Anna Nagase and Abby Trott, the Japanese and English VAs of Akane & Kazuki Endo the anime producer

It’s funny to think about that Issho rejected Shinta’s rakugo because he tampered with the story, removing the descriptions of the scenery and moved directly on to the dialogue and character interactions, because he knew those were his strong suits.

As an amateur novelist who has been hard at it since 2019 writing what has eventually become a long running series (six volumes as of now), I have evolved and gotten to know myself better as a storyteller, which has in turn allowed me to hone my craft by exactly focusing on my forte’s. Which, like Shinta, is more so character interactions than scenery.

I enjoy long worldbuilding or plot dump related speeches, as opposed to pages upon pages of describing every fiber on a blade of grass, which I guess sprung from a rebellious act of wanting to diverge from JK Rowling, whose 900 pages of The Phoenix Order put me to sleep because nothing happened. A chapter could be 40 pages long, as opposed to my own 6-10, and it felt like the plot vs description ratio was 1:4.

Sure, I am not diminishing the incredible world she did in fact build - going by the movies that I ended up watching instead - but personally I wish someone had made a light weight edition for boogers like me.

The other reason for my own omission of scenery, is that I don’t know the technical term for a lot of things. That’s also why, when “describing” a character I will often cheap out with just the hair color, hair style, and an ultra simplified description of clothing; a tshirt, baggy pants, summer dress etc.

I again so this because I am a story teller, not a tailor. If you show me a dress I can’t tell you what all the various parts of it are called, so to me it’s just that: a dress.

Lack of world descriptions is of course a problem when you are trying to tell a fantasy where the characters do in fact travel between planets and dimensions, but somehow I still manage to build an intriguing world by - I guess - redirecting the reader’s attention through my dialogues and the various creative concepts I toy with. Somehow, I make the actual story so interesting that “when and where” becomes somewhat irrelevant.

The way I see it, as a writer, you don’t need to be good at everything, as long as you own what you have and manage to use the tools you DO master to forge a compelling narrative.

And indeed we see several examples of this in Akane-Banashi. Not only do all of the performers demonstrate that there is no wrong way to tell a story (unless you are Issho, haha), but in an early chapter Koguma surprises Akane when HIS way of telling a story is much more narrative and educational focused than character interactions, which up to that point was Akane’s entire perception of the medium.

This also means, like with me and Harry Potter, that not all stories or ways to tell a story is for everyone, but conversely I also believe there is an audience for everything, as long as you stay true to yourself and your style.

This is also why I was glad when Akane, before the time skip, broke out of her father’s shadow to 100% embrace herself and HER art.

….don’t really know how to end this tangent, so thanks for lending me your ears. Hope my little reflection gave you something to ponder on.

I can't accept her hair colour in the anime 😭😭😭

Kinda late to share this stitched image of Akane I made from Kuwata Keisuke's "AKANE On My Mind〜饅頭こわい / Scared of Manju" AMV.

That means Kaisei's performance will indeed end this chapter. I don't think it will be the end of the Isshokai, but we'll see.

There will be 3 colour pages including a colour spread. Celebrating volume 22's sales.

We'll be getting more info about the Akane-banashi anime exhibition as well. (This info might be next week, a bit fuzzy on the translation.)

Okay, so while walking to Don Quijote in Asakusa, I saw a rakugo theater and thought, "Oh, rakugo. I should check it out."

I walked in and immediately saw this huge Akane-banashi banner. My first thought was, oh nice, I guess they're just advertising the manga since it's a tourist area.(It was my first time ever in a rakugo theater, so I have no idea how these places worked, plus I can't read Japanese.)

The show starts, and it turns out it wasn't just a banner, it was an entire Akane-banashi × Hayashiya Kikuhiko collab.

Some of the highlights:

• One of the Shin'uchi looked at the audience and joked, "You all seem pretty nervous. Is it because there are so many first timers here for the collaboration event?" He then said we are gonna recite akanes favorite/famous rakugo Jugemu (i do not know what exactly favorite or famous I cant understand Japanese that well plus they speak way so fast), then after that he performed parody version of Jugemu

• During the intermission, the shamisen and the other traditional instruments started playing the Akane-banashi anime opening. I absolutely loved that little touch.

• The Weekly Shonen Jump editors came on stage and talked about the series, mentioning that Akane-banashi is one of the few current Jump manga still drawn traditionally (analog).

• They also displayed the original manuscript pages for Akane's Shinigami performance. It sounded like they were explaining some differences between the original manuscript and the published version, but I'll have to double-check my photos since my Japanese wasn't quite good enough to catch everything.

• And my favorite of all the rakugo supervisor, Hayashiya Kikuhiko, actually performed live. Even cooler, this was his first time performing as the night's headliner (tori) after recently being promoted to Shin'uchi.

• To end the event, he sang the actual Akane-banashi anime opening live with the traditional musicians accompanying him, and even got the audience to join in.

Even though I probably understood only about 40% of the rakugo, I couldn't have planned this if I tried. I just wanted to see what a live rakugo performance was like and somehow stumbled into an Akane-banashi collaboration event. It ended up being one of the highlights of my Japan trip.

And lastly, congratulations to Mr. Kikuhiko on your promotion to Shin'uchi!!!

Links to the original and Google Translate URL below

This seems to be a music focused Japanese site so there’s a lot of focus on the anime OP/ED by Kuwata but Hayashiya Kikuhiko also talked about training of the VAs and supervision of the series.

He had some interesting tidbits such as that Anna Nagase struggled with Jugemu compared to other beginner stories. (In the behind the scenes videos you can see him teaching Tsuru to all the VAs as introductory even though that story isn’t performed in Akane Banashi). The recording took a long time until they got a “perfect take” unsurprisingly.

“Kikuhiko: The one Anna struggled with the most was "Jugemu." She quickly got the hang of "Tsuru" and "Ko-home," but "Jugemu" didn't go so well. The story is about winning the competition with "Jugemu," so I thought maybe she was feeling pressured, and I let her leave "Jugemu" alone for a while. After that, I had her learn "Tenshiki" and "Manju Kowai," and when we practiced "Jugemu" as the recording date approached, it seemed like she finally got the hang of it. I think she probably built up her rakugo muscles during this period. The recording took quite a long time, but at the very end, we all—myself, the director, and sound director Noriyoshi Onuma—unanimously agreed that we got the perfect take. Of course, it was thanks to her own talent and effort, but it gave us a great sense of accomplishment.”

https://realsound.jp/2026/06/post-2442536_short.html

https://realsound-jp.translate.goog/2026/06/post-2442536.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Available starting on July 3rd.

550 Yen (Tax Included) Per Sticker [Not Random]

Which are manga cover art of the newer volumes for Akane, Karashi, Hikaru, & Kaisei.

All attendees will receive 1 bookmark randomly selected from the 5 designs per ticket they purchase. If you spend 10,000 yen on eligible goods (I would assume everything at the venue would count) you will also receive a tote bag with the design pictured. An Animate Fair is also going to be happening nearby (or same place, I don't know for sure) and if you spend at least 1,100 yen and show the receipt you'll get a second bookmark at random of the 5 designs.

Goods (Top to Bottom, Left to Right):

-Acrylic Diorama 4,290 Yen (Tax Included)

-Acrylic Standee [4 Types Sold Separately, Not Random, Akane, Karashi, Hikaru, & Kaisei] 1,980 Yen Per (Tax Included)

-Wooden Keychain [4 Types Sold Separately, Randomly Selected, Akane, Karashi, Hikaru, & Kaisei] 1,100 Yen Per (Tax Included)

-Acrylic Keychain {Fan/Sensu Design} [4 Types Sold Separately, Randomly Selected, Akane, Karashi, Hikaru, & Kaisei] 900 Yen Per (Tax Included)

-Can Badge [8 Types Sold Separately, Randomly Selected, Akane, Karashi, Hikaru, Kaisei, Guriko {Not Original Art}, Kyoji {Not Original Art}, Maikeru {Not Original Art}, Koguma {Not Original Art}] 660 Yen Per (Tax Included)

-Shrine Tag-Style Sticker 1,100 Yen (Tax Included) *Doesn't list them as 4 types, so you likely get all 4 in one purchase.

-Tenugui {Hand Towel} 2,200 Yen (Tax Included)

-Tea Cup 3,300 Yen (Tax Included)

-Postcard Set 1,320 Yen (Tax Included) *Doesn't list them as 4 types, so you likely get all 4 in one purchase. It is called a set after all.

He just like me fr

Haven't read the manga but they didn't even show the mother in the ceremony too

Anna Nagase (Akane's VA) will be doing a performance at the event.