Anime Review: Paripi Koumei

Once in a while, there will come an anime that generates a lot of hype. That hype will be furthered along with an incredible opening that gets passed around so much that memes are made about it (I’m looking at you Zhongli). Then, you realize all of this halfway through the season and decide that you will check it out once it’s done airing… and that’s what I’ve done with Paripi Koumei, or better known as Ya Boy Kongming. Does this show live up to the hype that it has garnered?

Let’s roll!

The Story

There are a lot of references to Romance of the Three Kingdoms in this show but, fear not! If you’re not familiar with it, that’s fine because the show does a good job explaining a lot of that stuff. So, aside from that, what is this actually about?

The Chinese war strategist Zhuge Liang (Kongming) is ill and on the verge of death. As he takes his final breath, he wishes that he can be born in his next life in a world free from war. At that moment, he is transported 1,800 years into the future to modern-day Shibuya, Japan. Here, he’s dragged to a Halloween party at the BB Lounge where he meets Eiko, a girl who once thought about taking her own life but got saved by music. She wants to realize her new dream of becoming a famous singer. Moved by her voice, Kongming decides to help her achieve that goal by employing ancient Chinese war strategies!

That’s about the gist of the story but it doesn’t stop with Eiko. We also see the story of our main supporting character Kabetaijin and his struggles with becoming a rapper. In the back half of the show, we also get to learn about Nanami Kuon and how she and Eiko become both friends and rivals.

The Characters

Eiko Tsukimi

I have to say… for a girl that’s designed to look like a tomboy, she doesn’t seem to be that way. She’s not brash or flirtatious like you would expect one to be. Instead, she just seems like a normal teenage girl that’s in love with music… except… she’s not a teenager (at least I assume because she does freely drink alcohol in this show.) She is fun and energetic at times but she has her own insecurities. There is an arc where she had to find her true voice and her reason for singing and even though she acts as if it’s a pain, it’s artificially exaggerated by being up against a clock where she only has so much time to get 100,000 likes on a video otherwise she won’t be accepted to a huge festival to perform, thus ruining her big break. Even though she is faced with this intense pressure, she finds a way to pull through and learns a bit about herself in the process. It’s an example of forced character development done right!

Kongming

How can we not talk about the titular character here? Romance of the Three Kingdom stuff aside, Kongming is simply a man who feels very fortunate and thankful to be given a second chance at life. After realizing his wish had been granted, he knows that he wanted to pay it forward, so to speak. When he meets Eiko, he is opened up to the world of music and takes a keen interest in it. While many would think a romance would brew between the two of them, it doesn’t. Kongming simply wants to continue to be the tactician he was known for and to prove his skills in the modern world. Although some of his methods are questionable and sketchy (especially when he disappears for a few of them), he turns out to be completely loyal and trustworthy. He always gives off a calm and collected attitude and he just feels like a man you could put your trust into. I remember watching a YouTube video about a Japanese chef named Motokichi and one of the comments perfectly describes Kongming. “I have never met this man but I trust him with my life.”

Kabe Taijin

While I combined his name above, the show does the same when they refer to him by his rapper stage name; however, it’s really two separate names. Kabe is a very likable character that you just want to hug. He suffers from an acute ulcer as a product of success. After winning rap battle after rap battle, instead of becoming confident, he becomes more and more unraveled. Then, after his latest win, he passes out from stomach pain. This leads him to quit partaking in rap battles but after Kongming discovers his talent, he lures him back into the world of rapping. Here, Kabe also goes on a bit of a soul search where he rediscovers his passion and decides to join Eiko on her path to becoming a recognized singer. His personality is very timid and, like Eiko, he is very unsure of himself. To see him slowly get his confidence back was nice and I was surprised that they could pack that much character development into a short amount of time and still have it work!

Nanami Kuon

Nanami is a street performer with an amazing voice. She is confronted by the police where they ask to see her street permit (apparently, you need one in Japan to perform anything on the streets). When she doesn’t have one, Eiko comes to the rescue as Kongming provided one to her. This is the start of their friendship over their love of singing and music. After several performances together, Nanami truly enjoys the experience and wishes that her life could be simpler as it was when she was younger. There’s more to this story but it goes into spoiler territory. Nanami is also a great character as you see a girl who struggles to live her life the way that she wants to. You can tell that others are dictating her path for her and it’s killing her passion but meeting Eiko clearly reignites it!

Owner Kobayashi

I don’t think he ever got a first name but he doesn’t need one. He is the owner of BB Lounge and acts almost like a guardian for Eiko. He truly believes in her and even gives Kongming a job just based on his love for Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Yeah… they really used that as the reason Kobayashi hired Kongming. At least he has someone to share his passion with. I mean, who better than the actual, real-life Kongming?

Art & Animation

The artwork was fantastic, the characters were all uniquely designed and stood out. Even side characters that usually remain in the background are easily recognizable (such as the unnamed “Eiko’s Fan” character).

Animation-wise, this is a musical anime so you would expect a bit higher budget during some of the performances and that’s exactly what you got. Although, sometimes I dislike it because they usually over-animate the characters and it just looks a bit unnatural. Sadly, Paripi Koumei suffers from that just a bit… especially in the early episodes when Eiko is playing her guitar in her room. When they’re up on stage with a bunch of flashing lights, it works just a little bit better.

CGI was used in some areas and while it does stick out a little bit, it’s not jarring nor does it look so out of place that it makes you question your choice to watch the show. In other words, it didn’t a good enough job at attempting to blend in.

As for the sound? Well, again, this is a musical anime so you should have a banger of a soundtrack, right? Well… before we go and sing its praises (pun intended), the songs (or song in this case) is good but I kind of got tired of hearing the same one over and over again. When Underworld and Dreamer were played, it felt like a breath of fresh air but outside of that, Eiko (and even Nanami) sang the same song over and over again and it just got tiring to hear.

What didn’t get tiring to hear was that OP! Yeah… I’m sure you’d love for me to dissect it and fanboy over it but I won’t. Just trust me that it’s a banger and an easy contender for OP of the Year.

Overall Thoughts

This was an incredible show that did so much with so little. What I mean by that is the show didn’t have a deep and layered plot with complex undertones or any major twists and turns. It told the story of a girl who wanted to be a singer and her ancient Chinese strategist manager who employed ancient war techniques to help her rise to the top of the music world…

…except she didn’t reach the top yet! This gives me hope that a second season is on the way because there is no way that P.A. Works is going to produce a show this good and just let it sit out there incomplete like that. The synopsis for the show is a bit out there which might have caused some people to look in the opposite direction but once that opening caught on like wildfire, there have been many reaction videos online where just the opening song itself has caused people to want to check this show out.

In other words, it blew up and became popular and after I marathoned all 12 episodes in one sitting, I found myself plowing through them without even stopping to check and see how many were left or what time it was. The show kept things simplistic, splashed in light doses of comedy where it was needed, fleshed out its characters and made you care about them, employed a banging (albeit repetitive) soundtrack, blended art and animation together nearly seamlessly, and left me wanting more!

Basically, this had all of the markers of a great anime but I can’t give it a perfect score because of some of the minor flaws that were aforementioned. Had it spiced things up a bit more in the music department and extended this run to 25 episodes to see the story through to its conclusion (or at least conclude what was already established during this first season), then maybe it would have gotten that 5/5 from me, because the show was that good and the hype, wasn’t just a meme.

But it still earns a very solid 4.5 / 5 from me. If you’ve slept on this show, then wake the hell up and go watch it.

If you liked this review, feel free to follow me on Twitter @JJPiedraOELN

Until next time…

Ja ne!