Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju

Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju Season 2 – Episode 5

Just, uh, gimme a minute to pick my jaw and heart up off the floor.

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Things had been looking up for our rakugo family as of late, but that may have just been the long slope to the top of a very steep drop. The final performance this week was so magnificently staged and such a major turn in the narrative that it’s tempting to ignore everything else and just focus on that, but there are a lot of tiny (and more optimistic) milestones that happen prior to it, and I’d be doing Rakugo Shinju a major disservice if I didn’t touch on them. Yakumo may be in a desolate place right now, but that doesn’t mean everything is.

Click here for the full post on Anime Evo!

Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju Season 2 – Episode 4

The One That Killed Me (But, Like, in a Really Good Way).

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Usually by the time I get to writing these commentaries I’ve poured all my flailing fangirl energy into tweets and can focus on that High Quality Analysis you crave, but this week…yeah, this week requires some in-post flailing, too, because Rakugo Shinju melted me into a puddle of feels repeatedly, and two days later I’m still in the process of reforming into a solid human-shaped blogger again.

Click here for the full post on Anime Evo!

Rule of Three Review: Winter 2017 Anime Digest

Easing on down the road, speed bumps and all.

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I keep thinking of this as a light season, but I’m still keeping up with nine series so clearly I have no concept of what “light” means anymore. Maybe by “light” I just mean there isn’t a lot of meat here: I’m enjoying what I’m watching, but with the exception of a couple of series there’s not a ton of in-depth discussion to be had. …Or maybe burying myself in Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju each week has just fried the part of my brain that analyzes things.

Probably the biggest bummer about this season is that the list of titles I would happily recommend to everyone is, er…not long. Lotta caveats this season, which means a lot of shows that could easily lose you and perpetually run the risk of losing me. As with everything in life right now, reckon we’ll just have to take it one day at a time.

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Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju Season 2 – Episode 3

Definitely gonna wanna memorize that rakugo rant for future reference…

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I’ve been unofficially calling this episode “The Declaration of Independence,” as it’s very much about the present looking the past in the eye and insisting it won’t be chained to it. Yotaro takes Yakumo’s advice to a literal extreme, facing his old life head-on. Konatsu slowly starts to loosen her hold on her parents and bond with her new family. And Yakumo allows himself to revive his adoptive brother for the sake of his adopted son. Real change, it turns out, can’t happen until you’ve acknowledged the past and connected yourself to the future, whether that’s via personal relationships or professional goals.

Click here for the full post on Anime Evo!

Panning the Stream: Winter 2017 Premieres Belated Mega-Digest

Premieres, second episodes…let’s not quibble on the details, shall we?

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Sorry this didn’t go up sooner. It should have. I had it in my head that I could work my 9-to-5, travel to a different city, help my best friend plan for her wedding, be IN that wedding, and still have time to watch all the anime premieres and write about them WHILE ALSO posting detailed episode analysis on the second season of Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju.

I, uh… guess it’s important that we all discover our limits so that we remember we are fallible and squishy and capable of mass exhaustion, eh?

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Hidden camera footage of me from last week

Most of these shows are already on their second episodes or heading into their third. Still, I didn’t say I wasn’t going to write a premiere post, so I felt like I had to get something out there. Here’s a very quick rundown of what’s earned three episodes, what’s on the fence, and everything else. On the plus(?) side, the potential watchlist is already shorter than usual, which is the only reason I had time to slap this together at all. As you’ve likely heard by now, it’s, uh, not the most abundant of seasons.

I’ll have a proper Rule of Three out next week, with proper write-ups for everything I’m still watching. If you’re looking for lengthier premiere posts, Amelia covered everything in-depth at Anime Feminist, and of course ANN had their crack team of reviewers preview all the things, too. Thanks in advance for your understanding! And now, at last, the winter premiere post~

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Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju Season 2 – Episode 2

It’s two steps forward, one step back.

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If Season 2’s premiere felt like a rebirth, this episode reminds us that karma still carries from one reincarnation to the next. The weight of the past clings like a–well, like a tattoo to the backs of all of our characters, reappearing through old faces, names, memories, and tales. And our new writer friend Higuchi is bound and determined to document all of it, even if he has to withstand the full-force of a Yakumo stink-eye to do it.

Click here for the full post on Anime Evo!

Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju Season 2 – Episode 1

Rakugo is back-ugo!

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My pick for Best Anime of 2016 wastes no time in this Season 2 premiere reminding me why it’s so special. Right from its opening monologue, Rakugo Shinju is a masterclass in storytelling, every element of the production accomplishing multiple tasks at once.

Take that brilliant Season 1 recap, which not only does the obvious job of summarizing what happened last season, but also reminds us what a rakugo performance looks like, ingratiates us to Yotaro (a character we’ve spent relatively little time with), and sets the general tone for this second season. It’s exuberant and honest and warm, a stark contrast to the quiet melancholy of the first season, and promises us that following Yotaro is going to be a unique experience compared to the time we spent with Kikuhiko.

Click here for the full post on Anime Evo!

The Josei’s Top 10 Anime of 2016: Part 2 (#1-5)

This year’s Top Five is so strong, it’s actually a Top Six.

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Did you miss out on Part 1? Fear not! You can click here for the year in review and the bottom half of the Top 10, including honorable mentions. Or, if you’re ready to check out the cream of the crop, you can hit the jump and read on for more.

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So That I Could Be Myself: Gender Performance in Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju & Yuri on Ice

Finding a place for yourself, on stage and on ice.

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“It’s not a kind of rakugo I can do. The more I hear, the more uncomfortable I get… Never mind it. I have my own rakugo.”

“Trying to be the playboy isn’t me. I want to be the most beautiful woman in town, who seduces the playboy!”

This year we’ve had the pleasure of seeing a pair of top-notch anime, Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju and Yuri!!! on Ice, deal with gendered expectations in two very different spheres: 1940s Japanese rakugo and modern-day world figure skating. Along the way, both series have challenged cultural expectations about how men should or shouldn’t act, and shown why it’s important to cast aside restrictive gender roles and play to our own strengths.

Click here to read the full article on Anime Feminist!

Glancing Upstream: Winter 2016 Retrospective and Review

Something something “the winter of our discontent.”

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This is my shortest retrospective to date, thanks to a pretty dismal season in terms of incoming series. Some of that had to do with my own time constraints and self-imposed ranking rules (there are four shows in the “unranked” category this season, three of which I’d happily recommend to others), but some of it had to do with there just not being a lot that caught my eye this time around. Still, the top two were pretty special, and if an anime season can give you even one incredible series, then it’s hard to call it a true disappointment, I s’pose.

If there’s one positive trend to take from this season, it’s that we’ve got some good artists and directors in the business: people able to take into account all elements of a production and elevate the source material, whether that’s from “meh” to “good” or “good” to “great.” So take heart! The blueprints may be rough at times, but at least they’re in the hands of skilled builders.

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