#sgrs

[karafina]

something something shibahama and bon pulling sukeroku out of his state of depression alcoholism abandonement and their co parenting period and how much of what kiku told was true and did shin san really tell miyokichi he wanted to be a family again and that he did it for her and did miyo realize even if that were true the one to play the part of the shibahama wife in sukeroku's life was kikuhiko and that realization led her to do what she did

[anisongoftheday]

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu Opening

USURAHI SHINJUU by Megumi Hayashibara

[grassbreads]

Man, genuinely there's little that excites me more than encountering queerness in fiction where I wasn't expecting it. I'm gonna be thinking about Kikuhiko/Yakumo from SGRS for so long.

Even setting aside the subtext of his feelings for Sukeroku, the narrative around his relationship to gender norms and his own expression is so fascinating. Guy who grows up steeped in rigid 40s gender roles and actively tries to enforce them, yet only truly feels like himself when he's acting on stage as a woman. Guy who says his life would have been better if he were born a woman and then refuses to elaborate.

[digitalroot]

When things were hard for me, I wanted to hear your rakugo. All the good, all the bad... Your rakugo has given me every emotion imaginable. That's why I can't be without it.

[beldaroot]

it's very interesting that people genuinely consider the ending twist of showa genroku rakugo shinju to have happened in the story bc for me, the gay subtext for yakumo is so apparent that there is just no way he could've slept with any women, let alone the daughter of the man he loved and the woman he was supposed to love.

and not to mention that the whole premise of the story is that rakugo allows for unreliable narration. the ambiguity of the ending goes with the entire theme that these characters are simply retelling stories and it's a mix of both fact and fiction.

also the way this "yakumo is actually shinnosuke's father" theory only came up from a dude who was obsessed with yakumo but never actually came close enough to truly know him. i think it was purposefully written that it was eisuke who created the theory bc while he never became a successful rakugo performer, he still used the essence of rakugo - aka the juicy, entertaining storytelling - to manifest a narrative he thought was believable with the little information he had.

[dies-non]

Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū

[tiferet]

farewell my concubine (1993) shouwa genroku rakugo shinjuu (2016)

[unfotp]

now you can't say that and.just move on

[imethirdperson]

Imagine going "I'm probably non-binary but I have a job so I don't really care about that rn" until you die of old age because you simply refuse to retire

[pierranesi]

this was me from ages like 8 to 13 tbh, increasingly desperate as I was less and less successful

[karafina]

sukeroku got to reflect and decide to get it together thanks to him like a perfect reflection of shibahama where sukeroku is the merchant and kikuhiko is the wife but it couldn’t work out bc miyokichi is still out there In the Real World !!!lmao!! so kikuhiko has to continue living with his lies just when he was ready to part from them :)

[cloudbends]

It is quite insane how sgrs has both one of the best reveals I've ever seen alongside one of the worst reveals I've ever seen.

[grassbreads]

The more I linger on it, the more I think this might be the most subtly unhinged thing in all of SGRS. What do you MEAN you dated for eight years and never told each other your real names???

Miyokichi talks after the breakup about how she was putting on a "professional front" with Kikuhiko. As a survival technique, Miyokichi tends to make herself into whatever she thinks the man she's with wants from her, and in this case, that means she presented herself as her idea of Kiku's idea of a "good woman" for a full eight years while they were together. She probably would have tried to go on like that forever if he didn't break things off.

Yet at the same time, I think she's rightfully upset on some level that Kiku never looked at her more deeply. We see very little of their relationship, only the beginning and the very end, but given what we do see, it seems like Kiku never quite stops holding Miyokichi at arm's length. He goes along with things and initiates some level of closeness (like leaning into her when he's upset during the rain), but he doesn't push her to get more intimate.

Kiku looks scared when Miyokichi talks about dying during their breakup, he defends her personhood to his master, and he wants to bring her back to Tokyo with along Konatsu and Sukeroku when he finds them, so it's not like he doesn't care about her at all. But while he treats her his own version of decently, he never tries to get to know her on a deeper level. He doesn't take initiative to look for who she is behind her front for him.

(Personally, I'd blame his disinterest in knowing her largely on his own fear of being known, but we don't have time to get into that right now).

The problem with Miyokichi's frustration with being taken at face value, though, is that she doesn't know Kikuhiko's real name either. She most likely never asks, just like Kiku never asks hers. I think she falls in love with the idea of dating Kiku as much if not more than she falls in love with him. He's safe and well-mannered and very handsome, and I think his distant coldness is a comfort to her on some level because neglect, though an unhappy business, is what she has experience with.

Miyokichi likes the idea of ~being the woman~ and supporting Kiku emotionally. I'm sure she encouraged some playact of emotional intimacy between them. I'm sure they found comfort in each other in a very real way sometimes. But, if she got to know Kiku too well, she would have seen things about him she didn't like. Could she have truly known him without knowing he didn't love her the way she wanted? She never quite looks deeper to see whether he's really the type of man that she needs him to be.

I think Kiku is a bit more at fault for the dysfunction in their relationship overall. Whether or not he was ever properly attracted to or in love with her, he's quite clearly an inattentive boyfriend to an egregious degree. Who the hell goes traveling for an extended period without saying a word to their partner?? But he's not the only one that lets their partner pretend to be something they're not.

Kiku and Miyokichi are both very talented actors. Boyfriend and Girlfriend are roles that they're both playing. They're the happy heterosexual couple! Miyokichi seems to latch onto Kiku in large part for the sake of her safety (and because she doesn't know how to exist without a boyfriend in her life). And however much pleasure he may or may not get from Miyokichi's advances, I think Kiku stays in the relationship with her at least in part out of a sense of social obligation. She's beautiful and hitting on him. Young men are supposed to have girlfriends. He's encouraged to date to get experience for his rakugo. Is saying "no" even an option?

But because they're both playing roles, because they're both invested in Doing A Relationship as much as they're invested in each other as individuals, both of them skim along the other's surface. Neither of them ever volunteers to tell the other their real name, and apparently neither of them ever tries to ask. They spend eight years together, but those years are spent dating the personas of Kikuhiko and Miyokichi, not daring to look at the people underneath those masks.

[karasukarei]

There’s a new special version of the SGRS manga coming out and I need it…. So bad…. ;-;

A redraw of something I did on paper many years ago.

Original from when I was a wee little undergrad student:

[pheenick]

always delighted by how universal the "and they lived happily ever after and the show DEFINITELY ENDS HERE" hits on episode 11 of sgrs

[feinv]

simon riley loves listening to you yap.

cw. gn!reader. fluff.

because of his quiet and reserved nature, and also years in the military spent obeying commands and rarely having the opportunity to express himself, simon riley became an observer. a listener.

so when he met you, those personality traits became more apparent. it’s not like he had much to say, anyway. he barely had time for hobbies or any other activity that was not connected with the military. his life rotated in the same cycle: going on for missions, coming back to you.

and when he came back – starving for an actual home-cooked meal instead of something remotely representing food pressed into cans and plastic packs – he sat you down on the opposite side of the table with a simple “tell me, lovie.”

he would shove a spoonful of food into his mouth one after another, groaning at the delicious taste while you rambled his ears off, lifting his head up every now and then for a nod – an indication that he was listening and you shouldn’t stop.

truly, he never wanted you to stop.

you went out for a shopping spree with your friends? amazing. tell him what you got before you show him later. tell him what you left in the store and why. tell him what you had for lunch. tell him if you liked it.

get distracted when you remember something else. switch the topics every second and forget to finish the previous one. tell him about all the movies and tv shows you watched while he was gone, and how you couldn’t stand that one character.

he loves hearing your voice and how your hands and body move dramatically when you speak, even if he has no idea what the actual fuck you’re saying. there is no such thing as “too much information” for simon riley.

at the end of the day, all he wanted for you is to worry about the mundane stuff. your shoes didn’t match your outfit? yeah.

you worry about that while he takes care of everything else and makes your life easier because he fuckin loves you <3

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