A military strategist is what you need to make it big in the music industry.
What They Say:
In the year 234, a dying Zhuge Kongming’s thoughts wander over his life as one of China’s greatest military strategists and statesmen, wondering what might have been had he been born in less turbulent times. Inexplicably, Kongming finds himself in a younger body in a very strange land!
But why has a master of feudal diplomacy and the art of war been brought to modern Japan? He seems overqualified for flipping burgers, but then destiny calls in the entrancing voice of aspiring singer Eiko Tsukimi. Learning of her troubles in becoming a professional, Kongming’s quest is secured: applying his formidable craft, intellect, and bag of ancient Chinese secrets to the task of making Eiko a star! Pity now the executives of the Japanese music industry, for they are but mere men, and they face the promotional assault of a legend reborn!
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this series is solid throughout as we get the original Japanese language in track as well as the English language dub, both of which are encoded using the lossless DTS-HD MA codec. The series is one that’s got some action and wacky moments to it where the forward soundstage is well utilized and has a full feeling to it with some decent placement. A lot of the show is all about the back-and-forth dialogue and banter between the three main characters and that’s generally center channel based, which is well handled. There’s occasionally some noticeable placement that’s worth doing and occasionally a bit of depth when various characters get flung into the distance. But mostly it’s just a straightforward series without anything that stands out on a regular basis but it’s a clean and clear presentation without any dropouts or distortions during regular playback.
Video:
Originally airing in 2022, the transfer for this TV series is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 1080p using the AVC codec. The twelve episodes are spread across two discs with nine on the first and three on the second. Animated by P.A. Works, the show has a strong and distinctive look to it with the character designs and some really good detail given to the comedic elements side of it as well. The encoding works a good bitrate for it so that the colors come through in a bright and clean way with no breakup or noticeable gradients to be had. The visuals here definitely make out well with the space and encoding tools to bring this to life and fans of the show will enjoy just how appealing it looks from start to finish. I particularly love the way that things work with the facial shading and tones used here but also the motion captured used for animating some of the song and dance performances.
Packaging:
The packaging for this release comes in a standard-sized Blu-ray case that holds the two discs without a hinge. The front cover artwork uses the familiar key visual from the broadcast run as it puts out two leads toward the bottom just over the logo itself – which is not a favorite of mine – while behind them we get an array of characters that populate the run. It’s a lot of personalities and a number of them just aren’t that memorable outside of their look, but it delivers a very big and busy music-influenced piece that works well here. The back cover works heavily with the pink/purple look as we get some good character material and some fun shots from the show itself. The summary of the premise covers things quite well and we get a clean listing of what extras are included. The bottom makes the pink stand out all the more in a fun way as we get the production credits and technical grid. No show-related inserts are included nor is there a reversible cover.
Menu:
The menu for this release goes for the static image approach where we get our character artwork on the right, which is nicely detailed as you’d expect, and the left has the navigation. The main background goes for a colorful look that has all sorts of what you’d call musical elements of sorts and it has the logo done at an angle as well. It’s got a lot of pop and works well. The navigation itself isn’t my jam, however, as we get the episode/number selections with yellow, orange, and pink stripes for each one. The text is black with an orange border while the numbers of big puffy white pieces with a blue border. And it all shifts when the purple selection highlights hit it. It’s just garish in a way that drives me nuts. Everything loads quickly and is smooth to move around in both as the main menu and as the pop-up menu during playback.
Extras:
The only extras included with this release are the clean versions of the opening and closing sequences as well as some of the original Japanese promos for it.
Based on the manga by writer Yuto Yotsuba and artist Ryo Ogawa, Ya Boy Kongming is a twelve-episode anime adaptation that landed in the spring 2022 season. With P.A. Works animating it and Shu Honma directing it, there’s a solid production behind it that will draw you in just on the talents alone. P.A. Works projects tend to do that in general and even ones that I’m middling on still have such production values to them that I can’t help but to keep them in the back of my head. The original manga began in 2019 in Comic Days magazine before moving to Weekly Young Magazine in 2021 and it’s up to thirteen volumes as of this writing. And for fans who want more than the anime covers, it’s getting released in English by Kodansha Comics, which is always a huge plus and is the intent of most anime adaptations anyway.
The big picture premise is an amusing enough one as we’re introduced to Zhuge Liang Kongming, a military strategist in China who in 234 is dying amid the chaos of the time between the three kingdoms. With his Emperor already dead, he’s at his last moments and wishes that he could be reborn into a time of peace instead of the life of war that he’s known. And he gets just that reincarnation as he wakes up in modern-day Tokyo in Shibuya on Halloween itself. That’s something that he certainly struggles with right from the start because from his point of view, it’s Hell itself, and all the costumed revelers are only reinforcing that belief. Especially when they know who he is since he’s a famous strategist and his reaction to when they force some pretty intense liquor down his throat.
That night he also meets Eiko Tsukimi, a young woman who is becoming a singer and is performing that night. While she’s done up in costume and all, she definitely notices him at the time and then the next day when he’s passed out in the street and she can’t help but to try and help him get better, bringing him back to her flat. Which is like the worst time to take a shower, but it sets up the dynamic between the two as it progresses and Tsukimi’s story is pretty interesting, dark, and ties in well to Kongming himself. While we often see people who want to perform and do sing in shows, Tsukimi’s reason behind it involves her attempting to take her own life at one point but the power of song helped her survive, causing her to want to bring that some kind of possibility into others lives. It’s not convoluted but it’s not the usual kind of musical origin we get for characters like this either.
Kongming’s convinced that not only is he here for a reason, given a new lease on life and aged down considerably as well, but he’s also convinced that Tsukimi is a big part of it. Which with some of what she’s connected to in the music industry, well, that view only gets reinforced as it progresses. The main thing early on is him convincing her that he is who he says he is and for her to believe it on some level in order to accept what comes next. You can run with her being kind of indifferent to what his truth is and whether she believes it for a while and it serves well enough so that we can see them both move forward. And for Kongming, his getting to learn about the past at times helps and hurts in interesting ways that I wish it had spent more time on sometimes. But really, the interesting part of the show is the way that these two end up connecting through the unexpected power of song itself and that there really does feel like there’s a natural ease between them.
So with the concept of a master military strategist offering his services to help Tsukimi conquer the music industry, the show moves through some pretty amusing and interesting areas but does so with the grounding of our two leads. His time as a strategist doesn’t have him divorced from the reality of war but rather applying it in a different way. Her background of her own attempted suicide and the knowledge of how profound and impactful music can be gives her the drive to succeed and to use what Kongming offers to achieve it. And it’s fun in a way that works because his approach and style – still wearing his traditional clothes from 234 – gives him an eccentricity that allows him to stand out in the modern period while using his old techniques. The downside is that little of what dominated the first episode retains in his trying to understand the modern world as he adapts quickly to a lot of it, which is something that’s hard to say just how realistic some aspect of it is. But you do wish that they had done more with it over the course of the series instead of frontloading it and then kind of leaving it there. But the simple pieces such as his style and dialogue in contrast to everyone else helps to show both his personality and lets him stand out in a fun way.
We’ve all seen any number of music industry-oriented shows over the years so there aren’t too many surprises in how the show operates when you get down to it. It is fun to watch how Kongming’s strategies apply in a more direct sense but we’ve long had things like Sun-Tzu and all of that applied to business, so it’s not exactly new. It’s watching him work hand-in-hand with Tsukimi to do that and I enjoyed the way the two are, especially in the confluence of the music, lyrics, and animation itself. And it’s one hell of a great opening sequence too. In reading up on the adaptation a little bit more, it does look like Tsukimi gets a lot more attention in what comes after the anime, which is unfortunate because I think she does have more potential than we see here, but I like the darker edge of her background and the way she’s trying to use it in a positive way.
In Summary:
Ya Boy Kongming! is a series that feels like it was an under-the-radar property when it came out. I know I didn’t pay it too much mind as some of the key art didn’t do much for me and I’ve never been drawn to some of the elements within it. But part of what I love about watching things that I’m not drawn to is discovering fantastic shows. And Ya Boy Kongming! is pretty fantastic. Yes, there are formulaic elements to it and things that we’ve seen before, but the way it’s all blended together and executed with some very appealing animation and color design with strong attention to detail hits a sweet spot. It’s even a rare time that I enjoyed the music elements, though those aren’t as strong as you’d expect for a property like this. The end result is a show that’s quickly become a dark horse show for 2022 that I wish I had paid more attention to when it came out.
Features:
Japanese DTS-HD MA 2.0 Language, English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Language, English Subtitles, Clean Opening, Clean Closing, Promos
Content Grade: B+
Audio Grade: B+
Video Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: B
Menu Grade: B
Extras Grade: B-
Released By: Sentai Filmworks
Release Date: April 18th, 2023
MSRP: $69.98
Running Time: 300 Minutes
Video Encoding: 1080p AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
