Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu: Sukeroku Futatabi-hen

Even after having risen to the utmost rank of shin'uchi, Yotarou struggles to find his own identity in the world of rakugo. Caught between his master's teachings and the late Sukeroku's unique style, his performance lacks an important ingredient—ego. And while his popularity packs the theaters, he is but one of the few; rakugo is under threat of being eclipsed.

Meanwhile Yakumo, regarded by many as the last bastion of preserving the popularity of rakugo, struggles to cope with his elderly state. Even though his performances are still stellar, he fears that he is nearing his limits. His doubts grow stronger as an old friend creeps ever closer. Konatsu, for her part, attempts to raise her son as a single mother, which Yotarou is heavily opposed to. Instead, he seeks to persuade her to marry him and in turn raise her son as his own.

In Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu: Sukeroku Futatabi-hen, the curtains fall on Yotarou and Yakumo's story, tasked with restoring the near-obsolete art form as well as overcoming their internal conflicts.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Yuurakutei, Yakumo Main

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Yotarou Main

Seki, Tomokazu Japanese

Yuurakutei, Sukeroku Supporting

Yamadera, Kouichi Japanese

Konatsu Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuu Japanese

Miyokichi Supporting

Hayashibara, Megumi Japanese

Matsuda Supporting

Ushiyama, Shigeru Japanese

Shinnosuke Supporting

Komatsu, Mikako Japanese

Tsuburaya, Mangetsu Supporting

Yusa, Kouji Japanese

Kotaro Supporting

Iguchi, Yuuichi Japanese

Oei Supporting

Saitou, Eri Japanese

Kamei, Hiroshi Producer

Urasaki, Nobumitsu Producer

Yamazaki, Yoshihiko Producer

Yada, Shouko Producer

Reviews

Jan 22, 2026

jlzap

Recommended

This is a banger follow-up to season one. The music is still amazing, the animation is still good, and the storytelling is still great. Best of all, Yotarou is way less annoying. After the first few episodes of season one, I found Yotarou to be unbearable and was thrilled when the flashback took over. Going into this I was concerned with him being an actual main character, but he chilled way out. His over-the-top vibes became way more natural and bearable, and he was a good main character. He still had his moments, but it was nowhere near as ... bad as it was in season one.

During this season we see relationships grow, people grow, and lessons be learned. The strength of this series is absolutely its storytelling through nuance, it's amazing, I love it. So much happens, there are plot twists, happiness, and sadness, it has it all. As part of this, we see the relationship between Yotarou and Konatsu grow, but it is hampered by the fact that he continues to call her "sis" despite trying to start a relationship with her. This is my biggest complaint of the series, so all things considered that's a pretty small complaint. We are left with a satisfying ending and no questions to be asked. There is one plot point that is left open-ended for the viewer, but that's the point, and it's nothing major.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by jlzap (36)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Oct 13, 2024

Narshizimas

Mixed Feelings

This show was great at times but ultimately somewhat disappointing in the end.

The rakugo scenes this season felt very tedious and were and overall drag to get through to the point where I started skipping through them altogether. Many of the characters come off either very bland or completely annoying Yotarou fails to show any depth outside of being the typical loud and obnoxious but good-natured MC throughout the whole series The twist at the end felt very unnecessary and really stains an otherwise great character in Yakumo. Konatsu's tsundere act and the overall secrecy surrounding the case of her son's father got very old ... fast imo and with the 2 twists that happened at the end any chance of me liking her character went out the window.

6/10, Yakumo carried.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Narshizimas (2)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Jun 23, 2025

Supersonic_Pain

Not Recommended

*Note: I will be assuming you have seen S1 and thus spoiling it. However, I will be refraining from spoiling S2 as best I can*

A couple days ago, I wrote my review for S1, saying "Tbh, S2 is higher rated so maybe I'm just dooming and it'll be all peaches and cream, the author managed to make a plot point I was dreading actually pretty good, but the present day stuff is kinda blah."

And I was quite surprised at how the author managed to surpass my expectations.

...it's even worse than I could have expected.

So, naturally, it failed to live up to the giant albatross S1 ... gave it by skipping ahead a decade. In that time, Yotaro went from being basically fresh out of Kikuhiko's boywomb as a storyteller to being a shin'uchi, Yotaro and Konatsu basically had their entire love story told, and Konatsu got knocked up (which... trust me, we will get to the father in due time).

That is absolutely, patently ridiculous. How the fuck are you going to skip the progression of Yotaro as a storyteller and his main relationship?

So what is the story about then?

I think it fails to find a compelling avenue for Yotaro to go through. He doesn't have a rival like Sukeroku, he never has a roadblock in his relationship with Konatsu, Kikuhiko is never really a threat to his advancement as a rakugo storyteller, they kind of play around with his gang-related past but it only lasts a couple episodes before he has his symbolic way of moving past it and everyone just kind of accepts him as a storyteller again.

The other big story for him is the concept of introducing new aspects and new stories to rakugo, which Kikuhiko seems nominally opposed to but he never, like, does anything. He seems very blase and laissez-faire about the whole situation, telling everybody to do whatever they want. Sure, he SAYS he'd rather rakugo die with him than it be bastardized but other than refusing to let Konatsu be his apprentice, nothing he does ever actually affects the progression of rakugo.

It should come as no surprise, speaking of which, that Kikuhiko is the only interesting character. His conflict with the present-day people doesn't really do anything for me but him grappling with his mortality was the only interesting aspect of the show for me. It's a pretty natural thing for the show to do with an old-ass man but it impacted me and the episode involving him facing the ghosts of his past, so to speak, was the only episode to make me tear up this season.

Konatsu's always wanted to be a storyteller but because she's a ~woman~, she never really got the opportunity. I'll open by saying that as someone who really only learned about rakugo because of Akane-banashi's existence (although I was vaguely aware of this show's existence prior), the concept of a female storyteller was never really all that weird to me so maybe if I was more into the history of rakugo, the concept of Konatsu having to try to be the first female storyteller EVER would've done more for me but, like, they also don't really do much with it. Konatsu spends most of the season either being "Yotaro's wife" or "Shinnosuke's mother", hell, she spends more time being the shamisen player for the male storytellers than trying to become a storyteller proper. That's not to say they spend ZERO time on it but like many of the present-day storylines, it felt underbaked.

Speaking of Konatsu, I did mention the father, right? They reveal who the father is in the last episode (they never explicitly say it but it's pretty obvious, especially looking at adult Shinnosuke) and... it's fucking disgusting, character assassinating, something on the level of Usagi Drop's manga ending. I won't say who it is if you can't figure it out from this paragraph but yeah, nasty, no notes.

There are technically other characters that matter but other than Yotaro, Kikuhiko, and Konatsu, they failed to make any sort of impact. Even Higuchi, who gets plenty of time and an actual place in the story, like, I have nothing to say about him. He's just kind of a guy with no boundaries who really wants Yotaro and Kiku to read his new rakugo stories and, as said above, they don't do enough with this to make it a compelling storyline.

There is one other scene which rewrites a scene from S1 so hard, it actively broke my immersion and I had to open S1 and find the episode to rewatch it to make sure I wasn't being actively GASLIT.

So, in S1, Miyokichi wants to die with Kikuhiko until Sukeroku runs in and vows to give up rakugo and get a fresh start on life. As wont to do in dramas, the balcony breaks and Sukeroku sacrifices himself to try and save Miyokichi. Kikuhiko tries to save them both but Sukeroku makes him let go so Kiku lives and the other 2 die.

Okay, cool, good emotional scene, right? I had no problem with this in S1, made sense to me.

But they completely rewrite this scene in S2 in such a way that it literally cannot be explained away, it's just poor storytelling. There's no unreliable narrator or anything, S1 was just Word of God storytelling of the 8th generation. Not only is it immersion-breaking, it makes every single character in the equation look worse. Sukeroku doesn't vow to clean up his life for the sake of his family, Miyokichi looks like a straight up psycho (which is later confirmed in a future episode where she is described as "constantly holding kitchen knives, threatening to kill herself"), and Kikuhiko doesn't try to save Sukeroku and Miyokichi. Not only that, but we don't hear Sukeroku say Miyokichi's real name in the S2 version so that whole thing about Kikuhiko hearing Miyokichi's real name for the first time is just straight up blipped into the atmosphere, it never happened.

I praised the rakugo in S1, so how is it this season?

Well, they reuse a lot of stories, not just between seasons, but in S2 alone. They do introduce a couple new stories but you'll hear a lot of repeats, hell, one time they just show one of Sukeroku's performances from S1 again but under the excuse of Yotaro seeing film of his performances for the first time.

Not only that but it wasn't as funny. It just felt soul-crushing to see the rakugo I so enjoyed going from a highlight of the show to "filler" that I had to sit through to get to the drama parts again. Comedy is very subjective so I can't really tell you why I didn't laugh as much or like it as much other than the aforementioned repetition but it just wasn't as good as last season.

And that's the best word for this season.

It was soul-crushing to see a show I so loved last season turn into a soul-crushing chore to finish. It failed to make a lasting impression with any of the present-day characters and it actively assassinates the characters of the flashback arc. It's not without its merits but those are few and far between and it would've been better served making a movie all about Kikuhiko struggling with his mortality because that was the only interesting part of the season.

For the most part (the baby's father aside), the plot beats aren't terrible, the mangaka just fails to make it compelling in any way.

To be honest, you're better off pretending it ended with Kikuhiko adopting Konatsu and the "grudge" between the Yakumos and Sukerokus being buried with that act, never watching S2.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Supersonic_Pain (109)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

r/Anime Award Winners - 2017

by Hurwitz

21 Entries · 1 Restacks

Shojo/Josei anime that have received (or been announced for) 2 or more seasons

by Kaoru-Mori-Stan

50 Entries · 4 Restacks

Complete Anime Adaptations (part 6)

by Yuriko_Sakai

50 Entries · 106 Restacks

Winter 2017 Simulcast List [Update 1/13]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of anime acquired for simulcast release during the Winter 2017 season. Anime series licensed for home video rel...read more

Dec 29, 2016 11:23 AM by Snow | Discuss (39 comments)

Winter 2017 Preview

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of Winter 2017 titles with an accompanying promotional video (PV), TV ad (CM), or trailer. This post will be up...read more

Dec 15, 2016 12:21 PM by Snow | Discuss (60 comments)

	Poll: Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu: Sukeroku Futatabi-hen Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Mar 24, 2017	304 replies	by kuilherme »» Jan 14, 5:04 PM
	Poll: Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu: Sukeroku Futatabi-hen Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Mar 17, 2017	105 replies	by menlover191 »» Aug 25, 2025 10:53 PM
	Poll: Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu: Sukeroku Futatabi-hen Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Mar 10, 2017	94 replies	by SouthRzVa »» Apr 20, 2025 6:14 PM
	Poll: Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu: Sukeroku Futatabi-hen Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Feb 24, 2017	66 replies	by SouthRzVa »» Apr 19, 2025 5:09 PM
	Poll: Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu: Sukeroku Futatabi-hen Episode 7 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Feb 17, 2017	132 replies	by SouthRzVa »» Apr 18, 2025 6:38 PM

In Numbers: The Best Anime of the Decade

What's the #1 anime of the 2010s? Which year was the best? What studio had the most hits? We have the answers to all these questions and more!

by Shymander

687,314 views