English Dub Review: Akane-banashi “What They Want”
OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Akane and the other six finalists observe Karashi use his own style of Rakugo: taking classic stories and updating them with modern elements for a modern audience.
OUR TAKE
As much as I am enjoying learning stuff about Rakugo alongside Akane as our point of view character, I find myself enjoying seeing others show their own specific styles of storytelling just as much. In this case, we get an episode focusing on the specific version used by Karashi, the guy who looks like Shinji Hirako from Bleach. His way of storytelling is a way that I’m honestly kinda surprised I didn’t think of: updating the seemingly dated stories typically used in Rakugo with a modern setting so that less informed audiences can more easily know what’s happening in them. Western audiences are by no means unfamiliar with this concept, as countless movies and shows have updated their stories, characters, and conflicts to a then-modern setting to varying results, and many adaptations of Shakespeare plays, which may be a closer comparison, often do this as well. Also, apparently it’s not just high school students competing in this thing, as Karashi is apparently in college and the first to have two consecutive wins in it, so that’s neat that Akane is competing against older Rakugoka who are also her peers. I’m sure we’ll see plenty of differing styles from the other competitors like that actress in the remaining episodes.
Unfortunately, as much as Karashi does seem to be winning over the crowd, we know that’s not going to be enough for Issho, the judge of this event. His appearance last episode made it seem like he may have softened in his older age (though he looks exactly the same), but we see here that is not the case, as he not so subtly throws Karashi to the coals, chastising him for making his translation of a story to a scientist studying fecal samples as excessively childish. Which…I can’t honestly disagree with. I did find it funny, even if I got to the punchline before he could say it, but I can also see Issho’s point. We still don’t know why he went so far as to expel Akane’s dad all those years ago, and we’ll probably learn eventually, but it seems we can at least tell that he has a very high standard for Rakugo as an artform. And as much as he is very welcoming of newcomers who bring fresh perspectives, he is much less tolerant of what he considers to be diluting it for general audiences. We’ll see what that means for Karashi and the others in the remaining third of the first season!
