Showa Genroku: A classic love story of boy-meets-rakugo.
Having at last found his voice, Kikuhiko’s star rises swiftly, as his performances earn him accolades from audiences and masters alike. But one person’s success can sometimes be another person’s loss, and the rapid changes occurring this week are as much about unraveling personal connections as they are about tightening professional ones.
The party is shrinking faster than expected.
While it’s not unheard-of for me to drop shows between the third and sixth episode, my retention rate is something like 80 percent. Basically, if you can hook me after three, I’m usually invested enough to stick around through the whole cour even if I wind up with a negative opinion of the show.
This season, though? This season there was enough mildly entertaining mid-range stuff that I threw it all at the wall and waited to see what would stick. Not much of it did, and some of the results surprised even me. Hit the jump to see where we stand halfway through this chilly season.
Getting by with a little help from your friends.
We’re still ratcheting up the intrigue and plot points, but even so, this week felt more Snow White-like than the past two, as everyone managed to take a breath and remember who they were: Smart, skilled adults able to deal rationally with their problems and—most importantly—work together to do it. There may be “many different resolves” here, but they’re starting to cooperate both practically and emotionally. And if this show has taught me anything, it’s that focusing on what you can do while also trusting others to do the same is pretty much always a good thing.
They say you should spend this day with a loved one, so…
Seeing as how it’s Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d begin this post by saying something I’ve neglected to mention throughout these many words of character analysis and directorial discussion: I am completely, utterly, over-the-moon in love with Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju. I give myself a couple of days to write these commentaries because my hot takes would just be several paragraphs of caps-lock gushing and a bunch of sparkly-eyed, flailing reaction gifs. Every week I think I’ll get used to how good this show is, and every week I am once again floored by the sheer amount of thought and artistry that goes into this production.
You know it’s a wild day when even Shirayuki looks overwhelmed.
Has everyone had time to catch their breaths after that whirlwind of an episode? I said last week that our story lines were beginning to converge, and this week we saw them all slam into each other with a tension and force Snow White has never had before, spinning us between locations and characters and surprise twists that leave our normally easy-going cast reeling. I never thought I’d say this, but Monday can’t come fast enough.
Shakespeare may be nations and centuries away, but “all the world’s a stage” has never been a more apt sentiment.
Has there ever been a series with as much unabashed love for performers and performance as this one? From the many rakugo stories to the bursts of shamisen music to this week’s low-budget kabuki play, Showa Genroku depicts Japan’s classic performance arts with a careful attention to detail and a fierce respect for the mediums.
Yet the series never lets itself slip into rose-colored nostalgia; rather, like the rakugo-ka who preserve the tales of Edo (and therefore its lost world and the flawed people who lived in it), Showa Genroku seeks to capture with the same blend of affection and honesty a time, place, and people who no longer exist. And it accomplishes this the same way humanity so often has: Through the telling of stories.
Being popular isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Shirayuki finds herself at the center of a storm both political and martial this week, as various story lines converge and new ones begin to take shape. Princes in the ball room, kidnappers in the hall, and unwanted ships and ‘ships looming just out of sight. So much for my “sleepy little slice-of-life fairy tale” synopsis.
Shh—don’t tell anyone, but I may have dropped another 1500 words on the rakugo anime. Again.
If the past two episodes were about building the bonds and demonstrating the importance of Kikuhiko’s makeshift rakugo family, then this one is about showing how those bonds could one day unravel. Yakumo’s story has always carried a strong undercurrent of longing and melancholy, but this is the first time we’ve really felt a creeping sense of dread, that we’re on the roller coaster ramp climbing to an inevitable fall. We’ve known it was coming since we got in line, but that’s not gonna make the drop any easier.
I’m not as cold about this winter season as I worried I’d be, but…
You may have noticed the distinct lack of “Rule of Three” posts over the last week, and there’s an odd reason for that. While I’m still watching way too many shows, and still enjoying them for the most part, there’s surprisingly little to actually say about them. With a few exceptions, this is a fluffy (or maybe “trashy”) kind of season, more entertaining than expected but difficult to review because a lot of it boils down to “it’s fun and I kinda like it.”
So rather than force myself to find 2-4 paragraphs worth of things to say about 10 new series (sequels don’t get Rule of Three Reviews), I figured I’d just write 1-2 about each of them. Digest post, go!
Good thing Snow White has a better sense of direction than Prince Raj does.
There’s an alternate universe where this is a terrible episode of anime, where Raj is an insufferable prig who tears at the comfy sweetness of Snow White like a cheese grater. Fortunately for us, we live in a universe with BONES animators and Fukuyama Jun, who know how to ride the fine line between annoying and hilarious with sympathy and wit. So, while this might not have been the most graceful or subtle of episodes, it still wound up being a pretty entertaining one. Sometimes it’s nice to live in this universe, doncha think?
The Josei Next Door 