Reviews

Jun 26, 2022
Mixed Feelings
The biggest attraction to this anime is undoubtedly Zhuge Liang or Kongming as he goes by in this anime—which is also his courtesy name. Without Kongming, this anime would end up being a conventional story about a forthcoming artist navigating her way through this world. What Kongming brings to the anime is the bantering between the characters, the charm, the wit, and of course, his intelligence. Being one of the most renowned and respected statesmen and military strategists in Chinese history, Kongming brings what he does best: Surprise its viewers and its casts with his extraordinary execution of strategy and intelligence. But instead of demonstrating these aspects through war and battlefields, this anime demonstrates them through concerts, events, and, well, singing competitions.

Ya Boy Kongming takes the spin on the fact that after Zhuge Liang’s inevitable death, he is revived back into modern-day Tokyo in Japan. And in the populated streets of Tokyo, he quickly encounters Eiko Tsukimi, a young singer who dreams of bursting into the world with her passion for singing. Her possessing the natural talent for singing and having an incredibly soothing voice, she recruits Kongming as her advisor after just one singing session with him. A singing session that blew him away with her voice and heart. What follows is a journey we get to see Kongming in various ways using his mind to gain leverage for Eiko’s singing and performances. The anime doesn’t waste time showing this by implementing many of his well-known strategies and incorporating them into the show. One of his strategies that are used to the extent was his “creating something out of nothing”. In this particular instance, Kongming, without informing Eiko or her team, devised a plan that first exposed the malfunctions in Eiko’s equipment to the opposing band, causing the opposing band to lose their guards and further implementing their doubts of her as a threat to them. This also causes Eiko to fall behind in the competition as well, which then provokes the urgency that replaced the nervousness inside Eiko just moments earlier; and without her realizing it, the urgency brought the best out of Eiko and attracted the crowds from the opposing band just as how she did to Kongming during their first singing session.

Sometimes Kongming’s actions aren’t as plain and obvious to the viewers as in the example above. He could be out there doing simple day-to-day mundane things like giving three neatly adorned bags with sets of absurd, head-scratching instructions to Eiko and just leaves. Often left her confused over the meaning of his actions and it isn’t until much later that whatever he has done and executed was all part of his master plan. The dedication and appreciation from this anime for Zhuge Liang’s wit and intelligence are always on full display. It’s these aspects that really add to Zhuge Liang’s character and that’s easily what attracts me the most and brings a distinct flavor to what is otherwise a very conventional show.

This anime isn’t something to be awed over for its story and presentation. This anime, however, is one of those shows that’s to be watched in pieces. A few chunks of episodes at a time to truly appreciate and enjoy the quirkiness of Ya Boy Kongming.

If we were to streamline this anime down to its core and scrutinize it, removing Kongming and what he brings to the show entirely, the anime would simply be exposed as a conventional story about Eiko Tsukimi along with Kabe Taijin’s life as talented artists making their way through the industry. In fact, the structure of this show would fall apart without Kongming as the glue for all the major events in the plot taking place. We see that if Kongming isn’t on-screen or doesn’t have any major influences on the characters of this show, the anime falls apart in not only plot-wise but also in enjoyment as well. From the very beginning to the very tail end of the show, Ya Boy Kongming’s very existence relied on this pillar, and it’s this that makes Ya Boy Kongming limited because it doesn’t attempt to seek outside of its confinements. The show doesn’t have any thought-provoking themes, spectacular writing, or stunning and creative visual presentation to compensate for its overreliance on Kongming as a whole. Of course, when watching a piece of entertainment, enjoyment is the most crucial part of that experience. But it can also be argued that the opposite is true. Ya Boy Kongming is an enjoyable anime. It’s a show that does what it's best at and nothing more. Thus for all the praises that this series deserves, it still doesn’t justify a high score from me.

Score: 6/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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