Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjou (Complete Series Anime Review)

 

This review was written by me after having watched both seasons as that's when I began to write reviews again; as such it encompasses both.

 

The art of a story being told is a powerful one; we're fascinated and founded on stories, the idea of someone's adventures, misdeeds, successes and failures infusing all forms of life, all words telling it in some way or other. So an anime founded on telling them, I was unsurprised gripped me even if I was unfamiliar with it.

 

Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjou is a story that spans multiple generations across a vast stretch of time; from before the advance of Japan into war, to the post-war years and slowly stretching itself into our modern day, it follows a series of story tellers, connected as they are but a dysfunctional and tragic family dynamic that none the less, finds love suffused into it at various parts, including the anxiety, detest and even love of performing. It is a story of people who love stories, people who hate them and then fall in love with them. It's a story about decorum, the respect of such a manner of storytelling and the issues traditionalism faces when running into not just modernity but the changing world that demands things that actually reflect it. One key plot is a woman who wants to do Rakugo, the art of storytelling, whose father was a great one, but cannot or feels she can't, because she's a woman. A simple thread that untangles a messy web. This is not entirely a pure positive look at the art form which shines brighter for it; the nature of old masters holding onto things and stopping the manner of things from embracing new; the young grow old and cling to what they knew in kinder years, failing to see the kindness that surrounds them now is different but there. The long guilt, the idea of holding onto an ache that you feel you must be punished for. The idea not all the answers will be told to you, nor have to be. The very nature of trust; and how we must hold onto it.

 

It's not perfect. There are things left unsaid or unseen that should be and things that are said and inferred that might best be not. A plot thread that implies a potentially illcit affair, in fact multiple times between a very young woman and far older men pops up twice that feels incredibly icky in a way that while representing perhaps the oddity of the real world, just feels bizarre to even nod to, though it is handled as well as it could be for existing. There is a singular thing the anime seemed to build toward too that is sidelined for other plot lines that make it feel like it undercuts the idea that things should change, such as women should be doing Rakugo too. However, it is carried deeply by emotional resonance with characters you want to see succeed and also music that sends the moments of feeling to a level beyond what I expected.

 

Please do watch this show if you have time. Be prepared for intense historical drama, some moments where it feels like it glosses over some things it should not and talks about some things that maybe you wish it hadn't. But please do take the time if you can. After all, stories do need to be heard; and this is one you should. But ddo so with caution; there are things here that should be damned, if they do be true.

 

Picture taken from the Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjou Wiki.