When I try to explain the appeal of anime and indeed of Japan to people, it can be very difficult. There’s something to the willingness to embrace the weird that I just don’t often see elsewhere.  The opening sequence for an anime about a legendary Chinese military strategist who dies and is reincarnated in modern-day Tokyo – performed by a bunch of Japanese idol girls covering a song originally released by a Hungarian club singer – becomes a gargantuan hit.  And it 100% deserves to be.  That’s anime.  That’s Japan.

As for the show itself… One of the quirky thing about this season’s schedule being so top and bottom-heavy (almost all either “Outstanding” or dropped) is that I have the smallest bubble I can remember. Only 2 shows – Paraipi Koumei and Kawaii Dake ja Nai Shikimori-san.  I feel like I’m pretty close to hanging on to this one, and to be honest that damn OP is a big reason why – it imbues the whole project with its cheeky brilliance.  I don’t find the show brilliant but I don’t have to – I just have to find enough to keep me invested.  And this episode was always going to be important in determining whether I will.

One thing that’s almost a universal maxim with anime that become major commercial hits – the episodes lots of people hate will be my favorites.  So it seems to be with Ya Boy Kongming! – though to be fair not everyone is dumping on this ep (and I’d only say it was among my favorites).  It’s eminently predictable, really – take the cute girl out of a series that seems to be largely a CGDCT and a lot of viewers will conniption.  It’s not that anime without them don’t exist, but to go about it this way will be seen as a bait and switch by some.  Which more than anything I find kind of amusing.

I like Eiko just fine, but she’s not much as an anchor for a story, really.  Paripi Koumei was always going to need to branch out to remain interesting, and it was obvious from the OP/ED (and last week’s episode) that it was going to do so.  Adding a rapper is the hook, and that turns out to be Kabetaijin (Chiba Shouya).  He’s a three-time winner of whatever big rap battle it is that keeps getting name-dropped, a noted freestyler.  But he’s a neurotic who was driven to a stomach ulcer by the pressures of competing and disappeared from the scene (much to the irritation of his beaten rival Sekitoba Kung Fu, who longs for the chance to even the score).

Honestly, I’m not that into rap or hip-hop – maybe a little more than the J-Pop and idol stuff that Eiko mostly peddles, but not much.  Nevertheless anime has often used rap and hip-hop to very good effect, and I think diversifying is good for this series both in terms of the cast and the sound.  And I find Kabetaijin to be a pretty relatable guy – his mom worries about him, he’s plagued by self-doubt, he’s his own worst enemy.  The fact that Kabetaijin is yet another Three Kingdoms aficionado is a bit of a stretch, but one supposes if you buy into the core premise of this series adding the guiding hand of fate to the mix doesn’t really change the plausibility factor much.

I don’t know if Kabetaijin is a sage (or anything in the spice cabinet) but the mini-rap battle in the laundromat (with the dryer providing the beats) was cleverly done (I especially liked Kabetaijin’s aside that Koumei’s effort was “more a sutra than a rap”).  And is usual the series in on-point with the ending sequence, adding his bars into the ED song.  At this point Kabetaijin’s impact on the show is more about potential than anything, but I do see the potential for that impact to be a positive one.