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Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū Manga Ends on June 7

This year's 31st issue of Kodansha's ITAN magazine announced on Thursday that the final chapter of Haruko Kumota's Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū manga will run in the magazine's next issue on June 7. The tenth and final volume will ship this summer.

The manga's story revolves around a mature prisoner who was released on good behavior during Japan's Showa Genroku era (1960s to early 1970s). He is called Yotarō by others, a term that means an "anti-hero" or a "dim-witted man." When he returns to society, he starts a new life in rakugo (comic storytelling). Touched by Yakumo's role as the "grim reaper," he asks the master to take him in as an apprentice.

Kumota began the manga in ITAN in 2010, and the series received the "Best General Manga" prize at the 38th Kodansha Manga Awards, and was also honored with the Excellence Award at the 17th Japan Media Arts Festival Awards. The manga was also nominated for the 17th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2013.

The manga's television anime adaptation premiered on January 8. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it airs in Japan. A second series, Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū: Sukeroku Futatabi-hen (Sukeroku Anew Arc), has been greenlit. The manga was also adapted into an earlier two-episode OAV, with the first episode bundled with the manga's seventh volume last March, and the second episode bundled with the eighth volume last August.