Akane-banashi episode 3 marks the series settling into its groove. As is often the case with a shonen manga, it’s time for Akane to meet her peers and work to earn their acceptance. In “Senior Apprentices,” the shift from headstrong potential prodigy to student is rough for Akane, but her show refuses to miss a beat.
“An unpleasant grownup vibe”
Before Akane can take her position as an apprentice, Shiguma insists upon getting her parent’s approval. It’s an ask that makes perfect sense and a set up to finish establishing the current day status of the series’s players. At this stage, Shinta is well and truly in exile, being both too busy and having zero concerns about his daughter’s decision. Despite that, Shiguma bears a heavy guilt, as it’s revealed in turn he’s not spoken to either of Akane’s parents since “that day.”
However, Shinta continues to loom large, being the largest factor that convinces Masaki to get out of her daughter’s way. She’s got plenty of concerns about the risks but understands that Akane is going to do this one way or another, and she’s better off under the eyes of Shinta’s master. Akane’s own flippancy about the underlying tension adds a bit of levity to the moment the three come to agreement. To her, none of this is awkward or heavy, because she’s going to fix the situation herself.
The wounds of the past.
What Akane doesn’t understand is that her father’s shadow doesn’t just loom over her. As she meets her fellow apprentices in Akane-banashi episode 3, it becomes clear that they all also carry baggage. This manifests particularly in Kyoji Arakawa (Yohei Azagai). Dialogue doesn’t make it clear on its own beyond noting when Kyoji’s demeanor as the “Magistrate of the Shiguma School” began, but that’s enough. Shinta’s unexplained expulsion brought Kyoji to his hardline conclusion.
As such, while he is ultimately kind and protective of his fellow apprentices, his firm hand is something that Akane’s personality naturally resists. It’s the first real challenge in the series: someone else’s philosophy about rakugo. To Kyoji, Akane’s issues are that she doesn’t understand that an entertainer is not unlike other service jobs – her client is the audience. His trick of putting Akane in such a service job to figure that out is a clever play on the tried and true shonen troupe of learning the right lesson by doing something seemingly having no relation.
Structure is useful for a reason.
In comparison to the previous episodes, the air comes out a bit in Akane-banashi episode 3. Because these familiar tricks are so familiar, there’s less to be extraordinary. But, these troupes exist for a reason, they help form the structure of a shonen manga, and it’s a winning formula for a reason. Seeing Akane come the realization that Kyoji wants from her is an accomplishment unto itself. Such a structure also helps continue to communicate what rakugo is to an audience likely just learning about it for the first time.
While “Senior Apprentices” might not be as awe-inspiring as the first two episodes, it does maintain the quality standard of them. A grand episode of a series is often rising to that level on the shoulders of the grunt work episodes like these do. Knowing that there is the potential for intense excitement to come, it is comforting to see this anime maintain its foundations.
Akane-banashi is available now on YouTube and on Netflix beginning in May.
Featured images ©Hiroki Suenaga and Takamasa Umagami/Shueisha, “Akane Banashi” Production Committee
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'Akane-banashi' – "Senior Apprentices" - 8/10
8/10
Travis Hymas is a freelance writer and self appointed Pokémon historian out of Salt Lake City, Utah. Known to be regularly obessive over pop culture topics, gaming discourse, and trading card games, he is a published critic featured on sites such as Uppercut and The Young Folks.
