Please read Akane-banashi.

Akane deserves it. She's the best.

Onward and upward with trying to save myself some pain at the end of December in regards to all of my feelings about stuff I’ve played and read this year! There’s been so much reading, putting that new Kobo I got to good use. I know this sounds a bit like a food blog with the lead in story on most posts, but well, I normally write these while I’m doing a light treadmill workout or waiting on an appointment somewhere just to get the boredom out of my fingers and talk about something I find interesting. The worst part of this one is going to be writing this without spoilers, as of chapter 182.

Because I need someone to talk about this series with!

So, Akane-banashi is not the sort of story that would normally get the attention of someone in the US reading Shonen Jump, I think. It isn’t a story about epic battles (well, of the punch-battle variety), parents tend to be alive, and the main interest of our protagonist is a classical Japanese storytelling art called rakugo. She’s also not a boy, there’s not really much in the way of love interests or fan service. What is there?

An incredible story of what it’s like to be inspired by art and storytelling, what it means to evaluate the things and people you love critically, and a hell of a lot of looking at what it means to dedicate yourself to a craft sustainably – provided by a lovely dork and her adopted family of fellow apprentices. Akane was inspired by her dad’s performances as a child, and when he gets kicked out of his apprenticeship during his promotion exam, she decides to spend the rest of her life proving that his style of performance had what it takes to be considered the best.

Something that I find really endearing about the series is the way the storytelling is depicted, in particular. The art style changes up to show the mood and tone the rakugoka (performer) on stage is getting across to the audience, directly conveying how well their work is coming across to a crowd in addition to a few standard reaction shots and thoughts. We also don’t spend a long time on training montages showing the same stories over and over again as performed by Akane. If a rakugo story shows up a second (or third, or..) time, it’s because something is notably different about how it was performed–meaningful stories being learnt, where something fundamental gets learned. Akane learns “filler” stories off screen regularly, instead of through extended and constant “training arc” moments.

If you enjoyed any iteration of My Dress Up Darling based on Wakana Gojo’s relationship with creating costumes and dolls, I think there’s something here for you. If you aren’t sure, the “Arlong Park” moment (for One Piece fans) where the series will either grab your attention and hold on or show you that it fundamentally isn’t your thing is near the start of volume 4, but is foreshadowed enough by the end of 3 to give a good sense of if you’ll even be interested in finding out.