Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū

Episode 11

Last week ended with Kikuhiko encountering Sukeroku and Miyokichi's child – the revenge baby, Konatsu – for the first time. Kikuhiko looks at her with apparent disbelief. He'd probably thought of her as something abstract, like a chain tying Sukeroku to Miyokichi, but here she is in the flesh. Fortunately, he's able to overcome these feelings to get to know Konatsu as an individual. As a rough, intelligent, and industrious little girl, her actions and naïve descriptions of home life speak volumes. Sukeroku and Miyokichi were such bad parents that Kikuhiko pretty much takes over caretaking duties upon arrival. Miyokichi was an emotionally abusive spouse, exacerbating Sukeroku's feelings of inadequacy and discouraging him from performing rakugo. Sukeroku couldn't keep a job, so Miyokichi had to take up sex work again – the very thing she hoped to escape in marriage. Eventually, she abandoned her family. Now alone as well as depressed, Sukeroku sleeps the days away. Meanwhile, Konatsu (who is at most six years old) has become the primary breadwinner, garnering pity cash with her baby rakugo performances. So yeah, this revenge-based romance went about as well as expected. Kikuhiko is horrified when he learns all this, but he came here with a mission – to get Sukeroku back into rakugo – and he isn't about to back down.

In a reciprocal scene to episode ten's climactic finale, Kikuhiko tell Sukeroku about his lifelong resentment and jealousy. With all the insight we've gotten into Kikuhiko's heart, I'd forgotten that all of this probably wasn't clear to Sukeroku. Like Kikuhiko, Sukeroku has been myopically obsessed with his own issues. Sukeroku's confession all those years ago was probably a humiliating bit of self-revelation, since it's unlikely that he had any sense of Kikuhiko's true feelings. So when Kikuhuko explains his own pain – how he's always envied Sukeroku's natural talent and artistic drive – it levels the playing field again, allowing them to resume their relationship on healthier terms.

This is largely conveyed by how both scenes use body language. In the scene at the end of episode ten, Kikuhiko confronted Sukeroku, and Sukeroku sat facing the wall during his confession, with his back turned to Kikuhiko. This showed us that Kikuhiko was realizing he'd never really known Sukeroku; despite their intimacy, he'd never really sought access to his friend's mind. But in this scene, their positions are reversed. Sukeroku corners Kikuhiko, and it's Kikuhiko's turn to confess that he's always resented and admired Sukeroku. He wants Sukeroku back in his life, not for lofty reasons like rakugo's survival, but because he misses him as a person. While they seem like simple words, people like Kikuhiko find these types of confessions difficult to make because they feel like expressions of weakness - "Needing another person means that I can't live by myself."

Kiku-san has abandonment issues, so he'd rather isolate himself than try to connect with others and risk more rejection, but this drive toward isolation is a weakness. Kikuhiko is a stronger person when he tries to overcome his fears and form emotionally intimate relationships, and he's finally doing just that. The two old friends face one another this time, indicating that this isn't another impasse, but rather a reestablishment of communication. Kikuhiko's confession of admiration for Sukeroku is also exactly what his friend needs to start crawling out of the depressive pit. He's spent the past five years being told (and telling himself) that he's worthless. Sukeroku would probably be better off if someone had hunkered down and helped him work out his bad habits earlier in life. Now Kikuhiko, having matured more himself, is ready to be that person. For as much as society can create the impression that your life should be set in stone by age 25, a lot of growing still comes afterwards.

Following this tense heart-to-heart, Kikuhiko pays off Sukeroku's debts, gets him working again, and cleans up his house. Sukeroku isn't willing to to perform rakugo yet – depression doesn't go away instantly – but at least the bare necessities are taken care of. During all this, Kikuhiko also bonds with a young Konatsu, who's inherited both her father's passion for rakugo and Kikuhiko's gender ambiguity. Since Konatsu hates her mother, she is now symbolically the baby of these two men instead.

The author's roots in BL are particularly obvious in this episode. A big chunk of time is dedicated to a domesticity fantasy of Kikuhiko and Sukeroku raising Konatsu, who enthusiastically accepts having two daddies. It's actually slightly incongruous with the rest of the show – they frolic through cherry blossoms like it's a shoujo manga. Still, it's a refreshing bit of happiness after the tragic spiral of the last three episodes. Next week looks to be the saddest material of all, so I'll forgive the reprieve. I have a high misery tolerance for my anime, and Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū more than meets it.

Konatsu is, of course, a foil to Kikuhiko. Kikuhiko, as a male-bodied person, was pressured out of his initial career as a geisha. Now he's doing the same to Konatsu, who's passionate about rakugo despite her female body. It's truly tragic that Kikuhiko is imparting the gender-based values that led to his own unhappy childhood onto another generation. Thankfully, there's some hope down the line. The glimpse we saw of a grown Konatsu indicates that she's resisted Kikuhiko's attempts to reprogram her future. She's a “tomboy,” in Kikuhiko's own words, who remains enthusiastic about rakugo. It doesn't look like she's allowed to perform, but she's still looking for chances. I'm sure that's all addressed in the manga's later chapters – apparently this anime only adapts five out of ten volumes! We'll probably end at a good stopping point to cap off the flashback storyline, but I'm hoping for a sequel, or even an English-release of the manga. C'mon – we got Ōoku, House of Five Leaves, and A Bride's Story over here! This is up the same alley!

This episode also contains a lot of talk about who each character performs rakugo for, ultimately leading to the two men forming an equal partnership. Kikuhiko performs for himself, as a way of processing and expressing his emotions. Sukeroku, by contrast, performs for the public en masse. While rakugo comes as naturally to him as breathing, it doesn't seem like he explores a wide emotional berth through his performances. When Sukeroku is happy, he performs rakugo. When he's not, he doesn't. He's a born performer whose self-esteem is reliant on how well he entertains others. When he can't do that, he falls into a messy spiral. Both of these relationships to the art form have nasty side effects. Kikuhiko ends up isolating himself even as he succeeds, while Sukeroku deflates when there's nobody there to prop up his ego. Together, they can reach a healthy balance, even while performing for an audience of one – their symbolic child, Konatsu. With her, there's the possibility of becoming a family through the mutual goal of raising their child with love. Of course, we know that doesn't happen, but the fact that it could have happened makes the upcoming tragedy all the sweeter.

This episode's rakugo segment is not even a little bit subtle about framing these two as a couple. They end up playing the male and female parts in a rakugo routine, Nozarashi. It's about a fisherman who finds a woman's corpse. When he offers it a prayer and some sake, the “bones” come back to life to become his wife. Of course, the man and woman in this routine happen to have the same exact dynamic as Kiku and Suke – the woman is the responsible one, while the man is fun-loving and spontaneous. There's also a motif of older partners being preferable to younger ones. This relates to how Kiku and Suke's “friendship” has only really blossomed now that they're in their thirties. They both had to grow up a little before they could really be there for each other. This also echoes Miyokichi, whose tragedy comes from the perception that her body – and therefore her personhood – has an expiration date.

While she's largely absent from this episode, we end on a reminder that Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū is not done with Miyokichi. The world hasn't fully burned down around her, after all. After a night of sex work, she hears that a Yurakutei is performing rakugo and breaks down in tears when she learns that it's Kikuhiko. It turns out that she's been expecting him, saying that he “finally came.” Not for her, of course, but I wonder whether she's still holding out hope. If she is, then seeing him play at domesticity with her husband and daughter could be the final nail in the coffin. Miyokichi only wants a place to belong, so seeing the man who rejected her happily occupying a space that should be hers (but she couldn't handle) will likely be too much. More than anything, Miyokichi wants to be needed. She only knows how to make herself wanted in a sexual capacity, so seeing a family that doesn't need the sexual woman – the only role she knows how to play – could cause her to kill Sukeroku and herself. Or maybe Kikuhiko will have a hand in both their downfalls. But however it goes down, I'd be shocked if Sukeroku makes it out of the next episode alive. This tragedy has been fattened up well, and next week is the slaughter. I'm practically salivating in anticipation.

Grade: A

Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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