And here’s my review of the winter season’s clear star, Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju. Rakugo is clearly a very impressive show, and its direction couldn’t be better, but I still found myself with some misgivings about the overall production. It’s weird, because I’ve seen plenty of people talking about how emotional the show’s final episodes made them, but Rakugo just did almost nothing for me on that level. I tried to sort out my feelings in the review, but it’s still something that leaves me a little stumped.
You can check out my full review over at ANN!
I never got as emotional with the scenes either, in comparison to how people on Reddit seemed to be reacting. That said, I did find it amazing in the sheer atmosphere and level of craftsmanship they pulled off, and it’s one of my favourite from the season/period just because of that. I mean, you’d almost expect that sort of stuff from a AAA film, and we got it for thirteen episodes!
You know, it’s really interesting what you said about the show’s inability to resonate emotionally with you, despite your recognition of it’s great quality. I’m actually kind of glad to see someone else, particularly you, describe this phenomenon. I recently watched both Kyousougiga and The Eccentric Family based on your high praise of both shows, and your reaction to this show seems to be pretty similar to my reaction to both of them. Great shows, maybe even brilliant shows, that I could tell were something special as I watched them, yet at the same time, couldn’t bring myself to get too invested in.
A fair review. I liked how you framed your judgment as “This didn’t work for me, but this is what it tried to do, and I recognize that it can work for other people.” I feel this is a productive way to frame discussion, in contrast to a certain fault-searching critic’s approach of “I was so f**king bored that [insert awful comparison here], and therefore I will disregard this show’s other merits”.