My Happy Marriage – 07 – My Fair Miyo

It came as no surprise to me that Miyo is concerned for her family and relieved they’re all safe after the fire, even after the way they treated her. She saved herself in that storeroom by refusing to submit to her stepmother and half-sister’s will, but she would never stoop to their level of hating them as they hate her.

Forgiveness comes easily for someone as kind and gentle as she is, a proverbial dayflower transplanted from that bed of nettles. Still, she asks that Kiyoka take her to the ruins of the Saimori home so she can see it one last time, as well as the charred remains of her mother’s tree, which crumbles to dust when she touches it.

In the aftermath of Miyo’s rescue, Minoru had to step down as the head of the Tatsuishi family, with Kazushi taking over. Miyo’s father and stepmother fled to their other home, but are essentially ruined, and Kaya is sent to work for a strict household where she’ll learn some much-needed life experience (and hopefully humility).

Despite the Saimoris being scattered so, Kiyoka intends to proceed with the engagement, bypassing the betrothal ceremony entirely. If his father has a problem with Miyo as his fiancee, that’s too bad, as she is his choice. This makes Miyo laugh with glee for the first time since we met her.

Kouji meets with Miyo one last time, to tell her he’s moving forward to become strong enough to protect what he wants when he wants it. But when he asks if she remembers him talking about the two of them, she tells him she doesn’t recall. Kouji lets it rest, says farewell to Miyo, and takes his leave.

After signing the documents that make them formally engaged, one thing that stands out is that Miyo’s calligraphy isn’t the best. It’s not commented upon by anyone, but it is no doubt part of why she wants to pursue training to become a “proper woman,” an ambition Kiyoka was clearly not going to force upon her, but which he nevertheless supports.

Her teacher will be Kiyoka’s big sister, Hazuki (Hikasa Yoko), who arrives with classy Western clothing and heels and immediately takes a liking to Kiyoka’s sweet and adorable fiancée. The first informal lesson simply has Hazuki showing Miyo the various flowers and saying they’re all beautiful, because when they’re blooming they’re giving their best, just as proper women must.

Miyo is super excited about her future lessons and particularly grateful to be learning from Kiyoka’s family. I’m also glad that there doesn’t even seem to be a glimmer of malice in Hazuki; there’s no reason to doubt she’s just as kind as her brother. But even having just weathered such a horrible storm, Miyo isn’t out of the woods yet.

Unfortunately, her Usuba blood is looking like the source of her nightmares, and may be the product of her undeveloped gift. Minoru desired that gift, but he’s not alone, and his defeat was only a temporary reprieve, for there are more powerful gift-users, including a four-eyed guy I really don’t like who is coming for her. Ick.

At the same time, a site known as a “grave” has been unsealed and opened, and demonic red-eyed monsters emerge from a shattered giant stone. But while they’re certainly spooky, they can’t hold a candle to Kaya, her mom, and Mr. Four-Eyes for pure malice. They’re the real monsters until proven otherwise.

My Happy Marriage – 06 – That’s Not Me Anymore

Miyo comes to in a stress position, hanging from a length of rope in a storeroom. When the door opens and pours the light of the setting sun onto her face, Kaya and her mother enter, replete with ill intent. They only have one simple demand: that Miyo reject her engagement to Kudou Kiyoka so Kaya can marry him instead.

If Miyo doesn’t comply, well…Kaya and her mom don’t beat around the bush. First Miyo slashes Miyo’s new kimono with scissors. Then she holds the scissors to Miyo’s throat. But crucially, Miyo doesn’t revert to her old submissive self, even in the face of pure evil.

Even when her stepmother smacks her in the face with a fan, Miyo looks back up at her with a defiant look she has never made. I’m reminded of Kei in Classroom of the Elite going through a similar crucible and coming out firm in her resolve not to break or give in no matter what.

This defiance and strength was always there within Miyo, but meeting someone as good and kind as Kiyoka unlocked that power in her, the power that allowed her to  value herself as he does, and to hope that he’ll come for her. And come he does: when the Saimori doors are shut, he blasts through with his lightning. When both Miyo’s father and an increasingly unhinged Minoru attack him, he blasts through them.

Even when a desperate Minoru creates a maelstrom of fire that begins to burn the Saimori house, Kudou Kiyoka, confirmed as the strongest gift-user of his time, takes off the kid gloves and knocks Minoru out with a giant bolt of lightning. As Kouji says, it’s like an adult fighting an angry kid. Minoru never had a chance, which begs the question: shouldn’t he have known that?

Kaya has resorted to trying to choke Miyo into agreeing to cancel her engagement to Kiyoka, but Miyo doesn’t waver, even for a second: she’ll be Kiyoka’s fiancée until she breathes her last. Thankfully, that’s not today, as Kiyoka arrives and catches Kaya and her mother in the act of brutally torturing Miyo. When she realizes he came for her after all, Miyo declares she’s glad she fought, before passing out.

After her mom looks outside to see their palatial home in flames (thanks entirely to Minoru), Kaya tries a feeble last-ditch attempt to convince Kiyoka that she is better suited to be his wife, saying Miyo isn’t even fit to be a proper servant. Kiyoka doesn’t lay a hand on her, but shuts her up with both his words and his icy gaze, assuring her he wouldn’t marry her even if the heavens commanded it.

While unconscious, Miyo meets her mother, who mentions a “power” she has within herself. Miyo isn’t sure what that is, but this confirms that she’s by no means ungifted. It’s just that her gift is either incredibly rare, or entirely unique.

We see a grizzled old man give a younger underling his approval to begin an “operation” to prevent the “accumulation of power”—i.e. a Kudou marrying an Usaba—so the threat to Miyo is far from over, but it’s over for now.

When she wakes up to find a relieved Kiyoka and Yurie by her side, Miyo is again glad she didn’t give up in the face of evil. The old her would have surrendered to the storm, but now she’s someone who can weather it, and come out the other end herself.

My Happy Marriage – 05 – Forced Exchange

It fills Miyo with joy to not only learn that a kimono much like her mother’s suits her just as well, but that Kiyoka picked it out for her. The two are getting on famously, which is a big problem for Minoru. He shows Kaya a photo of the happy couple, and when Kaya sees that the hottie who was at her house was Kiyoka, she’s ready to dump Kouji for him, and thinks she can convince her dear father to cancel the engagement.

Meanwhile, Miyo’s life might as well be paradise, as she throws a dinner party for Kiyoka and his aide Godou as thanks for reuniting her with Hana. Kiyoka isn’t ready for how beautiful Miyo looks when she greets them at the entrance, marking the first time I believe he’s outright blushed. But Kaya continues to stew, considering it absolutely unacceptable for Miyo to be happy, let alone happier than her. Karma’s a bitch, bitch!

Godou is a very lighthearted, forward guy, so after a delicious meal and sake, he takes Miyo’s hands in gratitude and jokingly asks her to marry him instead of Kiyoka. Naturally, Miyo takes him seriously and apologizes, for she wants to be with Kiyoka. Kaya fails to convince her father, who tells her to go practice homemaking, so she takes another tack and tries to convince Kouji to swap fiancées with Kiyoka.

Miyo has another dream, which has me starting to think she actually does have a gift related to dreams. In their most intimate scene to date, Kiyoka holds Miyo as she awakens from her troubling slumber, and promises her that no matter what she’s going through, she’s not alone. She’ll never be alone ever again.

Kouji pays a visit to his father, only to find Kaya is already there, and things are already in motion to swap her with Miyo. While Kaya’s father isn’t on board, Minoru and Kaya believe he will be if it’s Miyo’s idea to leave Kiyoka. Of course, Miyo would never, ever want to do that, but we’re dealing with people with supernatural powers, so they may be able to force her to do or say things she doesn’t want to.

Miyo slips up when she fails to put the amulet Kiyoka gave her into her new matching pouch. She and Yurie walk to his work so she can deliver him a homemade lunch, but on their way back she realizes she doesn’t have the amulet, and not five minutes later she’s being abducted by an invisible man in a car.

While Yurie rushes back to tell Kiyoka what’s happened, Kaya takes her leave, and Kouji gets violent with his father. Unfortunately, even though he’s stronger than Minoru expected, Kouji is no match for his dad, who plants him on the floor and has him tied up. Fortunately, Kouji’s big brother is on his side, and unties him and tells him to go do what he needs to do.

Kouji does that, but he knows he alone isn’t enough to stop his father. So he pays a visit to Kiyoka, and begs him for help saving Miyo. It goes without saying that Kiyoka is going to rescue Miyo, it’s just a matter of how quickly and how righteously he punishes those who harmed her. But I’ll still admit, even though I saw it coming a mile away, actually watching Miyo be kidnapped sent my heart plummeting into my stomach.

My Happy Marriage – 04 – Getting Better All the Time

Miyo has a dream about her mother pleading for her husband to love their daughter even though she isn’t gifted, to no avail. You really have to hand it to her father, he’s a real dyed-in-the-wool piece of shit. He “could have” presumably loved Miyo…if he wasn’t the head of a supernaturally-gifted family.

Miyo wakes up in her bed, unsettled, but also determined to repay Kiyoka’s kindness by giving him a gift in return for her comb. Yurie suggests she make something he will see or use everyday, and Miyo decides on a braided hair tie. Miyo asks to go into town with Yurie, but Kiyoka gives her an amulet and warns her not to wander off.

Honestly, the moment I knew Miyo would be going anywhere without Kiyoka escorting her, I was pretty worried, because Kouji’s dad Minoru is still out there, determined to secure possession of her at any cost. We meet Kouji’s gifted playboy older brother, who would make a far better match for Kaya. Both of these families are The Worst.

Miyo picks out some lovely regal colors for the braid, but her day, and indeed her psyche take a critical hit when she spots Kaya out in public with Kouji by her side. Kaya assumes that Miyo has been tossed out and is on her own, begging on the street. But she is somewhat happy Miyo isn’t dead, because it means she can pick on her more.

Kiyoka couldn’t join Miyo in town because he had another errand: visiting her father and stepmother to declare his intention to marry her. That said, he also voices his concerns and his fundamental contempt for these creatures for the way they treated Miyo. If he’s to furnish a dowry and and cultivate a relationship with the Saimoris, he’ll need both of them to apologize to Miyo, in person.

Meanwhile, Kaya has Miyo paralyzed with fear and knows it, and brushes off Kouji’s half-hearted attempts to stop her from digging her claws in deeper. Miyo is a complete wreck when Yurie arrives to rescue her. I’m glad the encounter ends with Kaya pissed that Miyo is due to marry Lord Kudou and become a lady.

I also like that Kaya catches a glimpse of Lord Kudou on his way out when she returns home (though whether she knows this beautiful man is Miyo’s fiance remains to be seen).

That said, the immediate gratification of Kaya’s day being ruined (may they all be ruined, forever) is undercut by Miyo’s traumatic experience, which sends her into a spiral of depression and self-hatred. Even when Kiyoka assures her through her door that things will get better and he’s always there to talk to her about her troubles, she won’t leave her room or eat.

She makes Lord Kudou the braid, but doesn’t believe she has any right to present it to him. That’s when Kiyoka expresses his love and support for her another way: by tracking down Hana, the servant who was fired for defending Miyo from her stepmother’s abuse. Seeing Hana is well, married, and with a baby on the way absolutely makes Miyo’s day.

The reunion also gives Miyo the courage to present Kiyoka with the braid she made, and tell him the truth about her straight-up: she has no supernatural gifts. Of course, that he wrote to Hana means he already knows her story and the abuse she endured. When she says she’ll die or leave or both if he tells her to, he has her raise her head, then draws her into a gentle embrace.

Kiyoka, as you’d expect, doesn’t want her to go anywhere. He intends for her to become his wife. She shouldn’t see her being in his home as a privilege; she’s there because he wants her there, and wants her to want to be there as well. She does, very much so, and the two take another big step closer as a couple, with Miyo tying his hair with her braid, as if to mark him as hers.

Yes, Tatsuishi Minoru is still out there, spying on the happy couple, fuming, and scheming some kind of plan to secure possession of Miyo. But while that’s concerning, I’m confident he’ll fail, hopefully miserably. Kiyoka is no fool, and he knows he’s not dealing with good or moral people, so he’ll be vigilant.

My Happy Marriage – 03 – Diamond in the Rough

While dining together, Kiyoka engages in small talk with Miyo, asking about her days. When done with household chores, she sews a bit and reads magazines Yurie lends her. Sensing she might be feeling a little penned in, Kiyoka announces he’ll be going into town…and she’ll be accompanying him.

When she says she has no reason to go and would only be a nuisance, Kiyoka tells her she doesn’t need a reason, and won’t be a nuisance. The next morning, dressed in her only good kimono and wearing makeup applied with care by Yurie, Kiyoka can’t help but silently admire his most comely fiancée.

After Kiyoka parks his car at work (and his aide briefly meets Miyo), Kiyoka an Miyo walk into town together, and he asks her if there’s anything she needs or wants. Miyo has trouble thinking of something, and goes to her standby of apologizing.

Kiyoka assures her all she needs to do is enjoy herself; she won’t be scolded by him or anyone, and she doesn’t need to think she’s a nuisance. It’s the direct, positive affirmation Miyo dearly needs to hear, because she never heard in her loveless home.

Speaking of home, Kouji’s father is furious that Miyo’s father arranged for her to marry a Sudou instead of his own eldest son, Kouji’s brother. Even if Miyo isn’t gifted, she carries the blood of the Usuba family, and her offspring may be incredibly gifted.

In a scene that made my stomach turn, Miyo’s father shows he is no real father at all, but rather a creature of greed and low morals, no better than the demons Kiyoka slays. He confirms that he has abandoned Miyo and doesn’t care if she lives or dies.

He expects the Sudou kid will grow disinterested in his ungifted fiancee, giving Kouji’s father free reign to snatch her up and marry her to his son. Kaya is out in the hall and can’t hear them, but is enraged when a servant says her father is talking about Miyo. She can also tell Kouji’s smiles are fake…but what does she expect?

Miyo and Kiyoka’s first date continues at the kimono store, a very fancy one where the emperor sometimes orders clothes. Having learned from Yurie that Miyo has been sewing her old tattered kimonos in secret, he orders some fine new ones, including one in a glorious sakura pink.

Little does he know that such a color and design reminds Miyo of her dearly departed mother, but when the store attendant gets a good look at Miyo, she impresses upon Kiyoka the importance of holding onto Miyo with everything he has, for she is a diamond in the rough, to be polished with his love and wealth.

He takes her out for sweets, the first time she’s had anything sweet since Kouji brought her some. He admits he’d like to see what she’d be like if she were truly smiling, rather than cowering and apologizing all the time. He mentions the fact that they’ll soon be married, so she should be able to say what’s on her mind.

This frightens Miyo, who believes Kiyoka doesn’t know she’s ungifted. If he learned the truth, not only would he not be this kind to her, but he’d likely throw her out. So she decides to keep it a secret, and will face whatever punishment comes from that, because it means in the meantime she can stay by his side.

Little does she know that not only is Kiyoka is pretty much aware Miyo is not Gifted, but has no intention of letting her go. Both seem strangely drawn together in a way neither of them can explain, but recognize the importance. To that end, Kiyoka gives Miyo the gift of a splendid new wooden comb, replacing the one her stepmother broke.

When a man gives a woman such a comb, it typically symbolizes a proposal. Kiyoka insists “it’s not like that”, but that could be his tsundere side talking. When Miyo opens the gift, she runs to him and says she can’t accept it. When he insists that it’s his gift to her to use however she likes, he looks up and sees her naturally smiling for the first time.

Back at HQ, Kiyoka has secured the services of an investigator to look into Miyo’s family, suspicious as he was of how badly Miyo has clearly been treated. He is disgusted to find that abuse was the product of resentment and vindictiveness on the part of Miyo’s father’s second wife. He quite rightly believes that prodigious families shouldn’t act in such a manner.

The investigator also confirms that Miyo is ungifted, but that Miyo’s father’s first wife, her mother, was a member of the Usuba family, who have the ability to “convene with the minds of others” (like telepathy, I presume). Now knowing exactly what Miyo had to endure from a loveless father and an evil stepmother, he knows some kimonos and a comb won’t be nearly enough to heal those wounds.

Not that he’s not willing to give it his all. But when he suddenly senses shikigami spying on him, he quickly burns them, and is left wondering who would do something so foolish. My money is on Kouji’s dad. If Kiyoka wants Miyo to remain with him, he may have to fight to protect her. But he seems to be supremely capable when it comes to fighting, so I’m not too worried.

My Happy Marriage – 02 – No Apologies

Miyo’s first encounter with her enigmatic fiancé Kudou Kiyoka is a chilly one, in which he lays out his primary directive: obey him no matter what. And while I just met him too, I could tell he was taken a little aback by just how submissive, even downtrodden Miyo seemed.

After years of sparse accommodations and sparser affection, Miyo feels unworthy of  her new spacious room and luxuriously vast bed. Her subconscious reinforces that feeling, and she dreams of when she learned that unlike every other member of her family, including Kaya, she did not possess supernatural gifts.

It fell to a servant to give Miyo emotional support. Miyo wakes up from those bad memories and consoles herself with the fact she’ll never again wake up in that place again. She also surprises Yurie by getting up before her and making Lord Kudou breakfast. Yurie admits she’s getting on in years and will never turn down help.

But disaster strikes when Kiyoka decides to institute a hard line when it comes to breakfast. As soon as he hears Yurie didn’t make it, and Kiyo hesitates to take a bite, he assumes the food was poisoned, and leaves without eating it. Miyo is devastated; she tried to be useful, in part so she wouldn’t be thrown out on the street, only for it to end in failure. The anguish in Ueda Reina’s vocal performance is palpable.

When we’re with Kudou Kiyoka on his own, we learn why he’s so strict and curt: he’s the commander of an “anti-grotesqueries” squad of gifted soldiers who protect society from ghosts and demons. After training his far more laid-back adjutant makes a glib joke about his boss’s string of fiancées, but Kiyoka isn’t in the mood.

Meanwhile, Kouji is treated not so differently than the help by his fiancée Kaya (Sakura Ayane really chews the scenery with Kaya’s stark villainy). Kouji is still sore about how things went with Miyo, and decides that he’ll do whatever is necessary to help her if she ends up on the street, no matter the consequences.

Miyo greets Kiyoka with a full bow of contrition, and he clarifies that he wasn’t actually suspicious of him poisoning him; he simply didn’t want to eat the food of someone he didn’t know. She accompanies him to a dinner made by Yurie, but there’s no food for her, because she wasn’t hungry. He also wishes she wouldn’t apologize so much.

When he goes to heat water for his bath with his pyrokinesis, it’s another sign to Miyo that she’s as useless here as she was at her previous home. But then Kiyoka returns, apologizes for refusing her breakfast, and asks her to please make it for her next time.

He offers her the use of the bath as the water is still warm, and as she bathes, Miyo’s mood improves, remembering Yurie saying that Kiyoka actually has a kind heart and sweet temperament. Clearly, he’s quite skilled at hiding it behind a curtain of steel and ice!

The comfort Miyo gets from her soothing bath is all but undone by another dream of her past, when all of her mother’s mementos were tossed out by her evil stepmother. When she confronts her stepmother, she’s physically assaulted then locked in a storage shed to “reflect on her actions.”

Miyo’s father stands by and does nothing, it’s again a servant who tries to stop this heinous treatment of an innocent little girl. The stepmother, drunk with power, declares she can do whatever she wants, and the servant is fired. When she wakes up, Miyo feels grateful to that servant, whose name was Hana, and hopes that wherever she is, she’s happy.

Breakfast Round Two goes much better. Yurie wakes up earlier than expected, but can tell Miyo wants to make breakfast for Kiyoka, so she merely assists. Kiyoka takes a sip of Miyo’s miso and is approving of its novel flavor. It’s the first time Miyo has been complimented in years, so of course she’d get teary-eyed.

While being dressed by Yurie, Kiyoka decides he’ll investigate the Saimori family while asking Yurie to keep a close but discrete eye on Miyo. He cannot fathom how a thin, sickly girl with a tattered kimono and the rough hands of a servant came from a predigious family. If she did, her day-to-day life was clearly substandard in some way.

He doesn’t know the half of it, but I hope he finds out and exacts punishment on those who wronged Miyo. But trouble is on the horizon as Miyo’s father gets an angry phone call from Kouji’s father about whom Miyo should be marrying.

It’s not hard to fathom Kiyoka’s previous fiancées running to the hills due to his not-so-winning personality. But Miyo has already endured far worse personalities, so he actually comes off as warm and kind by comparison. As talented a magic user as he may be, he has a lot to learn about expressing his emotions, just as Miyo has a lot to learn about valuing herself. They seem well-suited to learn from one another.

My Happy Marriage – 01 – (Belated First Impressions) – A Sliver of Light

I’ve got some catching up to do with this series, but it’s been a light season volume-wise and I’ve heard good things, so here goes…

Once upon a time there lived Saimori Miyo, in absolute misery. After Miyo’s mother died, her father remarried, and she is forced to wait on her evil stepmother and horrible half sister Kaya like a run-of-the-mill servant. The only one who doesn’t treat Miyo (voiced by Ueda Reina) like absolute garbage is her childhood friend Kouji, who brings her sweets and makes her smile, relax, and most importantly, hope for a better future.

But Miyo and Kaya are now of marriageable age, so the storm clouds of change are quickly approaching. Kaya’s villainy is plain to see as she gleefully mocks Miyo for getting soot on her face (another nod to the story’s Cinderella roots). Kaya is quite simply awful and never lets off the awful accelerator.

Miyo tries to steel herself not to hope that she’ll be wed to Kouji, but still isn’t prepared when she learns he’s going to marry Kaya instead. Kaya clearly enjoys sticking it to Miyo, and is the kind of selfish, haughty, cruel character who would meet a suitably gruesome end if she was in a horror movie. Ayana Sakura is as vicious as Kaya as she is sweet in Rent-a-Girlfriend.

Miyo is informed she’ll marry into a new family, which is a formal way of saying she’s being discarded from this one for good. Kouji, who didn’t challenge his father’s wishes lest he be disowned, chose not to rock the boat, and laments that he was worthless to Miyo. Kouji is a coward who couldn’t live up to his convictions, but at least he’s aware of that cowardice. Even surrounded by gathering darkness, Miyo puts on as brave a face as she can as she bids him farewell.

This episode skillfully places us squarely in Miyo’s corner, making her a sympathetic and rootable character in spite her own complete lack of self-worth. It’s full of little moments of injustice, like how meager her luggage (even giving a servant pause). Miyo’s new kimono and onigiri for her journey easily double the mass of the sum total of her possessions.

The episode uses silent filtered visuals to expertly weave background info about Miyo as she embarks on her solitary rail journey to her new life. Miyo loved her mother dearly, but no sooner did she pass then her father started over as if Miyo and her mother never existed. Even her mother’s cherry tree was chopped down. The slate was wiped clean, but Miyo lingered on.

Miyo is warned by the head servant that the man she is to marry, Kudou Kiyoka, is rumored to be ruthless and cold-hearted, but Miyo has lived in a ruthless, cold-hearted home ever since her mom died. How could it get any worse? After an awkward introduction, Miyo meets her fiancé Kiyoka face-to-face, and suddenly the darkness around her turns to brilliant white light.

She may not know what manner of man her soon-to-be husband is, but she does know that he’s extremely pretty, and that she hasn’t seen a sliver of light like this in her life since his mom was around. Beautifully animated and featuring an exquisitely quiet, understated performance from Ueda Reina, My Happy Marriage is a long overdue addition to my Summer watchlist. Perhaps the title of the anime will prove not to be ironic, and things will finally look up for our wretched Meiji Cinderella.

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu – 13 (Fin)

After a dominating emotional one-two punch of the last couple of episodes, the last episode of Shouwa Genraku Rakugo Shinjuu was bound to be quiet and uneventful by comparison. The first half or so is the aftermath of the death of Sukeroku and Miyokichi. Kikuhiko takes Konatsu on as a ward and after making arrangements for the internment of her parent’s ashes, he takes her to Tokyo.

There, he’s officially named Yakumo, since, well, there’s no one else to take it. No matter how good I or anyone else think he may be, he’ll never believe he deserved the title. Were it not for the war, or the events that led to his brother’s death, someone better would have inherited it. That being said, he knows someone has to take it, so he accepts.

After we witness a smidgen of Yakumo’s (lack of) parenting skills, as a young, grieving Konatsu soothes her heart with rakugo (in spite of her guardian’s displeasure with the practice), we return to the present, with a futatsume Yotaro getting a haircut as penance for letting slip that he’s to be promoted to shin’uchi soon.

The now-grown Konatsu is proud of the lug, and probably a little jealous too (what with her wish to do what he’s doing). At the end of the day there was no need to go right back to that night Yakumo forgave Yotaro and started his long epic tale that came to comprise the lion’s share of the series. Suffice it to say, Yotaro did what was asked of him, and is on the cusp of making it in a world many have now forgotten.

Sharing some congratulatory tea in the doorway of their home, Konatsu asks Yotaro to do some rakugo for her. Not just any story; the same one she tearfully performed to herself years back, which led to Yakumo’s scolding. It brings tears to her eyes again, surprising Yotaro, and she suddenly tells him she’s preggers.

What she won’t say is who the father is, only that she wants to carry on the Sukeroku bloodline for her father’s sake. Yotaro, saying the first thing to come into his head, offers to be the kid’s father; she reacts with anger and exasperation and storms off, but notably without outright refusing the offer.

As for Ol’ Yakumo, he’s washing the family grave on the anniversary of the seventh generation’s death, and pondering his own eventual demise as disconcerted Matsuda stands by. Yakumo can’t believe Yotaro is about to become a Shin’uchi, but like his masters before, he has little choice.

It’s as if the deterioration of rakugo has only accelerated, with Yakumo only being able to carry it on in its purest—but least flexible—form. Only one theater remains open in Tokyo, and it’s rarely full. With someone like Yotaro under his wing, rakugo’s future is that much brighter. But then, Yotarou asks to inheret the Sukeroku name, not moments after Yakumo saw the ghost of the man himself.

So ends the first act of Shouwa Genraku Rakugo Shinjuu. There would seem to be plenty of material for a second, for which this episode serves as a kind of entre’acte. And indeed, after the end credits, Yotaro apologizes for not being able to tell more, but they simply ran out of time. If and when an Act Two comes, I shall emphatically seek it out!

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu – 12

The day of the dual performance arrives, and the atmosphere is fizzing with anticipation. Sukeroku is noncommittal at first, even when Matsuda arrives, lonely after the passing of his wife. But Konatsu is super-excited at the prospect of getting to watch her dad do what he was meant to, while Kiku sees this little makeshift theater as the venue for re-stoking Sukeroku’s fire and enticing him to come back to Tokyo with him.

Matsuda isn’t the only lonely one. Miyokichi may be with Sukeroku, and Konatsu may be their child, but one gets the idea only one thing—one person—is on her mind, and that’s Kiku. It’s ironic that this theater was once a place for geishas like Miyokichi used to be. But now she’s in Western clothes and sneaking in incognito, and the room is now a place for a different kind of performance.

We only see and hear snippets of Kiku’s whole performance rather than a single continuous story, as if to underscore the point that this episode isn’t really about Kiku’s performance He’s become one of the best performers alive; his talent is undisputed, and he’s a consummate professional. There was never any doubt he’d knock it out of the park. 

The real question is how a rusty Sukeroku will fare. He becomes more motivated after Kiku goes first (Kiku’s intention, no doubt), because by watching Kiku he was able to observe the quality of the audience, about whom he was initially dubious.

But Kiku’s rakugo was good not just becaue Kiku is good, but because the crowd is good. Rakugo is a far more collaborative process than it seems, with a performer feeding off the crowd as the crowd gets sucked into the performance. Notably, Miyokichi leaves before Sukeroku begins, and there’s never a shot of her listening in the hall, so I assume she really left.

No matter: with Matsuda, Konatsu, Bon, and a good audience at his disposal, Sukeroku goes all out with a rare (for him) sentimental tale about an alcoholic fishmonger who finds a purse of cash washed up on the beach. He celebrates with a lavish party, but awakes from his stupor to learn he only dreamed of the purse, but not the party.

The contrite man promises his wife he’ll quite drinking and pay back all the debts he has, in addition to the added debt from the partying. For three years, works his ass off, until every debt has been paid off. Then his wife confesses the purse wasn’t a dream after all; she merely gave it to police, who held it for a year with no one claiming it before passing back to her.

The wife is beside herself with guilt for deceiving him for so long, but he’s not upset. In the past three years, her lie made him a better man, and when she offers him sake to celebrate, he puts the cup down without taking a sip, lest everything that happened turn out to be a dream.

The crowd leans in, laughs, cries…and I leaned in, laughed, and cried. It was a powerful, mesmerizing performance, and at its heights gave me the same chills and goosebumps as the musical performances in Shigatsu kimi no Uso.

When it’s over, Kiku and Sukeroku spend some time relaxing like they used to do in their little apartment, only this time the latter’s daughter is sleeping on his chest, and the two brothers actually deign to agree on something Kiku says:

People can’t understand everything about each other. And yet people still live together. The love of sharing trivial, meaningless things with others is human nature. I suppose that’s why humans can’t stand to be alone.

Being in this small, close-knit town, being with Sukeroku again, meeting Konatsu, and Sukeroku’s latest and maybe most soul-bearing performance—it’s all had a profound effect on Kiku. He once thought all he needed in his life was rakugo, but he’s human, and he doesn’t want to be alone anymore. Their late master’s house has fallen to him, but it’s too big for just him. He wants Sukeroku, Konatsu, and Miyokichi to move in with him.

But when Kiku is summoned to a room at the inn where Miyokichi meets him, we learn that all she wants in that particular moment is Kiku…and only Kiku. In all the time they’ve been apart she never stopped pining for him, and the fact he’s there gives her cause to believe he wants to change things, perhaps even make amends for knocking her and Sukeroku’s lives off track with his shortsighted insistence on solitude.

Kiku can’t quite resist Miyokichi’s embrace, but things take a dark turn when she leads him to the open window and starts to push, contemplating both of them dying together.

That’s when Sukeroku barges in, and in a gesture that’s appreciated but perhaps too late to be worth much, promises Miyokichi he’ll get a real job, that he’ll do right by her by abandoning the rakugo that makes her feel so  insecure. He wants to be the husband in that tale he told with a happy ending, in a dream he doesn’t want to wake up from.

If he has to choose between Miyokichi and rakugo, he’s choosing Miyokichi. But the wooden balcony gives way, and Miyokichi starts to fall. Sukeroku dives after her, leaving Kiku to grasp him to keep the two from falling. But Sukeroku breaks his grip, and he and Miyokichi fall to their apparent deaths together.

Now Kiku is alone, and so is Konatsu—though we know he’ll end up taking her in. While it wasn’t as if Kiku took a gun and shot her parents, he most definitely played a role in their demise. No wonder he’s so bitter in the present day, and that Konatsu has always doubted his car accident story.

Yet, even without Sukeroku or Miyokichi, Kiku was able to continue performing excellent rakugo and being adored for it over the years. After all this talk about not being able to do it alone, one could deduce that it was the presence of Konatsu in his life that kept him going. And now, as we know, he has an apprentice, who brought back all these memories of Sukeroku in the first place. I’m eager to see how this ends.