Karaoke Iko!

Middle school student Satomi Oka ought to be proud that his choir group placed second at a national competition. However, he views this achievement as a failure caused by his inadequacies. Furthermore, since graduation is fast approaching, his time as leader of the choir is coming to an end.

While Satomi is preoccupied with his inner turmoil, a smooth-talking gangster named Kyouji Narita approaches him and requests him as a singing teacher. Every year, Kyouji and his colleagues participate in a karaoke competition, where their boss personally designs a tattoo for the loser. To avoid such cruel and unusual punishment, Kyouji asks Satomi to help him find the best song suited for his vocal range.

Albeit reluctantly, Satomi sets his fears aside and agrees to join Kyouji at his karaoke practice sessions. But it remains to be seen whether the mismatched duo will overcome their respective obstacles or fail miserably.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Narita, Kyouji Main

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Oka, Satomi Main

Horie, Shun Japanese

Aniki-bun Supporting

Nose, Ikuji Japanese

Long Face Supporting

Mine, Kenichi Japanese

Hello Kitty Phobia Supporting

Yano, Masaaki Japanese

Shaved Head Supporting

Nishi, Rintarou Japanese

Punch Perm Supporting

Nozuyama, Yukihiro Japanese

Tracksuit Supporting

Uchida, Yuuma Japanese

T-shirt Supporting

Ishikari, Yuki Japanese

Tear Mole Supporting

Miyazono, Takumu Japanese

Nakatani, Asami Director

Kimura, Eriko Sound Director

Imazu, Ayumu Theme Song Composition, Theme Song Arrangement, Theme Song Performance, Theme Song Lyrics

Wayama, Yama Original Creator

Reviews

Sep 26, 2025

Kudo_Endo

Recommended

A slick mafioso approaches the captain of a middle school choir club after a competition. “Let’s go karaoke”, the man compels with a grin on his face.

French philosophers may be salivating at this point, but don’t worry, it’s none of that. Notice how there is no mention of “hentai” in the genre. You are safe here.

Karaoke is one of the most notable contributions of Japanese culture to the world. It’s so widespread that, even if you live in a random provincial town, you probably have some sweet memories of making an embarrassment of yourself at your friend’s birthday party by singing an anime opening song. ... The girl he was into was in that party, and making fun of you was the catalyst for their long-lived relationship. He now named his first son after you, to honour the favour.

Honestly, karaoke is part of so many anime that I was positively surprised in only now seeing it come to the spotlight as the main theme. With the criminal element included here, one may fondly remember when inspector Lunge met Tenma’s Japanese friends in a karaoke bar in Munich (Monster). If Naoki Urasawa, one of the world’s greatest living authors, uses karaoke as a symbol for Japanese cultural influence abroad, you know they are proud of it.

Although this is a comedy with weird premises, there is some character development. The yakuza’s story is just plain absurd. He wants to avoid losing his syndicate’s singing contest so that he won’t be punished with his boss giving him a painful amateur tattoo. The boy, however, tries to overcome the anxiety of puberty (changing his cherished voice) while preparing for his last tournament with that school. Both quickly grow on the viewer.

As for the comedy, I personally like the absurd being delivered in a dry manner, and terrible singing in a karaoke is too familiar of an experience to not watch fondly. If you are looking for a short series to humour you in a slow weekend, you may want to check this one out.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Sep 25, 2025

whiteflame55

Recommended

Based on a well-rated short manga about a yakuza who scouts a middle school choir leader to improve his karaoke skills so he can avoid getting a bad tattoo from his boss. It’s an… odd premise, to say the least. It’s not terribly surprising that this series only has 5 episodes since it just doesn’t have a lot of ground to cover. Satomi has to teach Kyouji how to sing better. Simple.

Well… not entirely. Satomi’s dealing with his own stuff, going through changes to his voice that come with puberty and afraid he’s losing a precious skill along with it. The resulting anxiety and his ... continuously being pulled away from chorus practice mark him raise red flags for Wada, another good singer in the club. His meetings with Kyouji develop into a bit of a bond between the middle schooler and the adult, with Kyouji imparting some bits of advice and support. And Kyouji also doesn’t just keep this between them, which means Satomi gets to meet a lot more Yakuza.

So yeah, things get complicated. I won’t spoil the chief turning point, but there’s a legitimately emotional moment towards the end of the series that definitely hits, even if it’s undercut a bit by later events. That does end up yielding a finale that left me wanting, though, both in terms of the end of episode 4 and the 5th episode that came out over a month later. I almost feel like this series would have worked better without the drama, just as two people from very different lives connecting over karaoke. It would have meant missing out on an epic song, but that would have been more tonally consistent.

Regardless, I enjoyed this. If it were longer, I might not give it a recommendation, but there's something to experiencing it in five episodes that just hits different.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Sep 27, 2025

Curlybrace101

Mixed Feelings

Informative

Karaoke Iko! is a weird one. The plot is interesting and well executed, and the characters are charming. The plot of two characters having a sort of mentorship relationship where it's not just the student but also the teacher who grows, both becoming better people because they knew each other, is an absolute classic for a reason. Ordinarily, this is something I would really like and wholeheartedly recommend. However, that is only the outer later of the story. Peel it back and you'll find...a complex yakuza age gap gay romance?

Well. Not really. Let me explain.

Though the dynamic between the leads seems to be purely platonic ... at first, the longer you'll watch the more you'll notice there seems to be a little...something there. It could be nothing, of course, but in stories everything happens because the author specifically chose it for a reason. Things don't just happen. However, it's also inconsequential and irrelevant to the story, so it doesn't matter and seems more to be "the author's barely disguised fetish" if anything. So whatever. But then, say you choose to read the sequel manga and...oh! Satomi is trying to work out his feelings for Kyouji! Why did he hug this grown man? His friends say he's in love. He wants to be with Kyouji always. The series does not end with these five episodes, and what happens next is their relationship taking a turn for the romantic.

So what am I getting at here?

Okay, before I get into this, I want to clarify a few things.

1) I am not against age gap relationships.
2) I am not even necessarily against age gap relationships where the younger party was underage when they first met. Yes it's best to be wary because they often involve manipulation and abuse, but what matters is the here and now and if no one is getting hurt there's nothing to argue
3) Even if I were, it wouldn't matter because it's just a story. It's not real. This is also why the 'yakuza' part doesn't matter.

However, even with all that being said, I don't like it. I do not like that the leads of this show have BL subtext and I don't like that the sequel seems to be setting them up as a couple. And why is that? Simple: I feel tricked.

I want everyone to write whatever filthy smut they want forever so long as they understand what is and isn't okay in real life. Go wild. Everyone be freaks. What I do not want, however, is for a story to be advertised as a story without any sort of "taboo" romance (e.g suspicious age gaps) only for it to go in the direction of one, regardless of if they suddenly spring it on you Vampire Knight style or if they do what Karaoke Iko! does and boil the frog.

And here's the thing: from a kind of taboo, complicated age gap yakuza romance perspective, I think that part is also well done. I am primarily talking about the sequel, of course, but regardless it sets up an interesting taboo romance dynamic to explore (though I think the tone is a bit too lighthearted for my taste if I'm reading a taboo romance manga). But I didn't come here for an age gap yakuza BL. I came here for a romance free story about a young boy and a yakuza member growing into better people through having an intergenerational friendship with each other, which is what the story is advertised as. I can get in the right mindset for a taboo romance, but when I'm not in that mindset, throwing that subtext in and then later turning that subtext into text just makes me uncomfortable. If I didn't come here to watch a mobster flirt with a teenage boy I don't want to see that.

You can still watch the anime or read the original manga, ignore the subtext, and pretend these characters don't canonically have a less-than-platonic relationship in the sequel, if you want. Or you can come here for taboo age gap yakuza romance and say false advertising doesn't matter and everyone should just deal with it. You can have whatever opinion you want on the series. I'm not stopping you. But in my opinion, this story could have been either a really good story of platonic intergenerational friendship OR a complicated taboo BL romance, and by trying to mix the two genres it creates a worse product overall and just makes me uncomfortable.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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