So, this was another pretty solid episode of Paripi Koumei this week. But it had an amusing personal connection for me, which is mostly what stood out. When I was going to language school in Tokyo, my friends and I used to go to a little dive bar in Roppongi (that was the only thing that would get me to Roppongi, believe me) on Fridays to get hammered, because it had a ¥1000 3-hour nomihoudai (all you can drink). That bar’s name was Jumanji 55* (“Jumanji 53” in the episode, ROFL – that’ll fool ’em), and it showed up in this week’s episode. The exact bar – they didn’t even really change the name. Well, that freaked me out a little.
Once I did a spit-take over that, the episode itself was pretty good too. I’m not sure if I can think of another anime where the OP does so much heavy lifting in carrying the series. Not just because it’s a banger, but because the whole sequence sets the mood for what’s to follow. I find the whole premise to be fairly inoffensive and nondescript-pleasant to be honest, but that OP manages to vibe its way through the whole 22 minutes somehow. It’s like some weird freak of nature.
I’ll say this much – if Koumei can take a singer as vanilla as Eiko and make her a star, he deserves all the praise he gets in the history books. But she is a very likeable dork, which gives YBK on the whole a much more genuine feel than, say, Carole & Tuesday (to which it’s often compared). Ohtsuka Hochu is certainly a fun addition as Kondo Tsuyoshi, the big-time concert promoter who shows up based on Eiko’s guerilla success in Yoyogi. He whispers through an “interpreter”, then speaks Engrish, and finally normal Japanese – but the gist of it is, he very stylishly offers Eiko two options for a festival appearance – the safe choice or the big roll of the dice. She chooses the latter (Koumei approves) and the course of the rest of the series is apparently set.
After that things take a bit of contemplative turn, as Koumei and Eiko more or less go their separate ways for a while. He appears to be non-stop partying (does the dude ever sleep?) but it’s in the name of research. He tells Eiko he needs to add a rapper for mysterious reasons to be get her the 100,000 likes she needs to secure her festival booking, and eventually invites her along on one of his Roppongi outings. First it’s the aforementioned Jumanji (easy on the bankroll indeed) and then a much more happening club where his research goes into high gear.
I thought Eiko’s story about doing this because her music-loving father left and she was trying to reach her mom through her music was pretty cliched, to be honest. But I did like the advice Koumei gave her about not verbally putting herself down – whether you’re an aspiring performer or not (but especially if you are) that’s just not healthy. Ultimately I think that’s mostly what Paripi Koumei is about, Koumei getting Eiko to believe in herself. Not original or anything, but a healthy enough message. And that song she gave him for the ED credits was an improvement…
*I’m not much of a drinker – I mean, I have a modest whisky collection, I used to be wine broker, and I love Belgian beer, so I do drink. And I can hold my likker fine. But I never liked the experience (or the aftermath) of getting drunk, so I don’t do it. But ¥1000 for three hours, well… There were definitely a few times I got pretty biffledinked. When I first started going to Jumanji 55 they had Macallan 12 on the nomihoudai list for some reason – either whichever manager was in charge had no idea what he was doing, or their clientele just didn’t realize what a batshit thing that was. Needless to say that’s all I ordered, but eventually (thanks to me I suspect) it dropped off the list and I had to resort to the mixed drinks – Moscow Mules, Screwdrivers, Cuba Libres.
