Ya Boy Kongming!

Discuss Ya Boy Kongming! here, or Paripi Kōmei/パリピ孔明 in original Japanese (Paripi referring to Party people). The anime adaptation by P.A. Works is currently airing, as part of Spring 2022 anime season.

Basic plot:

Zhuge "Kongming" Liang, a legendary Chinese strategist and practically the main character of the latter half of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, died in the middle of his final campaign. On his deathbed, he wishes that his next life is in a peaceful place, free from bloodshed.

Thousands of years later, he is reborn with his youth and health back, in modern day Shibuya, Japan. There he meets and entranced by beautiful voice of Eiko Tsukimi, an aspiring singer who is down on her luck, promising that he would help her success.

Thus starts Kongming's second life as a producer, hilariously and yet oddly successfully applying his experience and skills as a statesman/strategist to music industry.

____

With the dry, informative introduction out, I'mma turn back on the gushing.

I freaking love this series, although admittedly due to the work focusing around music the anime is inevitably superior than the manga.

As I said in the General Isekai Thread, I find it amusing that despite not actually being an isekai work (as in modern, post-Sword Art Online isekai) this manga/anime legit follows a great isekai format and structure:

- First, you have a main character whose past life is full of regret and dissatisfaction, and dreams for a better next life.

- Then, the MC actually do ends up in a completely different world and culture, full with resulting hilarity with the local beings.

- Despite being a foreigner in a foreign land, the MC adapts to the world surprisingly well, impressing the locals in the process - Kongming adapts to smartphones and other 2020s technologies very quickly, as well as business/marketing strategies.

- At the same time, despite being in a completely different culture and settings, the MC wows the locals and achieves successes through the knowledge and experiences from his periods - Kongming applies his legendary tactic, "Eightfold Battle Formation", to attract and kinda musically trap audiences.

- The MC has a male partner who follows him around, notes how special he is and praises him constantly - Tsukimi's employer, Owner Kobayashi is a serious fan of Romance of the Three Kingdoms and when he meets Kongming he is driven to ecstasy at finding someone who understands his references, even calling him (correctly, unbeknownst to him) the reincarnation of the brilliant Kongming himself.

- Combining all these, the MC slowly rises to the rank in a community or industry, becoming a famous and influential figure - Kongming very soon gains a reputation in Japanese musical industry as a very unorthodox but effective music producer.

Of course, unlike most iseaki stories nowadays, Kongming is actually a charming and interesting individual, as well as not being a sexual predator/slaver.

Also, the most recent challenge Kongming faces is help Eiko gather 100,000 followers so she can perform at a really big music festival.

...and pretty sure I'm not the only one who thought of the incident in Romance of Three Kingdoms where he successfully gathered 100,000 arrows to use for the famous Battle of Red Cliffs.

Edited by dRoy on May 15th 2022 at 11:29:12 PM

I just watched episode 5. I was hooked when I saw the first episode and went on a binge.

I feel like they could pull this off because the protagonist was none other than the Zhuge Liang. Just because he is Zhuge Liang, it means I am willing to suspend my disbelief a little more.

One thing I like about this anime is that Kongming is not a creep.

With that said, I feel like it would have been better if they actually animated the scenes where Eiko sings, instead of putting on a static frame.

Oh, and is the manga worth reading?

Very belated, but...hmm...I don't know. The anime is all around a vastly superior adaptation and it acutally HAS music.

I suppose the humor and dialogue itself has not changed, but since the core of this work is music at the end of the day. So unless you can't wait for the new episode, I wouldn't bother with the manga.

With that said, lemme gush about this series some more.

Kongming adapting well to modern day Japan AND music industry well actually make perfect sense.

In addition to him being a mega genius in general, both in Romance of Three Kingdoms and actual history, Zhuge Liang is noted to be a superb musician, especially with guqin and record to have composed several music pieces and poems.

Also, whenever Kongming went to a new territory, he is noted to diligently study foreign languages and culture, in addition to observing and making through notes of his opponents.

I mean, Jesus.

Ironically, despite not even being an isekai anime this IS the kind of isekai anime that I've been craving for so long.

Also one of the most catchy Op song this season.

I'm sure I'll pick up the manga after the anime (unless it majorly trips and faceplants), but so far I'm really liking it. The weakest episode so far was probably the first of Kabetaijin's, if only because they stretched his conflict rather thin.

-Facepalm- Of course, how could I forget about the ridiculous banger that is the OP, should've posted that in the very first post. XP

Although not as much as the OP, Eiko's signature song is also pretty darn good:

I think this anime would make a good live-action TV show. Hell, I'd love to go to an Eiko concert

Not much to say about episode 8 aside from they couldn’t be more blatant about who Nanami is.

They really couldn't. It was a cute episode, though.

EIKO (the band(group?) is WLW/MLM solidarity in action

Yeah, the foreshadowing was really unsubtle. That said, I'd much rather have an incredibly obvious and telegraphed reveal than out of nowhere surprise-cough The Last Jedi cough.

Also, I really liked how this episode was just full of good vibes from everyone. Eiko & KABE and Nanami, KABE & his friend and that one kid, Kongming and the producer (sound mixer? I forgot his title) hanging out.

I think the true strength of this series is the sheer wholesomeness in general and this episode really embodied that aspect.

Episode 9, which is about the evils of selling out.

Definitely easy to relate to doing jobs you hate just because they pay well. Or at least better than your passion projects.

Eiko’s song this episode actually does sound better compared to her previous performances. More enunciation and punctuation, I think.

Did it?

Sometimes I wonder if I'm missing something, but she sounded almost exactly the same as before to me. I just assumed they keep using the same track and we're supposed to just believe it's better in-universe.

I'm not trying to be a jerk toward Eiko's skills (or 96neko's, rather). I genuinely can't tell the difference and it's a little worrying to me. Are other people really hearing a big difference here?

It’s not a big difference but her latest rendition does have more oomph to it.

Yeah. It sounds like 96neko is able to use more of her range and put a bit more oomph into it, rather than singing in Maria's style... which might be a bit more obvious if we had heard Maria's version too, but they already have three singer-voice actors signed, after all.

That said, man, my half-joking guess that Eiko would find her voice singing the estranged-love song to Nanami sure did come true, huh.

Episode 10: Kabe wins his rap battle against Sekitoba, of course. And Eiko convinces Pudding Geezer to arrange her song. So basically paving the way for the real juicy part, which is the clash against Azalea.

Episode 11:
The clash begins! My favorite parts here would have to be Kabe dissing Azalea and that EIKO fan's voice revealed to be Natsuki Hanae.

You know it’s gonna be spicy when Eiko and crew spend the episode dissing Azalea.

The Azalea costumes really are awful.

Edited by fillerdude on Jun 10th 2022 at 6:36:48 AM

Episode 11:

- Yes, I called it! The gathering 100k likes IS an allusion to gathering Kongming gathering 100k arrows.

- Karasawa, despite his shady tricks, seems to have at least some hints of artistic dignity left when he hits a staff for mocking AZALEA.

- Also, Kongming's double confusion act that both gathers likes for Eiko and stops likes for AZALEA was legit darn brilliant, in my opinion.

- So, next week is the last episode (for the time being). Looking forward to it.

Definitely looking forward to next week. I KNEW they were going to cut us off right there...

My current wild guess for what will happen next week is that something will happen to Azalea's backing track, and instead of giving up, they pull their masks off and play one of their own songs to keep on fighting for the 100k.

Edited by RedSavant on Jun 11th 2022 at 6:14:27 AM

I definitely think Azalea will take off their masks in the next episode. Their manager does seem to care about artistic integrity somewhat, and Azalea letting their pent up frustration run wild would be great catharsis for their character arc.

Well, that's it for what's hopefully the first of many seasons of Paripi Koumei. There's plenty still left to adapt, and I'd love to see it done.

Episode 12 plays out exactly like I expected it, and what a sweet, wholesome note to end on. Kongming “returning” the likes he stole in order to prove Azalea’s viability as a rock band was pretty sweet. Also helps that the animation budget got pumped into this episode.

Definitely so. This makes me want to pick up the manga, though I feel like the experience will be lessened a bit without the music.

Yeah I’m also considering picking up the manga. I’m not too fond of the music but it does add to the experience, but I think it would be fun enough to see what else Kongming can cook up.