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Snowflake challenge, day 8
Jan. 15th, 2025 05:22 pmIn your own space, write a promo, manifesto or primer for a beloved character, relationship or fandom.
So many options, but let's have a rec of underrated anime.
Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu
What it is? Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu in a two-season, 24 episodes, anime from 2016-2017 (there's also a manga, but I like the anime better).
What is it about? It's about art, it's about mourning, it's about family. It's historical drama with very intense and tragic m/m subtext.
Less abstractly: it's about rakugo, a traditional Japanese one-man-show type, where the main character plays all the roles. It starts when an old master named Yakumo the VIIIth (real name Kikuhiko) meets a former felon (and former yakuza henchman) who begs him to take him as a disciple. He saw one of his spectacles as part of an art-for-prisoners program and was never able to forget it, especially not the story about the god of death.
Of course Kikuhiko rejects him: he has never taken a disciple before, and thinks the rakugo is a dying art. But Yakumo is very insistent. And finally Yakumo accepts, but he will tell him of his past first.
The first season, after a first introduction, is the flashback of Kikuhiko's youth: the story of how he wanted to be a dancer but couldn't because of a bad leg. Of how he started his apprenticeship in rakugo instead under Yakumo the VIIth.
It's about his rival and best friend Sukeruko, the kind that seems to achieve everything by charisma and talent, while Kikuhiko was more the hardworking type. It's also the story of Miyokichi, a geisha (like Kikuhiko, she practices a dying art)
It's not a surprise, after having seen the first two pre-flashback episodes of the show, that it has a bad ending.
The second season is more centered on Yakumo, and his budging romance with Konatsu (the daughter of Sukeroku and Miyokichi, that Kikuhiko raised). But it's also about Kikuhiko becoming older and older, about the ghosts of his past that, after his confession from season 1, haunt him more than ever (and would it be possible he didn't tell everything, or even lied a little bit?)
What I love about it : I love stories about art, about the psychology and the mechanisms or artistic creation and performance. This story is about art, but also, it is a work of art by itself. The voices are incredible. Especially Ishida Akira who is is playing KIkuhiko, young and old. They also have Hayashibara Megumi as Miyokichi, Yamadera Kouichi as Sukeroku, Seki Tomokazu as Yotaro... Maybe these names mean nothing to you, but they are old anime celebrities, and I was joking, oh it's an anime about nostalgia and old age, they took the best voice actors of my youth.
About the nostalgia: in the flashbacks, I'm a huge fan of the ways it's a period piece, the way the everyday life of people after WW2 are described.
I love the relationship between Kikuhiko and Sukeroku. It would have been my ship manifesto if it was a ship manifesto :D
In canon, it's a triangle with Miyokichi, and even if of course we never see what the characters think, just what they say (and all the past is distorted by Kikuhiko being maybe an unreliable narrator), it looks like a Kikuhiko likes Sukeroku who likes Miyokichi who likes Kikuhiko situation. But the characters are complex, so putting it like this is simplifying it.
Anyway! Kikuhiko and Sukeroku start as rivals, with Kikuhiko bitter than Sukeroku has more talent than him. But he's the one who makes him ask the question: do you even like rakugo, why do you want to do it, and at one point, not only they reach companionship, but Kikuhiko's feelings for him and for his art start to get muddled.
And after Sukeroku's death, Kikuhiko stays haunted by him. It's, principally, a metaphor. The god of death story was one of the stories that defined them as actors. But it might also be hallucinations as his health declines. Or it can be a real ghost, haunting him. We'll never know. Supernatural investigation isn't the point. But the haunting is here, and it's beautiful.
Here is the first opening, with translation of the lyrics. The lyrics are mostly about Miyokichi, I think, but it gives a good idea of what it looks like.
The second one is more about the God of Death imagery, I love the aesthetic so much!
Some content warnings? Of course, you need to love tragedy and angst to watch it. There are happy moments, but it doesn't lead to a happy ending. Not for Kikuhiko at least. Yotaro, as the deuteragonist, has global better luck, even if he has his hard moments too.
There will be character death.
I happen to love tragedy (and also nostalgia) a whole lot. Especially with characters like this, that manage to be both extreme and subtle.
Also: some age gaps relationships, one of them that might not have happened but the idea is raised and it's almost incest, it's quite shocking.
So many options, but let's have a rec of underrated anime.
What it is? Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu in a two-season, 24 episodes, anime from 2016-2017 (there's also a manga, but I like the anime better).
What is it about? It's about art, it's about mourning, it's about family. It's historical drama with very intense and tragic m/m subtext.
Less abstractly: it's about rakugo, a traditional Japanese one-man-show type, where the main character plays all the roles. It starts when an old master named Yakumo the VIIIth (real name Kikuhiko) meets a former felon (and former yakuza henchman) who begs him to take him as a disciple. He saw one of his spectacles as part of an art-for-prisoners program and was never able to forget it, especially not the story about the god of death.
Of course Kikuhiko rejects him: he has never taken a disciple before, and thinks the rakugo is a dying art. But Yakumo is very insistent. And finally Yakumo accepts, but he will tell him of his past first.
The first season, after a first introduction, is the flashback of Kikuhiko's youth: the story of how he wanted to be a dancer but couldn't because of a bad leg. Of how he started his apprenticeship in rakugo instead under Yakumo the VIIth.
It's about his rival and best friend Sukeruko, the kind that seems to achieve everything by charisma and talent, while Kikuhiko was more the hardworking type. It's also the story of Miyokichi, a geisha (like Kikuhiko, she practices a dying art)
It's not a surprise, after having seen the first two pre-flashback episodes of the show, that it has a bad ending.
The second season is more centered on Yakumo, and his budging romance with Konatsu (the daughter of Sukeroku and Miyokichi, that Kikuhiko raised). But it's also about Kikuhiko becoming older and older, about the ghosts of his past that, after his confession from season 1, haunt him more than ever (and would it be possible he didn't tell everything, or even lied a little bit?)
What I love about it : I love stories about art, about the psychology and the mechanisms or artistic creation and performance. This story is about art, but also, it is a work of art by itself. The voices are incredible. Especially Ishida Akira who is is playing KIkuhiko, young and old. They also have Hayashibara Megumi as Miyokichi, Yamadera Kouichi as Sukeroku, Seki Tomokazu as Yotaro... Maybe these names mean nothing to you, but they are old anime celebrities, and I was joking, oh it's an anime about nostalgia and old age, they took the best voice actors of my youth.
About the nostalgia: in the flashbacks, I'm a huge fan of the ways it's a period piece, the way the everyday life of people after WW2 are described.
I love the relationship between Kikuhiko and Sukeroku. It would have been my ship manifesto if it was a ship manifesto :D
In canon, it's a triangle with Miyokichi, and even if of course we never see what the characters think, just what they say (and all the past is distorted by Kikuhiko being maybe an unreliable narrator), it looks like a Kikuhiko likes Sukeroku who likes Miyokichi who likes Kikuhiko situation. But the characters are complex, so putting it like this is simplifying it.
Anyway! Kikuhiko and Sukeroku start as rivals, with Kikuhiko bitter than Sukeroku has more talent than him. But he's the one who makes him ask the question: do you even like rakugo, why do you want to do it, and at one point, not only they reach companionship, but Kikuhiko's feelings for him and for his art start to get muddled.
And after Sukeroku's death, Kikuhiko stays haunted by him. It's, principally, a metaphor. The god of death story was one of the stories that defined them as actors. But it might also be hallucinations as his health declines. Or it can be a real ghost, haunting him. We'll never know. Supernatural investigation isn't the point. But the haunting is here, and it's beautiful.
Here is the first opening, with translation of the lyrics. The lyrics are mostly about Miyokichi, I think, but it gives a good idea of what it looks like.
The second one is more about the God of Death imagery, I love the aesthetic so much!
Some content warnings? Of course, you need to love tragedy and angst to watch it. There are happy moments, but it doesn't lead to a happy ending. Not for Kikuhiko at least. Yotaro, as the deuteragonist, has global better luck, even if he has his hard moments too.
There will be character death.
I happen to love tragedy (and also nostalgia) a whole lot. Especially with characters like this, that manage to be both extreme and subtle.
Also: some age gaps relationships, one of them that might not have happened but the idea is raised and it's almost incest, it's quite shocking.
