From the looks of things this series will be focusing primarily on the past of Yakumo as the stylish opening seems to place emphasis on the characters of the flashback. Rakugo is surprisingly abset this week as World War II causes Yakumo to be left behind as his Teacher and Sukeroku go out to entertain soldiers. To Yakumo this is a repeat of his past as others leave him behind once again and his frustrating position of being able to do nothing about it. However in their absence it has caused a greater love for Rakugo to grow in Yakumo’s heart. In essence since being striped of his postion to perform Rakugo, it made Yakumo realize just how important it was to him once he no longer had to perform it. This is something I have found with an interest. When you are forced into something, chances are that you will not enjoy it. However if you pick it up by your own initiative then you come to love it. This is Yakumo’s true awakening into the art, when he comes into his own as a performer. And with Sukeroku hefty absence from the art, I believe he and Yakumo are on a much more even playing field this time around.
From what I can see, due to the authors previous experience being mainly related to boys love manga, people are insinuating that Yakumo’s and Sukeroku’s relationship could potentially move to become romantic. I personally am not a fan of this assessment, not out of aversion but rather because I feel it undermines the nature of Yakumo’s and Sukeroku’s rivalry. Their connection is one of trust and respect, something much deeper than simple sexual attraction. These two are brothers in a love for Rakugo and to insinuate that that love is dotted with hints of potential lust just feels disrespectful to the dedication of the characters. It would be akin to saying my love of anime is very slightly influenced by a desire for 2D female women and that’s just downright insulting. That said I do find that Yakumo is rather disinterested when it comes to his romantic encounters. Particularly when he reacted far more emotionally to his Teacher and Sukeroku’s leaving him behind than he did for his girlfriend tearfully breaking up with him. Should it turn out that Yakumo is homosexual, it could lead to some interesting story developments. However this is a story about Rakugo and I would prefer for it to not deviate too far from the premise.
The names in this anime can get confusing because they’re not actual names, rather stage names that are either given or inherited. Same names are given to different people, and same people have different names.
Yotarou is the name of the 8th Yakumo(Kikuhiko in the past)’s student, the ex-convict. Hatsutaro is the name given by the 7th Yakumo to Shin, Konatsu’s father, and the eventual Sukeroku. I believe you have the two names mixed up here.
Having read the manga, there was never really hints of physical attraction. Emotionally it’s more complicated, I’d say too complicated to just simplify it as romance. He probably does love Sukeroku, but it’s not romantically
I got the same vibe of Yakumo being homosexual but I’m pretty damn sure Yotarou is not. So I don’t think it’s moving in that direction. But the previews had me thinking he might get jealous of his love interest (woman who showed up at the end, I presume).
Wow. I knew NOTHING about the original creator’s background, but I picked up a BL feel to these guys. If one of them didn’t have a kid, I would’ve expected them to end up at least expressing feelings to one another. Hey, they still could.