Skip to main content

Oldtaku no Radio # 012 – Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju

If you’ve yet to watch the epic drama about traditional storytelling that is Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju, get yourself on over to Crunchyroll and do so. If you’ve yet to watch the sequel, Descending Stories, feel free to listen up until the spoilers section (or past if you don’t care about such things).

In our final episode of our first season of Oldtaku no Radio, we return to a show about which we could not stop praising in our first episode. We find the sequel/second season a little more divisive, which means there’s even more to talk about. But don’t worry, we keep things concise and focus on analysis instead of plot this time around. We look into the imagery, characters, plot devices, storytelling implementation, chronology, and more to hammer out why this anime is so effective. Listen, enjoy, and let us know what you think!

Direct DownloadRSS Feed – StitcherGoogle Play: Music – iTunes
Send us Feedback!More episodes

Runtime: 1 hr, 16 min

Show Notes

  • Opening Song: “Through the Glass” by Kaz Mirblouk
  • 00:00 – Introduction
  • 01:20 – Summary
  • 02:35 – Reconnecting with characters
  • 04:15 – Word choice: tonal shifts and chronology
  • 09:55 – Exploring the main thematic conflict
  • 16:25 – Playing around with how storytelling is used to tell a story
  • 22:00 – Character attachments
  • 28:15 – Dramatic use of imagery in rakugo sets
  • 32:55 – Here there be spoilers…
  • 63:22 – Twitter questions
  • 71:00 – Thank yous and more thank yous!
  • Ending Song: “Money 1973” by NO FUTURE
  • Twitter: Ani-Gamers, Oldtaku no RadioInk, Jared
  • Ink also writes for Otaku USA Magazine and The Fandom Post.
  • Jared also writes for The Electrum Edition and Wave Motion Cannon.
    • Ink's profile

      Ink contributes his own pieces and edits those of others pertaining to anime, manga, and games. His reviews and analyses have also appeared in the pages of Otaku USA as well as online over at The Fandom Post and Taiiku Podcast.

    • Jared Nelson's profile

      Jared discovered anime in the early 1990s through stacks of third-hand fandubs and Streamline Pictures tapes. By the tender age of 16, he was humming Macross 7 songs in art class, dreaming of Asuka Langley and hanging Rurouni Kenshin posters on his wall. A few years later he moved to Japan where he worked as an ALT (assistant language teacher) in Ibaraki and Fukuoka Prefectures. While he returned home with a deep appreciation for Japan, its culture, and its public transit system, Jared fell out of anime fandom and only returned in 2010. A self-proclaimed 3rd-level bard, Jared enjoys tabletop gaming and game design, video gaming, giant robots, history, comics, and most recently manga. He is also eternally late to the party.

    Filed Under

    blog comments powered by Disqus