MANGA REVIEW | "Akane-banashi" - Volume Eleven
When I first started reading Akane-banashi in 2023, I had one slight issue with our heroine. That problem was a lack of main character energy, something that makes her stand out like any other Shonen Jump lead. As the story went on, Akane found her voice, as her seriousness and showmanship for rakugo became stronger. But now, in its eleventh volume, Akane-banashi demands something of its lead that I’m surprised hasn’t come up before: the need to tone down.
Mind you, this doesn’t mean that Akane’s become a Super Saiyan God in the world of rakugo. Quite the contrary, it’s something that the recently-promoted futatsume Asagao points out about Akane’s style: she’s too damn serious! While the art of storytelling is a serious business, there’s treating the form seriously and acting out the story seriously. And it’s the latter that Akane needs to tone the heck down! And Asagao’s got the perfect story for Akane to perform to do just that: “Tanuki Dice.”
The gist: Akane needs to perform the classic story using modern vernacular. That means no Edo speak, giving way to a tale that feels more like the present day than something from long, long ago. It’s a task that seems hard for Akane, as she’s been doing rakugo by the book for such a long time. Having to tell a story in a current fashion sounds like it’d go against the rakugo art form. However, this is Akane “Akakawa” Osaki we’re talking about, a woman who almost always finds a way to take her audience by surprise.
There are a couple of reasons why this upcoming moment may be important to Akane-banashi in the long run. For starters, if she pulls off a wild performance, then Master Taizen Arakawa must give Akane a futatsume recommendation. This is a huge deal, as it’s something that our heroine has been working hard towards. However, within the shadows is an Afro-haired rakugo performer who wishes to ban Taizen from ever allowing Akane from getting that recommendation.
Right here, one can finally see the dark side of the world of rakugo. While this is a work of fiction, one can imagine that there are people in the industry who purposely keep down performers from achieving promotions that they greatly deserve. This is writer Yuki Suenaga saying the quiet part of the theater world loudly, as if to shine a beacon on a problem many people know, but choose to be silent about. Thankfully, while Taizen has his orders, there’s someone that’ll be at Akane’s performance who might sway him onto the right path: Tohru Osaki.
For the first time, Akane’s father will be there to watch her perform. But before he arrives at the theater, he makes a little detour to speak with Taizen. The day he was expelled from the Arakawa school has eaten up Taizen, as he fears he was to blame for that day. A little reassurance from Tohru shows that this wasn’t the case, with him saying something so important, it’s shocking it took this long for someone to blurt it out: it’s only rakugo.
To many, such words would be scandalous. However, the art of rakugo is meant to entertain and alleviate stress from the audience. So why should the one performing it also be stressed out? In his own way, Tohru reminds Taizen that the rakugo world doesn’t belong only to the greatest storytellers; it belongs to everyone.
However, being a mere rakugo performer probably isn’t good enough for Akane. She wants to become shin’uchi, a title that Tohru was close to achieving, only for it to be stolen away. And as she gives her own spin on “Tanuki Dice”, it becomes more and more clear that she may very well one day get that title. Volume Eleven of Akane-banashi may not reveal Akane’s fate regarding this performance, but one thing is definitely certain: she’s getting that promotion, one way or another!
FINAL GRADE:
Promotional consideration provided by Chantelle Sturt of VIZ Media.
