Akane loves the Japanese art of rakugo, but she really loves it when her dad is doing it. But when he suffers an unexpected and devastating setback, she’s determined to show the world how good he is, even if she has to do it in his place.
The fact that this is in Shonen Jump, is popular, AND I like it too has to be some kind of sign of the apocalypse. At first, I wasn’t sure if I had room in my heart for two manga about rakugo, since we already have the very enjoyable My Master Has No Tail covering this particular form of storytelling and doing it rather satisfactorily.
But this is very much, pardon the expression, its own animal and being set in the modern era would be enough to differentiate itself, but this also dispenses with the magical realism aspect entirely and focuses on how regular old humans do rakugo.
And it’s fascinating. We can’t go any further without giving big props to the manga’s art, which is really elegant at depicting the shifts in character and various actions used to perform rakugo. It’s a delightful way of doing things that easily gets across why this works and how much skill is involved. It benefits from being grounded in reality.
Akane is also a fantastic hero and super easy to like early on, as her introduction has her using the skills she’s observed from her father to take down an obnoxious bully, to a point anyway. She’s very plucky and hardheaded, but also very loyal to her dad.
Her style is neatly differentiated from her father’s, even though she has been learning the same things from the same places, just because he doesn’t know how to get past his nerves and the burden of being a provider for the family.
Which sets up a big turn of events that, yes, does look like it’s setting this up to be a rakugo battle manga with some real boo-hiss villains and special techniques and areas that people have expertise in and can Akane overcome these odds to win?
And I am absolutely here for it. I love subverting the competition style away from its more traditional leanings and into something unique and Akane has a compelling reason to keep going and with her dyed hair and youth she stands out amongst the others.
Even better? She’s not perfect. Even in this volume where she racks up some very impressive showings, it’s clear that she hasn’t completely mastered the craft and is more of a diamond in the rough than a brilliant artist who needs no polish.
It’s funny, it’s smart, it really makes a heck of a splash. It takes a thing that could be absolutely inscrutable to an audience and makes it easy to follow and even enjoy and that’s something that I never got from My Master Has No Tail, as good as that series is. Pile on some rivals and some other competitors and you have something I am really excited to see more of.
5 stars - eh, what can I say, I am in a generous mood, but a solid story and solid art can add up to something more and this hits the ground with an easy to grasp premise that makes a complicated performing art very digestible and palatable. It’s strong work.