it is a show about Rakugo, not a Rakugo show! If you want to just watch a pure Rakugo show, then go watch a real Rakugo show! Akane-Banashi is about a teen girls JOURNEY to becoming a Rakugo performer. So far through 3 episodes we’ve only seen bits of stories and they’re usually narrated over. I was confused until they mentioned that the story Akane tells in Ep2 takes TWENTY MINUTES. If they showed the full story, the episode would have nothing else. The actual process of Rakugo is what is on display. The emotions the performer causes viewers to feel, the various personalities theperformer can do, and the light humor of storytelling are put into focus with lovely animation.

Most of what I know about Rakugo comes from seeing Katsura Sunshine who is an amazing Canadian Rakugoka who performs in both English and Japanese. I highly recommend looking them up as they also teach a lot about the history and basics of Rakugo when they do western shows kind of like the little history lessons that are in Akane-Banashi.

overall 85/100 so far. has made me laugh, taught me things, kept me entertained, and given some wise perspective