"I've got nothing, so I'm going there." Former small-time crook Yotaro has never forgotten the rakugo tale "Shinigami" that the great artist Yurakutei Yakumo performed to him in prison. After his rele…

Yakumo begins the story of the promise he made with Sukeroku. When he was young, he was taken in by the 7th generation Yakumo and named Kikuhiko. He met the young boy Sukeroku, a strange child who ins…

After their first performance, Kikuhiko sharply feels the difference in skill between himself and Hatsutaro. Hatsutaro recommends he try erotic stories, but Kikuhiko is struggling so hard just to memo…

Kikuhiko and Hatsutaro, promoted to futatsume, left their master's house to live an impoverished life on their own. Ever since changing his name to Sukeroku, Hatsutaro's popularity has skyrocketed. Ev…

After a performance, Sukeroku comes home drunk with girls on both arm. Work or play, he navigates all areas of life smoothly. Kikuhiko is annoyed with him, but he's also jealous of how easy he has thi…

Kikuhiko is feeling better about himself after the success of the play, with the audience hanging on his every word and gesture. Sukeroku tells him that he had a similar experience during the war, and…

After finding his own rakugo, Kikuhiko has become quite popular. Even when he's out with Miyokichi, rakugo is all he can think about. Meanwhile, Sukeroku is buoyed into arrogance by his own popularity…

Kikuhiko's tour with the 7th Generation Yakumo was a huge success. His master is satisfied with Kikuhiko's growth, and plans to promote him to shin'uchi soon. The problem is Sukeroku, whose behavior i…

The Seventh Generation Yakumo manages to get Kikuhiko and Sukeroku promoted to shin'uchi. But although their unveiling ceremony is a huge success, Sukeroku gets in a fight with the president of the Ra…

For Kikuhiko, it's a time for goodbyes. To Sukeroku, with whom he shared the joys and frustrations of rakugo. To the woman who raised him as her own child. Men ask to be his apprentice, and he has so …

The girl Kikuhiko met at the soba shop in the hot springs town turned out to be Konatsu, Sukeroku and Miyokichi's daughter. She leads him to her house, where Kikuhiko finally reunites with Sukeroku, w…

A small rakugo performance takes place at an inn in a hot springs town. As he performs, Sukeroku feels the warmth of the audience's love for rakugo, and remembers what it means to be a storyteller. K…

Their promise to each other was to carry rakugo into the future. To perform unchanging rakugo was Kikuhiko's job. To create a rakugo that would change with the times was Sukeroku's job. The story of …

After ten years' apprenticeship to the eight generation Yakumo, Yotarou has finally achieved the rank of shin'uchi and taken on the name "Sukeroku," after his master's fellow student and Konatsu's fat…

A magazine has exposed Yotarou's past as a former convict and member of the yakuza, plunging the rakugo world into scandal and sullying Yotarou's name. Although he continues performing as if nothing h…

Consumed by concerns over not finding his own rakugo, as well as harboring doubts about the relationship between Konatsu and a local gang boss, Yotarou lets off steam by performing the rant from "Daik…

As far as Shinnosuke is concerned, Yotarou is his beloved father, and now that he's become a popular storyteller, Yotarou is even appearing on TV shows. After he performs "Jugemu" on a children's prog…

Hearing Yakumo's "Inokori" blasts the doubt from Yotarou's mind, and spurs his sudden rise to fame. Now, he himself is to perform that story in two months' time at a family show with Yakumo. Yakumo cl…

While performing "Hangon-ko," Yakumo passed out and dreamed of being in a hall of candles, being strangled by the Second Generation Sukeroku. Yotarou's voice brings him back to consciousness, but he w…

A week after his collapse on stage, Yakumo finally awakens. But the light inside him has faded, and when he speaks next, he declares that he won't do rakugo anymore. He also quits as president of the …

Mangetsu has returned to Kyoto-style rakugo, and Yotarou is taking on apprentices. Triggered by Yakumo's desire to quit, everyone is trying to find ways to preserve rakugo and Yakumo's own style of it…

As eras change, one thing remains rock solid. To Yotaro, that's Yakumo. After being inspired by the "Shinigami" he heard from him in prison, he decided he'd follow him anywhere. Those straightforward …

The Uchikutei caught fire after the performance, and Yakumo, who was alone there, was badly burned. Though he has managed to survive, his comeback will be more difficult now. And that isn't the only d…

Yakumo was listening to Yotaro's rakugo on the porch with Konatsu when he suddenly found himself lost on a scaffolding of candles. There, he met the Second Generation Sukeroku once more, who told him …

Fifteen years have passed since that fateful day. Yotaro and Konatsu's children are growing up: Shinnosuke is a futatsume, and Koyuki has entered high school. Those who made their lives from rakugo, t…