In Japan, the land of thousand stories, manga-writers can get away with the most outrageous premises and gain a loyal following. The striking twist Yuto Yotsuba and Ryo Ogawa introduced with their manga Paripi Kōmei is not so much the transportation of Zhuge Kongming, the renowned Chinese tactician, to contemporary Japan – Reverse isekai, but to utilize this historical character to light-heartedly explore the complex world of singers and music stars.

As music is central to Yotsuya and Ogawa’s narrative, it is not surprising that their manga found a new life as an anime in 2022 and as a live-action drama in 2023. The movie, helmed by the series’ director Shuhei Shibue, is not, as some might have hoped, a compilation of the drama, but a direct continuation of the popular live-action series.

The film begins by introducing the spectator to Master Kongming (Osamu Mukai), the brilliant strategist of the Three Kingdom. He has not only become a highly successful personality – tarento – in contemporary Japan, promoting universal peace – Tenka Taihei – in talk-shows and commercials, but has been acting as Eiko Tsukimi (Moka Kamishiraishi)’s strategist, utilizing his strategic shrewdness to help propel talented singer to stardom (Narra-note 1, Narra-note 2).

One day, Kongming tells Eiko that the three biggest music labels – Key Time, SSS music, V-EX – are going to co-host a music event called Three Labels Present Music Battle Awards 2025. Kobayashi (Mirai Moriyama), the owner of the Lounge where Eiko performs and avid fan of the history of the Three kingdoms, immediately suggests a vague similarity between the music competition and the struggle between Wei, Shu and Wu for dominance during the Three Kingdoms era.

With little effort – a simple ruse, Kongming seduces Key-Time’s director Avil (Rinko Kikuchi) to accept Eiko for the newcomer slot for the awards and let him be the label’s strategist. However, can Kongming also win the musical war for Eiko’s sake? And can he resist entering the gate, which might be the entrance to the world of the dead, that certain singing voices call forth in his dream state?

Ya Boy Kongming! The movie offers a straightforward narrative, yet spectators who have not seen the drama-series or are unfamiliar with the history of the Three Kingdoms might feel somewhat confused by all the historical references. Luckily, the narrative is structured in such a way that the signified evoked by these references is always evident and that the meaning of the enunciated tactical aphorism (e.g. “Strategies are made by men. The result is decided by the gods”) is revealed in a satisfying way (Narra-note 3). 

One could even argue that the narrative gambles on the fact that the spectator knows little about this formative period in Chinese history. The subtle sense of disorientation caused by Kobayashi’s brisk history titbits does not merely resemble Eiko’s perplexity, but pushes him/her to assume her position, as anchoring element, to experience this fast-moving musical narrative.

Fans of music will, without any doubt, eat good – the film, which ultimately transforms into a concatenation of musical moments, is a celebration of different music styles and features many real-life artists, like the popular dance formation AvantGardey, the alternative hip-hop unit Komorebi, Enka singer Kaori Mizumori, Japanese rapper and dancer Elly, J-pop and K-pop hybrid &Team, Avu-chan from the band Queen Bee, classical pianist Kamei Masaya, … etc (Cast-note 1).

Utaha, known from Wednesday Campanella, portrays Shin, a street singer chosen by the SSS music to compete as newcomer in the Music Battle Awards 2025. She succeeds in seizing the coveted place due to the tactical intervention of her brother Jun Shiba (Kamio Fuju), who, as descendent of Kongming’s rival Zhongda, desires to settle the rivalry between his ancestor and Kongming once and for all on the musical battle field.

Thematically speaking, Ya Boy Kongming! The movie follows a simple idea: music connects; music, as universal language, washes away subjective difference and invites people to form social bonds. All the turns and twists within Shuhei Shibue’s film follow this thematical fundamental rule.

The composition of Ya Boy Kongming! The movie is very dynamic. This is not only due to Shibue’s reliance on camera-movement – shaky framing, panning movement, …etc., and a faster pace of cutting, but also by utilizing static shots to emphasize dynamism – i.e. the continues transformation of compositional lines due to dancing bodies – and by decorating sequences with music to smoothen the visual flow. The rich and diverse colour-schemes give Shibue’s visual fabric its flavour of extravagance. By littering the visual frame with striking colour-contrasts and vibrant colours, Shibue successfully dazzles the spectator, offering him many moments of satisfying visual excess. 

However, Shibue’s emphasis on framing the musical performance renders him unable to exploit the compositional dynamism to support the tension that rises at the level of the narrative and the emotions that pour out as the Music Battle progresses.

The fact that Shibue pours so much into the staging of musical performances, offering the spectator many touching moments and surges of pleasure struggle, underlines that Ya Boy Kongming! The movie is, first and foremost, made for audiences who have seen the drama-series. The director counts on the fact that the spectator has seen the drama – the development of the main-characters and the way their relations develop – to infuse the pre-established emotional investment in the characters into the way the grand music battle unfolds. Spectators unable to utilize their pre-established investment in the narrative will struggle to invest emotionally in Kongming’s tactical maneuverers and Eiko’s crisis of self-confidence, thus diminishing the impact of the narrative’s denouement.

Ya Boy Kongming! The movie can be enjoyed by anyone, yet only those who have watched the drama-series can fully appreciate Shuhei Shibue’s film. As the film is a continuation of the series, Shibue indirectly demands that the spectator utilizes his pre-existing investment in the character to breathe life into the emotional flow of the narrative. Spectators who can’t will be dazzled by the visuals and the musical performances, yet feel little as the narrative rushes to its conclusion (General-note 1).

Notes

Narra-note 1: The reason why Kongming decides to become Eiko’s strategist is evoked very briefly through signifier and image in the opening quarter of the film: he was mesmerized by her voice at Kobayashi’s BB lounge. Some spectators and critics, unfamiliar with the live-action series, might lament the brevity of the narrative set-up, yet the concise exposition of their history enables the director cut away some narrative fat and unfold the narrative at a faster pace.

Narra-note 2: Kongming’s decision to become Eiko’s strategist is further evocatively developed within the narrative. We are introduced to the fact that, quite recently, Eiko’s voice calls forth fragments of his former life. Eiko’s voice has that effect and, much to Kongming’s surprise, Shin’s.

One day, when Eiko performs in the studio, she suddenly transforms into his master Liu Bei (Dean Fujioka). This sudden transformation does not merely accentuate his exhaustion, but also corroborates the fact that Kongming’s decision to serve Eiko is because she perspires the image of his master – his willingness to serve her seems to be an anachronistic response to Liu Bei’s persistent attempt to gain his strategic wisdom and his service in the past.

Narra-note 3: One reference that might puzzle spectators unfamiliar to the Three Kingdom’s history or the original story is Kobayashi’s enunciation that “it’ll be the Wuzhang Plains all over again” if Kongming does not rest. The Wuzhang Plains is the place where Kongming became critically ill and died, ending the exhausting stalemate between his forces and Zhongda’s.

Cast-note 1: V-Ex’s producer is brought to life by DJ Koo, known from TRF. Genius arranger Steave Kiddo, who is based on the world-renowned DJ Steve Aoki, is played by musician Ryosuke Nagaoka. And American guitarist Marty Friedman, known from Megadeth, brings Producer Lloyd Lee to life.

General-note 1: We really recommend spectators to watch the drama series first so that they can breathe life into the emotional backbone of the narrative.