Man, this wasn’t just some denial from Issho he took what Kaisei performed, and he outperformed him and took it to another level. Of course it was Zensho’s request that eventually led to Kaisei failing. Having read Golden Kamuy recently, Issho is giving Tsurumi as a well-written manipulator antagonist for his goals. That remark wasn’t simply praise to Akane it was also a shot at Kaisei to step up his game.
I love the focus on Kaisei’s Rakugo. For him, his Rakugo is personal. As Kaisei is trusting Issho like the POV of the story he is being told. Though we see that he is a fool to trust in Issho as we see it, it correlates to what happened in the Shin’uchi Exam. We know that Akane looks at Issho as his enemy, but we also know Kaisei does the same. Akane aims to prove that her father’s Rakugo was right, but it feels like Kaisei intends to surpass and defeat Issho.
Kaisei’s Rakugo a lot like Karashi seems to be not the norm, but the payoff when he figures it out looks to be insane. A lot of times when people can tell stories that are in part more personal, can leave an extra impact.
