This week on the #AniMangaPictureChallenge, we're going to gauge what we're watching and reading:
👁️ This Week 📺
It's always fun to check in and see what #anime or #manga everyone is enjoying these days. We tend to do this part way through each anime season to let everyone extol their favorite new content.
So, give us a peak into what's grabbing your attention This Week by @-ing @apc and by using the hashtag #AniMangaFoundIt to help your post be seen. Send entries by May 17!
@apc Good morning. And, well, I gave you all a chance. But probably there was a 0% ultimate chance I wouldn't cover a certain something here, since it is broadcasting newly this season. (Alas not straight into summer as well, but it's a 2-cour split, so it should be back in the fall.)
It already got two This Weeks before, but those were via the manga. If no one picked up the anime, I just have to make sure to CONVINCE EVERYBODY here!
https://urusai.social/@cthellis/114528707297705584
https://urusai.social/@cthellis/115519998509493470
Also just look at these best anisong! Summoning Southern All Stars for the first time!!
https://animethemes.moe/anime/akanebanashi/OP1
https://animethemes.moe/anime/akanebanashi/ED1
We of course #AniMangaFoundIt in Akane-banashi, by far the best series WSJ gots, and their most powerful hero.
Time to ride this out.
@apc Considering my first "This Week" was chapter ~157 in the manga, and yesterday's anime episode was only 16-18, I figure some quick reintroduction is in order.
But first, some anime-specific chat.
In NA/SA, it ended up completely free on YouTube, which is... surprising. But awesome.
https://www.youtube.com/@akane-banashi_global
Literally the easiest title to watch (and screenshot!) for most of us this season.
Coming out of longtime Studio Zexcs which... I do not normally associate with particularly quality, but here they are doing very well.
Directed by Ayumu Watanabe, who is surprisingly "just doing the best two anime this season" as Witch Hat Atelier is under his direction as well. HOW? I have no idea.
He's also directed a little thing called "the best series of all time" in Space Brothers.
This is the official global YouTube channel for the TV anime “Akane-banashi”. Enjoy trailers and promo videos with English, Latin Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese subtitles. After the Japan broadcast, full episodes will be available for viewers in North and Latin America! Subscribe and stay tuned! Este es el canal oficial global de YouTube del anime “Akane-banashi”. Disfruta de tráilers y videos promocionales con subtítulos en inglés, español latino y portugués brasileño. Tras su estreno en Japón, episodios completos disponibles para Norteamérica y Latinoamérica! ¡Suscríbete y no te lo pierdas! Este é o canal oficial global do YouTube do anime “Akane-banashi”. Aproveite trailers e vídeos promocionais com legendas em inglês, espanhol latino e português brasileiro. Após a estreia no Japão, episódios completos disponíveis para a América do Norte e América Latina! Inscreva-se e acompanhe!
@apc There is a level of "shounen joy" that really comes out in Akane-banashi that's hard to express. With a lot of "hype shounen" (especially of the WSJ sort) I get kinda irritated in the nature of how it leans into certain things, but here it is totally fitting.
Not the same as in Chihayafuru, but "passionate excitement" though something that isn't fisticuffs and laser-blasts and "make all the friends" is more my style.
(Semi-ironic considering Ayumu Watanabe also directed Komi Can't Commuicate, a series literally about making 100 friends, but YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN 😝 )
I'm overall more stirred by the SAS themes than the Akio Izutsu composing, but it's strong enough and I have hopes for the boy. Not much under his belt yet.
@apc The basic setup:
Akane has been inspired by rakogu since she was a child, memorizing things even like "Jugemu" when she was 4-5 years old, just watching her father, fascinated by his storytelling.
Her father was in training and attempting to make it as a full rakugo performer for 13 years, when "an incident" occurred that forced him and a number of other students out entirely.
Because of "this guy" - Issho Arakawa, considered the finest rakugoka of his generation, and effectively the "head" of the entire Arakawa school.
"Shinta Arakawa dies" and Akane's father becomes a regular salaryman, not allowed to study under his master anymore.
Ep 1 ends skipping forward six years to when Akane is a high school senior, and we learn whose story this is.
(I mean. There's also the title.)
@apc Akane has been training under her father's master (Shiguma Arakawa) since that time, and is wholly consumed with things-rakugo. (Though for SOME REASON we still get a lot of expositional info dumps. 😝 )
Being in Weekly Shounen Jump, she has also "inherited the revenge plot trope," which in this case is wanting to prove how good her father's rakogu was and stuff it in that crazy-eyebrow-jerk-Issho's face until he pleads mercy and admits he was wrong and cries, begging and clutching at her shoes...
Well, that's probably what she WANTS, at least.
So we explore Akane taking her first steps into official performances and "learning the ropes" while we as the audience learn how rakugo works.
On that note, it's got cute lil' after-credits helpers too, which I love.
@apc I kinda wish this tag was summed a few weeks ago so I could more-specifically gush about episode 5, as I found it particularly strong. But since it's part of the "intro" to ep7, I'll start there at least.
The first episodes are "setup" and "learning the ropes" and "acclimating the audience" while introducing various characters, like Issho's only apprentice Kaisei (the "wunderkind" of his young generation), respected by everyone in the industry and obviously someone to bounce Akane's personality off.
The "conflict" of ep5 is Shiguma's command that Akane finish high school before she can officially be accepted as an apprentice, And her HS guidance counselor's "you should go to college" icy... encouragement? Demands.
@apc In this case, it becomes an exercise in communication between student and adult; Akane already has her parents' approval and her personal determination, but the teacher has experienced "student loss" before by "encouraging/accepting the wrong thing" and watching one throw away chances for a better future, and feels her role is to override passion with pragmatism.
But she listens to Akane's childhood friend, brings herself to watch Akane's local performance, notes and accepts her skill and confidence--her true passions--and decides to encourage her further.
She encourages Akane enter "The Karaku Cup" a student rakugo competition in its 20th year.
She a booster now! Needs an Akane fan and headband. (As do we all.)
@apc Akane herself doesn't think it's right to enter the Karaku Cup, as she doesn't consider herself an "amateur" even if she is still a HS student. But there is a "prize" for this one... Issho Arakawa will be serving as judge of the 8 finalists, and will give the winner "the honor of a bit of his time" - a 1 on 1 session where they can ask any question of him.
THIS...! Akane wants. Not trophies, or public recognition. She needs to know WHY, about "that day."
And here we get a familiar trope for the overpowered shounen protagonist... "conditions."
Shiguma demands that she win the Karaku Cup using only Jugemu.
@apc Why is this considered such a handicap? Well, even those with no interest in rakugo know this particular one. And anyone getting INTO rakugo learns this one. It's like... "practicing scales." It still takes skill to deliver it well, but it's something the whole audience would be acclimated to, and any judges probably heard more from beginning rakugoka than anything else.
Not only that, but chances are everyone else will be performing two different pieces (one to get to the finals, and one for the finals) while Akane must use only Jugemu.
While Akane-banashi involves "training arcs" of sorts, this starter run is the usual "searching for an epiphany" and working through the other apprentices to try to get to the bottom of "why did Master make this particular demand?" (ep6)
@apc ...and so we get to the real "this week" with Episode 7, and the preliminary stage of The Karaku Cup, involving 30 competitors (chosen off basic credentials).
The pre-OP "ominous" Akane pronouncements, that she thinks she "gets" Jugemu. In what way? Her teacher things "isn't it just speed and enunciation?" One of her ani-san discussed with her last episode about understanding the era, the foundations of the story, and the original story's ending. We are left to ponder what she means.
Meanwhile, day 1 introducers the first "real battle shounen thing"--competitors! Specifically, the winner of the previous two Cups in Karashi, and a popular, top-level voice actress in Hikaru, looking to use this as a path to get ahead even further.
@apc The press know these two first and foremost, and these two know and respect the day's emcee, Kaisei. And he knows and gushes to... Akane?!
Akane had helped Hikaru with her obi just before and thought her just a simple student and possibly a fan, but with Kaisei's notice and their flippant/familiar encounter, everything changes. Everyone notices; even the press decide to look in. (Though no one can find anything.)
That she takes up a hostile stance and accuses him of embracing her before (he was just to pleased with her performance he couldn't help it) gets everyone abuzz. Akane finds his attention bothersome, and is still mostly wanting to kick his ass. (At rakugo.)
@apc We only get to see Akane's finals-worthy performance in this episode; everything else is character interaction, mostly between Akane and Hikaru. We only have the vaguest hints as to what their performances will be about, surely to come next episode.
Akane wields Jugemu to such speed and perfection that it breaks through everyone in the audience. From a weepy child, to a neighbor, to the mother needing to recite Jugemu's name as quickly as possible, Akane switches gears multiple times to the point where it is totally overwhelming.
This WAS her plan... for today. Karashi is not impressed, though he acknowledges her skill. And he feels his raguko will take everything in the finals again.
Kaisei makes sure he lets Akane know he's still waiting her "true Jugemu" for the next day.
@apc WHAT IS HER PLAN?!
HOW WILL SHE DELIVER?!??
TUNE IN NEXT WEEK, TRUE BELIEVERS!!!!
...
One of my very favorite series is Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju, and to be sure josei ranks top of the list "demographically" for me, in story-deliverance, while shounen is at the "please be shounen not trying to be so shounen."
But there is something to the over-the-top presentation of rakugo here that is uniquely exciting, and placing down "fighting face" in such an arena as competitive rakugo manages to "spark joy" in a way I did not expect it possibly could, and the series keeps on delivering, including the relationship between Akane and her "rivals" introduced here.
@apc Is Akane being set up to sweep? Has she just stirred up the hornets' nest to make her rivals even more passionate to knock her down?
TUNE IN NEXT WEEK, TRUE B--!
@apc Let's go back to early 2022, when the series began.
I did... not have particular high hopes for Akane-banashi at the start. I thought it was important for Weekly Shounen Jump to feature a prominently female-led series again (just take a look at everything else in that issue), but... SGRS is almost always within my Top 5, and how could a shounen series compare?
I liked the look, but it did not "strike me" the way the previous "strongly female-led" series did, and looked to only be "the Akane show"
I am still angry that Shueisha did not try to rescue Act-Age from "the unfortunate events," as from 2018 to 2020 it was my previous "by far the strongest WSJ title" they had. Not un-coincidentally, a "passionate arts battling" series, in the middle of a strong arc, when it was ended.
@apc It "took a couple years" to "get something to fill that underrepresented niche" and had to fight any number of my presuppositions going in...
And has really triumphed on all levels, to my own surprise.
And so you get my third attempt to make everyone fans.
COME ON!
Anime is easier for most people to get into, right? ;-) It's a great adaptation! DO EEEEEET
--ahem--
(do it)
AniManga Picture Challenge
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