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Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū
Episode 5

by Gabriella Ekens,

How would you rate episode 5 of
Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū ?
Community score: 3.6

So Yakumo has finally begun to come into his own creatively. Surprisingly, the discovery doesn't come from a rakugo performance, but rather a play put on by rakugo performers. Sukeroku sets this up to make some cash and encourages Yakumo to take part. The only catch – he'll be playing in drag. With some help from Sukeroku and Miyokichi, Yakumo pulls off the performance, along with a style that finally works for him. Career-wise, everything's starting to come up Yakumo, but will he be able to keep his unresolved feelings bottled up for much longer?

The Miyokichi situation is also getting complicated. Yakumo has given in to her advances somewhat and spends time with her – albeit not in a sexual capacity. She kisses him, but notices a reticence on his part, and doesn't push things beyond that. While their relationship began with Miyokichi attracted to Yakumo, it may be going in a different direction as she recognizes (and maybe respects) the exact nature of his feelings. As Miyokichi's conversation with her geisha superior indicates, their relationship needs to be kept secret from Yakumo's master (who holds some propriety over Miyokichi as his mistress), and shouldn't be as illicit as a typical sexual liaison anyway. Based on Yakumo's newfound asexual comfort around her, the relationship may be taking on maternal overtones. Miyokichi is also the one who initiates Yakumo's crossdressing, which spurs a number of important revelations on his part.

I've still got to wonder what she wants out of all this. Is it just a shallow attraction to Yakumo? That seems too simple for me, but there may be a cultural barrier at play here. Ladies in this show consider Yakumo some sort of Adonis. I guess it's because he's the story's closest thing to a bishonen, the gold standard for masculine beauty in BL and the genre this mangaka cut her teeth on. Japanese standards for gender presentation also allow men to get way more feminine than the norm for the West. In fact, a degree of androgyny is prized, as evidenced by the vast majority of yaoi, visual kei bands, and male idol groups. This is a bit jarring to my eyes, since Sukeroku (buff, unkempt, constantly has his man-titties out) is closer to the standard of male beauty I'm used to. At least Yakumo agrees with me.

Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū is the kind of show that conveys most of its meaning through subtle directorial choices. Explaining them will involve talking about specific directorial choices in detail, so I'll try to keep out the film studies jargon, but forgive me for getting down and dirty when discussing the editing or cinematography. Fortunately, I'll be talking a lot about visual metaphors for genitalia, so that's bound to make things less boring.

On one level, Yakumo's gender-bending soiree doesn't provide the revelation you might think, because it doesn't give his barely concealed romantic love any melodramatic catharsis. Yakumo doesn't even seem to have recognized his feelings yet. That part of the show continues to peek out at the audience through a reversal of the male gaze. (Sukeroku is shown in a way that's typically used to designate women as sex objects.) There's also the increasingly obvious phallic symbolism. (Take note every time hands grasp a long, slender object of Yakumo's). Still, the moment is transformative in a different way for Yakumo. Our hero has finally begun to come into his own creatively. Yakumo has never had a talent for the more raucous, comedic style of rakugo that Sukeroku excels that (and that most popular rakugo tends to learn towards), but we've also never seen him test out the more subtle, suspenseful, and erotic rakugo that he was recommended earlier. He tries something like that for the first time in this play, where he acts out a man crossdressing as a woman for the sake of a con. For the first time, he's able to capitalize on his sex appeal – which seems to exist in tandem with his gender ambiguity instead of against it – and he feels exhilarated by the audience's gaze. For the first time, he's able to command the audience like Sukeroku does, but using his own methods – sexuality, tension, and ambiguity rather than humor. These talents appear to be key to Yakumo unlocking his artistic talents, conjoining the paths towards his sexual and artistic awakenings.

Yakumo feels uncomfortable around women because he feels that he should be attracted to them, but isn't. Meanwhile, his attraction to Sukeroku, a man, is also a source of discomfort. But when Yakumo dresses as a woman, that discomfort is neutralized somewhat, and the reality of his attraction rises closer to the surface. This comes to the forefront when Yakumo has an in-costume conversation with Sukeroku before the show. While shots of Yakumo looking at Sukeroku had previously been gaze-y – directed in a manner that suggests the camera is "checking out" the person pictured – this is the first time the show has made use of full-on phallic symbols. Previously, metaphoric members had just been present around Miyokichi when she was trying to bang Yakumo. This time, the revealing shot is a closeup to Yakumo grasping his fan, while staring at Sukeroku's raised finger. The shot comes in two parts – there's one moment where the finger is in focus, and the next where Yakumo's gaze is in focus. This exact moment may be when Yakumo begins to realize what he feels for Sukeroku. It's such a specific shot that it suggests something important about what Yakumo is looking at, which means it might mean that Yakumo is beginning to realize his feelings on a more conscious level.

It's funny that exactly one year ago, I also covered another show about same-sex attraction in Japanese society, gender as performance, and lovers' suicides – Yuri Kuma Arashi. On the surface, these shows don't have much in common. Yuri Kuma Arashi is a work of high surrealism that didn't even try to take place in a plausible reality, while Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū is extremely grounded in its historical setting and emotional tenor. Beneath that, however, they're both about the same thing – how social conventions dictate who you can be, and how art serves as an ambiguous space for the expression of secret desires. In Yurikuma, the theatricality was woven into the story's presentation, but in Rakugo Shinju, the "theater" is the content itself. It's a neat coincidence that I got to review both of these shows, although I doubt that Yakumo's story will end as happily as Kureha's.

Five episodes in, and Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū is playing a complicated game with performance and gender. The storytelling is still a little too oblique for my comfort as a reviewer though. We're nearly halfway through this series, and I can't tell what will happen next, much less its ultimate trajectory. This isn't a flaw per se – it just indicates that Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū is deviating from the storytelling norms I'm used to in anime. It's a subtle character-based drama in a medium that rarely gets those. Maybe I should exercise a little more trust for this work. While it's been difficult to predict, it hasn't made a major misstep yet, and its direction and script display consistent mastery. This is also a show that I might have preferred to watch all at once rather than episodically. Either way, it's a joy to watch and write about week to week. While it's not for everyone, Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū easily continues to be the most challenging anime of the year so far.

Grade: A

Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Gabriella Ekens studies film and literature at a US university. Follow her on twitter.


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