However... what if this wasn't truly the end of Kongming's story?
In late 2019, writer Yuto Yotsuba (Elly Golden and the Mysterious Switch, The Casual Chronicles of a Great Saint) teamed with artist Ryo Ogawa to debut the manga Paripi Koumei/Kongming of the Party People in the digital pages of Kodansha's manga app Comic Days. The manga is a variant of what's now generally called a "reverse isekai", i.e. someone from another world (or, in this case, time period) comes to our world/time, with the concept being "What if Zhuge Liang reincarnated in modern day Japan, specifically Shibuya, & became part of the nightlife/EDM industry?". Yotsuba & Ogawa's manga would become a hit in Japan, so much so that Kodansha would even move it from Comic Days to the physical pages of Weekly Young Magazine in late 2021, where it continues to run to this day alongside titles like Minami-ke, Kaiji, MF Ghost, Under Ninja, Tawawa on Monday, & many others; as of this review the manga currently has 19 volumes released in Japan. Even prior to this move Kodansha USA licensed the manga for English release, renaming it Ya Boy Kongming!. To help promote this planned move to physical serialization, a 12-episode TV anime adaptation of Ya Boy Kongming! was announced a few days prior to the first physical chapter, one that would debut on April 5, 2022 & be animated by P.A. Works; from what I can tell, this adapts through most of Volume 4. Despite some initial decrying from hardcore P.A. fans that the studio had "sold out" due to this being the first ever manga adaptation from the studio, despite it already having a history of adapting visual novels, prose novels, & even smartphone games, the anime would earn itself widespread praise once it started simulcasting over on Hidive, both for its excellent animation as well as its catchy array of songs. On March 1, 2024 a compilation movie titled Ya Boy Kongming!: Road to Summer Sonia debuted in theaters in Japan, before getting streamed on Hidive as well. There was also a 10-episode J-Drama adaptation in 2023 (with a theatrical film sequel just recently announced for 2025) & a stage play in 2024.
Normally an anime this well known & recent wouldn't be something I'd cover here on The Land of Obscusion... but this wasn't by my own choice. Instead, I have once again decided to be a part of Anime Secret Santa, this time being run by the Taiiku Podcast, and for this year I asked my Secret Santa to give me picks that would be "outside my usual". Therefore, I was recommended Ya Boy Kongming! (for its music & historical focuses), Flying Witch (as I don't tend to watch many iyashikei & slice of life anime), & Akiba Maid War (for its usage of maids & moe). In all honesty all three were very good options for me, but I decided to go with Ya Boy Kongming! for one main reason: I actually had already planned on doing a few Romance of the Three Kingdoms-related anime pieces for 2025, and this is a perfect tie-in to that, due to it starring one of Romance's most iconic characters. So, as recommended by Vintagecoats (who I actually was Secret Santa for way back in 2014), it's time to hit the dance floor, ask the DJ to "let it play", & see if the Ya Boy Kongming! anime is a true "Party King".
During the Battle of Wuzhang Plains in 234 Zhuge Kongming fell ill, before passing away. Knowing that he was on the verge of death, Kongming thinks back at his long-gone friends & allies during the war, wondering what life for him would have been like had he been born in more peaceful times. Kongming closes his eyes & passes away... before he opens them up again, realizing that he's now not only younger but also in a land completely unknown to him: Japan. Specifically, Kongming learns that he's in the special ward of Shibuya, Tokyo in the early 2020s (nearly 1,800 years into the future), complete with the ability to understand & speak perfect Japanese, and has found himself in the middle of a giant Halloween party, with everyone simply thinking that he's in costume. Kongming is taken to a nightclub called the BB Lounge by some of the partygoers, where he hears music sung by Eiko Tsukimi, a young prospective singer-songwriter... and her music moves Kongming's heart three times, similar to how Liu Bei's three visits intrigued him. Eiko herself is thinking of giving up on her dream after many failures, but Kongming declares that he will be her "tactician", i.e. her manager, & help Eiko become a new star in the Japanese music world. While Kongming had wished to live in a world without conflict, he (& Eiko) will soon learn that the music industry in Shibuya is a battlefield all itself.
Ya Boy Kongming! is an interesting series, both in concept & execution. In one sense it's a rather straightforward story about a young singer who's talented but lacks the self confidence to push herself beyond what she's already capable of, only to find help in the form of a wise & clever man who uses his tenacity & shrewdness to not only put the singer into scenarios she normally wouldn't find herself in... but also make them scenarios that allow her to shine her brightest. However, the twist here is that said "wise & clever man" is one of the most celebrated war tacticians in history, so the plans Kongming come up with to help further Eiko's career are based on things that Kongming did back in the day (or, at least, are attributed to him today). For example, Episode 2 sees Eiko be given the chance to perform as part of a popular two-stage performance, essentially allowing two acts to compete against each other, only to realize that she's simply being used as a way to give a popular artist an easy win. Therefore, Kongming repurposes his Stone Sentinel Maze strategy by luring attendees to Eiko's stage with free drinks, only to take advantage of the surroundings to create an environment that the attendees seemingly can't get out of, but they wind up staying anyway because Eiko's a great singer. As for the main storyline of this anime, after Episode 3 it becomes all about Kongming helping Eiko get approved to perform at Summer Sonia, one of Japan's largest music festivals, which requires Eiko getting at least 100,000 likes on one of her social media posts ("Pinstagram", in this case), something that she's never been even remotely close to achieving.
The cast for the show is actually rather small & focused, at least when it comes to the major characters, which is nice in this case. At first you'd think that Kongming would be a "fish out of water" kind of character, but in reality he adjusts to life in modern-day Japan really smoothly (he quickly figures out how smartphones work in Episode 1, even discovering his own wiki page), though in a sense that itself is part of the humor & overall appeal of the concept, i.e. seeing a historical legend figure out how to reinterpret his prior experiences to handle modern-day scenarios; when not working as Eiko's tactician he tends bar at the BB Lounge, which he's naturally an expert at. He naturally still talks in a very polite & old fashion (and almost never wears anything beyond his iconic robe, hat, & fan combo), while also being immensely grateful & loyal to those who help him, especially Eiko & the BB Lounge's owner, Kobayashi. Kongming's also very cool to see in action due to his insatiable wanting to learn, as he quickly figures out modern-day lingo & is even shown to be a decently talented rapper in Episode 6, though obviously in his own style of speaking. Meanwhile, Eiko is a very likable & relatable lead, being a young woman whose love of music was shunned by her mother, which in turn eventually led to her being hit with depression so strong that she even was willing to step in front of a moving train, only to be saved from the brink by Kobayashi, who in turn brought her to his club; this resulted in Eiko's love of singing being revitalized by a guest singer at the BB Lounge that day. Aside from details regarding her family life all of Eiko's backstory is delivered in Episode 1, and it helps make the viewer get a bead on her ASAP, namely her occasional hesitation, her initial lack of self confidence, & also her friendship with Kongming. The two just make a good pair in a purely platonic fashion, which is really cool to see.
As for the remaining "main" cast there's Kobayashi himself, who despite looking a little bit like he could be a yakuza is actually immensely dedicated to helping Eiko out however he can, becoming a bit like a parental figure for her (he did literally save her life, after all), while his otaku-level love of Three Kingdoms-era history makes him instantly fall in love with Kongming, with the two occasionally getting into historical conversation that flies right above Eiko's understanding. Half way into the show the gang gets a fourth member in Kabetaijin, a three-time rap battle champion who initially ran away from the game due to the stress & pressure of constantly being the best he can giving him acute stomach ulcers, with he & Eiko becoming a musical duo to help boost each other's talents; admittedly, though, the anime doesn't show too much of the two performing together. Finally there's Nanami Kuon, a experienced & talented bassist/singer who Eiko befriends while looking to perform on the street to help find her own voice in singing... and the anime makes no attempt at being subtle that Nanami is actually a member of Azalea, a hit masked rock idol trio that's also looking to get into Summer Sonia. Fittingly, the story compares Eiko & Nanami's relationship as being similar to that of Guan Yu & Zhang Liao, two Three Kingdoms generals who became close friends despite almost always fighting on opposite sides.
Beyond these characters there's a small group of semi-recurring supporting cast, like a nameless part-time bartender at BB Lounge who provides assistance when asked but otherwise helps assure Eiko of her skills, a superfan otaku of Eiko's (apparently simply called "Glasses Boy" in the manga) who usually appears off to the side to listen to Eiko sing (& assist Kongming when asked), and Steave Kido, a legendary composer who agrees to help out once Eiko proves her natural talents to him. In regards to a main "villain" there's Toshihiko Karasawa, Azalea's producer who maintains strict & overbearing control over his singer's professional lives (& maybe even personal lives, to some extent) in return for giving them major success. However, Karasawa isn't exactly an "evil producer", but rather had his own unfortunate experience as a musician back in the day & simply decided that sticking to what's tried & true as "popular" is necessary to succeed in the industry, rather than simply playing the music you yourself want to play; he wouldn't have offered to produce for Azalea if he didn't see their potential, after all.
If there's a main theme to the Ya Boy Kongming! anime it's the idea of "finding oneself", and that mainly applies to Eiko, Kabetaijin, & Nanami, as Kongming himself more or less finds his place in modern Shibuya rather quickly & resolutely; his only change is that he no longer wishes to sacrifice others to see success. Eiko decided to become a singer after being inspired by a guest performer at the BB Lounge, but her sad (& nearly tragic) past initially gives her major self-esteem & confidence issues. While Kongming manages to help her rise above that there's still the simple fact that she mostly sings other people's music, so for her to succeed she has to not only write her own music (which she has done, privately) but also discover what her own singing voice is, rather than imitate those she looks up to. Meanwhile, both Kabetaijin & Nanami are more examples of people who did initially find themselves but lost sight of it after the fact. Kabe is someone who, due to the combative nature of rap battles, let the pressure & psychology of always needing to be "the best" get the better of him, both psychologically & even physically, and even after joining up with Eiko & Kongming still needs to relearn why he loved to freestyle rap, in the first place. Finally, Nanami is a perfect example of the idea of "selling out", as while she & her friends joining up with Karasawa has given them success, which they are indicated at least once to help benefit their families back home, it's at the expense of Nanami's own psychological well being, as she deep down just wants to sing the music she wants to sing, not what she's told to sing. However, she also can't just leave it all & ruin things for her friends, not to mention the people who work to help make Azalea the group it's become & their very fans, as that would be immensely selfish of her.
While I was only technically asked to watch & review the TV anime by my Secret Santa, I decided to also toss Road to Summer Sonia in as well, since it's a compilation movie that covers the same overall content. Plus, it's been a long time since I reviewed something here in the same exact year it originally came out, which was Doamygar-D in 2015. Being around a solid two hours, a.k.a. 120 minutes, that would theoretically allow an average of 10 minutes for each episode to be included, but obviously that isn't the case. In fact, certain parts are simply summarized by either the narrator, Kongming, Eiko, Kabetaijin, or even Nanami (like all of Episode 3), if not completely removed wholesale... like the entire second half of Kabetaijin's personal growth, including his climactic return rap battle with his idol, Sekitoba Kung-Fu. Yeah, after Kabe's introduction is covered he's pretty much forgotten about until the movie covers the last two episodes, which I fully understand since Eiko & Nanami's relationship is the primary story in the second half, but it's still a bit mean to Kabe's own personal plight. Also, outside of a new performance by Eiko, Kongming, Kabe, & Nanami right at the very end, where they sing the anime's ED theme, there's no new animation to be found here, so this is primarily a compilation movie, through & through. Still, Road to Summer Sonia is a very good compilation movie that recaps the TV anime extremely well & hits all of the major plot points regarding Eiko, Kongming, & Nanami (sorry, Kabe), and while I'd still instead recommend watching the proper 12 episodes for anyone new to this series, this movie is a great way to re-experience the story in less than half the run time. I literally watched this movie a day after finishing the TV series & I still had a ton of fun all over again. Also, props to Sentai for getting this movie out on home video in North America the same year it ran in theaters in Japan; I imagine having only new narration bits to dub over definitely helped out.
In regards to the staff at P.A. Works, Ya Boy Kongming! marked the debut of Shu Honma as series director, having previously worked as an animator (both in-between & key), storyboarder, & episode/unit director for a number of years; Honma's only other directorial work since, so far, has been 2024's Mayonaka Punch. The end result here is a very nice looking anime, with a nice mix of the usual limited animation tricks (Kongming's mouth being hidden behind his iconic fan, still pans during smaller singing performances, etc.) alongside very smooth & detailed animation when it really counts, usually for major performances from Eiko, Kabe, and/or Nanami; Honma's experience as an animator really shows here & the end result a great looking show. Meanwhile, the writing was headed up by Yoko Yonaiyama, who likewise was getting her first major chance at the job for a larger production, having only handled series composition for a couple of short anime before this; she's since been head writer for 2024's A Sign of Affection & will be doing the same for 2025's anime adaptation of mono. While I can't compare to Yuto Yotsuba's original manga script, I'd say that Yonaiyama did a great job here, utilizing a perfect mix of humor & seriousness that balance each other out just enough, allowing the moments of honest character drama to hit extremely well, followed by Kongming's general existence resulting in some sort of humorous cherry on top, but without overshadowing the scene itself. The character designs by Kanami Sekiguchi (Canaan, Wild Arms: Twilight Venom) are a good adaptation of Ryo Ogawa's original manga designs, with Kongming understandably looking just different enough from everyone else to make sure he stands out instantly (as is the point), while also keeping little touches intact from what I can tell, like Eiko & Nanami's eyes sometimes having a unique sparkle to them. Overall, Ya Boy Kongming! was essentially the proving ground for both its director & head writer, and both whole handedly succeeded. The show apparently took a little over a year to produce, with it being a rare example of the entire series being made before the first episode even debuted, and it was time well spent.
Then there's the music... which is, understandably, a bit of a lot, due to this series being about musicians. There's the BGM score by Genki Hikota, a.k.a. both DJ Genki & Gram, which is overall very solid & has to kind of purposefully be a bit eclectic, as it has to include a variety of genres, from rock to pop to dance to rap in order to match to different types of music heard throughout, & there's even some small orchestral tracks to match Kongming's general aesthetic. Beyond Hikota's score, though, is the various vocal tracks... and there's a lot of those. Easily the standout track is the OP, "Chiki Chiki Ban Ban" by Queendom (made up of members of the groups lol, FAKY, & GENIC), which is a Japanese cover of the 2014 Hungarian dance song "Bulikirály" by Zoltán "Jolly" Tarcsi... and this OP is an instant banger that makes you want to dance along with everyone in the sequence itself upon first listen; the OG song by Jolly is also a lot of silly fun. Then there's the ED "Kibun Joujou ↑↑", which is a cover of a 2006 song by mimiharu GT & here is performed by 96neko/kuroneko (the singing voice for Eiko), Lezel (the singing voice for Nanami), Shoya Chiba (as Kabetaijin), & Ryotaro Okiayu (as Kongming), with Chiba & Lezel getting added to the song when they're respective characters first appear in the show. Much like the OP the ED is just another instant banger that I utterly fell in love with, and I honestly think that it even surpasses the mimiharu GT original.
After those are the EIGHT vocal tracks that are performed throughout the show, sometimes as insert tracks but primarily as actual performances. These are all performed by 96neko & Lezel, minus one ("Make It Real") that's only heard in Episode 2 by a one-off musical opponent for Eiko. Now, technically, there are 11 credited vocal tracks, but that includes variants of two songs ("I'm still alive today" & "UNDERWORLD"), so it's really just eight. Honestly, I can't go over all of them, but trust me when I say that they're all great songs, perfectly fitting the dance scene vibe of the series, and range from R&B to rock to (naturally) EDM, with my personal favorites being "I'm still alive today", "Be Crazy For Me", "ChocoPate", & "DREAMER" (a.k.a. "Roppongi Udon Shop (Tentative)"). Finally, Road to Summer Sonia features its own ED theme during the first half of the end credits, "Resonance" by 96neko & Lezel, which is another enjoyable little song, though it's admittedly overshadowed by "Chiki Chiki Ban Ban" immediately afterwards. Simply put, a series like Ya Boy Kongming! needed to have excellent music throughout, and it absolutely succeeded, in that regard, & then some.
For the Japanese cast we're lead by the duo of Kaede Hondo (Sakura Minamoto in Zombie Land Saga) as Eiko & Ryotaro Okiayu (Jun Kenzaki in Ring ni Kakero 1) as Kongming, and both definitely brought their A-game here. Hondo made sure to give Eiko a voice that was fittingly full of big dreams but unsure of her own abilities, and throughout the show became more & more confident, while Okiayu's iconic deeper voice matched well for a brilliant tactician like Kongming, while also being able to play the more comedic bits very well. Then there's Shoya Chiba (Yu in Fire Force) as Kabetaijin, who also delivers a solid performance here, and his rap game was more than good enough to not feel out of place whenever Kabe had to freestyle; Chiba has history as a singer with the J-Pop band SparQlew from 2017 to 2021, so he was a good pick. As for out last (technically) singer, Hibiku Yamamura (Manabi in Tribe Cool Crew) voices Nanami, who honestly clashes well with Hondo by having a somewhat deeper voice & performance here, fitting for Nanami's more rock-heavy focus, while Hondo is naturally more higher-pitched & upbeat, for the most part. Both Hondo & Yamamura have singing experience, so I imagine casting 96neko & Lezel for singing purposes was purely for promotional purposes to benefit the singers. As for other "major" characters we have Jun Fukushima as Kobayashi (Kazuma in Konosuba) & Mitsuaki Madono (Soldat J in GaoGaiGar), with Fukushima doing a good job at balancing being supportive & protective of Eiko without losing sight of the character's oftentimes yakuza-looking veneer (which he uses here & there for comedic effect), while Madono is fittingly nigh-unemotional in whatever he says, only slightly breaking that in the final episode when he considers a last-ditch gambit against Kongming's strategy for getting 100,000 likes. The Japanese cast also includes the likes of Daichi Endo (Steave Kido), Daisuke Namikawa (Liu Bei), Subaru Kimura (Sekitoba Kung-Fu), the duo of Shizuka Ishigami and Narumi Kaho (Ichika & Futaba, Nanami's bandmates), Eiji Miyashita (the BB Lounge part-timer), & Yasunori Masutani as the narrator.
Meanwhile, the English dub directed by Shannon D. Reed ([Oshi no Ko], Saint Seiya TV's 2019 dub) is a very solid one to watch the show with, though it comes with one notable caveat: None of the music was dubbed over, & that includes the rapping. Now, to be fair, this would have obviously made casting for the dub immensely difficult & likely even more expensive, as Sentai would have had to either find voice actors who could also sing for Eiko & Nanami, or they would have had to do what the original Japanese version did & outright hire professional singers to sing the songs, not to mention straight up recreate all of the non-OP/ED vocal tracks into English; that's a lot of extra work. However, this does result in a slight disconnect whenever characters start singing, and it is disappointing that even the freestyle rapping that has no musical accompaniment is still in Japanese, despite the fact that all of the rapping in the original Japanese was performed by the voice actors themselves; I have to imagine this was an "All or Nothing" scenario, for the sake of musical consistency.
For the dub cast we have Juliet Simmons (Kanade in Chihayafuru) as Eiko, who does a similarly fitting & good job as Kaede Hondo did, and matches fairly well with 96neko's singing voice. Then there's Joe Daniels (Baku in Getter Robo Arc) as Kongming, who I initially felt was maybe put on too much of "wise sage" voice but overall really did grow on me by the end. For our other singers we have Antonito Lasanta (Hayato in Haikyu!!) & Teresa Zimmerman (Oyuki in Urusei Yatsura 2022) as Kabetaijin & Nanami, respectively, and both also fit their characters very well, though Lasanta's voice probably matches the least with his character's Japanese singing voice. For Kobayashi we have the legendary David Matranga (easily the most experienced of the main cast), and he's just great here. Finally, there's Blake Weir (Takeru & Kotaro in Haikyu!!) as Karasawa, who I felt was the weakest of the primary dub cast, though not terrible. Karasawa is meant to come off as a bit unemotional for most of the show, but there's a line between "unemotional" & "listless", and Weir kind of went back & forth between the two sides; when Karasawa showed the most emotion in the final episode Weir honestly was really good. The English dub also features the likes of Jovan Jackson (Steave Kido), Annie Wild and Cara Nguyen (Ichika & Futaba), Orlanders Jones (Sekitoba Kung-Fu), Jeremy Gee (the BB Lounge part-timer), & Ian Sinclair as the narrator.
Again, Ya Boy Kongming!'s dub is overall really solid & definitely a worthwhile way to experience the anime, but the lack of dubbed songs is a bit of a letdown, though totally understandable as to why it was done like that; would have at least loved to hear Lasanta & Daniels rap battle as an outtake, at least.
From an initial, instant reaction-style, glance Ya Boy Kongming! sounds like a bit of a bizarre concept, as what would a third-century Chinese war tactician know about modern-day club music in Japan? And, yes, the series more or less completely ignores the whole culture clash aspect of Kongming's reverse isekai situation, becoming fully acclimated to everything in absolutely no time. However, when you really think about it, a manager/producer for a talent of any kind is essentially the same thing as a tactician, as both have to come up with plans/strategies that will result in success for the people they are "representing". The series makes it a focus for almost every episode to start with a tale from the Three Kingdoms that's similar to the scenario that just happened in the prior episode, and while some connections made by the narrator can be slightly tenuous (like Liu Bei not wanting to abandon his populace when escaping being compared to Eiko singing for the "populace" of Shibuya), the strategies used by Kongming for Eiko do parallel well with their Three Kingdoms counterparts in neat & celever ways. However, while Kongming is the title character, this is absolutely a story all about Eiko (plus Kabetajin & even Nanami) & her journey from no-name local bar singer to potential superstar songstress, and these 12 episodes are obviously only the beginning of her journey; after all, like the movie's subtitle says, this is only the "road" to Summer Sonia, not the festival itself.
Ten years ago I participated in my first Anime Secret Santa review, where I covered The Legend of Black Heaven, so it's amusing to see me return to an anime based around music artists a decade later for another Secret Santa pick. Not just that, but Ya Boy Kongming! is, without a doubt, the best anime I've yet covered for Anime Secret Santa, so I absolutely have to thank Vintagecoats for recommending it to me as one of the three picks. Obviously, this anime hit a bit of a small zeitgeist when it debuted back in 2022, both in Japan & even abroad, so I fully expect a "Season 2" to eventually get announced, and I am very curious not just about the continued journey of Eiko, Kongming, & their friends but also what other kinds of songs could come about from all of it; sure, I could read the manga, but the music really helped make the anime so excellent. After all, a compilation movie two years after it aired wouldn't have been released unless they wanted to make sure people remembered the TV anime... right?
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, & Happy Holidays to All!!
Ya Boy Kongming! © Yuto Yotsuba・Ryo Ogawa・Kodansha/Ya Boy Kongming! Production Committee (DMM pictures, MBS, Avex Pictures, Kodansha)
Ya Boy Kongming!: Road to Summer Sonia © Yuto Yotsuba・Ryo Ogawa・Kodansha/Ya Boy Kongming! Road to Summer Sonia Production Committee
This was a pretty good secret santa review. I'm looking forward to your ROTK related anime reviews next year.
ReplyDeleteHope you have a merry christmas!
Nice review bro
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