English Dub Review: Akane-banashi “Senior Apprentices”
OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Akane is officially made the latest apprentice of Shiguma Arakawa and is taken under the wing of one of his older apprentices, Kyoji. Kyoji gives her some unexpected feedback on her performing skills and sends her to a bar to practice connecting with the audience.
OUR TAKE
Akane reaches a crucial milestone in this episode of finally being accepted as an apprentice Rakugoka…which I honestly thought she already was last time but I guess this is where it’s official instead of just a trial period. As shown last episode, she’s learning under the tutelage of Shiguma Arakawa, the master who trained her father, which he did mainly out of guilt for what happened with said father, but also because he thought she would get bored and give up eventually. Well, no such luck, as that would make this a really short series, and we’re only really getting to know the ins and outs of Rakugo as a form of entertainment. And despite an impressive showing in the previous episode, we know that Akane has a long way to go to catch up to her father’s previous level. This is shown pretty immediately in her next public performance, where while she gets an alright reaction from the audience of senior citizens, it’s nowhere near the reaction she was hoping for. And it turns out there’s a reason for that, as despite throwing “everything she’s got” at them, it wasn’t really the speed that would most connect with this demographic. As her upperclassman apprentice Kyoji points out, she’s kinda selfish in how she approaches this and sends her to the ninth circle of hell for training…CUSTOMER SERVICE AT A BAR.
Naturally, she starts to pick things up after a bit, most notably when helping a man who can’t speak Japanese order a beer, but this is a key example of how this story handles its niche subject matter in an accessible way for readers and viewers who may be accustomed to more expected ways of showing “training”. Training in a lot of Shonen stories is more direct and requiring physical endurance and action, but Rakugo is none of those things. It’s still a skill that Akane as the main character is learning about to seek promotion and advancement, but as a performer, whether or not her skills are showing improvement is entirely reliant on the reaction from the audience, which could be any random group of people at any given time. It’s true that trying to please everybody can lead to pleasing nobody, but making sure you get the best reaction out of a crowd relies on being able to connect with a broad group of people for a set amount of time. It won’t always be as simple as connecting with one guy in a bar, but being able to do that is a sign that Akane is on the right track. And we’ll see where that leads her next time!
