Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu: Sukeroku Futatabi-hen

Even after having risen to the utmost rank of shin'uchi, Yotarou struggles to find his own identity in the world of rakugo. Caught between his master's teachings and the late Sukeroku's unique style, his performance lacks an important ingredient—ego. And while his popularity packs the theaters, he is but one of the few; rakugo is under threat of being eclipsed.

Meanwhile Yakumo, regarded by many as the last bastion of preserving the popularity of rakugo, struggles to cope with his elderly state. Even though his performances are still stellar, he fears that he is nearing his limits. His doubts grow stronger as an old friend creeps ever closer. Konatsu, for her part, attempts to raise her son as a single mother, which Yotarou is heavily opposed to. Instead, he seeks to persuade her to marry him and in turn raise her son as his own.

In Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu: Sukeroku Futatabi-hen, the curtains fall on Yotarou and Yakumo's story, tasked with restoring the near-obsolete art form as well as overcoming their internal conflicts.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Yuurakutei, Yakumo Main

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Yotarou Main

Seki, Tomokazu Japanese

Yuurakutei, Sukeroku Supporting

Yamadera, Kouichi Japanese

Konatsu Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuu Japanese

Miyokichi Supporting

Hayashibara, Megumi Japanese

Matsuda Supporting

Ushiyama, Shigeru Japanese

Shinnosuke Supporting

Komatsu, Mikako Japanese

Tsuburaya, Mangetsu Supporting

Yusa, Kouji Japanese

Kotaro Supporting

Iguchi, Yuuichi Japanese

Oei Supporting

Saitou, Eri Japanese

Kamei, Hiroshi Producer

Urasaki, Nobumitsu Producer

Yamazaki, Yoshihiko Producer

Yada, Shouko Producer

Reviews

Mar 24, 2017

riorangel21

Recommended

This show hands down one of the godtier series in the history of anime. When it comes to drama, Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu as a whole is insanely topnotch / masterpiece. Not being biased here, I mean the show is just that good, flawless + with insane direction and editing by Studio Deen.

Story 10/10 Simple and boring you might say but the narration of the series is topnotch, with thoughtful editing + with masterful direction, the show just climbed up the rankings easily, surpassing its 1st season. Overall flawless storyline. It is just that good and you might know the show had those insane plottwist ... on the 2nd half of the series :)

Art 9/10 Nothing special when it comes to frame by frame animation but when it comes to cinematography the show just stands out. With good camera angles and with very realism type of editing, the show proved that animation is not only just the key to make a topnotch quality series.

Sound 10/10 Hell yes, from the shounen type of opening from both seasons to the one of the emotional endings i've seen. The 2nd Ending just hits you so hard with its mellow type of sound and then partnered with a very stimulating visuals that helps both art and sound to be one of the selling point of the series.

Characters 10/10 Oh boy, did just everybody got all their fokin character development? From Sukeroku to Yakumo upto Yotaro and Konatsu and even Shinnosuke. I mean every characters are well fleshed out with great interactions with the help of the great voice actors of the series. It is insanely overwhelming to watch.

Enjoyment 10/10

Overall 10/10

One of masterpieces of modern anime. Studio Deen is just so good at making this one. Surpassing the 1st season and even the Manga. Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu is a flawless - godtier - topnotch - moving - stellar - " m a s t e r p i e c e " on drama genre. "Never" anything came closely to this series from all Anime of 2016 and Anime of Winter 2017

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Mar 25, 2017

ItIsIDio

Mixed Feelings

The second season of Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu cemented the series as an undeniable masterpiece for me is what I wish I would be saying right now. However the second season lost a lot of the aspects that made the first season of Rakugo great for me.

If you were to ask me what the first season was, I'd say that it was a story about the industry of rakugo and the life of two men that grew up together and were raised to work in that trade. If you were to ask me what the second season is, I'd say that it is about the ... state of where the industry could be going, and concluding Yakumo's character arc. The way the series tries to present the state of rakugo and where it moves going forward is through Yotaro, a new character of whose sole purpose is to constantly reiterate that Rakugo is to be preserved, and Yakumo's reluctance for rakugo to be changed and not die with him. The problem here is that Yotaro gets focus only for the first few episodes, where he has to get inspiration and get over his bad reputation dug up by the media and convince his wife that he is a good father for her son and a good man for her. This gets resolved in about 2 episodes and afterwards all the focus on Yakumo. After these events, in all becomes about Yakumo and his deteriorating health. At this point is when this season of Rakugo simply becomes "oh guys we love rakugo so much how can we improve rakugo is yakumo alright is rakugo alright". Every episode pretty much relies on delivering a Rakugo piece and knocking Yakumo down and then bringing him back down only to knock him down again and it repeats this cycle until this season reaches its end.

It is about 5-6 episodes of stagnation with the characters merely being in a cyclical state until the season reaches its end and things can happen in a way that feels final rather than repetitive. Two of the episodes don't really have any effect on the overarching plot but bring more flesh into the universe, two are about Yotaro as I have had said and the last two conclude the series. So we have about 2 episodes about the new generation of rakugo performers, about 6 episodes simply stagnating the story with events of the same nature told in a slightly different way, 2 episodes that while I actually considerably enjoyed far more than the other episodes because the details they brought in universe and the Rakugo in them, but I still consider them filler since they don't impact the plot moving forward, and the last 2 episodes that are wrapping things up. Frankly, to me it felt like it had no idea what it set out to do, other than present us with more rakugo, while not advancing the plot because the story planned itself to end with a certain event. It dragged on a couple of times, and for the most part it felt like a pointless continuation, due to the fact that it feels like it keeps bringing up more of the same. The mere existence of Yakumo as an unresolved character that got a lot of focus, even when his character would get fixed to be deteriorated again, brought no value to the story and by the time it ended, because I simply couldn't care less anymore. The episodes where he wasn't a much of a focus point in this season were my favorites, simply due to the fact that I didn't know what I would get and I had no expectations.

Quite frankly, due to Yakumo's existence and Sukeroku's legacy, the characters hardly got anything besides blood ties and admiration to define them in universe for the most part. None of them really have real impact on the events but they are either related to Yakumo or enjoy Yakumo, which I guess the series thinks is reason enough to keep them around and relevant. I do find Yotaro acceptable as he is a reformed criminal who wants to have a positive outlook on life. But there are characters such as a writer that simply chooses to stick around because he wants to write new rakugo stories and he likes rakugo. That's his motivation and personality. He is constantly around and he at best brings exposition, at the worst he just makes his presence felt. What is the point of having a character who is like "Rakugo is such a beautiful thing. It should be preserved and kept alive." who brings no real contribution to the events of the story? His personality is rakugo. His impact on the events is artificial and he feels like he is a device to present that things should progress.

You need to understand that I can't really contain my dissapointment when I complimented its first season for its really strong of storytelling, where it presented all the essential details and developed on its characters in a smart way, presented flaws and difficulites they went through, as well as their strengths. The events mattered because they were shaping Yakumo into the person he became, because of the certain point he got in life, but the events this time around don't really sway impact because this season is simply preparing Yakumo for the end, with every event in the story being like flowers on a gravestone. None of the events in the story seemed like they had any impact on the universe and there were no real difficulties the characters tackled, outside of Yotaro and Yakumo, who kept struggling repeatedly with the same things which made things repetitive. I couldn't care about the characters and the story was all in all a mess. There were still things I enjoyed like the rakugo stories told in these season were really entertaining, for the most part. I especially enjoyed the one told by Konatsu, Sukeroku's daughter, in front of her kid's classroom. But this second season was not at the same quality of the first season, as it seemed to have no direction for its entirety, thing that I would stayed felt the opposite way the last time around.

To conclude, the second season of Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu took too much time to reach its conclusion and presented a lot of details that I couldn't find relevant to the overarching plot, and therefore lost my interest, due to too much foreshadowing and stating the direction it wanted to go to outright through a character of whose role was exactly that. While in the first season, I knew exactly where I was going and what to expect and I enjoyed it, in this season I disliked it, because the execution isn't as strong, because the events aren't as impactful due to them being repetitive by nature of not having lasting consequences on its characters or skipping directly to the desired result, the characters therefore don't feel as human due to that fact, as well as them not having any real difficulties in their lives to truly display any of their flaws or strengths, making a lot of them simply present, but irrelevant. There are rakugo pieces, but those mostly come to your discretion, as different stories impact people in different ways. I enjoyed most of them, but I can't and won't speak for everyone. If you're curious about how this season went on and I kind of turned you off, I will also note that this season doesn't really take away from the experience of the first season, unless you were really emotionally attached to the series. The first season still remains at the same level as it was, and I don't find it was a waste of time to find out how things in the universe of Rakugo have had concluded. But note, that it isn't gonna be what it used to be. It will just remember what it was.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Apr 16, 2017

SuperSecretOtaku

Not Recommended

Not only is this show not up to par in comparison to it's predecessor, but simply wouldn't be worth your time or consideration without it's lineage.

The first season clearly demonstrated how every character is shaped into who they became by preceding events, and almost every element introduced has a crucial role in the plot; in contrast, the majority of this season's plot elements are introduced, then simply go nowhere.

Take as an example, the desire to keep Rakugo traditional, versus the need to keep Rakugo alive through innovation. The first season heavily foreshadowed that this would be the main struggle of S2, and the ... first episode of S2 seemingly confirms this by introducing a character whose main goals are to write new Rakugo stories, and get Yotaro to tell these new stories. Of course Yakumo is opposed to this, and it seems that this push & pull between innovation & tradition may determine the fate of Rakugo's future.

But it doesn't. At no point does the plotline of new Rakugo stories actually go anywhere, besides the writer occasionally reminding the cast & audience that he's ostensibly here to push said conflict, but it also seems that writing new stories is completely unimportant to the survival of Rakugo.

This is far from the only violation in this manner. A mob boss is introduced, who has very little impact on the plot. Yotaro has a friend who appears multiple times throughout the show, only to have little to no impact on the plot. A shocking twist is revealed in Episode 7, which ends up having no impact on the plot whatsoever.

Ultimately the only plot lines that get resolved are 1. Does Rakugo survive and 2. How does Yakumo deal with his grief? These could have been good enough, but both elements are suddenly resolved in episodes 11 & 12, with the latter being resolved in one of the cheesiest manners possible. The majority of the season is just Yakumo almost dying, expressing regret at his past, and not really moving anywhere. Rinse, Wash, Repeat.

You can't just linger on what was good about last season for 12 more episodes and expect the product to be good. Not only are many of the Rakugo stories told this season just retellings of stories we heard in the first season, not only are the same conflicts carried over, but a decent chunk of one of the episodes is literally just playing footage of a Rakugo story from season 1.

In the OP, when Sukeroku lifts Yakumo's jacket, revealing nothing but bones inside, it clearly says that Yakumo is empty inside. Unfortunately, after having finished the show, I'd say it was a rather apt metaphor for the whole of season 2 as well.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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