Akane-banashi

I bow my head to my fellow Kotaku writer, Sisi Jiang, for putting me on Akane-banashi because this manga has become the most consistently great week-to-week read I’ve experienced this year. And that’s including the ongoing releases of popular shonen manga like Jujutsu Kaisen and My Hero Academia. Akane-banashi, by author Yuki Suenaga and artist Takamasa Moue, follows a teenager named Akane Osaki as she plunges into the world of rakugo. Rakugo is a form of theatrical Japanese storytelling where a lone actor, usually a dude, performs comedic or dramatic skits while assuming the role of each character. Akane, who is in the unenviable position of being a young female rakugo performer, pursues rakugo to understand why her father was banished by the elders in the rakugo community.

Read More: This Optimistic New Manga Is Why I Subscribe To Shonen Jump

Every chapter of Akane-babashi is just as captivating as the last, enthrallingly chronicling Akane’s journey into professional rakugo while seamlessly weaving in informative tidbits about the art form. It never ceases to amaze me how effectively Akane-banashi takes a story about artists verbally entertaining an audience and translates it to the black-and-white panels of a manga. Moue’s ability to draw an array of facial expressions on the series’ performers, and the way their auras transport both myself and their audience into the world of their short skits, is masterful stuff. In fact, it’s thanks to Akane-banashi that I say “that’s good rakugo” as shorthand to compliment an author’s captivating diction or an actor’s exemplary line delivery.