First things first, literally in this case.  The OP for Paripi Koumei debuted this week, and generated a ton of buzz on social media.  And it’s quite a banger, I have to admit – almost a modern ABBA quality to it.  But the funny part is, it’s named after “チキチキバンバン” – which is what the Japanese called Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  That was the hit 1968 children’t film (co-written by Roald Dahl).  It’s also known for its title song, which was a big hit in Japan.  But the really funny part is this OP has nothing to do with that – it’s a remix of an obscure (to me) 2013 single called “Ciki Ciki Bam Bam” (possibly in Russian Hungarian?) by someone called Jolly-Bulikirály.  So there.

In any event, I give Ya Boy Kongming credit for digging that up – it totally works, in context.  And I give the staff credit for coming out with a product I would never, never guess was a P.A. Works series if I didn’t already know (I think I would have said Sunrise).  It’s become clear to me that I’m not really the target audience for this, but that doesn’t mean I’m totally immune from its charms.  It’s a fun show, it looks great, and has a contagious sort of energy pulling it (and you along).  All those are good things.

That said, it’s also fundamentally a music series where the music is supposed to be compelling and (apart from the OP) does nothing for me at all.  Even so I can appreciate that it takes that side of the story seriously and seems to be written by someone with some understanding of the club scene.  Ultimately this sort of fish out of water story is an anime chestnut at this point, and nothing can really change that.  One might even go so far as to call Paripi Koumei an isekai (or reverse isekai if you like), in fact.  But what it can do is try is freshen up the execution, and it does a decent job of that.

The new factor this week is Mia Iriomote, played with scenery-chewing aplomb by Kobayashi Yuu.  She’s a singer considerably more successful than Eiko whose performance Koumei has the pair attend for research purposes.  He then drags Eiko backstage, manages to get Mia to talk to them, and winds up getting Eiko drafted as a stalking horse for Mia’s upcoming festival gig (simultaneous appearance, weak competition).  This allows Koumei to throw down some “Three Kingdoms” tactics to spoil Mia’s plans, and Eiko winds up with a shit-ton of new Pinsta followers.

I’m no military strategist but Koumei’s trick seemed pretty far-fetched to me.  That said the whole sequence was certainly amusing enough.  As is the notion of a genius tactician from the Three Kingdoms period unleashing his powers against a helpless brain-dead cadre of modern eejits.  I just wish I cared even a little bit about the music, but there’s nothing I can do about that – as the cast expands maybe someone will appeal to me, but Eiko is the centerpiece and I seriously doubt her material is going to change dramatically.  I can already see the bubble forming with this one.