episode. But I admit that I am rather irritated more with how the episode ended rather than how the episode was. For you see dear readers, I hate fake deaths. It is one storytelling device which I utterly despise for its artificiality and how it renders drama worthless. A death in a show is a game changer, it can change the very nature of a show. A single character death can affect the characters and push the show in new directions. It takes a lot to build the personality of a character over a show’s runtime and decide that they shall never more feature in the tale.
I respect that even if it means my favorite character will be no more and nothing is greater than them getting the end that paid respect to the legacy of that character. This episode did that for Yakumo, it set up his death in a manner that was downright perfect. The passing of the fan to Yotaro, the last performance at the prison and finally performing his signature Shinigami in an empty theatre. There was no better way for the Rakugo master to die than that, it was beautifully poetic and it just infuriates me to no end that it was all a fake out.
This is why fake deaths are such a pain, why it spits in the face of the viewer. For having saved Yakumo’s life, that build up to his death means absolutely nothing. A fake death is akin to deciding to go bungee jumping and once you have the rope around you and you are ready to jump, you just decide to go home instead. All that build up for an anti-climax. After that there is no longer any tension for if you try to build up for a death once again it won’t have the same tension. Because we have been through this same song and dance before. This is why I came to hate Key works, for they want all the drama that comes with foreshadowing death but don’t have the guts to actually go through with the consequences.
So what did this episode accomplish? Well Yakumo attempted to kill himself again, only to be stopped yet again. Am I supposed to be believe that he had a change of heart? I thought he had a change of heart last episode but he switched right back to suicide watch. Who’s to say he won’t try again? And when he does die it won’t ever match this. I feel like I watched a Romeo and Juliet play that ended with the two coming back from the death and getting married. It’s just so..so very annoying. Otherwise I don’t have much to add, up until the last minute or so I was ready to call this a great episode but now more than ever it seems that Rakugo doesn’t have enough story left to fill the remainder of it’s runtime.
