Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu - Anime Review

People are always hungry for entertainment, that's why I want to entertain as many people as I can!

I've been always a sucker for any anime that touches the cultural aspect of Japan. From yokai, Japanese folklore, their history especially in Sengoku era, and many more! We have a lot of anime with that touches upon that themes like Gegege no Kitaro on yokai, Sengoku Basara on Sengoku war (well, it's fun and epic), Samurai X/Rurouni Kenshin and any other anime like that. You got the point.

And today, I'm going to talk about Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu. This anime is all about Rakugo. And honestly, I never heard of Rakugo before watching this anime series. "What is Rakugo?" you asked? To put it simply, it's a form of verbal entertainment in Japan where there's one person sitting on a stage who tells a long and complicated comical story and the Rakugoka (the person who tells Rakugo) plays a lot of role and you can easily distinguish it because they have a different pitch and tone for every role that the Rakugoka plays. It's almost similar with Stand up comedy, kind of.  But it's different on the way how it's delivered. They don't use the rule-of-third just like the regular stand up comedy punch line (as far as I know, because I learned how to be a stand up comedian once, but it was hard so I stopped doing so haha). 

Rakugo usually takes it sweet time for the punchline. But when it hit, it hit so hard! And sometimes it's not about the comedy, but sometimes it's all about the moral story. And the other main differences between Stand up comedy and Rakugo is Stand up comedy brought their own story and materials, while Rakugo's story is already existed and the entertainment comes from how it was told and delivered by the performer. 

So, enough talking about Rakugo, how was the anime? Let's just dive into the review shall we?

Story

The story starts off with Yotarou, a former yakuza who just get out from jail. After released from the jail, he went to the Rakugoka that he admires, Yakumo, and asked Kikuhiko to make him his apprentice. Yakumo is a highly talented Rakugoka and never had an apprentice before. After convincing Yakumo, finally he became the apprentice. And this makes the whole person who knows Yakumo feels odd about him taking on an apprentice. In the first episode which is a 50 minutes long episode, we will understand the what actually a Rakugo is. In this first episode, we will have the main conflict which spans throughout the series, which is the clashing ideals between the old and new generation. The old generation wanted to keep Rakugo as it is, a sacred traditional entertainment. While the new encourages Rakugo to be updated time to time so it catches on with today's generation. After the prologue, we jump back in time to see the Rakugo from Yakumo's era back then when Yakumo learned how to be a Rakugoka with his best friend, Sukeroku since they are children. 

My thoughts in the series

1. This anime is beautifully directed. From start to finish, the animation quality is really good, and I cannot believe it myself that this anime is done by Studio DEEN, and I think this is their finest work in anime. 
2. This anime series is all about Rakugo, and they show us literally the full Rakugo story in almost every episode. When I say, "beautifully directed" I mean, the animation when the rakugouka tells the story, it's really engaging to see. We don't see only one angle of a person who is sitting on the stage in front of us viewers. But we will see various angles, emphasized expression, sometimes Rakugoka sweat drop, audiences' reaction to the Rakugoka performance and so on! The direction makes a whole length Rakugo story seems engaging and interesting and makes me as a person who was oblivious about rakugo before feel entertained! We will see a lot of Rakugoka do their Rakugo from the apprentice until the master of Rakugoka and we will be able to see "the differences" of how polished they are when performing their Rakugo which is heavily emphasized on the first double length episode.
3. This anime really tells us that "Rakugo is not popular form of entertainment in this modern days". And the anime gave us how entertaining and fun a Rakugo can be. It feels like that the anime is telling us "This is how we appreciate our culture, and we want you, dear audiences, to appreciate it as well". 
4. Let's talk about the BGM, the music in this anime consists of two things, the first one is traditional shamisen that is usually used for "entry" song of the Rakugoka. And the second one is Jazz, which is really fitting the mood and theme. And the opening is really good too.
5. At the end of the first double length episode, the show tells us how the story will end in Yakumo's flashback since the series is mainly talking about Yakumo's past. Personally, I really enjoyed watching Yakumo grew from a helpless little boy to someone who is earned the title of Rakugoka master. It's not about the destination, but it's all about the journey how he get there to the end.

Personally, I don't have any problem with this anime, And it definitely needs season 2, and this January 2017, the second season starts! But I see people might not be interested in this anime and didn't find the comedy in this anime to be funny because of culture differences. Since they have a very different comedic timing if it's compared to the western comedy. But if you are like me, you'll enjoy this series like I do!

So here comes the final verdict. Should you watch Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu? Yes! I highly recommend this anime! It's a moving story from zero to hero. From no one to someone respectful. And it's really entertaining to see and learn about Japanese culture through anime. It's only 12 episode long, and the first one is a double length episode. It's the diamond in the rough in 2016's anime and personally I consider this as the anime of the year!

So that's it from me guys, I hope that you will find this review useful. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to everybody who celebrates! 

This is Reikichi, Signing out! XD