Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu – 06

This episode was a bit of a re-thread as after Yakumo has discovered his talent for Rakugo, he’s now wondering as to who he’s doing it for. We have a rather pointless flashback to when Yakumo was a child and it seems before they took him to become a Rakugo performer, they tried to make him a Geisha. I wasn’t aware that boys could become Geisha, and this episode seems to agree on that. Which makes me wonder what cruel mistress would toss him away into a profession where he is doomed from the start. I believe the point of this was to remind us that Yakumo was pretty much abandoned once he lost his ability to dance due to a leg injury. Hence him coming to the realization of wanting somewhere where he belonged. This would be fine but we have already established this before and this just seems like an unnecessary reminder. Sukeroku has displayed that there may be more to him that meets the eye as it’s possible that his actions of getting Yakumo to star in the play and push him to do more racy Rakugo could be Sukeroku helping Yakumo’s talent blossom. There definitely seems to be a method in his madness as even in this episode he helped Yakumo realise something important for his Rakugo by bring up his reason for performing. Yakumo does look to hate receiving guidance from Sukeroku as it makes him feel inferior to him. Even upon realising that Sukeroku was the first to suggest he perform racy Rakugo caused him to tremble with irritation. I think Sukeroku knows this on some level and hides his guidance under drunken stupor or his easygoing attitude. Sukeroku might just be more that meets the eye or he could just be doing this subconsciously. Either way it looks like he and Sukeroku are now equals on the Rakugo front and Yakumo has gained a huge boost of confidence.

Rakugo once again takes up a huge portion of the episode but that is by no means a bad thing. You really can see just how the characters improve their acts but I don’t necessarily like how the stories they tell are getting more visually represented. Understandably it does show they are painting a picture of their stories better and the show does avoid giving a completely clear picture. Plus we have to give those artists someway to put in their creative side. One nice little touch I liked was that before the performance, Yakumo was shown in black with just white outlines. It was interesting as his expression in that shot mirrored the expression he had when he lowered his head to the floor at the end of his performance and you could see the reflection of his face. Perhaps it was to show his new found confidence for Rakugo in that he knew that he would perform well before he even started. Or symbolism of the uncertainty over why he performs and then his clear resolution by his stories end. On another note, I can safely say that Shouwa Genroku is a anime that is outright impossible to dub. A pity as I feel the stories would have more impact if they were heard instead of read but truly there is no way this could be dubbed satisfactory. Not only would the stories humor be lost in translation, but the voice actors would need to present a slow progressive performance of showing how the characters improve at Rakugo. If there are english voice actors who can pull off such a feat, I would certainly be impressed. So with the main conflict out of the way, I wonder just what this series will focus on next and from the looks of the preview we will be delving a little into Yakumo’s romantic troubles.