AWTY 189 - Liu Bei Ga (Ya Boy Kongming!)

Hello, and welcome to our reap area and exploration and education and anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I am an anime expert, D hollander.

And I'm your anime boy. A perpetually warped and skewed notion of historical accuracy brought to you by omega Force. Anyone? No? I didn't think so.

You didn't even say your name.

Yeah, we didn't respond because we were waiting for you to introduce yourself.

And I wrote, like, a paragraph and I got ahead of myself.

Too excited.

It's the other one. It's me. This isn't your first episode. God help you if this is your first episode.

Now I can come in with historically inaccurate.

Now I can get on with the bit. Oh, God. Yeah, there's no possible section.

Yeah. Why are we watching this week?

Yeah, apologize. That was me running into a screeching halt, per usual. Yeah. This week we're watching ya boy Kong.

Kong ming.

God, I'm going to butcher this name a thousand times over.

It's kong. ming.

Kong ming.

Yeah.

Who's your favorite donkey?

Donkey Kong. Of course. He's number one.

Yes. Thank you. So halfway there.

He's the leader of the bunch.

You know him well, we legally can't sing more than that. Rare software will get our ass. Yeah. Your boy Kong ming. This is one I picked, and I just want to get out in front of my archaically arbitrarily difficult intro. kang meng, also known as courteous name courtesy name is Kong meng, also known as juge liang from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which is used as a base material for dynasty Warriors, which was made by omega Force. And I grew up on all of them. And God knows my sense of Chinese history is perpetually warped by whatever the fuck happened in those games because it wasn't accurate.

Well, now it makes sense.

No, I know it doesn't. Thank you for watching.

These are the ones you have to explain. We all know this.

Yeah, let's keep lingering on it. Let's just not let it die and then that we'll get a great third act out of this.

Jim, I would really love to dive into brendan's inaccurate knowledge of Chinese history.

It's a lot of magic. There's like a unicorn, I think at one point. It's bad. It gets those games get wild anyway.

But yeah. dee, is this a show you are familiar with?

No, but the title is really good.

Yeah, it is.

Your boy, Kong ming. It's just like before looking it up, I was like, I have no idea what this could possibly be. And honestly, based on the description, I still don't. I don't know what could happen in this show.

Well, fair. First off, but this very confusingly was going to be a show I was going to pick to bring what? Who could have seen this turn of events?

Crazy.

Yeah. I was just watching a twitch stream of someone getting, like, recent anime recommendations from a trusted person. Interesting. A rare segue to remind me, hey, I can plug. At the top if there's a show you would like us to watch.

You can send.

Email. Yeah, if you're trusted. And at the top, if you sat through this intro so far, we trust you. You're bright or die categorically.

It's an Internet. I'm filtering out the bad ones by being a bad one.

But yeah, our email is arievaria@gmail.com or Twitter instagram. Are we there yet? Okay, back to the thing. Yeah, I was watching something, I was like, oh, this seems like a good show. This seems like a fun time. Let me add it to the list. And as I was going to add it to our list, it was brendan's next pick of an episode. So we would have gotten there either way. But Brendan won the quick trial because.

I've already been watching this show by the time I put it on the list. And I was like, hey, the first three episodes were hot trash. Let's watch this one.

Let's give it a try.

Yeah, I didn't want to rip my eyes out, so that's a start.

I am always skeptical, skeptical of watching something and putting on the list because I know my tolerance for just garbage is much higher than both ears. dugan's being none and these being actual quality of taste. So I know I always have to second guess like, but was it bad enough it was, okay, not this one, and then reevaluate my priorities.

I do appreciate you consider us in that lens and not just like, yeah, it's fine. It made me throw up. So I assume they'll also have a bad time because that's usually how I assume you make picks.

Yeah.

This hurt me. Let's hurt them.

Yay.

I'm mostly going by do.

You would have a good time with.

It because I know you're just not it's anime, so it's already got a strike against it. But yeah, since you looked into it, since you were going to pick it, do you know anything about this?

Just the very baseline premise of yeah, this is Kong ming. He's in the future now.

Oh, boy.

Seems fun. Yeah, that is truly all I know. But I think I saw part of the trailer and it seemed like a fun time, so I'm down for it.

Hell yeah.

Nice.

I figure we can get into it instead. We just watch it instead of me recapping and teasing it early.

Perfect. Let's watch the first three episodes. That's been my plan all along.

Your stratagems.

Aha, someone activated my trap beat trap.

That's very funny. So that's a good one.

I was scrambling for I was like, what music? What music pun can I make?

Fuck all shit.

What can I make? EDM stand for?

Extra dig? Oh, no.

If you're ready for info dumps of all info dumps.

Care for some simple Chinese history?

Just put in your casual anime. Yeah. If anyone who doesn't know what the show is going into. It the first episode, like the first five minutes, like, ooh, that hits that's a lot because none of it matters.

No, luckily. God, I was like, I can't do this right now.

Right off the bat. Yeah. Episode one starts off huge info dump. We're going to China 1800 years ago. Turning to the Three Kingdoms, period, era. Long story short, a lot of shit happened in the developing of a nation like that.

War.

A lot of war. As the name would apply, there was Three Kingdoms constantly fighting for territory. wei shoe. Sun. Anyway, not part. We zoom in on the Shoe territory where the commander of the Shoe territory, lube, is already dead. Chances are they're not going to win this war. And we see his advisor and master, strategist zhuge liang, courtesy name kong ming. That's your boy.

That's your boy. Kong ming.

That's your boy.

I'm so sorry. I do need to say lou bei. He is descended by the great artist lubega and his great mambo. Number five. I'm sorry if I didn't put that in now it's going to sit in my brain this entire episode.

You've injected a little bit of monica into this party. Oh, my God.

I now think the wp kids saturday morning, like Cold opens with lou beggar introducing it. You got to find those on YouTube if you've never seen those before. It's a man trying his minimal effort. There's a Disney minimum wage. I think it's a lot.

That was so good. We have to stop. It's over.

We peaked early, guys. We peaked early.

Anyway, if there's a show you would like.

Anyway, it's your boy kang ming at the end of his life dying, you know how he be. He's very sick on his deathbed. And he's got his Pfizer trying to help him. And he's basically just like, praying up to the heavens, being like, man, my whole life revolves around war. That sucks. I hope next time I'm reborn it's somewhere peaceful. And then he fucking dies. And we see like a meteorite, like a shooting star go overhead with just loud EDM music blasting. And then it cuts. And I was like, hell yeah, I'm on board for whatever the hell this is.

Get abducted by some party and alien.

And then we cut back to Kong meng waking up in an alleyway. He sees a few men passed out around him, sickenly looking men. And as he gets up and exits the alleyway, he's surrounded by a bunch of crazy looking people with horns and skull faces and paints, screaming and yelling and throwing stuff. And he goes, ah, I'm in hell. Of course, with a public gathering like that. I decree.

And entering a busy city street.

Wake up, hell, man. It zooms out and we see he's actually in modern day Tokyo during Halloween. So everyone's in costumes, and he thinks they're all demons and stuff. And as he's walking around he's wearing his traditional Chinese garb from that period, so he doesn't stand out because everyone's like, yo, that Kong ming costumes really good. Like that's crazy good quality, even though it's his actual clothes. And a few guys come up to him or just like, hell yeah, love the outfit. You got a party with us and jam a bottle of tequila down his throat. And he starts like screaming of like hell fire being poured down my gullet. Just like, hell I imagined it be.

I just love how calm he is. Like, hell, it's warm, sweet and breeze.

I feel like we would have that same approach of like an anime convention. Hell, what's the difference?

Correct.

We've been through this before. So these two partiers drag him out saying like, this guy's just dope we got to take him with us. It's going to be a fun time. So they take him to a bar and he's just like, well, I guess I'm being carried off by demons. And they go we cut to see a blonde woman in a room looking at her phone, getting another email rejection, being like another one. Guess the guy just buck up and try again. And she sighs and gets back up. And we cut back to Kung meng in the bar with his buddies. And we see the girl, the woman we saw previously. She's up on stage and she's got horns and sort of come out and draped around her and stuff. She looks like a demon and oni or something. And as she gets on stage, the music starts blaring. I can't imagine with someone from 1800 years ago going to a knuckle fat fucking loud.

He should have died.

Yeah, it would have split his skull. Yeah.

This whole episode screams of the meme of like, if I went back to pilgrim times and gave someone a baja.

Blast, if I should have TikTok to a Victorian era child, it would turn them to dust. Or if you're over 30 and get taken out to a nightclub, it feels about the same. And yeah, he's just holding his head together, being like, this is true torture. This is genuine hell. And as the woman gets up on stage, she starts singing her song. And he is enraptured. His third eye is open. It picks him right in the brain. Something awakens inside of him. And afterwards we see a woman singing. She's at the bar, just real bummed up, being like, well, it's a bar. Everyone's drunk. It's Halloween. No one really pay attention to my song. And we see Kung ming come up to him. We can see he's kind of drunk because they've just been throwing drinks at him all night. And he comes up to her and he's like, ah. Horn songstress. Your singing has enraptured me so much. I wish you to be my guide through hell to show me around this hell fire domain. And she's like, cool. You got to stop drinking. And he's like, oh, don't worry. I am a very skilled tacticianer. I will lead your undead army upon the world and be a strong word ward for my general. She's like, again, cool. Tone it down. It's just like, this guy's a little committed to his costume also.

Please, I am working.

Please. Yeah, we see her get back off, and she's like, all right, back behind the bar I go. She's back to work and coming is dragged back off again by his buddies. And we see the next morning, she gets off her shift back in regular clothes, and she's walking back through an alleyway behind the bar, and lo and behold, Kong ming there passed out just to sleep in an alleyway. She's like, well, sucks to be that guy. And he starts, like, mumbling about, like, three kingdoms times. And then he mumbles like, something that was like the singing of a goddess or this or that. She's like, yeah, he's the only one. I liked my singing. I'll make sure you won't freeze to death on the street here. So she takes him back to her place to sober up and just wake up. And when he does, he sees her. He's like, the songs for the hell. And she's like, stop calling me that. First off, now. And he's looking around her apartment, and it's just a bunch of band posters, like, all around and like a few instruments. We see, like, keyboard and a few guitars. And as he's looking around, he sees a mirror, and he's shocked and greatly surprised to see he's young again. He was he was an old man on his deathbed, like, yesterday. And now he's back in his prime at age for once an anime where your prime age isn't 16. And she's like, cool, you're awake now. Go on, get out of here. He's like, first off, sorry for having to put you through that. Let me introduce myself. I am shuki liang. Courtesy named Kong ming. I am the practitioner and advisor to Leo Bay of the shoe army. She's like, cool, that means actually nothing to me. That's a lot of chip rush.

I am also hungover, so I also don't understand big word.

And she's like, well, my name is Eco. Nice to meet you. Go on again. She's like, wait, how are you actually going to get home? I saw you didn't have, like, a wallet or a smartphone on you. He's like, cool. What are those things you're saying? What do you mean? Do you not know what a smartphone is? And she holds out hers and he takes and he's like, what is this marvelous device? The pictures. He's, like, losing his mind at it, and he adapts surprisingly well to it pretty quickly.

That is good. Love that the show is not about him trying to understand modern technology, that he's just kind of like immediately like.

Okay, he's surprised by let's spend two minutes to be like what's that? What's that? What's that? And let's get it out of the way.

Yeah, exactly. Within 6 hours. He understands the internet better than my parents do. And he's like, oh, could you tell me about this and this and just teach me about modern day things? I believe talent isn't an innate thing. You have to use your knowledge and apply it. And that's what talent is. And if you teach me things, I promise you I can use my wisdom to utilize my talents to help you out further. She's like, yeah, that sounds like a lot of work I'm not teaching you, buddy. Good luck on your own. And he researched her. He's like, if you help me, I can help you. I have a lot of array of skills and information. She's like, all right, fine, I'll teach us some stuff I guess. Guess you're a foreigner or something. We see the clock speed up a little bit and jumps ahead like 4 hours or something. He just goes, so what's a blockchain. And she's like, enough, I'm done.

Jesus Christ.

Which is the really got me.

Really dates the show. And she asked if you're really Kung ming, if you're really who you say you are, this guy from nearly 2000 years ago in China, how are you speaking fluent Japanese? And he goes, huh, it's a good question.

Everyone thought a question, let's move on.

It's never really addressed. It's just like we don't need to know for the show reason. That's why he knows. And as he's looking up like wikipedia of the three Kingdoms, he's like, oh interesting. That's kind of funny how the stories have changed over the years. That's not how I remember it. Or like it's a little different. While she's getting ready for work, he's looking at the wikipedia page and sees that the shoe army that he devoted his life to helping and trying, uniting a country and the world in peace fell shortly after his death. And he realizes that, he finds out that that was 1800 years ago now. So he's kind of like reflecting on being like everyone I know is dead and everyone in their families. There's not a single familiar face I can look anywhere to find. And he's kind of bummed, which is a little understandable. And so while he's just looking out the window at the sun setting, I think she works at a bar. So he's very melancholy wistful looking out. She starts pulling a little song in the guitar and singing and again he is raptured in it. So much so he actually has like flashbacks to Leo Bay and his companion to the shoe army being like, come.

On, come in, join us.

And it seems really light hearted and charming and fun for a bunch of channels going off to war. It feels like high cue, it feels like a sports animal. Come on buddy, we're going to go slaughter a bunch of people.

Yes.

So when he's hearing the song, he's reflecting on his memories and gets very emotional and starts crying. And when she's done singing, he says her singing has the power to energize people. It did just now for him. It did last night. And he really thinks that she has something special going on. And she's kind of like, deflecting, like, no, I'm nothing great. And he says he's interested in the music of his era, but he's very ignorant of everything else. So first things first, he needs a job. She's like, how are you unemployed? What is happening? So she ended up taking him to work with her and getting him to apply to her job. And he's trying to play off the owner, who I don't think we ever actually get his name. We're like, yeah, I'm up to date on the show. Just owner. And he's like, oh, you think you're kang ming you're trying to play off, and you're the real one? All right, let's see about that. And he starts reflecting, retelling a story of Kung ming in battle, sending off one of his younger subordinates to lead a battle, thinking like, oh, this will be an easy battle. This guy's got it. And the subordinate he sent off screws up royally, ends up losing the battle. And it fell on kang ming's head because he's the one that chose him. And as a way to retain the army's morale and try to repay for his failures, he had to execute his own subordinate. And he's kind of just pointing out, like, hey, that was a big moment in Kung ming's history. That where he really messed up kung ming kind of reflecting of like, yeah, I did. He owns up to it, but he also responds back with a level of emotional tied to it being like, yes, it sucked a lot. Because not only did I mess up, not only did we lose the war, I also had to kill my own support in it, who I cared for deeply. It sucked all around. I got no way to defend that. And I learned from my lesson. And they both get, like, emotional while he's retelling this, and they just start casually playing Go while they're talking as well. And the owner kind of chuckles with a huge laugh after he owns up to it. And he goes, damn, you really know your Three Kingdoms like history. I love it. I'm also a big fan of it. You know what? He's got the job he's in.

I like you. I think we're going to be good pals.

Basically, we shared the same hobby. You're hired.

So this point, for a split second, my brain when went Galaxy brain. And I was like, are they going to do something different? I thought this was a moment where this new character we were being introduced to, he was like, hey, account for this thing where you had to kill your subordinate did it emotionally affect you? I thought they were going to reveal that this was the subordinate who also.

Got to the future.

And I was like, are you? This rules. And then they didn't do it. I was like, too much?

Yes, exactly. There is a similar show that kind of does that where prominent characters from the Three Kingdoms era are reincarnated, or at least their powers and or personalities are transmuted into modern day. And there's like a fighting element for anyone who knows what show I'm talking about. We're not watching it because it's just unnecessarily horny. Just so unforgivably horny.

So why aren't we watching it?

It's because they all get reincarnated in the bodies of teenage high school girls, and whenever they fight each other, they destroy their clothes.

God damn it.

Yeah, it's the bad kind. The bad kind of horse, just the excessive kind. But yeah. So it turns out the owner of the bar where Eco works, just the big Three Kingdoms third, just like, super big. So much that when the one bartender comes in, he's wearing an eyepatch during Halloween as a costume. And he's like, all right, boss, I'm going to clock in. He's like, hey, why aren't you wearing your eyepatch? You look like zaidan from Three Kingdoms are just like, oh my God, enough. But now he has the actual kang ming to kick out with about Three Kingdom stuff. So he's super jazzed. So they get him ready to start a shift. Kung ming starting right away, and Eco is teaching him how to mix drinks and stuff. And he's kind of a natural. He's picks it up pretty quick. He's a very smart man. And she starts telling him about the different music because he's asking about the DJ being like, oh, yeah, we got some people here. But the music is really slow and kind of quiet. We have different playlists for different times of the night, for different days. You want to start the crowd off low because it's kind of empty. And then once it gets packed, we're going to bump it up and the beats per minute are going to go a lot faster and stuff like that. You're kind of explaining what EDM is and when the owner oh, yeah, they jump ahead so further into the night when they're actually pretty busy, and he goes running around being like, why are we so busy tonight? The owner is like, hey, I'll tag out. You get up on stage, you do your singing. I'll cover the bar with Kung ming. And when she goes up and gets ready to go on stage, the owner is reflecting out loud to Kung ming, who's right, but nearby being like, man, she deserves better than this. She deserves, like, a major agency to actually be a singer. This is just some little dive bar that doesn't focus on singer more, just music to get distracted to. And he's like, but something about her's, made her open up to you, kang ming. And if you heard her, if you ruined that, I will end you.

Love it.

Owner'S big yakuza vibes. Like big mobster, so he may kill him. He's killed a man before. And so they go through their shift. Eco sings on stage. They finish it out, and walking home, kung ming is again, just showering praise on Eco being like, Your singing is wonderful. It's awakened my very soul and set the heaven and earth ablaze and fiery passion. She's like, Damn, you're really open and honest and just lay those confidence on thick. And he's like, Well, I got to be honest, because in a time of war, I saw a lot of men go to war and die without regretting things they didn't say or not being open and honest with stuff. So might as well do it while you can. And while they're talking, he asked her why she chose to be a singer, why this spoke to her. And she says, we have an old flashback, and she's like, in high school, I was in a really bad place mentally, and when I came into the city, we see her kind of getting ready to walk in front of a train, and we see the owner actually pull her back and save her life. And she talks about how he says he's like, all right, I got a very special guest coming to my bar tonight. Why don't you at least just come see her perform? And then afterwards, you can do whatever you want, but maybe this will distract you a little bit and change how you feel. So he takes her to his bar, and, yeah, they have a special guest singer, and her singing was so beautiful and inspired Eco to also be a singer because her song reached out to her and awakened something in her and made her also want to be a singer. So she could do that for other people, kind of, you know, pass along the favor.

Yeah.

And sure enough, that's the bar she ends up working at, you know, once she's out of high school and becomes a singer at. So she's already following in the footsteps. She says it's been a real struggle for her. It's not been easy. And she's actually been kind of thinking about quitting singing lately because it's just rejection after rejection after rejection, and it just sucks. And cumming points out to her. He's like, well, you said you want your singing to inspire others and reach out to people's hearts and touch them emotionally. I can already tell you this happens.

I'm so glad you added that. We both have the same thought of cool.

Thank you.

We had to clarify and touch them.

Physically through song.

To touch their hearts with her bare hand.

We got some anime that does that. I mean, go back to Juice kaiser. And I think that happens a few times, but, yeah, he says, you were inspired to be a singer because you wanted to reach to people to show them the power of singing. He's like, I can already assure you, you've already done that with me every time you've song. You've sung three times now in front of me, and every time I've gotten incredibly emotional about it. And he says, you can't stop now because then you'll disappoint your fans. He's like, wow, what fans? He's like, well, there's one right here, so you got to keep singing. You got to keep trying your best, reaching out. And he says, with someone with this level of ambition and talent, it would be dishonorable not to serve them. And he offers himself up as a technicianer for her, the same way he did for leah Bay. And he says that no matter what her dream is, he'll move heaven and earth at her command to do just that, to help her achieve it. And she's like, wow, you're really in character with this, cosplay you're a real method actor. You're a freak, kind of a weirdo. And she's like, tearing up. She's like, but you know what? You got me there, but you're my weirdo, basically. And she's like, you know what? All right. I'll try my best. You can be my tactician, or whatever the hell that is. And that's episode one.

Mmhmm, yeah.

We start out episode two. We see eiko, she's listening to the radio and getting ready for the day. Goes out jogging and remembers the promise that Kong ming made that he's going to be her tactician. And she's like, yeah, that's all well and good, but what's it going to do for me? A lowly singer with only 200 followers on social media. So we're back at the bb Club and the owner questions Kong ming's plan to manage. I go and says, like, he's not in it for the money. He knows it's an uphill battle, but he needs to fight so the world can hear this beautiful music of the one singer he's heard before. So Kong ming asked a favor of this very mafioso man and has given two clubs, two tickets to Club Z 20. There's an event tonight and he wants to do some recon on the popular acts.

I like how he clarifies. I'm not in a further money. It's like, I don't know what this world is. What would I use money for?

I sleep in the alley out back. I don't need money.

I will point out it's on episode eleven now. I guess it's 13 episodes. I guess wrapping up soon. We never find out where Kong meng lives. He might live in the alley outback. That's fully possible.

I mean, defending a dumpster has many tactical advantages, so that checks out for his character.

The new war of the Three Kingdoms is a raccoon. Him and another raccoon raccoon with a scar over his eye.

The war of three Burger King bags.

Anyway, so.

Go to the show. Sorry. First off, he's still talking with the owner, and the owner is still skeptical, like, you're putting up this Kong ming act, but you certainly know a whole lot. Do you happen to know about the stone sentinel maze, the famous strategy that kang ming used in the battle? blah, blah, blah, too many details. And Kong ming is like, oh, that takes me back. But it seems like history has exaggerated it a little bit, where essentially he trapped a bunch of soldiers chasing his army on the edge of defeat, and he was able to confuse them and get them lost in a canyon or whatever. He's like, oh, it happened a little different. Don't worry, you'll learn more. So they go to the club, and they see that the headliner is mia itemote, and she has 100,000 followers on social media. So she's saying this my notes are different this week, so I'm a little turned around. So, yeah, find out maze of notes. Where am? This isn't my house.

This isn't my beautiful wife.

Sorry, I got all turned around. Excuse me. This stays in. I don't want to edit it out anyway.

Fair.

So we skip ahead to mia's show, and she comes out, and the two of them just start dissecting her act. They're like, oh, why? She comes out to a slow song. Why can that be? And I go is like, oh, yeah, you want to build up to something so you don't start at full force. You have to get there and just go into the strategies of controlling the energy of a concert. And then we jump into mia's head, and we see she's bored. She didn't want to play this venue, but she was obligated to do so. She's annoyed with her producers because she has to do a cover of a song. She can't perform her own song yet, blah, blah, blah. Just all the details of like, she's not in the moment. So the show ends. ICO is like, wow, she is amazing. She's the best. We have to go say hi. So they try to go backstage, and security, of course, sees kang Ming all dressed up, and he's like, there's some novelty act here. Mia, can you come address this? So Mia comes out and sees kang ming. And I go and she's very confused. She's like, why fans?

What's happening?

But ICO does the classic don't meet your heroes thing of, I'm just a small time singer, but I want to be big and famous just like you. Again person I've heard sing once in saying, like, oh, yeah, I'm just small time. She shows her twitter followers, and Mia sees, oh, this girl only has 200 followers. How sad. I'm going to take pity on her and give her her big break. Hey, do you want to come to a show with me? I'll text you the details later. And I goes like, amazing. The best. Oh, wow. synergy really works in a town like this. So they go back to the bb club and they're all excited. eiko gets the details of this show and it turns out the reason she was picked. Mia and ICO are playing on two different floors in the venue at the same time. Mia wanted all the people to be at her show and not be upstaged by someone else. So she picked someone with no followers on purpose.

I didn't trust that bitch from the start.

Telling me there's no altruism in show business. No.

I see you are a person of logic puzzles as well. So of course they're dejected. They're like, oh, this is set up. We're going to play to no one. But Kong Ming is like but her plan is flawed and we will see why in a moment. So in prepping and getting ready, he gets the floor plan to Club warp, which is where they're playing. And the night of the show, Echo is psyching herself up. But she's like, we'll see. I really hope I get a packed crowd. So Mia starts her show and of course, as expected, everyone goes to see the name they recognize, not the new person. So she starts it out and I go is playing to no one. Kong Ming as they speculate what's a great strategy. What's he going to do? He offers some people some free drinks and the club owner is like, you amateur. That's like the first thing that's not going to work. They're going to stay for a second and then go back to the show they want to be at. But as these people start filtering in, we then see them get a little confused as they're like, where are the stairs I want to go. These are the bathrooms. I thought it doesn't matter. This nice song. So eventually Kong Ming comes back out and he's like, yes, my plan, it's going swimmingly. And he reveals this is the strategy of the Stone Sentinel Maze.

They talked about it earlier, thank God.

But yeah. So he's like, now I can show you how masted pulls the strings of the puppets. So his big plan, what you want to do, is keep the people perpetually confused so they cannot find the exit. This works in War and also a club with not clearly defined fire exits.

Yeah, concern.

So what Kong Ming did was he made sure there was plenty of fog and strobe lights going. So visibility just instantly drops to as little as possible. Then he got some security people to just constantly be rotating from the restroom door and the stairs and next to the bar and just constantly be shifting. So whenever they look and see like, oh, I recognize that person. That's the stairs they'll walk in and it's the bathroom. And they will just all be so confused and so unable to get back to the other show. It's just easier for them to give up and say, well, the music is good here. I'll just stay for this show.

He gaslit all these people. These people. I know it's just an anime, but they're remarkably calm for not being able to find an exit when they want to leave. I was in that situation, like, loud music playing, fog everywhere, and I can't find the way to leave. I would die. I would just lay down on the floor and cry like a bird that.

Gets trapped in a house.

The tiny firefighter in my brain was like, no, where's the exercise?

Where's the exercise? I would say it's silly that people would get so easily lost. And he even points out, like, it's a very small area, but we ended up working to our advantage. And I'd say it's kind of silly to think people get that confused and that lost an area. Then I realized this is the exact same strategym that's used at the burbank ikea, where I got lost for three and a half hours. And then you go, you know what? I guess I could use some Swedish meatballs. Literally the exact same strategy.

We've all fallen prey to Kong ming's planning. Damn you, Kong Ming. I bought the meatballs.

I said I wouldn't.

So super impressed. The owner is like, all right, I think you got what it takes to manage this kid after all. So, of course, Mia notices half her audience leaves, and I go, Show ends up packed. So she is pissed because she had an easy show that was ruined. But the crowd is all leaving, and everyone is talking about ICO. And we see her follower count get higher and higher and higher. That's where we end episode two.

Yeah.

Oh, I'll say, real quick opening ending, super catchy. Very adorable. I love just seeing juke Leon dancing to EDM music.

Yes. So unlock my phone where my notes are. Okay. So episode three, we're back in the bb lounge. During the day, Ako is looking at her phone, being like, oh, look at all these followers I got. And Kong ming is like mopping. And he's like, It actually makes me sad to see someone with ambition like you get so excited over such a trivial thing.

Chump change.

And she's like, Well, I think it's okay to be excited about it. And he says, her singing is going to save everybody. Everybody needs to hear it. So he's already scheduled her for her next performance. I never wrote down the name, but it's like an arts festival.

Yeah.

And he sent in a video of her performance, and they accepted her. And they're like, how did you get a video of it? And he's like, I hired somebody and paid him in a picture of her. And they're like, Where? When did you take that? And also, don't do that.

Even the yakuza looking owner says, fan exploitation is bad. Don't do that.

I may be sleazy, but I take my employees laws very seriously.

Yes. He really cares about Ako in not a gross way. And that's delightful because I feel like it could have been gross.

Yeah, he's the tough guy, sort of like mean mugging guy, but yeah, he's at least up till I've seen always been a very good character.

So he and eiko are concerned that it's a little too soon for a festival, but Kong Ming believes it's the right move for her, and aiko wonders if people actually listen to her at the festival. And the owner man wants to know the plan. But Kong Ming is like, the best plans are secret plans. So they're walking to the festival. They're on a street with a bunch of stores when Kong Ming sees a girl in Chinese garb. And he goes over to her and he's like, are you this is crazy. Are you in the same situation I am?

Did you also die? Come on, you can tell me.

We both get Isaacy from the same time period. One of us is going to have to change.

She's, like, freaked out, rightfully. And the owner comes over to try to alleviate the situation. It doesn't work. And then aiko just pushes them away, and she's like, I'm so sorry about them. They pass a record shop, and kang Ming goes inside real quick. He bought a pair of star shaped sunglasses. Hell yeah. And he also saw a poster on the door for a band called Jet Jacket, and it had their tour dates on it, so that's important. Later, they get to the festival. We see it. There's, like, food and stages. It looks great. And they find the stage that she'll be performing at, and it's just a little one, like, in a back corner, like, kind of hard to find. And there's someone singing on it. And there's only a couple of people watching her. And there's another one nearby where Jet Jacket, who's pretty popular, will be performing at the same time as her again. Oh, no.

When will these music producers learn that's not a good idea?

Especially, like the one in the last episode. It's like, okay, they're on two different floors. That's fine. But this one, they're so close together. That's not good for acoustics.

Yeah, they're like 10ft apart. This is a bad setup.

Yeah, because the first one yeah, I've been to shows where it's like, okay, there's a big band playing, but then we have a small room in the side. But clearly there were more stages that we didn't talk about because they weren't plot relevant, that we're also going to be playing at the same time. We saw two or three stages when we see her sad section. So it's like, did anyone plan this one?

This is Fire Festival.

Oh, no.

Just kidding. Not that bad. But anyway, it's almost time for her to go on, which means it's time for Kong Ming to gather a crowd for her. So what strategy will he use this time? So she goes off to warm up, and she thinks, oh, I can trust Kong Ming to get her get me out of this bind, just like he did before. And we see the lead singer from Jet Jacket go over. Jet Jacket.

Jets Jacket.

Jet Jacket. Jet. He goes over to Jet Jacket.

He goes over, are you gonna be my jacket?

He goes over to the small stage to, like, meet her and wish her luck. But it's really just a formality. It's clear that he doesn't want to be doing that. And, oh, no, they're having audio issues. So not only is the person performing on this little stage a nobody, but they're also having audio issues. So he's like, whatever, not a threat to us. So he goes back to the big stage to get ready to go on with his other two bandmates, and he reminisces on their first performance on that very one, that small stage that aiko will be performing on. And he's like, hardly anybody showed up to that. But now we're here, and we're so close to making it. And they have a solo gig tomorrow, so not at a festival. So he's like, we're on the cusp. We're going to get a record deal. It's going to happen. So that's when he's like, yeah, I'm going to take it easy tonight. Like, this one doesn't matter. So people are leaving a coast stage as they're trying to fix their audio equipment. And Kong Ming thinks that the more casual audience members of Jet Jacket who are, like, standing in the back will turn and listen to Ako once she starts performing. So we find out that the audio issues they're having are actually fake, and it's part of his strategy. Of course, they boarded his ruse cruise. So as I've already said, he did this to make them think that they can just take it easy tonight, that Eco won't be a threat to them at all. So owner guy thinks that the audience is too big over there, and it's just hopeless for them at this point. And he's like, have you heard of the 36 stratagems? This part my brain couldn't handle this part. So he asks the owner guy that, and then he gets distracted by ecos singing. She's, like, warming up. And then he has a vision of his old war comrades, and one of them points to her, and Kong Ming is just like, this was like, he doesn't finish the thought and never really comes back to it. So I was like, what is it that he thinks? And I think it's like he believes they'll achieve peace together if he keeps working with Ako. It's unclear.

Yeah, that's what he thinks because that was his, like, the world peace, like, unifying them all under one thing was the shoe army's belief. So it's kind of like our mission is living through her. She's literally chosen by the gods.

He's put a lot of weight on this girl sheet.

Yeah, it's a lot of pressure.

So he comes back to himself, and he's like, one of the 36 stratagems is to create something from nothing. And then he says, it's party time. Okay, I don't know what just happened.

But all right, he gets an old war flashback. It's party time.

He says, it's party time, and he passes out.

He's a funny guy.

In this flashback, a soldier asks Kong Ming if he'll come have a drink with everybody, but he's like, no, I'm too busy, son. Tomorrow.

Mary cat's title.

So back in the present day, the Jet Jacket guys are doing their set, and they're about to make an announcement. This lead singer is like, oh, we have an announcement to make, everybody. But just before he can say whatever it is, ako gets up and running, and it's loud and distracting because they put, like, lights in a tree that's next to the stage. But the Jet Jacket fans who are, like, close to the audience, they start chanting for them to perform this song called midday, but the singer won't do it, and he says, we're going to perform that tomorrow at our next gig, but we're going to sing this song instead. But the more casual people are like, well, that's the only song I know from them, so I don't want to listen to this. So then they go watch aiko. So owner man asks kang Ming how he knew that people would come watch Ako. And he explains that after doing research on Jet Jacket, he found that the singer gets sore throats easily. So with them having a more important concert tomorrow, again, he knew he would take it easy. So he also found out that he can't sing that song midday two days in a row because it's so hard on his voice. So he knew that they would be saving it for the next performance. And then he says it's time for finishing touches. And then he brings shots out to people in the audience.

He has a star glasses he bought.

Earlier, and he thinks back to the flashback we saw earlier and how he regrets not going to have that drink because many of the soldiers died the next day. So life is fleeting, and you got to enjoy yourself while you can. And they talk about how aiko is performing more confidently. And Kong Ming knew that her success in luring people away from Jet Jacket would do that for her, that she has low self esteem, so this would help that. And then Jet Jacket comes over and wants to talk to Kong Ming real quick.

I love that. The whole time, Kong Ming is explaining all of this to the owner. The owner just picks up a wild rabbit and is like, petting it the whole time. What's happening? Why? Because it never needs to be. It was just very distracting.

For me, he just has a special connection to animals.

He's a very caring guy.

So yeah. So Jet Jacket accuses kang Ming of playing dirty. It can't be a coincidence that Eco started when she did. And Kongy is like, what? That never crossed my mind.

Me?

No.

Never. And he then offers some tea to the medicine to the lead singer that's like, hey, this will help your throat, though. And one of the band members tries it, and it tastes fucking terrible. And he's like, oh, but it's so soothing. And then the other guy tries it. He also likes it, and they tell the singer, you should try this, and he does, and it helps. And then Kong Ming pulls out a jacket and asks for their autographs, and he's like, hey, I liked your old performances better, and I think that if you still performed that way, the audience wouldn't have left you guys do. Which is, like, good advice, because they keep talking about how I think essentially they rely on Auto Tune in their live performances. Kind of.

Yeah. New software.

Yeah, that's what he's referring to. So they sign the jacket for him, and the lead singer says, that aiko is pretty good and thanks him for the medicine.

I uploaded it to Cookiepad.com if you want to make it yours.

It's like, damn.

Damn. He's really good with you.

Yeah, I love it. He just figured it out.

He's a smart boy.

And then owner guy asks if it was smart to be nice to those guys, and Kong Ming says, you got to appreciate your enemies. He says, but if these were different times, I would have cut off their heads and displayed them on stage, which I feel like it's the first time he's ever said anything that violent.

Yeah.

So Ako finishes her set. The crowd is going wild. She goes to find her guys. kang Ming tells her that she did great. He always believed that she could pull it off, and she says she wants to perform for more people, and he says that he'll do his best to support her. And then this guy, his cool sparkly pants and sunglasses with an entourage, walks up to them. And that's where episode three ends.

This full blown guilty year character.

Yeah, we don't know anything about him other than his style is off the shape.

Yeah.

Solid Snake got a record deal, and here he is.

Instead of going to Shadow Moses Island, he went to Miami and picked up a drug habit, and I was a music producer. So are we there yet?

Yeah. So the first episode scared me a lot because they were trying to do a lot of things. Just so many different types of anime seemed to be trying to get squeezed into this one of, okay, we got an Isakai thing of main character fish out of water, getting used to a new world, but also bringing in their own expertise from an old world or from whatever their previous thing was. We got music stuff happening. We got inspirational. You inspire me and we're going to bring peace to the world. And all of that was a lot. But once we got into the actual episodic flow of two and three of like, okay, we are just genuinely going to take ancient Chinese military strategies and apply it to the hot world of competitive music scene art war.

Yes.

I was like, okay, this is fun. We're having a good time here. So once they settle down and we're like, okay, we can drop, like, half of these threads, it started getting into a rhythm of my life. And I was like, okay, cool. I'm on board with this. So, yes, I did have a good time.

I think in episode one before he, like, said, I'm going to be like your manager, I thought it was going to be like he just goes around Tokyo, like motivating people.

Like, different people in each episode.

A motivational coach, which also might be.

Fun and they should consider it, but yeah, I like it. There's like semi Carol and Tuesday vibes. I was thinking that the music industry parts of it. I don't know why I really like ako's style and how she's not dressed as, like I don't know. Obviously she wouldn't be dressed as an idol because that's not her type. But she just wears a jacket and shorts and a hat.

Yeah, she's just like a trucker hat and a big puffy coat. That's her signature look.

I love that. That's great. Yeah, it was fun. It, like, has the ridiculousness of him being a Chinese war tactician for some reason. I can also see how I could if this formula remains the same, I could also see how I might get bored with this. But it's fun.

Yeah.

Once he said, yeah, do you know my 37 strategy? I was like, cool, we're going to have 40 episodes and one per episode.

Yeah, it's definitely overwhelming in the first episode, but also it's a wild premise, so they kind of have to get some of that out of the way of like, we can only rush it so much before we get to the actual meat of the show. But yeah, the basic premise of famous ancient Chinese war tactician becomes an etm music producer. And he kind of does become a motivational coach for other people. There's other side characters he helps out with and stuff besides eco. So he does kind of do that. And I enjoy it because yeah, they don't get bogged down in the weeds with it. How does kung Ming know Japanese? Doesn't matter. Where does he live? Doesn't matter. How does he pay the bill? Does not matter. We're showing you what matters, and it's all that matters. There's no needless weight with stuff, so that's very nice because it could get very messy very quickly. And something I enjoy. Like I said, I think it's going to be like 13 episodes. It feels like the season is wrapping up and they're on eleven now. From what I've seen, they don't try any weird, uncomfortable romance between Kong mang and eko, which I really appreciate.

So sick.

It just doesn't couple of cool guys supporting their little girl who is a friend pseudo dads, but not really kind.

Of, yeah, I really enjoyed your son's dads. Yeah, it's really refreshing. And also she's an adult. It's not a high school.

It's just refreshing delicious for her.

We've said it before the bars in hell.

If there's any character, that's the main character of a show who is in high school and we're like, oh my.

God, yes, over 20. We love you, you're great. And even with some of the stuff we've seen, like with music industry stuff and idle not idle. Well, we've seen it with idle, but she's not idle. But like the fan he used to make and edit a video with, you see him in episode two and a bit in episode three. He's in the crowd and you see him in the opening as well. So he kind of is reoccurring as just a big eco fan. And I was worried the whole time. I'm like, oh no, he's the stalker. But he's not. At least from anything I've seen, it seems like he's just a big fan of hers and that's it. He doesn't even have dialogue. He doesn't even speak. So he just helps out where they need tech stuff. So I'm like, oh, that's refreshing. There's not that waiting for the traumatic dark other shoe twist drop. Like episode five, I kind of let my shoulders down and it was like relieved of like, oh, this might just be a fun show. There's no weird trauma. It's just fun watching the last two episodes.

The last two, everything you were so glad didn't happen is going to happen.

They're going to get you.

The big clown monster is going to bite kung Ming in half again. Like madoka mask all over again. But yeah, it's fun. And then you see there's kind of a rivalry with an actual idol group that happens later in the show. So you see kind of the really kind of like soulless, material driven, like, we're here to make money and it happens to be music kind of group. So you see the conflict with that. And honestly, I've told people when it started, there's nothing in the show that will blow your mind is not going to change the way you see the world. It's just a solid, entertaining show. It's just fun. It's just a nice time.

Yeah.

And I don't want to tease it too much. I don't want to hype it up just in case it doesn't happen. But like the last few episodes, kind of gay. Kind of gay.

What?

I could see the argument for it not canon, but I could see the case, so there's that too. If that'll put a carrot on a stick for you to get to that.

Episode, the show's got it all.

I'm a great tactician. I know a trap laid out.

Like I said, you're right. The last two episodes might do a weird twist. I don't know, but so far well.

I wonder if there's a place we haven't brought it up yet. That if you like a show and would like us to watch it.

If only a place like that existed.

Yeah, I mean, I guess until this place exists. You can send it to our email arweevaria@gmail.com while we're talking with Facebook. I'm sorry, meta to get that set up, but yeah, you can find us on Twitter and Instagram. Are we there yet? On both.

You can find me on Instagram and TikTok at honey. Period d or on Twitter at honey d eight and honey d art and honey is spelled H-U-N-N-I-E. You found me.

Online, but I don't recommend it. Instead, check out a really cool graphic novel that came out recently called the girl in the glim by India Swift. It is very good and I highly recommend it.

Thank you to camille ruley for our artwork, and thank you to Louis zong for them song stories. You can find all of louis's music at louisong dot bandcamp.com. Thank you and we hope you'll join us next week as we learn to live with anime.

It's your boy, Kong Ming bing mo ming music you.