Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju

As far as Shinnosuke is concerned, Yotaro is his beloved father, and now that he's become a popular storyteller, Yotaro is even appearing on TV shows. After he performs "Jugemu" on a children's program, all the kids begin reciting it. Meanwhile, he's also getting steady work at the theater, while Konatsu plays shamisen in the wings. Higuchi is overjoyed to see it to see Yotaro satisfy so many...

Hearing Yakumo's "Inokori" blasts the doubt from Yotaro's mind, and spurs his sudden rise to fame. Now, he himself is to perform that story in two months' time at a family show with Yakumo. Yakumo claims that he sees none of Yotaro himself in his rakugo, and that the character of Saheiji will be the key to unlocking his own "ego." Will Saheiji finally allow Yotaro to find his own rakugo?

Consumed by concerns over not finding his own rakugo, as well as harboring doubts about the relationship between Konatsu and a local gang boss, Yotaro lets off steam by performing the rant from "Daiku Shirabe." Higuchi joins him, idly wondering why the carpenter goes off on the rant. Yotaro confesses he never thought about it before. Soon after, Yotaro hears that the gang boss is visiting the...

A magazine has exposed Yotaro's past as a former convict and member of the yakuza, plunging the rakugo world into scandal and sullying Yotaro's name. Although he continues performing as if nothing has happened, his growing desperation is coming out in his performance. He loses TV appearances, and the customers in the theaters have begun to turn on him, as well. But Yotaro's insecurities seem ...

While performing "Hangon-ko," Yakumo passed out and dreamed of being in a hall of candles, being strangled by the Second Generation Sukeroku. Yotaro's voice brings him back to consciousness, but he won't be getting back on stage. Yotaro was about to get on the ambulance taking Yakumo away, when he heard the voices of the people looking forward to his performance. "I gotta do rakugo." Left beh...

After ten years' apprenticeship to the eight generation Yakumo, Yotaro has finally achieved the rank of shin'uchi and taken on the name "Sukeroku," after his master's fellow student and Konatsu's father. Things appear to be smooth sailing at first, but complications soon arise. Between rakugo's fading legacy and Yotaro's concerns about single mother Konatsu, can the third generation Sukeroku ...

A week after his collapse on stage, Yakumo finally awakens. But the light inside him has faded, and when he speaks next, he declares that he won't do rakugo anymore. He also quits as president of the Rakugo Association, and gives Matsuda more free time. Why would Yakumo, whose life is bound to rakugo, want to stop doing it? Meanwhile, in search of a film taken of the previous Sukeroku, Higuch...

Mangetsu has returned to Kyoto-style rakugo, and Yotaro is taking on apprentices. Triggered by Yakumo's desire to quit, everyone is trying to find ways to preserve rakugo and Yakumo's own style of it. Higuchi has also been collecting documents about Yakumo to preserve his journey, but Yakumo himself is sour about the idea. Faced with the limits of his physical body, Yakumo is trying to turn h...

As eras change, one thing remains rock solid. To Yotaro, that's Yakumo. After being inspired by the "Shinigami" he heard from him in prison, he decided he'd follow him anywhere. Those straightforward words lead Yakumo to talk about rakugo and his own death. Yotaro insists that if he wants to die in the theater, he needs to do rakugo again, and invites him to perform at the prison with him. Th...

The Uchikutei caught fire after the performance, and Yakumo, who was alone there, was badly burned. Though he has managed to survive, his comeback will be more difficult now. And that isn't the only disaster: Tokyo's last remaining rakugo theater has burned down. A dark cloud hangs over rakugo's future, but rakugo can continue as long as the people still exist. Yotaro believes this, and begin...

Yakumo was listening to Yotaro's rakugo on the porch with Konatsu when he suddenly found himself lost on a scaffolding of candles. There, he met the Second Generation Sukeroku once more, who told him that he had arrived at the Sanzu River. Sukeroku then guides him on a journey through the land of the dead. On the way, return to their childhoods and young adulthoods, talk to each other about M...

Fifteen years have passed since that fateful day. Yotaro and Konatsu's children are growing up: Shinnosuke is a futatsume, and Koyuki has entered high school. Those who made their lives from rakugo, those who gave their lives to rakugo... aspects of their checkered pasts carry on to the next generation. What feelings lie in the hearts of those who inherit the names Kikuhiko, Sukeroku, and Yak...