Super Rescue Solbrain 06

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http://www.nyaa.se/?page=view&tid=849325

One of Reiko's former high school classmates, a traditional "rakugo" storytelling comedian, falls victim to a sudden kidnapping. Who would kidnap a second rate comedian for ransom? When the comedian's mother refuses to pay his ransom, he is suddenly released by his kidnappers... and he finds himself sympathizing with them! Will this case of Stockholm Syndrome lead to disaster for the comedian and his mother? And what is it that the criminals are truly after?

Notes:
The kind of comedy performed in this episode is called "rakugo". It's a kind of comic storytelling where one comedian sits on stage and tells a story. He is the only person on stage, and he portrays different characters through different tones of voice and turning of his head and body to signify different characters talking to one another. If you'd like a Western example of this, consider British comedian Eddie Izzard, who turns his body and head and changes his tone of voice to portray different characters.

The comedy routine delivered in this episode is a very famous and well known routine called "Jugemu" involving a character with a ridiculously long name. As trying to translate the individual parts of the name would ruin the joke, it's left intact. Much of the story is overlaid with the characters talking over it, so you don't really get the whole experience. More information can be found here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugemu

The actor who portrays Shinichiro Ishimaru is actually a famous rakugo comedian in real life and still performs today. His real name is Sanyutei Kintoki. The joke is that he's actually a very good and famous, and he's playing a crappy comedian in this show.

I love this episode. I think it's a feel good episode that shows that sometimes people consider motivations over actions. It almost feels like it wasn't even necessary to have an action sequence, and the writing was top notch.