English Dub Review: Ya Boy Kongming! “Kong Ming descends upon Shibuya”

Overview

Based on the manga series written by Yuto Yotsuba and illustrated by Ryō Ogawa. The story follows the famous third-century Chinese tactician by the name of Chancellor Zhuge Liang a.k.a Kongming while on his death bed wishing that if he were to reincarnate, to be reborn in a more peaceful era. Much to his shock, His wish sort of comes true, as the titular Kongming wakes up in modern-day Tokyo with a younger body and his memories intact.

Thrusted into an unfamiliar world, he finds his way into a nightclub and encounters Eiko Tsukimi, an aspiring young 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.

Our Take

Upon research, this is the very first Manga adaptation by P.A. Works, and it’s a bit of a reverse-isekai of sorts with a unique approach towards mixing some of the mythology and history of the 3 Dynasties/Kingdoms from Ancient China. It’s an unusual choice for an Anime to delve into Chinese history given that these pieces of history were also popularized in various forms of media in video games such as the aforementioned “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” and the “Dynasty Warriors” game franchises.

As for the young aspiring singer, I like how Eiko is depicted as a believable female character and how nicely animated her singing and dancing were. And Kongming seems like a nice guy and a befitting companion despite his initial odd impressions of this new setting he’s been placed in.

Predictably much of the humor and charm comes from your standard by the numbers “fish out of water” jokes of an individual from another time period having to learn and experience the modern conveniences & technologies and other things that the world has to offer which isn’t anything new we’ve seen before but at least it wasn’t dull.

Overall, this felt like a very good start. Honestly, the animation feels a bit exaggerated in some parts but it doesn’t take away anything, This is only just the first episode. So I’m pretty sure that somewhere down the line, we’ll learn more about the show’s story and the direction is going…