With the 100,000 Likes Competition quickly approaching,
Kongming assigns Eiko and Kabetaijin tasks to refine and improve their musical
skills. Kabetaijin returns to his roots
with her fellow Fresstylers. Meanwhile,
Eiko meets Nanami, a beautiful songstress and the two quickly form a
friendship. But Naname is hiding a big
secret from her new friend, one that could either destroy what they have or
become the key to Eiko figuring out what’s missing from her own music.
This weeks Ya Boy Kongming takes a bit of a risk after
the high water mark of the Epic Rap Battle from last time.
Kongming himself takes a backseat to the
continuing journeys of Eiko and Kabe but is this a wise move, keeping the big
draw of the premise on the sidelines for almost three full episodes?
The answer may surprise you and while it
doesn’t reach the heights of last weeks set, this penultimate chapter of Ya Boy
Kongming still manages to maintain momentum and do some heartstring tugging
too.
The next steps of Eiko’s journey found her meeting two
integral new faces.
I’ll admit I’m not
too big on “Kid” the producer.
He’s
another quirky guy but his kicking Eiko out for a lack of “her own voice,”
idk.
I know Eiko has to figure
somethings out but maybe save his intro for later cause it seemed like a time
waster.
Had Kid’s appearance been postponed
we could have gotten more scenes with the more important new person in Eiko’s
life, Nanami.
I could listen to these
two jam all day.
Plus, unlike the
constant rehashing of Minmei’s two or three songs in the original Macross, I’m
not tired of “Still Alive Today”, which has become Eiko and Nanami’s signature
inspirational song.
These two click
instantly and the more we see them play together, I wanna see more of it, even
more than Eiko and Kabe, who do get one fun song remix together.
And, unlike Kid just saying “go study
somewhere else”, Nanami is actually teaching Eiko how to improve her
craft.
So much so that listening to
Nanami’s backstory gave Eiko the answer to why she sings and…ugh…do these two
have to be rivals?
But we all knew there was some kind of other shoe ready
to drop with Nanami.
Sigh, I cant
believe we’re back to “Music is a Dangerous Career” with Azalea but here we
are.
Now hear me out: I’ve seen enough
Behind the Music documentaries to know how hard it is to break into the
industry and how much trial and error come before success.
But Karasawa virtually rewriting and
reworking Nanami’s band from the ground up with skimpy outfits and distancing
them from their rock and roll roots sickens me.
I feel for Nanami making a deal with the Devil to get her group off the
ground and get them more financially stable but him telling her to quit hanging
out with Eiko and playing on the street in her downtime…God I wanna smack this
guy with his cane.
Also is it me or foes
Karasawa look like he has a Leiji Matsumoto villain face?
It’s just very different from the other
characters to me (not to mention there was an evil immortal mad man
impersonating a Music Producer in the Matsumoto/Daft Punk collab Interstella
5555).
I know this is only the beginning
of a larger narrative but Nanami deserves her creative freedom back as much as
Eiko deserves her big shot.
On the other side of town, Kabe returned to where his
Freestyle journey began.
He didn’t get a
lot of screentime compared to Eiko but what we got I did enjoy.
Kabe stood up for a student, learned he’s a
legend at his old high school, and even got to reunite with his Freestyle
buddies from the past who were up for helping him prep for his big rematch with
Sekitoba Kung Fu.
And like I said, Kabe
and Eiko do get to perform together and its clear why Kongming wanted him to
back Eiko.
Only thing is, with these two
on separate paths for most of this set, are we gonna see more of this before
the series concludes?
I’m guessing
Kabe’s big showdown with Sekitoba is next since Eiko and Nanami’s arc has been
bookmarked for now.
I have more thoughts
on this splitting of narratives but I’ll wait to talk about that next week when
we wrap this on up.
And what about our Boy Kongming?
He’s still doing his thing but he’s doesn’t
have a lot of screentime as previous episodes.
Heck he’s largely absent, only appearing in maybe 10-15 out of almost an
hour of screentime.
There’s nothing
wrong with that so long as said screentime is being used wisely and it is for
both Eiko and Kabe.
Idk having the big
draw of your show gone for so long can be tricky.
What we do see, Kongming is still doing his
thing: making highly detailed playbooks for how to win the 100k Likes
Challenges, challenging Kid to some kind of exercise video game and continuing
to bet on Eiko even if she doesn’t have faith in herself.
Even if Kongming isnt around, his stratagems
are hard at work and this his influence and spirit is everywhere.
There’s a lot of ground to cover with only three episodes
left and I’m betting on a cliffhanger ending of sorts.
Will we see Eiko win the 100,000 Likes
Challenge?
Will Kabe win against
Sekitoba?
Will Nanami find the courage
to shove that cane up Karasawa where the sun don’t shine?
And what new tricks does Kongming have for
the big finish of the first part of this epic campaign?
Like I said, a lot of ground to cover but I’m
hoping we get a stellar finale regardless.
All will, hopefully, be revealed during the finale of Ya Boy Kongming,
which we’ll look at Next Monday right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
No comments:
Post a Comment