{"id":11710,"date":"2016-04-03T16:03:40","date_gmt":"2016-04-03T20:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/?p=11710"},"modified":"2016-04-03T16:03:40","modified_gmt":"2016-04-03T20:03:40","slug":"showa-genroku-rakugo-shinju-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/2016\/04\/03\/showa-genroku-rakugo-shinju-ends\/","title":{"rendered":"Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju Ends"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/image\/stars\/4o5.gif\" alt=\"4 Stars\" \/><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Final-announcement.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11716\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Final-announcement-550x309.jpg\" alt=\"Final announcement\" width=\"550\" height=\"309\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11716\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Final-announcement-550x309.jpg 550w, https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Final-announcement-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Final-announcement-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Final-announcement-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Final-announcement.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a>According to the announcement at the end this is &#8220;Act 1&#8221; of <a href=\"\/fun\/2016\/02\/01\/showa-genroku-rakugo-shinju-anime-early-impressions\/\"><em>Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju<\/em><\/a> (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.crunchyroll.com\/showa-genroku-rakugo-shinju\">Crunchyroll<\/a>.) But they didn&#8217;t give a date for the second season and  the wording of the announcement suggests that they haven&#8217;t lined up funding for it yet.<\/p>\n<p>This is a high-quality show. In American terms it&#8217;s sort of like the <a href=\"\/fun\/terms-used-in-anime-reviews#anime\">anime<\/a> equivalent of a BBC costume drama. But is there enough of an audience to sustain that? That&#8217;s not clear to me. (For renewal purposes the only audience that matters is the one in Japan, especially the number of fans willing to buy expensive Japanese DVDs.)<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Crematorium.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11717\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Crematorium-550x309.jpg\" alt=\"Crematorium\" width=\"550\" height=\"309\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11717\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Crematorium-550x309.jpg 550w, https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Crematorium-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Crematorium-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Crematorium-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Crematorium.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nIt makes a big difference whether we get a second season. The first season was fascinating (at least for anyone interested in traditional Japanese culture) but it doesn&#8217;t make a fully satisfactory story. It ends with the central tragedy that the title refers to, followed by a brief epilogue in the 1970s that leaves more loose ends than it resolves.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Young-Konatsu-with-Sukeroku.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11718\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Young-Konatsu-with-Sukeroku-550x309.jpg\" alt=\"Young Konatsu with Sukeroku\" width=\"550\" height=\"309\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11718\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Young-Konatsu-with-Sukeroku-550x309.jpg 550w, https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Young-Konatsu-with-Sukeroku-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Young-Konatsu-with-Sukeroku-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Young-Konatsu-with-Sukeroku-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Young-Konatsu-with-Sukeroku.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a>The biggest revelation of the last few episodes way the child Konatsu, who is just about the most adorable little brat that I have ever seen in any series. The brattiness is forgivable given what she has had to put up with. She makes a stark contrast with the bitter woman introduced in the first episode.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Yotarou-with-audience.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11719\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Yotarou-with-audience-550x309.jpg\" alt=\"Yotarou with audience\" width=\"550\" height=\"309\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11719\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Yotarou-with-audience-550x309.jpg 550w, https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Yotarou-with-audience-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Yotarou-with-audience-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Yotarou-with-audience-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Yotarou-with-audience.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nAfter Rakugo was devastated by the war the best hope for its survival as a living art form lay with Kikuhiko and Sukeroku, the most talented young performers. But the epilogue makes clear that they failed, largely due to their own personality flaws.  Rakugo&#8217;s survival hangs by a thread.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Konatsu-and-Yotarou.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11720\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Konatsu-and-Yotarou-550x309.jpg\" alt=\"Konatsu and Yotarou\" width=\"550\" height=\"309\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Konatsu-and-Yotarou-550x309.jpg 550w, https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Konatsu-and-Yotarou-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Konatsu-and-Yotarou-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Konatsu-and-Yotarou-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Konatsu-and-Yotarou.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nIt will be up to their heirs, Yotarou and Konatsu, to pick up the torch and make sure that Rukugo survives into the 21st century. (That won&#8217;t be easy since they are hardly flawless characters themselves.) This has to be the focus of the next season and I hope we get to see it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to the announcement at the end this is &#8220;Act 1&#8221; of Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju (Crunchyroll.) But they didn&#8217;t give a date for the second season and the wording&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/2016\/04\/03\/showa-genroku-rakugo-shinju-ends\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[655],"class_list":["post-11710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anime","tag-showa-genroku-rakugo-shinju"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11710"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11723,"href":"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11710\/revisions\/11723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugfox.net\/fun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}