Traditional culture will continue to be sustainable if there is a younger generation who wants to follow or practice this culture even though the world continues to turn and Japan is a country that continues to maintain its traditional culture and continues to share it with the world community through various media, whether from films, music, comics, drama or anime. The inherent traditional cultural image of Japan is its performing arts, unique Japanese performing arts play a role in influencing the world's performing arts and one of them is rakugo.

In its literal meaning Rakugo is "the word that fell". Rakugo is a verbal performance art and is a real example of a one man show. The storyteller will only sit on a pillow and must be skilled at bringing the story to life with all the limitations that exist, whether by moving his body slightly or speaking with different intonations to stimulate the audience's imagination.

The performing art of rakugo is the main theme of a manga and anime entitled Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu. After anime fans were treated by Chihayafuru which released 6 years prior to Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu and has a theme about typical Japanese culture, namely karuta in a josei story, Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu is ready to continue its popularity by taking traditional culture and the same theme.

In its first season, Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu tells the story of two potential successors to the rakugo master, namely Kikuhiko and Sukeroku. They both come from different backgrounds and personalities, where Kikuhiko comes from a geisha family who was forced to learn rakugo because geisha is not an art for men and Sukeroku is cheerful and intends to become a famous rakugo speaker in Japan. They live in the house of a rakugo master named Yakumo and pursue their dream of becoming a skilled speaker.

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu is set in the early Shouwa era to the post-second world war era where Japan began to experience a more intense modern touch after it was introduced in the Meiji restoration era. This anime clearly depicts the situation that occurred in Japan by using the medium of rakugo as a bridge that connects traditional and modern touches in Japan.

Even though Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu takes a fairly old school theme, the narrative of the story told is closely related to life in today's entertainment industry where the speakers or performers must continue to give their best to the audience even though their real lives are not as good as what they tell. The story presented is executed well and is able to provoke the audience to feel the life struggles of the two main characters who are constantly looking for performances in order to survive while accompanied by conflict, intrigue and love triangles which are continuously presented in this anime.

The two main characters, namely Kikuhiko and Sukeroku, are like Yin and Yang where they have very different traits from each other but complement each other. Kikuhiko has a calmer and more reserved nature while Sukeroku is more carefree and cheerful. Supporting characters also play an important role in story development because well they are the supporting characters. In each episode, Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu always provides space for the main characters and supporting characters in building the story so that the character development in this anime matures because they support each other.

The essence of rakugo which is the main focus is also interesting to listen to. This anime shows an art that is in danger of becoming extinct because young audiences are no longer interested in rakugo. This point is also an important point in boosting the quality of the narrative because the audience is not only given drama between characters but also gives an idea of ​​how to maintain something that already looks "old" while thinking hard about growing the younger generation's interest in rakugo. Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu also succeeded in introducing what rakugo is through the various approaches they take, whether directly through performances from Kikuhiko and Sukeroku or indirectly such as choosing costumes to perform, accompanying music to enter the stage or how someone is chosen to be the next master through approval. from the Rakugo Speakers Association.

The aesthetics of the Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu period are maintained throughout the music department, the music that appears is mostly jazz nuanced with big band accompaniment and traditional music that is thick with shamisen sounds and mysterious oriental tones. The music that emerged became a marker of Japan's transition to something more modern, where jazz music was known as the first non-Japanese music to gain the hearts of Japanese society thanks to influences from western countries.

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu processes the story the same as a rakugo speaker, sometimes he has to know when to entertain the audience and when to make the audience moved by the story being told. Taking a quote that appears in one of the episodes, Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu seems to interact with the audience through a neatly structured drama so that the audience seems to be taking part in their story. It's also able to convey the essence of rakugo with a very good story so that while enjoying the uniqueness of rakugo the audience is also immersed in the stories of the tellers. It gives its audience a new view that the world of entertainment is not as sweet as imagined, but behind it all there is one noble intention to survive in the harsh world of entertainment, namely entertaining people and Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu has entertained the audience very well in its first season.