Holiday Review: DESCENDING STORIES: SHOWA GENROKU RAKUGO SHINJU

Yuki Fumino isn't the only BL mangaka to make an impression this year.  Haruko Kumota primarily makes BL herself, but she finally made her print debut in English with her josei series about an obscure form of stagecraft and a LOT of complicated feelings.

DESCENDING STORIES: SHOW GENROKU RAKUGO SHINJU, by Haruko Kumota.  First published in 2010 and first published in North America in 2017.

PLOT:

Fresh out of prison, a young man is determined to find Yakumo,the rakugo master who inspired him and become his apprentice.  He manages to convince the difficult old man, but the newly dubbed Yotaro finds himself now caught in the middle of a long-simmering family feud between Yakumo, his adopted daughter Konatsu, and the dead man whose memories haunt them both.

STORY:

I confess that my anime backlog only continues to grow with every season, and that list includes Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju.  If its source material is anything to go by, then I'm truly missing out as Rakugo has some of the sharpest character writing I've seen in a manga in some time.

With simple, heart-on-his-sleeve Yotaro leading the way as audience avatar, we are plunged into the traditions of rakugo.  Kumota consulted with a professional Japanese rakugo association for this story and it shows in the level of detail we see.  Rakugo has all sorts of specialized ranks and jargon, and it's to Kumota's credit that she's able to explain all of these details without it ever feeling tedious.  Instead, we share in Yotaro's enthusiasm for the subject and learn it as he does.

What's more remarkable is how she handles the different, complex dynamics between our main cast, and even between them and some of the more minor players.  The heart of the story lies in the long-simmering tensions between Yakumo and Konatsu, as they snipe at one another over the fate of their memories of Yakumo's friend and Konatsu's birth father, Sukeroku.  Every glare and cutting word exchanged between these two speaks volumes to the layers upon layers of resentment and pain they have been accumulating for both their lifetimes, even before Yotaro's intrusion put many of them into the spotlight.

Their conflict is also a microcosm of one of the larger themes: the conflict between progress and tradition, the old and the new.  Rakugo is steeped in hundreds of years in tradition, but by the time we enter the story (which appears to be sometime in the late 70s) there are few performances spaces left and even fewer rakugo masters, and an audience that is increasingly distracted by the many modern pleasures of the world. The conflicts between Yakumo, Yotaro, and Konatsu are not just personal, but the struggle to determine if rakugo lives or dies with their generation.  That's some heavy stuff to ponder, but it's woven so naturally into the story that it becomes downright intoxicating.

ART:

Kumota's art reminds me a lot of Natsume Ono.  I think it's because she also tends to drawn these very long, gaunt sort of characters, although her faces don't have Ono's signature frogginess and she's a lot more precise when it comes to details like clothing.  Instead they have these squggly arcs for mouths and wildly expressive eyes.  Honestly, this manga would have gotten a green light from me on the faces alone, but where the art truly shines is during the rakugo performances.

Rakugo is a performance style that relies entirely on the voice and gesture.  As such, it should be kind of hard to translate to the page, as no matter how well you draw a pose or translate the stories, you can't literally hear the words being said.  Kumota manages to compensate for this through montages of expressions, gestures, audience reactions, and changes in fonts, and they're so well-drawn and put together that it gets the mood across even without sound.  That's no small feat, and it goes a long way towards drawing the reader into the story.

RATING:


Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju is nothing short of incredible.  Its writing is elegant and multifaceted, and the art is evocative and nuanced.  Rarely have I been so eager to read the second volume as I have been with this series.  This is a must-read.

This series is published by Kodansha Comics.  This series is complete in Japan with 10 volumes available.  4 volumes have been released and are currently in print.

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