Descending Stories: Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū

Episode 8

This week on Save Grandpa's Ravaged Soul, it's time to Stop a Geriatric's Reckless Suicide. While I glossed over this bit last time, Yakumo's recent medical crisis has wrecked his voice, and that's left him unable to perform rakugo – not just physically, but emotionally as well. You see, after years of vacillating between responsibility to live and his desire to escape into death, Yakumo is using this turn of events as an opportunity choose the latter. It looks like Kiku-san's darkness – the guilt over what happened to his friends, crippling fear of abandonment, and resentment of the world that brought about this whole scenario – has finally triumphed, with a little help from his fear of aging. Of course, in imitation of that fateful night so many years ago, he chooses death by water, and attempts to throw himself off of a nearby bridge.

Fortunately, Yotaro and Konatsu manage to catch him in the act. They happened to be sharing an intimate (not in a sex way) moment on the bridge when Yakumo hobbled on up. While Yotaro initially buys his claim to be out for a breath of fresh air, Konatsu sees through him immediately. This leads to a confrontation where Konatsu reveals how important he is to her – how in spite of her rough exterior, she loves him, and she fears a repetition of what happened to her parents – while Yakumo spills out his dark thoughts. He implies that the love he receives is a burden, but still clings to Konatsu when she embraces him. Ultimately, however, he pushes her away, overwhelmed by fear over his failing body. It's Yotaro who finally breaks the mood with his lighthearted practicality, insisting that Yakumo can't die because he hasn't heard his version of Inokiri yet. That's a good way to reason with a suicidal person, by the way – resist their attempts to tie up loose ends by reminding them of commitments.

At this point, the show turns into a series of monologues about aging. Basically, Yakumo is terrified of what's happening to his body, and also terrified of letting go of the neuroses that have defined his life up to this point. He commiserates with the yakuza Boss Man, who is going through a similar situation. Boss Man's deal is that – now in his 50s probably – he's starting to relax his grip on the organization that he's spent his life building. In doing this, he discovers that he's neglected other parts of life – most notably raising his son as a successor. That son appears to be Aniki, who's hanging around his house, surrounding himself with even more hints that he's Shin-chan's biological father.

Following this incident, our MVP Matsuda arranges a surprise party to cheer up Yakumo. They invite all of his favorite clients to show that he's still valued, even with his vocal troubles. Yakumo is a grumpypants about it but acquiesces when his old geisha acquaintance literally forces him into the room. He's set to perform, but first up is a routine by Yotaro – Shibahama.

Yup, it's that one – Sukeroku's final performance before his death, the one that Higuchi dug up on an old reel of film last episode. This is how Yotaro decided to reach Yakumo, and I've got to say, it worked its magic on me too. The performance is clearly inspired by Sukeroku's version, while still allowing for Yotaro's personality to come across. But the big thing is that, like Sukeroku, it seems like Yotaro is imbuing elements from his own married life into it. He and Konatsu are blushing throughout it, and it emphasizes the tenderness of his own marriage rather than the redemptive arc of Sukeroku's. Between that and the moment on the bridge, it looks like he and Konatsu have reached a breakthrough, and that their marriage may be transcending its platonic foundations. For Yakumo himself, he's shaken by this reminder of Sukeroku and just how much his family cares about him. He prepares to perform, only to be faced with a sudden interruption.

The cops bust in and arrest Mr. Boss Man, who is revealed to possess a name – Isao Kido. (Not that I'll stop calling him Boss Man, though.) That explains all of his fatalistic talk earlier in the episode – he knew that an arrest was coming up, and that he wouldn't be a free man for much longer. It sounds like he wanted to hear Yakumo's rakugo one last time before hitting the slammer, but he missed out on his chance by mere minutes. Ah well. This should serve as a warning for Yakumo to straighten out his life before it's too late. Even if he does regain the will to live, circumstances may not be too accommodating.

While last week's episode was a showstopper, this one is just as good, if not as thunderous. As I've said before, the trickiness to reviewing Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu by now is that the character arcs have all been well-articulated at this point. Now we're just evaluating how neatly they play out. The show hasn't made any mistakes, at least not yet. This scenario was beautiful as a confrontation of Yakumo's death wish and a resuscitation of his self-worth. That ED sequence leaves me stunned every single time – and it's not just because of its power in isolation. I tried to watch it on its own, and it's not the same. I just have to bask in the aftermath of each week's turn of events. While it's easy to anticipate the story's beats, it's unpredictable in its substance. A number of parallel stories continue to play out in the background – Mangetsu has returned to rakugo, Konatsu and Yotaro are coming together, and Higuchi continues his quest for the preservation of rakugo.

On that front, Higuchi tells Yakumo that he's been recording all of his performances, giving him the option of destroying them if he wishes to. This feels like Higuchi testing Yakumo to see if he can really go through with his professed aim of destroying rakugo. This event immediately precedes the suicide attempt, so maybe it's where Yakumo realized that he couldn't do that, but he also couldn't bear the responsibility of continuing to live. All in all, it looks like the show has escaped a period of darkness—although the real issue has yet to be addressed, and Konatsu remains to be illuminated to the reality of her parents' death. This was an important breakthough, but there are still a few miles to go before Kiku can sleep.

Grade: A

Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Gabriella Ekens studies film and literature at a US university. Follow her on twitter.