Okada Masaki Monogatari

The 60 years old Yurakutei Yakumo VIII ( source ) Back in the 1980s (1987 to be exact), Episode 7 opened with a much older Yakumo (60 years old) waking up from his shinjū nightmare. He woke up with a balled fist as the last scene he saw in the dream was him grabbing Suke’s collar to prevent him and Miyo from falling. Interestingly, as Suke let go of Kiku’s grab, Miyo actually said “kono ko, onegai - この　子、お願い”. It seems that Miyo begged Kiku to take care of her daughter as she was tethering on Sukeroku's arms. Meanwhile, Yotaro got a new haircut. He’s a more famous rakugo story teller now, inviting a horde of laughters from a packed audience. Konatsu was standing on a bridge. She was muttering some options for baby names as she took out a cigarette. Yet, she cancelled and walked away. Konatsu breaking the news ( Source ) Yakumo was studying his very polished walking stick (the one he got from Miyo) when Matsuda-san came to tell him that Konatsu was going to visit the...

Sukeroku, Konatsu and Kikuhiko enjoying dinner (I bet Kiku cooked) The fateful episode where we have the warm Kiku-Suke-Konatsu scenes, the hottest kisses and lick, hotter than I expected… and the sad ending which totally negate all those sweet stuff… Inside Suke’s messy house, Kiku said how he needed Suke’s Rakugo; that Suke shouldn't give up. Thus, if Suke doesn’t want to do the Rakugo for Rakugo itself, or for the audiences, then please do it for Kiku. Then Kiku gave Suke some money and told him to get clean clothes and supplies (he told Suke that the money wasn't a gift; Suke had to pay him back when he got the Rakugo job back in Tokyo). Kiku then led the house cleaning project. He also performed Rakugo for some money and cleaned the baths with Suke, also for extra money. After Kiku established himself as a Rakugo talent in that village, the owner of the inn across the soba restaurant offered the opportunity for him to perform in the inn. Kiku accepted it an...

Oricon  has released the results of its survey on the satisfaction levels of Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū Episodes 1-3. I have translated the article below and have also translated the graph. The article was also uploaded in Asahi Shimbun , which shows how prestigious this drama is (for Asahi is a serious newspaper).  Okada Masaki as Hachidaime Yūrakutei Yakumo Prepared with such a suicidal love, Okada Masaki’s performance is highly praised, satisfaction level of “Shōwa genroku rakugo shinjū” increases 4 Nov 2018 Starring Okada Masaki as a Rakugo master who displays his masterpiece, the NHK Drama 10 “Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū” is popular. Supervised by a rakugo master Yanagiya Kyōtarō, Okada’s rakugo surprised rakugo fans in a good way. According to the “Oricon Drama Value” satisfaction level published by the Weekly Entertainment Business Magazine “Confidence”, viewers sing their praises one by one. The satisfaction level of the drama itself is also rapidly...

The fateful goodbye between brothers in Ep 5... In which Suke-Miyo migrated to Shikoku, Shisho Yakumo VII died, Kiku went to Shikoku to fetch Suke back to Tokyo... and a heart-stopping presentation of Kikuhiko licking Miyokichi's face for Ep 6 next week...  The year was 1955. Kiku’s rakugo became more famous. One day, when he was performing Shinagawa Shinju, Kiku knew that Suke was visiting his show. Kiku caught Suke and had a talk. Source Kiku asked Suke to apologise to Shisho, the latter refused. Suke then told the story of Sukeroku I, his first shisho. Kiku informed Suke about something next month, but the latter couldn’t care less. Suke did give Kiku his “Sukeroku” fan. Suke then returned back drunk to his shack called ‘home’ and lay on the floor, wasted. Miyo came home as well with sake. She kissed Suke yet she commented how soft Kiku’s lips ("like the lips of a girl!") were when she kissed her former boyfriend way back. I think Suke asked Miyo t...

Kikumiyo in Ep 3 (yeah yeah, but I like this shot very much...and it's high-res!) I found a better channel to live-stream NHK , so this time, I had little trouble, though I still lost some important seconds because of the buffering.  The year was 1954. In this episode, Hatsutaro/Sukeroku started to appear in TV. He also remained popular with his guests. Kikuhiko got better with Rakugo, his audience loved him more. All the time, Miyokichi still came to see Kiku’s performance and support him.  Miyokichi (left bottom corner) watched Kiku's Rakugo Kiku still dated Miyo (that would be at least a year of dating then) and often visited her at her place. He did fancy her, I think, but he also wasn’t showing that very much, despite her obvious love to him. I think Miyo asked Kiku, if one day he decides to ditch her, please consider killing her instead. みよ吉：「私を捨てるんなら、いっそー思いに殺してね？」  Kiku dismissed Miyo’s suggestion as being silly.  How I wish M...