Not everything comes to us naturally nearly as often as we like. At the end of Winter 2016, I wrote my initial review of the first season of Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu immediately. And at the end of Winter 2017, I tried to write a review of the second season, but I never knew what I wanted to say. The unique style of storytelling of the first season lent itself to a review that could focus solely on that aspect. But season 2 of Rakugo is so much more streamlined in its presentation. The sense of narration from a storyteller, as we saw his story brought to life, is absent. And yet season 2 of Rakugo is still exponentially more compelling than its first season—which was already a masterpiece in and of itself.
But I have always felt like this whole series is mostly about time more than anything else. And it took well over a year to figure out that subject matter is my thesis. The first season ended on a cliffhanger as to whether rakugo as art was ever going to survive the upcoming decades; but we, as an audience in reality, know quite well that it has. That was never a mystery and the show doesn’t treat it like one.
In fact, Yakumo does see it changing. It’s true that he made a promise to Sukeroku to let rakugo evolve, and that’s why he took on an apprentice. But that never meant that he has to like doing it. The simple matter of fact is that he’s a stubborn, grumpy old man because the art he dedicated his life to isn’t what it used to be. And let’s be honest, that can reflect on all of us in some way or another no matter what our age is.
Meanwhile, everyone around him is trying to offer a helping hand, but that can only come in the form of changing his ideology. It’s an uphill battle for everyone. No one wants to see Yakumo die miserable in a world he hates, and Yakumo doesn’t want the world he hates to influence his favorite art after he’s dead.
Reality spoke as to what side wins out in the end though a long time ago. And so once again this series exercises its magic to engage in the drama of characters of whom you mostly already know the outcomes. It’s less so this time, as season 2 is in the present within its context; but the theme remains all the same.
And that theme has always been time all along. This show is patient with its audience and expects us to be patient all the same. We go through the entire lives of several characters, so we can see how time has affected them and what the time they’ve spent living, struggling, failing, screaming, laughing, loving, and pursuing their dreams has meant to them. That was not a magic hook that could be communicated in just one season as that was only the prelude to all of the actual development in their characters that happens this season.
Season 2 of Rakugo is the reward anyone could have dreamed it being, and infinitely even better than that. It’s paced so perfectly well that there’s nothing more to add. It delivers an experience that’ll compel you to enjoy it, be moved by it, cry with it, and most importantly, reflect on your life alongside it. You can describe the act itself, but that feeling transcends words.
Screenshots
