Akane-banashi

Young girl Akane Osaki falls in love with rakugo comic storytelling through watching her father perform. One day, a shocking event derails his career.

Hearing that Master Shiguma is secretly meeting with a young girl, Futatsume Guriko investigates and finds him teaching Akane at a karaoke parlor.

Akane joins Shiguma's school as an apprentice. The earnest Kyoji Arakawa is tasked with guiding her, but she finds herself stuck doing menial chores.

Akane performs at a nursing home, displaying all she has learned. Kyoji goes next, determined to show her his skill as her elder fellow apprentice.

Akane gets career counseling from her teacher Iwashimizu, known as the Ice Lady, who refuses to acknowledge Akane's dream of becoming a Rakugoka.

After learning that Issho will judge the annual student Rakugo championship, Akane gains Shiguma's permission to compete — but on one condition.

At the Karaku Cup preliminaries, all eyes are on defending champion Karashi and rising voice actor Hikaru Koragi, but Kaisei picks Akane to win.

The Karaku Cup finals are now underway. The chief judge, Issho Arakawa, has taken his place at the venue. Following a stream of performances, it's time for one of the frontrunners, Karashi Nerimaya, to take the stage. Karashi's specialty is "Modernized Rakugo", — modern interpretations of classic Rakugo stories. This bold approach gets him some big laughs from the audience, but what will Issho's verdict be?

The Karaku Cup final continues. Following Karashi, voice actress Hikaru Koragi takes the stage. Determined to be judged not for her looks, but for her acting skills, she competes in the Karaku Cup. To showcase her expressiveness, she performs a sentimental story. Coincidentally, it's "Shibahama" - the story that Shinta performed during his Shin'uchi Promotion Test six years ago. Hikaru's passionate performance rocks the audience, and in its wake, Akane takes the stage at last.

In contrast to her performance in the prelims, where she put her enunciation skills on full display, Akane delivers "Jugemu" in a relatively relaxed manner during the finals. Karashi and Hikaru suspect that she's throwing the match, but in fact, she's taken a true Rakugoka's approach - bringing the audience down from the high of the previous sets into a comfortable lull. As she leans into her characters' emotions, effortlessly enthralling her listeners with her gentle tone, Akane gradually reaches a new level in her performance.

Face to face with Issho Arakawa, Akane asks him point-blank why he had expelled Shinta. After he sends the journalists out of the room, Issho informs her that he can see right through the fact that Akane is training under Shiguma. As Akane flinches, he reveals the truth behind the expulsion six years ago- the truth he has never shared before. Now that she's finally learned the reason behind her father's expulsion, what could be going through Akane's mind?

After winning the Karaku Cup, Akane suddenly finds herself in the spotlight at school. But unconvinced that her performance was good enough to blow Issho away, she has mixed feelings about it all. And now, graduation day is approaching. Motivated by Akane’s success, her friends have started to pursue their own dreams. Meanwhile, Shiguma racks his brain, trying to come up with a stage name for Akane, who’ll officially become his apprentice once she graduates. And as her thoughts turn to her father, Shinta, Akane ponders the meaning of her own given name.