あかね噺

It's the whole idea of giving us a comparison point of a different way of evolving a story vs whatever Jugemu Akane gives us with her entry. It's what makes Akane Banashi so good. It's both a shonen sports series and yet dives into creativity, performance, communication and how to adapt traditional things like rakugo into a modern world. There's a lot of depth to its goals, not just popcorn entertainment.

Interesting, I like your interpretation, but I had a bit of a different read on it. I think Karashi is actually more focused on pleasing his audience. He wants to give them what they want (i.e. laughs), but doesn't care enough about either telling a story of his own, or faithfully recounting the classics. Based on what I've seen, there broadly seem to be three styles (although of course it's a spectrum and there's plenty of overlap). A. Focusing on recounting a relatively pure version of the classics. You do your research and try to be as faithful to the past as possible. B. You adapt the classic to a modern setting, and to your audience's experience especially. C. You adapt the classic to your personal experience and inject your own life into things. It seems like Karashi is going for B? Also it's reinforced by how when going out with friends, he wins prizes and buys stuff for his friends, but he doesn't seem to get anything out of it except satisfaction. So sure, there's ego there, but it's more a people or crowd-pleasing ego rather than what would be seen as more self-centred ego. Edit: I also notice the blonde girl didn't seem very happy when Karashi passed her a drink, unlike his other friends who were happy with their stuff. So I think there's something there...

The focus on crowd-pleasing detracting from his characterisation is interesting. This is a bit more of a stretch, but I wonder if part of the reason he was getting so many laughs out of the young crowd was less that he was telling the story well than that the audience saw humour in the contrast between the modernized story and the very traditional format. The older judges might have seen it as mockery: the audience wasn't laughing at the tale, but the absurdity of the telling.

That was a Very clever way of representing Karashi's style. He doesn't care a bit about what traditional Rakugo is and doesn't intend to follow its rules, at least at this point. He's the representation of self centered with overconfidence due to being a Genius. Nothing speaks more to his style than having his characters being him with wigs. It shows that's how he sees the characters he's portraying.

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Issho's all about pushing for Rakugo to be more popular with everyone nowadays. So he's making an effort to make the Younger generation get into Rakugo. Issho sees Rakugo as a sinking ship and sees himself as the only one able to save it. So he will make any effort possible to push the New generation to love It. So he spares the amateurs who aren't even Rakugoka yet from his usual harsh criticism. But If It were a Rakugoka competition, then he wouldn't spare anyone from his harsh criticism.

I see it differently. If we are meant to believe that Isshou actually wants to revitalize rakugo, he is perfwctly fine with Karachi adapting classic stories for modern audience (and we guy has,a point as the pist-credit scene shoved), but he saw throufh Karachi that ge foes not care about the art and just tries to xatter to the main audience (plus ignors the remaining part of the,audience) and so Issho's words are exactly what they meant. Tge one laughing the most are not the viewerrs but Karachi himself.

I don't actually think he was above perfection. And this doesn't even come from me being a purist. My main issue with his modernization is that he seems to just do the bare minimum. Meaning, he just changes the old terms for modern ones so audiences can understand what is going on. And don't get me wrong, this is a good way to adapt something. Especially on an amateur level. However, the reason why I don't consider it above perfection is that that's it. Like, in a modern setting, you wouldn't expect someone to go around asking random people what a certain scientific term means. He would either go directly to experts in the field (since it's easier to just approach them) or just use Google. Now I understand that this would kind of break the old gag. But this is what I mean when I say it isn't perfection. I'm a perfect modern adaptation, a lot more things would be changed so that the original gag still comes through, but at the same time, character don't still act like they are from 200 years ago.

but the term that he replaced it with is one that would specifically be hard to google because it's so generic and has a bunch of different meanings. like, BM is used scientifically in english too, but go google "BM" right now and see what comes up. even adding stuff like "animal," "science," and "livestock" don't get me the answer. i'd say that the fact that it's a really generic, ambiguous acronym that could mean a bunch of stuff and isn't easily searchable. and he wouldn't go to experts in his field, because those would be the people senior to him in the department, and he doesn't want them to know he doesn't know; that's why he's trying to bully juniors, instead. people being too proud to admit they don't know something is absolutely still human behavior 200 years later.

Not really. If I just google "BM abbreviation" one of the first pages that comes up is the Wikipedia page that has all the abbreviations for different fields. And in the field "science and technology", there are literally just 7 of which only the 4 in health and medicine make any sense: Bachelor of Medicine (which doesn't make sense) Bacterial meningitis Basement membrane Boehringer Mannheim test Bowel movement Bermuda internet domain (which doesn't make sense) Builder's measurement (which is related to ships so it doesn't make sense either) And I am not sure if it is this hard to understand what could be meant from that when you usually also have some form of context. Now as mentioned, I don't think it is actually bad. As said, it works for what he wants and it is funny. However, it is far from perfect. And that wouldn't be a big issue if he didn't think that it was the best form of Rakugo already.

Fwiw they are presumably using the Japanese version of Google/wikipedia which would likely provide different results. It’s not hard to imagine that the extra layer of obfuscation provided by the term being from another language would cause it to be more obscure. Or maybe it would make it more clear, but the average audience member probably doesn’t have experience googling foreign science acronyms, so it becomes plausible in their minds.

Of course, one can say that this might add to the problem. And again, I am not saying that his adaptation was bad. Just not perfect. My point is just that knowledge is far more obtainable in modern times than it was back then. Back then, he would have to ask the doctor, now he could get this information from anywhere else. And this does have an effect on the "punchline" as well. The main punchline in the original was that it was a more medical term for something really simple and the man just didn't know because he was a normal person, but was also too embarrassed to just ask even though he has no reason to be embarrassed in the first place. But this time, the main character is a student in this field. Not knowing a seemingly common abbreviation can feel a lot more embarrassing. Especially towards your direct professor and not just a doctor. So while the main gag of him being too prideful to just ask still exists, it has less of an effect, because the situation is very different. In fact, if you don't know the original, you might be wondering if the main gag of the story is even that the main character is just believing what his junior tells him (where his junior is obviously not just taking the first answer he gets) without checking despite having the option to do so. And to be honest, I think the story could work in a modern setting like that. Where it's less about the main character being prideful and more about him just believing a convenient answer without using the tools he has to check and getting punished for it.

Yep, basically every art form built around storytelling needs at least two branches: one that reinterprets stories in a way modern audiences can connect with, and one that preserves the classics, which people can later move on to once the newer adaptations help them understand how the medium itself works. The classics were also modern in their time and made for contemporary audiences, so it makes sense to keep doing that.

I've heard observations in past re: Akane-Banashi that there's a lot of interesting parallels between rakugo and Shakespeare -- both have a body of existing stories that get performed and adapted. You wouldn't think "well everyone knows what happens in Romeo and Juliet already so why would you perform/watch it?" in the same what rakugo stories presumably work. Similarly they both started as like mass public entertainment for the common man, but over the course of centuries traditions and pasted down/scholarly approach they've adopted more of this less approachable more high brow gate-keepy aura or reputation in contrast to their plebian origins.

Jugemu and Tenshiki are both fairly short, typically even on the lengthier side being 15m at most. I have a CD of my oshi (the one thing with rakugo on CDs is that, barring really long stories, there is no need to restrain oneself in performance length like one would do at the yose or even at own solo show) that has his version of Tenshiki and, including the makura, it clocks in at 15m 47s for reference.

Before this episode, I never thought Rakugo is capable of making me laugh. While I rooted for Akane, it was because she's the MC, and because of her background. Not for one second because I found the stories she was telling was good, interesting or remotely funny. Karashi's story actually made me laugh out loud... Thanks for sharing that "gen Z rakugo" like how Karashi does here is real. Maybe rakugo has a future IRL after all given that I'm 35 yo, not a "Gen Z", yet his story was still funny.

I think Karashi's approach is an interesting one and it was definitely a good choice to use a story we had already heard and knew the punchline to which made it easier to understand what and why things were changed. I also liked the "Akane kobanashi" corner this time where he explains that several stories feature the same character, but he is magically always different. Which is kind of funny. In general, I do think that making stories modern can work, especially when it comes to old words that no one uses anymore and that and people don't understand. But then again, I always have the same problem when watching American movies or series and they are talking about feet instead of just using meters. However, I would also say that you can still criticise the approach a bit. Like with this story about "BM", you can question if it even makes sense to translate it into modern times this way. Because nowadays, no one would go around and ask people what this means. Instead they would just use Google which destroys the idea of the gag obviously. I am not saying that I can't have fun with the story told this way, just that I think, if you truly want to modernize it, you might have to change a few more things. Karashi seems to not be too interested in actually working out new stories that fit into the modern times, but just change old ones and make them feel modern by adjusting terms and setting. So when he says that others can't compete with his modern way of Rakugo, I feel he still fails to see that the best Rakugoka probably create their own stories and not just tell existing ones. Of course, it is not expected for someone to come up with their own story at this level, but all I am saying is that a bit of humility would go a long way for him. Now as for Issho, I don't think he really appreciated this retelling, but I get the feeling that he just wants to save face in public. I was already wondering why he even attended an event like that. Not that you can't be interested in the youth, but these aren't even upcoming pro Rakugo, most of them seem to just do it as a hobby while studying or working. So I doubt he is that interested in them in the first place. Which begs the question who made him attend this event. Also lastly, I just wanted to mention that I love that Akane's mom also still has a certain level of hate for Issho. Because he truly deserves that.

It's a retelling that grabs some of the structure of Tenshiki, but Karashi's grappling with Tenshiki is still rather superficial. There are more layers to it, the kind that Issho understands well, and that Karashi just left behind. And it's not as if he is making them more universal: he's just picking a different audience that will get it, while alienating another. It doesn't solve any problems, just kicks the can down the road. A top of the line performer needs to he able to handle multiple audiences all at once. It's a student competition, so it's not as if issho really expects perfection... but it sure isn't whatever he is looking for. Karashi is just not trained enough to blow his socks off.

I guess that is a good point as well. Since I don't know the stories by heart and just from the anime, I can't really say what the other layers are. But since that was Akane's whole insight with Jugemu after all. At the same time, I wouldn't even be that critical of him. After all, he is a hobby Rakugoka. But him being so arrogant about his style is obviously not making him more likeable in that sense.

I also liked the "Akane kobanashi" corner this time where he explains that several stories feature the same character, but he is magically always different. Which is kind of funny. Karashi treated that as a bug but I treated that as a feature. It's like Yotaro is the main character of the ensemble world of rakugo and we've seen him from job-to-job to finally getting that wife he long sought after! Also lastly, I just wanted to mention that I love that Akane's mom also still has a certain level of hate for Issho. Because he truly deserves that. You just know if she could walk up and slap him for what he did to her husband, she would, but she'll vicariously enjoy her daughter going toe-to-toe with him.

Instead they would just use Google which destroys the idea of the gag obviously. I think Karashi actually considered this. This is why it's "BM" and not an actual word like "tenshiki". If you were to google BM you'd get lots of nonsense, for example I get a bank and a rapper. By searching "BM cattle" I get stuff about a breed called Beefmaster, a couple beef suppliers, and a paper about cattle body mass.

DJ Karashi is in the house! That was an ingenious approach to Rakugo by seamlessly mixing old and new. It’s certainly one of the most appropriate style considering the majority of the audience were the younger generation. I’m seeing a pattern with Issho’s critique. The harsher he was, the higher his view of the performance. For all the villainy with his expulsion, he seemed to be a fair judge. Not sugarcoating the cons, while still highlighting the pros. It’s now Hikaru’s time to enter the stage while exuding all that aura. I can’t wait to see her performance. Guessing her performance would rely more on technical skill – more specifically her voice considering her background as a VA.

I did not expect to see Karashi with a dump truck today, but here we are. 😆 In all seriousness, Karashi's style is definitely interesting. The dude took a classic and turned it into his own by adapting it for the modern audience. While he did get a lot of laughs for his intended audience , he couldn't entertain the actual person who matters the most in that room. You can definitely feel Issho was going easy on him with that judgment, but Karashi definitely still felt the sting of his initial comment.

Despite taking after her father's love of Rokugo, based on her vocal mannerisms Akane takes after her mother a lot. What's with this electronic ass music when Karashi is taking the stage? Also all the characters even the girls looking like Karashi with his whack face is hysterical. And looks like we'll be getting at least an episode each for the 3 main performances of the Cup. Love it. What a fucking fantastic episode. And now we're back to the cute stick figures for Akane small talk.

After this episode I think if Akane loses it will be to Hikaru. Issho's critique makes me struggle to imagine him picking Karashi to win when he did not personally find it funny. Something I've been thinking about is I have a gut feeling Karashi will be the maverick who modernizes the Rogkugo stories, Hikaru will do them straight up using her VA skills to optimize it, and Akane will be somewhere in the middle after the advice she got a couple episodes ago to help make Jugemo her own.

Hah, wouldn’t surprise me. Surprisingly deep question… Hahahahahaha There’s a quick “sore demo” from Ikken. Calling Akane “Jugemu-chan” is honestly pretty funny. Ooooh… So he’s performing a story updated to the modern era, huh. I can’t wait to see what Akane does to Jugemu in comparison. Ohhhhhhhhh this is a modern version of the Tenshiki story Akane performed earlier in the show! Wow… Damn, RIP. At least he still praised his performance, though? True…

Damn, RIP. It's quite smart of Issho to say the performance couldn't make him laugh. He's already got a reputation for being fierce, so if he said he loved it, people would almost certainly think he's lying. But he sprinkled in a bit of truth by saying that he didn't like it, so that his praise would sound a bit more genuine. I agree with other commenters here that he's probably still putting a mask though. Also, quite cute of Akane's teacher to look so worried when Issho first spoke, even though Karashi's not even her student hahaha

You'll never convince me that Karashi isn't Hirako Shinji. I really enjoyed his approach to updating the old classics. I had to chuckle at his BM BS bit, and it's even approachable for international audiences. But while it's clear, he did a lot of research, it's clear that he focused too much on what didn't work and not enough on the deeper stories behind it. Like in this story, it's about the social dynamics and rigid hierarchies at the time. Or how a monk, who's supposed to strive for humility, wisdom and understanding, refused to do so because he had to safe face. Perhaps, if he had made it about a blowhard president surrounded by yes-man, the message of the story would have been maintained. Just like in his flashback, he recognized how favor relationships and be approachable and liked. He good great social skills and charisma. But in his approach he failed to recognize that the blonde girl tried to have a more personal relationship with him as he treated her on the same personal distance as everyone else. But that’s probably where he can grow on a personal and technical level. Plus, while he gave an excuse for why they didn't use Google, it's not a very good one. He can grow there too.

Isshou has really changed in all those years after he tore a man apart from his dreams. Seeing him praise a non-traditional rakugo performance after how hard he went on Akane's father made me wonder what he truly felt inside, I can't help but think he's filtering himself. I do wonder what made him change the way he conducts himself.  Nerimiya's way of adapting rakugo is interesting, he did sound like he wasn't all that invested in it from that conversation with his classmate, but the post-credit scene shows that he's really done a lot of research on it.

Karashi’s rakugo was my favorite we have seen so far and the one that got the most chuckles out of me. I feel like they kinda portrayed him being as being a villain not just for his arrogance and rudeness towards Akane but for choosing to do Rakugo for people pleasing and modernizing the rakugo stories for that even calling it compensating but to me that is just a very smart decision that I respect. It isn’t just copy pasting the old story in a modern setting, he seems to carefully change it to fit them theme but feel natural in a modern setting. To me that choice of his style is really cool and I like the guy even if he is an arrogant dick. Which is why I was annoyed but not surprised by Issho’s reaction. Karashi knows deep down that old bastard hated it but had to pretend he was fine with it and saying it wasn’t his style was the nicest thing he could say. Issho deep down is probably seething that he can’t banish every single kid that performed today. Also Koguma complained about Guriko’s disguises but he still put them on and went to the show in them and didn’t complain until they were inside.

It's nice to see Masaki supporting her daughter, not just in her Rakugo career but in taking it to THAT MAN who screwed her husband over...while also teasing her daughter in the process, but that's her duty as a mom. The pressure is on in this leg of the Karaku Cup, but at least Karashi was nice enough to give Shohei a pep talk. I mean, why worry? Karashi is going to take the whole thing anyways again. Great disguises Guri! No one is going to realize you and Koguma are more than just two middle-aged Rakugo fans! Ikken the Hedonist! Though he seems pretty reasonable and nice. And also Ryujaku (Kazuyuki Okitsu!) from Osaka! Though the judge to watch out for, as always, is Issho...even if he is putting on his nicest face for the cameras and audience THIS go around. But it's likely an act...especially one those who know him best can see through. Still, SO much tension when he picks up a microphone. Karashi has absolute confidence in his craft, and it's not without just cause considering he's calculated his Rakugo to best win and it's succeeded TWICE by this point. He doesn't use classic Rakugo, he adapts it to modern times while still keeping the spirit and feel of true Rakugo, even as he portrays a story where he's cosplaying as all the characters (including the women!) and talking about "bowel movement" of all things. But you can't argue with the results because the audience IS entertained. My condolences to the guy in the Rakugo Club Karashi was in who got outshined by him and dissed for staying true to the "classics." Also, was there something with that blonde lady? I caught some vibes. Though Karashi seems popular with women in general, the jerk. Karashi's Rakugo is not Issho's tempo...but he's not the target audience and he can't deny people enjoyed it (what about Akane's dad though!?). And despite how Karashi acts, being acknowledged by Issho in any form means a lot. Can Jugemu-chan defeat Karashi's modern Rakugo with classic Rakugo? How will Hikaru fair in her performance? Find out next time, on Akane-Kobanashi! Akane-Kobanashi! Just because Karashi disses classic rakugo, doesn't mean he doesn't understand it! Or how to convert everything to modern convenience! Also, the saga of Yotaro!

I totally side with the old fart in this one. I'm all up on updating stories with more modern set ups. But for starters, Crow dude's story involved more characters compared to the original that had only 3 essential characters, there was a point in his updated version that I got lost with so many characters. The punchline from the original story felt pretty much lost in this revamped one. I guess the highlight for me in this episode it's Akane's presure towards a popular guy who already has the younger audience in the pocket while her Jugemu rakugo it's meant to be incredibly basic and were waiting for a shocking spin off with very basic material once she jumps into stage. It will be fascinating how much can she "tailor" Jugemu like Marge tailored her multipurpouse chanel suit.

Akane and Akane-Mom have such a good report between them. Well, nothing wrong with having a little Chiffon Cake in life every once and a while. Classics and tradition are important to carry on, but at the same time don't let the terms like classics and tradition become a straightjacket of sorts. There's nothing wrong in and of itself with trying to make a classic thing appeal to modern audiences while still respecting the classics for what they are. And besides, without getting modern people interested in classics and tradition, then who's gonna be willing to learn to carry those things forward to the next generation after you.

I think if it weren't for Issho needing to maintain his long-cultivated persona, Karashi's performance would be heavily criticized by him. In my view, Rakugo is not just a form of performance; it also represents a culture, the different stories of different characters from that era. Those terms that seem obscure today are necessary. Karashi applied a modern worldview to the classic Tenshiki segment but merely swapped out the terms without putting much effort into interpretation, that's a very sensationalist and superficial approach.

interesting, we've gone from a whole round in one episode to only one story. Makes sense though, the previous round was a done deal and there wasn't much point in spoiling how the two rivals do stuff back then. I wonder if the voice actress lady is going to try doing Jugemu as well to copy/snub Akane. Especially since the mentioned the order. Normally that would really hurt Akane's chances since the audiance already heard it once in the previous round, now again with the VA and by the third time there would be no laughs. Although I think it will backfire since she thinks akane will just rely on her speedtalking again where the VA has the advantage, in reality Akane will edit it and make herself look better in comparison.

Jugemu-chan is cute! I like how bratty she was being with her mom. Karashi certainly pulled the laughs, but the way those laughs were framed made the performance feel disrespectful. It makes me wonder what he'd be able to do with a tragedy. Judging by the post-credits scene, he does do his research at least. It was pretty hilarious seeing all of the characters with his face. Issho saying "it's not for me, but good effort, we need that spirit in the art" is fitting for the occasion. Lol at Guriko's terrible disguises. It's no wonder that Issho and Shiguma don't get along after the shit that Issho pulled.

I really enjoyed this episode and I definitely understood the appeal of Karashi’s rakugo! if I spoke Japanese I honestly wouldn’t mind on the weekend going for a drink or two then listening to one of these adapted Rakugo stories because they feel like an actual comedy performance rather than the snapshot of cultural heritage and expression from the Edo period that most Rakugo tales seem like me. Also shoutout to the translation team on the akane banashi youtube channel, they made the wordplay really easy to follow and I was able to just sit back and be amused by the story without being lost by anything culturally. Really interested to see what Koragi’s story is gonna be and how she tells it especially if they present it like they did Karashi’s. I doubt it but it would be wild if she does Jugemu too because she said she wanted to beat Akane. Next weekend can’t come soon enough!

Being a total newbie at Rakugo, that was such an interesting take of Rakugo. A modern adaptation of it, really makes it much more easier to process. Also loved how they showed Karashi performing as different characters on the story. That said, I was expecting to see both Karashi and Hikaru perform but I guess each of them will get a whole episode to show their performance. I just can't wait to see Akane's Jugemu.