Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu (Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju)

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Showa and Genroku Era Lover's Suicide Through Rakugo

Japanese: 昭和元禄落語心中

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Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 13

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Jan 9, 2016 to Apr 2, 2016

Premiered: Winter 2016

Broadcast: Saturdays at 02:25 (JST)

Producers: Starchild Records, Mainichi Broadcasting System, Kodansha, DAX Production

Licensors: None found, add some

Studios: Studio Deen

Source: Manga

Genre: Drama

Themes: Historical, Love Polygon, Performing Arts

Demographic: Josei

Duration: 26 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 8.57¹ (scored by 92,916 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #98²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #819

Members: 287,041

Favorites: 5,789

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Official Site

@rakugoshinju

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ANN

Streaming Platforms

Crunchyroll

8.57

Ranked #98Popularity #819Members 287,041

Winter 2016TVStudio Deen

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Episodes: /13

PV 3

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Synopsis

Yotarou is a former yakuza member fresh out of prison and fixated on just one thing: rather than return to a life of crime, the young man aspires to take to the stage of rakugo, a traditional Japanese form of comedic storytelling. Inspired during his incarceration by the performance of distinguished practitioner Yakumo Yuurakutei, he sets his mind on meeting the man who changed his life. After hearing Yotarou's desperate appeal for his mentorship, Yakumo is left with no choice but to accept his very first apprentice.

As he eagerly begins his training, Yotarou meets Konatsu, an abrasive young woman who has been under Yakumo's care ever since her beloved father Sukeroku Yuurakutei, another prolific rakugo performer, passed away. Through her hidden passion, Yotarou is drawn to Sukeroku's unique style of rakugo despite learning under contrasting techniques. Upon seeing this, old memories and feelings return to Yakumo who reminisces about a much earlier time when he made a promise with his greatest rival.

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu is a story set in both the past and present, depicting the art of rakugo, the relationships it creates, and the lives and hearts of those dedicated to keeping the unique form of storytelling alive.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu covers the first five volumes of the manga. The original voice cast of the OVA reprised their roles for the animated TV series.

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu
Alternative version:	Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu: Yotarou Hourou-hen
Sequel:	Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu: Sukeroku Futatabi-hen

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Yuurakutei, Yakumo

Main

Ishida, Akira
Japanese

Yuurakutei, Sukeroku

Main

Yamadera, Kouichi
Japanese

Konatsu

Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuu
Japanese

Yotarou

Supporting

Seki, Tomokazu
Japanese

Miyokichi

Supporting

Hayashibara, Megumi
Japanese

Matsuda

Supporting

Ushiyama, Shigeru
Japanese

Tsuburaya, Mangetsu

Supporting

Yusa, Kouji
Japanese

Ochiyo

Supporting

Itou, Yui
Japanese

Rakugo Association President

Supporting

Shibata, Hidekatsu
Japanese

Tsuburaya, Bansai

Supporting

Chafurin
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Kamei, Hiroshi

Producer

Yada, Shouko

Producer

Urasaki, Nobumitsu

Producer

Hatakeyama, Mamoru

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

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Opening Theme

"Usurahi Shinjuu (薄ら氷心中)" by Megumi Hayashibara (eps 3, 5-8, 10, 13)

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Ending Theme

	1: "Usurahi Shinjuu (薄ら氷心中)" by Megumi Hayashibara (eps 1)
	2: "Kawa, Taredoki (かは、たれどき)" by Kana Shibue (eps 2-9, 11, 13)

Reviews

Dec 7, 2023

CyanCheetah

Recommended

I went into this anime with high hopes.

This is the first ever anime I went with high hopes as I always, ALWAYS keep zero expectations.
The difference this time is not because of its score, rank, or who directed it. It is because of Rakugo. Believe it or not, I knew Rakugo through this Canadian guy who has done English rakugo and he killed it!

So I went into this with somewhat expectations, and I am happy to say it absolutely delivered!!

First off, Rakugo is not a topic that people can make many episodes on. For most, it is quite boring and depending on the Rakugo ...

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Aug 30, 2021

RESOLVING_POWER

Mixed Feelings

I watched both seasons of Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu (henceforth referred to as simply Rakugo). Here are my thoughts:

As someone who likes any kind of theater as well as traditional Japanese culture, and often enjoys josei works, I expected that I would enjoy Rakugo.

The show takes place during a transformative time (mid-20th century) in the history of Japanese media. Older, more-traditional forms of entertainment have been overtaken by television and radio. For those who don't know, rakugo is basically a style of traditional Japanese stage performance which involves verbal storytelling. The main focus of the anime is the practice of rakugo, hence the title. Somebody ... with greater knowledge of rakugo might appreciate the nuances of the show more than I did.

The story of the anime is complex and intelligent. There are many well-developed characters, each of whom has their own motivations and feelings. The dynamics of these characters are woven together to create a rich character-driven story. Sounds good, right? Unfortunately, the writing suffers from a serious flaw, in my opinion. Although the characters are complex, they are still boring and very often unlikable. I didn't empathize with any of the characters, nor did I enjoy any of their personalities. In fact I detested some of the most important characters. This is an admittedly subjective but nevertheless serious problem for a highly character-focused show such as this. My distaste for the cast seriously impaired my enjoyment of this anime. There is a buffet of hateable characters in this show to pick from. There were multiple characters for whom I came to loathe their appearance on-screen. This is true for both seasons of the anime. Another thing worth mentioning is that a lot of the plot mechanisms through which drama is derived are cheesy soap-opera material. This isn't an objectively bad thing (I'm fine with cheesy drama), but it does clash starkly with the show's sophisticated reputation.

Much like the practice of rakugo itself, the delivery of a story is as important as its content. At its core, this show has an okay story (regardless of the character issues). However, I think it could have been executed much better. I am fine with slow pacing in anime, as long as the screentime is used in some way that delivers value to the viewer. For example, if I really like a cast of characters then I'm completely fine with the show having zero plot. In fact I usually prefer slow pacing and little plot because it means that the screentime is used for something that I appreciate more. In this anime the pacing is slow, but there's little corresponding upside to this. The show is often very dull and boring. The screentime isn't used effectively. Episodes are often completely mundane but without any of the usual positive characteristics of, for example, a typical SoL show. There is no humour, very little romance, generally unremarkable visuals, etcetera; there's often just nothing of entertainment value. This anime sometimes feels like watching paint dry.

Visually, the show is kind of dull. It's not poorly animated, but it is fairly 'no frills' and doesn't have much discernable artistic flavour. Sometimes there are some nice backgrounds, but these frames are infrequent. To put it another way, the show is visually adequate but certainly there is room for improvement. Occasionally the cinematography is nice, but again this is not the norm. I think there was a general trend of the outdoor scenes appearing higher effort and visually richer, as compared to the duller indoor scenes where most of the show takes place. Also, I didn't like the character designs at first but eventually they grew on me. Another subtle aspect here was character animation. During more-emotive scenes the character animation can be very smooth and detailed (for example, facial expressions during rakugo performances).

Given the importance of oration in the show, I'm thankful that the voice acting is pretty great. In fact, the voice acting was a significant source of enjoyment for me. Most of the main characters have very distinctive and refined voices that match both the time period as well as their own style of stage performance. The script is also sometimes quite thoughtful, as one might expect from a rakugo-focused show. As for the OST, it is nice overall, and the frequent sound of traditional Japanese instruments suits the theme of the anime. There is also a lot of 50s-ish-era music, which frankly I'm not a fan of but it is appropriate for the time period.

The actual rakugo scenes themselves are kind of boring to watch. They are often long and without any accompanying visual flair at all. Watching a character recite a simple short story (that you've often already heard!) for many minutes is not particularly exciting. I'm usually quite patient with this sort of thing. I think more could have been done to make the rakugo scenes entertaining. For contrast, take for example the shogi scenes in Sangatsu no Lion. I quite enjoyed these scenes because I could strongly feel the emotions of the characters, in addition to the creative visuals provided by Shaft. Rakugo could learn some lessons from these shogi scenes. Of course on the other hand, having absolutely no visuals at all is a more authentic depiction of rakugo. I suppose how one feels about the rakugo scenes will depend on how they prefer to balance cultural authenticity and entertainment value.

Is Rakugo a complex and intelligent show? Yes.
Did I enjoy watching it?
Only somewhat.

My overall rating: 5/10
There are elements of the show worth appreciating, but this doesn't fully compensate for all its other negative attributes.

Lastly, and I only bring this up because I know that some readers will have this on their minds, I'm completely indifferent to the paternity controversy. It did not change my view of the anime and I think that a lot of people overreacted to that aspect of the story. As far as criticisms of the writing go, there is plenty of fruit that hangs lower. I would even say that the paternity subplot was kind of clever, although its execution in the anime was poor. In any case, I wish people would stop obsessing over this and instead discuss the rest of the anime's substance. There is plenty of fertile discussion material.

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May 20, 2023

MurasameKills

Not Recommended

Funny

I really don't understand why this anime get's such good reviews, it's average at best hence my rating of 5. There are some nice elements that make it watchable, but ultimately the anime is boring.

SOUND: About what you would expect. It's average, good enough, but not good enough to overlook the drastically detracting qualities of this anime.

CHARACTERS: The characters and character development is good. Their back stories and origins are good. It's nothing special, new, or particularly enthralling, but definitely better than your average Shounen character development by a longshot. In fact, this is the best part of the anime. If you like slice of ... life, or anime's that focus on characters, their interaction, their development, and their relationships, then you may really enjoy this anime.

PLOT: Interesting enough. Without going into spoilers you can see above under characters what to expect here. Character relations and interactions are the main focus. However, the plot is also not good enough to overlook the drastically detracting qualities of this anime.

ANIMATION and DIRECTION: I combine these two elements together because they are both easily the biggest issues that this anime has and are related to each other. THE BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH THIS ANIME is that it is boring. Specifically the Rakugo is boring. Other reviewers have discussed this as well and it's just bad. I took the advice of another reviewer and searched up Rakugo on an "unspecified video hosting site" (you know the one I just don't know if I'm aloud to advertise it on MAL), and saw a Rakugo performance of the Shinigami, which is one that is discussed and performed in the anime. The one on the video hosting site was 1000x better performed, voiced, and acted than anything in Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu. The characters are not animated (speaking figuratively here as they are obviously 'animated') when performing, the voice actors are boring and just speak faster. It is literally just the characters sitting there, talking fast in Japanese, with a laugh track over it. A real Rakugo performer takes on different postures, voices, and characteristics for the characters they portray. A real Rakugo performer will whisk you away to a different world and build imagery in your mind of the story they are telling. A real Rakugo performer is not even close to what is portrayed in this anime. There was so much that the director and animators could have done to really make this a fantastic anime. So, animation and direction get an F.

THINGS THAT NEEDED TO HAPPEN TO MAKE THIS ANIME JUSTIFY IT'S 8 ON MAL: First, it needed to have better voice actors, or rather, voice actors should know how to portray different voiced characters... Really no excuse for the voice actors on this one. I know they are not Rakugo performers but they are VOICE ACTORS! Voicing different characters in a Rakugo performance should be no problem for them. Second, the Rakugo performances would have benefited from some serious sakuga (for the characters characterizations during the performance) or just other animations. They play around with this in one Rakugo performance where we do cut to a black background and see some other images from the story being told, but it's sparce and underperforms. Three, I understand that they need to tell the Rakugo stories fast because there is only 23 minutes per episode (except the first one) and that a real Rakugo performance can easily be 30 minutes. So, if the director cut the stories down to the most essential parts, directed the voice actors to use different voices for characters in the Rakugo performance, and directed the animators to visually animate the world of the story being told, then this anime would justify it's 8 or even a 9. I know that Rakugo is not a visual medium, but anime is, so animation should have been a key factor in this show but instead, it's just garbage.

Overall: 5 Average. The only reason that I scored this as a 5 instead of a 4 is because 4 is "Bad" and this anime is not bad, it's just deeply flawed, had some very bad choices made by the director, and is just plane boring. If I had to sum up this anime in one sentence it would be "A missed opportunity for greatness."

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Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu

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Yuurakutei, Sukeroku

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Tsuburaya, Mangetsu

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