News
Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū TV Anime Premieres in January
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The September issue of Kodansha's Good! Afternoon magazine announced on Friday that the television anime of Haruko Kumota's historical manga Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū (Shōwa Genroku Era Comic Storytelling) will premiere on MBS' "Animeism" programming block in January.
The manga's seventh volume bundled a "Yotarō-hen Zen-pen" (Yotarō Arc Part I) original anime DVD (OAD) on March 6. A second OAD, "Yotarō-hen Kō-pen" (Yotarō Arc Part II), shipped with the eighth manga volume on Friday.
The story of the original anime DVDs revolves around a mature prisoner (played by Tomokazu Seki) who was released on good behavior during Japan's Showa Genroku era (1960s to early 1970s). He is called Yotarō by others, a term that means an "anti-hero" or a "dim-witted man." When he returns to society, he starts a new life in rakugo (comic storytelling). Touched by Yakumo's (played by Akira Ishida) role as the "grim reaper," he asks the master to take him in as an apprentice.
