English Dub Review: Ya Boy Kongming!”Kongming Busts a Rhyme”

Overview

Kabetaijin, an unrivaled freestyle rapper, quit the scene and fled into the shadows, but there is no foxhole deep enough to hide him from Kongming!


Our Take

This time around, after the build-up and the stakes that were raised from the “previous episode”, the backup free-style rapper that Komgming needs to recruit for Eiko goes by the name of Kabetaijin who’s talented yet has confidence and health issues that prevent him from competing in rap battles. Another battle rapper Sekitoba Kung Fu wants to challenge him to another rap battle, but Kabetaijin frequently refuses. I don’t blame him for trying to leave rapping for health and anxiety reasons, though at times it does look like he’s simply running away without a solution in mind that’s causing him more harm than good.


When the titular Kongming encounters Kabetajin at a laundromat and dropped his own Sutra rap to challenge Kabetajin to a rap battle and it’s clear that this encounter/challenge with Kongming was exactly what he really needs. However, if Kongming wins, Kabetaijin has no choice but to team up with Eiko at the B.B Lounge. But if Kabetajin wins, then Kongming will grant him one wish which I’m curious what that could possibly be…

Overall, this was a very different episode than usual but I like the way everything was handled and I’m curious in seeing how Kabe and Eiko would work together since they seem very different. The freestyle rap scenes are passable, however since the English Dub cast doesn’t sing in any of the rap scenes in English, they greatly require subtitles just to understand rap the lyrics to begin with, along with the social media and text message scenes in smartphones which could be a problem to some people. Kongming’s plans look like they could potentially come to fruition once again and I highly look forward to the next episode to see what’ll happen next!