Hikaru Koragi

Hikaru Koragi made her name first as a voice actress, earning recognition for voicing Saruel in the anime Eden's Nova, long before rakugo, a traditional form of solo Japanese storytelling, ever entered her life. Her entry into the Karaku Cup, the rakugo contest at the heart of Akane-banashi, comes less from a lifelong passion for the art and more from a calculated bid to raise her own media profile.

That outsider's motive does not stop her from performing well. For the competition she chooses Shibahama, one of the most beloved 'ninjobanashi,' or heart-warming tales, in the whole rakugo tradition, and reviewers have pointed out that her delivery carries a distinctly theatrical flair, likely a direct result of her acting background rather than years of formal rakugo training.

Facing her in the same competition are Akane Ousaki and the two-time champion Karashi Nerimaya, and Hikaru's unusual path into the contest underlines one of the series' core ideas: real skill at rakugo can come from directions nobody would expect, even from a performer who walked in chasing publicity instead of tradition.