Paripi Koumei

Zhuge Kongming earned a reputation as one of the greatest tacticians of the Three Kingdoms period of third-century China. Having led his army through countless grueling victories, Kongming falls gravely ill during the Battle of Wuzhang Plains. The weariness and regret stemming from the seemingly never-ending war catch up to him, and as he draws his final breath, Kongming wishes that if he were to reincarnate, he would be reborn in a more peaceful era.

His wish comes true, and Kongming wakes up in modern-day Tokyo with a younger body and his memories intact. Thrust into an unfamiliar world, he finds his way into a nightclub and meets Eiko Tsukimi, an aspiring singer whose performance immediately captivates him. Pitying his confusion, Eiko takes Kongming under her wing and teaches him about the current world, which leads to Kongming's interest in contemporary music. Seeing Eiko's immense musical potential, Kongming vows to make the world recognize her and soon takes on the role of her manager.

Unsurprisingly, the music industry is unforgiving to those who make even the slightest mistakes. Still, Kongming is determined to accomplish his goals—even if he must utilize the war stratagems he famously used in his previous life!

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Tsukimi, Eiko Main

Hondo, Kaede Japanese

Zhuge, Kongming Main

Okiayu, Ryoutarou Japanese

Kabe Taijin Supporting

Chiba, Shouya Japanese

Kuon, Nanami Supporting

Yamamura, Hibiku Japanese

Owner Kobayashi Supporting

Fukushima, Jun Japanese

Eiko's Fan Supporting

Hanae, Natsuki Japanese

DJ Satori Supporting

Kido, Steve Supporting

Endou, Daichi Japanese

Iriomote, Mia Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuu Japanese

Sekitoba, Kung Fu Supporting

Kimura, Subaru Japanese

Aoi, Hiroyuki Producer

Tsuji, Mitsuhito Producer

Itou, Youhei Producer

Yamamoto, Akira Producer

Reviews

Feb 4, 2024

JJMFREAP

Recommended

There are different genres of anime out there to appeal to a variety of tastes. Action, drama, slice of life, comedy, musical, shounen, seinen, etc. You can enjoy any number of these, or none of them, point is that there is an endless variety of different choices out there, so surely you will find what you're looking for. Rarely though, there comes a series that takes multiple of these genres together and weaves them into a seamless blend, making the coexistence of some of these contradicting ideas seem so natural. And while the hilariously named Ya Boy Kongming is a comedy first and foremost, it ... blends so many other elements into itself, creating something truly unique.

Kongming firstly stands out by having one of the most ridiculous premises I've ever heard. An ancient Chinese general is reincarnated in modern Shibuya, Japan, he is entranced by the voice of Eiko, a young girl with big ambitions to be a successful singer and decides to become her manager and use his breadth of knowledge and wisdom from the Three Kingdoms period of ancient China to help her achieve her goals. Like, for real, what kind of opium was the original creator smoking to come up with this nonsense. And yet somehow, this absolutely preposterous idea is executed to perfection. Both hilarious skits and hype moments of victory come about as Kongming employs his ancient wisdoms to the modern world and successfully helps her come closer and closer to fulfilling her dream. It's so incredibly enjoyable to watch this unbelievable spectacle unfold.

However, premise is nothing without execution and this is also where this anime really shines. The artstyle is very vibrant, colourful and lively. The characters are insanely cute and cool in appearance, while also being full of heart and soul - incredibly charismatic, engaging, lovable and shockingly profound. The animation is fluid and energetic. The voice acting and singing (and rapping!) are all superlatively done. And of course, the soundtrack is Godly all the way through and this show graced is one of the best anime openings ever made. You wanna talk about openings you never skip, this one is one of the most unskippable of all time!

But wait, I spoke so much about blending genres in the beginning, where does that come in? Well, while Ya Boy Kongming is a comedy first as mentioned before, it's also a musical show. It's also a dramatic and engaging story, a coming of age journey even. And all of this is interspliced with bits of historical war stories too? It's truly amazing to see. To execute just one of these elements well would be impressive, but this series excels at all of them and that is downright astonishing. Kongming is effortlessly funny in multiple ways, but it also tells a very emotional story that keeps you hooked to the end and has you rooting for our beloved characters to succeed. The first half is mostly comedic and absurdist, but as we pass the halfway point, the plot thickens and you realize just how cleverly crafted the entire story really is. Like a masterful progressive metal song balances its heavy and brutal parts with its soft and melodic parts into a united symphony that truly flows as one, this anime also effortlessly blends its comedic and serious moments into a wonderful crescendo of amazing emotions. The jokes, the drama, the music, these don't just support the story, they are the story! They all flow together in an elegant waltz, supporting each other and enhancing their strengths in equal part. Among all this, the show manages to be a fantastic musical too, with a rich plethora of songs from a variety of genres gracing us and integrating themselves as inseparable parts of this epic tale. I don't even like musicals and I still enjoyed myself all the way through here!

In short, I believe you're genuinely doing yourself a disservice by not watching this. It's an incredibly well crafter story that takes a ridiculous premise and executes it to perfection. It's a fantastic tale of growth and success despite overwhelming odds and it concludes in an incredibly satisfying way that is full of great feel good moments from top to bottom. Eat your heart out "A Star is Born", this where the real shit is at!

I hope that we can keep getting series as unique as this that also boldly try to succeed and so many things at the same time and then miraculously succeed at all of them. And may we all be blessed with support figures as wise, caring, loyal and selfless as Kongming, so that we may become all those things ourselves too!

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Oct 29, 2023

CyborgBunny

Mixed Feelings

It's fine, safe and easy to watch, no real drama or stakes. The concept of Kongming reborn in modern world mostly plays out in first half and then kinda takes backseat to other characters. Someone who is into the history of Three Kingdoms or j-pop will likely appreciate it more than I did.

Second half of the season is focused heavily on songs and this is where they lost me. I can't help but compare the music in Paripi Koumei to Carol and Tuesday and I feel like music is not even in the same league. Rap part sounded nice but it's hard to evaluate one ... need to be able to understand Japanese to appreciate it and the rest of the music is very generic and bland. I'm pretty sure I won't recognize any of the songs in an hour after I heard them.

Opening is so catchy that it almost saves it but it's just opening and not featured in the show.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Apr 11, 2024

Shoelid

Not Recommended

I really loved when this show leaned into its overarching plot or its silly premise, but it did unfortunately little of both. Instead it spent a lot of time on character-based plot for characters that felt very flat.

While each character has a generally unique personality, they don't really interact with each other. Eiko is expressive, outgoing and a little silly, but nobody ever reacts to her. She'll emote and quip with no reactions from anybody.

Kongming is stoic with a carefree & goofy side, but people only comment on 1) him being clever and 2) him wearing strange clothes. His close friends never actually ask about ... his past, despite him seemingly being willing to talk about it.

When that type of thing plays out over and over again it's hard to find the characters believable. Characters need to interact with each other to get you invested in a world.

The OP is fantastic, both the music and animation. The music is upbeat and full of personality, and the animation has characters interacting with great chemistry. Unfortunately those elements are hardly present in the actual show. The OP has kongming and eiko dancing together and driving together. The show has them talk mostly about business.

All of this to say: I wish that they invested more airtime into slice-of-life segments and allowed us to get more invested into the characters. Instead the show is left feeling very forgettable.

For things I liked:
I liked the rapper character and his friends. He didn't talk to the main cast much but he had good chemistry with his own friends and had genuine character moments. He got more character airtime than anybody else in the show.

I liked the lack of fanservice. It helped so much with presenting Eiko as a character and not a bunch of waifu tropes. Clothing was realistic (no t-shirts vacuum sucked to boobs) and the public bath scene showed nothing below the shoulders or above the ankles. impressive tbh

I liked the variety outfits given to Eiko.

5/10 because even though I enjoyed it enough to finish it, I'll probably forget about it by next month and I wouldn't recommend this show to any of my friends. I might bring up Paripi Koumei in conversation for specific things I liked.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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	Poll: Paripi Koumei Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Jun 16, 2022	227 replies	by Muow »» Jun 9, 9:00 PM
	Poll: Paripi Koumei Episode 7 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - May 12, 2022	80 replies	by Muow »» Jun 9, 4:06 AM
	Poll: Paripi Koumei Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Jun 9, 2022	116 replies	by landofthekwt »» Jun 4, 10:31 PM
	Poll: Paripi Koumei Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Mar 31, 2022	186 replies	by Efemey »» May 9, 12:16 PM
	Poll: Have you consummed media based on the Wars of the Three Kingdoms period of Imperial China before watching Ya Boy Kongming! ? KingSunWukong - May 3	22 replies	by Kurasaki_Kenji »» May 5, 4:47 AM