Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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A dark horse of the season imo.
Never took notice of rakugo before until this show debuted. I just love the way the dialogues are delivered with the performances and the high quality of the characters makes this show stand out quite a bit. Hope it can keep up with the momentum. |
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Merida
 Posts: 1946 |
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Nice review, sums up my own feelings about this anime pretty accurately. This show managed to hook me from the very first minute and i love it when that happens, especially unexpectedly.
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5499 Location: Iscandar |
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I am loving this show. I just want to comment that despite never knowing that there is a thing called Rakugo, I found the show accessible and fell in love with it almost instantly.
To me the barrier of entry is a desire to watch mature character drama. This show has some Japanese stuff, but any seasoned anime fan should be able to catch up the important things. An A grade for episodes 1-2. |
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meiam
Posts: 3447 |
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Really liked the first episode but the second left me cold.
First I really hope we'll leave the past setting ASAP, serious stoic kid hanging out with orphan energetic kid that turn out to be better than him have been done to death. I guess it's fitting for a show where they practice an art that doesn't create new sketch and just recycle the same stuff. Second, the show is right, that sketch by Yakumo was indeed really boring, I know cause I stopped watching and started doing something else without even noticing. I understand they want to convey "this is boring", but there are way to do that without actually wasting 5 min of the audience time. |
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TheRahi00
 Posts: 154 |
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What is the other way ? In my opinion this was really good. They aren't half assing things and show what really is happening. It is boring and it is supposed to be boring. Of course this might be tiring but this is the point. Just like the audience in the anime we are supposed to feel the same way. The reason why this is actually good is because it feels more real, more natural and you can actually tell if someone is good or not. In the most shows you would be just sitting there and be like "Huh is he really that bad ?". Here you know for sure "Yes he is". The moment the next Rakugo performance started you could tell how big the gap is. This wouldn't work if they had just shown a 2 minutes scene. |
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Hameyadea
 Posts: 3679 |
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Episode #1-2:
I enjoyed the episodes quite a bit, and since those kinds of themes aren't on my radar, it was a pleasant surprise. I did, however, find the casting of Ishida Akira as (the Eighth Generation) Yūrakutei Yakumo a bit odd; he doesn't sound like an old-aged character. Maybe it is because he, Ishida Akira, is usually using similar tones for younger characters -- like Izana Wistalia Clarines from Akagami no Shirayukihime, or Katsura Kotarō from Gintama -- that I can't associate that tone with an older character. |
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Merida
Posts: 1946 |
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Hmm, he's doing a pretty good job IMO. I didn't realize that Yakumo was voiced by Ishida at first, to be honest. And i guess they wanted someone who'd be able to voice younger as well as older Yakumo. I'm quite pleased with that choice. |
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whiskeyii
 Posts: 2266 |
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Part of me is really curious if we'll see our rakugo practitioners end up being whatever the equivalent of "type-cast" is. I'm not sure we've seen Yakumo the Elder do a funny performance yet. Most of them seem to be grim and/or tragic. (And I have a really hard time picturing him slurping up imaginary soba.
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Saku-dono
Posts: 801 |
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This article is missing the fact SekiTomo totally nailed the MC's performance. If not for him, how could this be a good anime to watch? It is also said that he almost didn't have any second takes and that was totally awesome since "rakugo" is a very hard thing to do especially for the newer generation.
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Knoepfchen
 Posts: 698 |
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Great review, thank you, Gabriella. I look forward to following this show, here and on screen.
This is going to be a beautiful series. My favorite moment in episode 2 was probably when the camera cut away from the boys to briefly show the father washing his child's hair in the public bath house while Shin was telling Bon about the hardships of being abandoned, followed by Bon breaking down. Wonderfully sensitive storytelling. The performances are superb. I love how Seki and Yamadera share the same energy and even sound somewhat alike in their rakugo performances. Ishida's "bad" rakugo was probably acted even better than his awesome one from the first episode, when Yakumo told his story so vividly that we didn't just see different people talking, like in Yotaro's performance, but got to see glimpses of the story's setting intercut with him acting on stage. This series has awesome editing, intimate characterization, and the soundtrack is great as well - the way the nervous piano chased future Yakumo in his performance, adding to his nervousness? Wonderful. I can't believe the composer is only 25 years old. |
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Nosehair
Posts: 79 |
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its funny how you mentioned this is the likes of something that would win an oscar. When i first started watching anime, it was because it was so different to anything i had scene in western television and film. Now this is a perfect blend of western cinematography and anime, and I just can;t get enough of it. A good character drama will probably always be my favorite, nothing beats a great character.
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Maidenoftheredhand
 Posts: 2634 |
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So I am really enjoying this series for the characters, setting, drama, uniqueness, & voice acting....
But I am ashamed to say I do sort of find all the actual Rakugo scenes (whether they are supposed to be good or not) pretty boring. It is interesting to experience something from Japanese culture that I wouldn't otherwise be able to experience not knowing the language (if you saw real Rakugo live there wouldn't be subtitles) but after watching this I don't think I'd have any interest in seeing live Rakugo even if I could. The show just doesn't make Rakugo itself very exciting for me. Compare this to Chihayafuru or Hikaru no Go. I knew nothing about Karuta or Go before those series but after watching them I wanted to learn more about Karuta & Go. |
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raics
 Posts: 7 |
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Surprised myself a bit on this account, originally I thought I'll surely skip them but that didn't happen so far and some were actually interesting. |
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sunflower
 Posts: 1080 |
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I loved the second episode because of the chemistry between the two leads. They're so interesting because of how they affect one another. It was like watching two good actors play off one another. And too, this episode clearly showed what does and doesn't work in rakugo without having to get pedantic about it. It's very skillful storytelling.
I hope that fans of this show might be encouraged to seek out some storytellers who work in their own languages, because some are just as skillful and talented as the good ones on this show. |
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xyz
Posts: 243 |
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I'm loving this. Even though I enjoy the shows, none of them made me interested in the "sports." But it's always nice to watch a good story. (Hikaru no Go was exciting and I like Go but I didn't care to learn Go properly. I find Chihayafuru's Karuta boring as heck.) |
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