Episode 125 - Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju by Haruko Kumota

Mat (0:11)

Hello everybody and welcome to Manga Tak, the weekly podcast where we read and reflect on the finest of swellings your money can buy so you can find your next favourite manga. As always, I'm your host, Mat, and this week is my absolute pleasure to welcome a new guest to the podcast, illustrator and fellow manga addict, Jessica Lai.

Jessica, welcome to the podcast, how are you doing?

Jessica Lai (0:30)

Doing well and super excited to join and thank you for having me.

Mat (0:34)

It is absolutely my pleasure, especially when you're just like, hey, can you do a book that I've wanted to talk about probably since the beginning of this podcast. We're going to talk about Descending Stories today, which is a book that honestly, as a big fan of Akane-Banashi, I have wanted to talk about for a very long time. So thank you, thank you, thank you so much for finally giving the excuse to talk about this.

Jessica Lai (0:58)

No, no. Pleasure is my also. I actually haven't found too many people who are super excited about the series. So this is very exciting for me too.

Mat (1:07)

I'm glad that I can facilitate, glad that this is like a symbiotic relationship and being able to talk about Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju. There you go. I would say that probably twice in this podcast. My Japanese isn't what it should be. But yeah, this is a book about Rakugo.

I will say upfront to the listeners that while I try and strike while the iron is hot, this is a book that I think was published in English maybe in 2017, I think. So we're verging on 10 years. It will start to get harder to find. I will say though, it is available digitally, which is why I feel a little bit better about covering it, but also life's short and I like this book, so I need to talk about it now. This is how it is. Jess, how did you discover this book in the first place then?

Jessica Lai (1:56)

I think I first saw the anime and it was just on a list of, I think it must have been on Country Roll and then they just had it. Yeah. But back then, it felt like something very different from what they usually show. So immediately I was like, oh, this is something new.

And so, yeah, that's how I got into it. And after watching two seasons of the anime, I started reading some of the manga. Okay. But I think it's so many years ago that I'm complaining the two sometimes.

Mat (2:27)

No, I get that. That's very easy to do. And to be fair, before I started reading this, I picked it up again, I was like, oh, I thought this happened. Did I read the second one? And then I watched the anime again last night. I was like, oh no, some of the order is switched and certain events play out in different ways from the anime to this.

Jessica Lai (2:44)

Yes, exactly. That's how I feel too.

Mat (2:48)

Right. We will try, dear listener, to remember what is in this book. I've read it, I think, three times over the last two days. So I think I have a good handle on what is in here. But I did also watch the anime and I did also watch the live action, which is a lot closer to the anime than the manga. So okay. Yeah.

Jessica Lai (3:06)

I heard about the live action being out. I haven't started it yet.

Mat (3:11)

I will give my opinions as we go through the podcast, I think. Okay.

Yeah. But honestly, I had read this book, I think a couple of years ago now, as I mentioned way back when on the Akane-Banashi episode, I went to see some Rakugo in Tokyo, maybe I think about three years ago at this point. It was so in awe of Akane that I was like, great, let's go see this. We just happened to be there while the English Rakugo Association was on.

Jessica Lai (3:41)

That's so cool.

Mat (3:41)

Highly recommend, check it out. They perform, I think, biannually in Tokyo. So if you are planning a trip, maybe go.

Jessica Lai (3:47)

Yeah, I tried from my trips, I couldn't line it up, so I never got the chance. But I think they also show in Osaka sometimes.

Mat (3:55)

They do indeed.

Jessica Lai (3:56)

Yeah. So I think if you just keep track of it. I think the downside is, at least when this book came out, I also looked for it when I was in Japan.