Akane-banashi

24… I like the direction this took. Drawing from her personal experience to give meaning to the story.

The artist has been absolutely killing it. Gives you a feeling like you’re slowly sinking into water.

Ready to see Akane make the audience cry.

I fully agree. It’s weird, but it’s like I can feel the weight of the story while reading.

And here we are.

No dramatic ending to the story, too bad. But now shit can get real.

Yeah the twist to the Jugemu story is that there’s no dark twist.

Issho is basically saying Akane is too good for this competition. Nice.

Unexpectedly, she did get the win. I thought after they find out that she's been professionally trained she'd be disqualified. Although I forgot, does Issho actually have a say in who wins the contest?

She wouldn’t have been disqualified, coz the funny thing is Akane was only able to join because they opened the tournament to high schoolers.

And I think yes, Issho is one of the judges.

There's just such a euphoric feeling in calling it. I knew Issho would be fucking PISSED about a pro being part of an amateurs competition. I expected him to have a more dramatic blow-up thought, but that silent seething acceptance of her skill was just as amazingly good.

I dunno if he's pissed that she's professionally trained, or more specifically that she was trained by Shiguma, who he apparently hates with a passion.

The competition is also meant for amateurs, and the only reason Akane is eligible to join is because Shiguma hasn't officially taken her as a pupil. That black-haired senior even said that it's dishonest for her to join an amateur contest despite having been professionally trained for the last 6 years.

Edited by Adept on Aug 21st 2022 at 11:23:26 PM

No she didn't. She basically just look at her dad and self-taught. Even her "professional" training as-of-late has been deliberately cryptic ideas she has to figure out herself and a few bits of advice from her seniors.

I'm pretty sure she was formalized in the chapter with her mom meeting with Shiguma since that's what it was all about. Issho VERY MUCH seems to have some negative history with Shiguma that's likely gonna get cleared up, but in this situation I strongly think that based on this comment that he's predominantly pissed about a pro joining an amateur competition seeing it as a massive faux pas which would fit with what seems to be a VERY traditionalist view of the Rakugo art.

To add, that chapter as well as the second one shows she had been receiving privatized lessons from Shiguma so while not formalized per se, she's being trained by a legit master if under the table which I think counts.

Edited by doomrider7 on Aug 22nd 2022 at 7:33:57 AM

New chapter is out and OOOF! The tension is HARD. Kind of expected the way the convo is going.

Of course he shoes away the reoprts when his explanation is "His method has a flaw, therefore he's blacklisted."

It wasn't even his method, it was one moment. Especially considering that he got into the swing of it as soon as he started. This is like kicking someone out of the actor's union because you saw them sweat before a show.

Creed of the Happy Pessimist:Always expect the worst. Then, when it happens, it was only what you expected. All else is a happy surprise.

I have a feeling this isn’t the real reason, or at least only part of it.

Remember it’s not just Akane’s dad, he expelled everyone on that day.

Based on this chapter, I don’t think I’ll really sympathize with Issho’s reasons for expelling that batch. Which I expected already.

Karashi catching on to what Issho meant was unexpected, but I guess it’s better to spell out since readers may have not understood the intent behind that statement.

I don't think Issho's criticism itself is even very good. Why is developing a rapport with the audience an invalid way to enhance the performance? Not to mention "your weakness must not be visible onstage" implies some real disrespect for the audience—as if they're not there to be entertained as much as psychologically dominated.

He probably believes it, but that doesn't mean it's true.

Issho can get a few points in, but there's no way to actually justify such an absurd stunt.

Agreed. Seems silly to criticize a performer for entertaining his audience.

Issho seems like the type to gatekeep— if it’s not “real” rakugo then it doesn’t matter if the audience is enjoying themselves, you’re still a “hack”.

Edited by fillerdude on Aug 28th 2022 at 6:40:08 AM

Ah, it's the classic technician argument, where art is not meant to be enjoyed but to be "mastered". The typical argument of that position is that if your craft pleases the audience but is not technically perfect, then you're just a phoney appealing to the Lowest Common Denominator, who themselves are basically plebes that can't distinguish between good and bad art anyway, therefore their opinion don't matter.

Although now that it's established that Karashi and the voice actor is way below Akane's league, I wonder if they'd stick around.

Well, Akane doesn’t have a shonen rival yet, does she?

I think Issho's whole thing is just having OBSCENELY if not full blown IMPOSSIBLY high standards. Like making the recovery that Akane's dad did by engaging the audience and skipping the part he's weaker in order to put more emphasis on the part he's strongest sat VERY poorly with him since he likely views it as chipping away at the story for your own convenience. Issho isn't looking for people who are good, he's looking for people who are PERFECT at Rakugo.

As for Karashi and Hikaru, I'd actually like it more if instead of just purely rivals it's a sort of mix between both that and fellow students or something of that nature(she helps them improve at Rakugo or gives them a closer in to Master Shiguma and in turn she adds some of their skills to her repertoire and their characters all get fleshed out together).

Edited by doomrider7 on Aug 28th 2022 at 11:43:06 AM

Kaisei? She does consider him a rival, even if he doesn't.

I feel like Karashi and the VA will show up again. Their approach to rakugo is non-traditional and they could develop into strong allies in going against Issho’s faction.

Also, well put, Issho is definitely the technician who unfortunately has a lot of say in his field.

One that plenty of readers agree with, too, by the look at some of the chapter's comments