The Soft Genius of Kongming

I admit with these Saturday posts that I am attempting to do something that is creative. Especially since I have a formulaic sort of posting structure with a large seasonal posts on Monday and review kinds of things on Wednesday and Friday. Some mystery with what they could be, but still has some predictable nature to those things too. So what would I do on Saturdays? Whatever I want. Why not? No one is going to stop me, so I might as well try to do something unique.

So this is a post about Kongming. You can expect a review like post after Shonen Jump Movie Month at some point. But this is a post about one specific thing that I enjoy about Kongming right now. It is something that I have a lot of trouble with on other shows that try to pull off some sort of master mind to them. Things like Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Death Note, Code Geass, and you can probably think of so many characters that fulfill that role as the smart person. Kongming does it differently though.

The Absurdity and Adaptation of Kongming

Absurdity is a pretty common thing in anime. Whether it is the master mind sort of anime or not. Death Note has the absurdity of the titular Death Note and a demon structure around the show. Code Geass has almost everything. The thing about Kongming is that it just casually accepts the absurdity and just keeps going. Zhuge Liang is here and that is all that matters. The great tactician from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms just appearing and there doesn’t have to be an explanation for it. I love it. Please anime keep doing this so strange things can happen.

So that is why does that play into the genius of Kongming? Because we role with him being there just like he does. Slowly he starts to understand the modern era. Much thanks to a certain bar manager who is absolutely obsessed with the Three Kingdoms. While there are master minds who are put into that situation before like Shiroe in Log Horizon, but him being there is the only beginning portion of the story (though his appearance does confuse people through out Ya Boy Kongming), because he easily fits in to the background of the show as people enjoy him.

A True, Caring Genius

One makes me see Kongming as the genius that he is are the facts that he wants everyone to win. Of course, Eiko is the one that Kongming wants to win first, but Kongming is a master of reading the human psyche. It is a reason why he was successful in his campaigns. Knowing your enemy is an important part of winning battles because you know how your enemy is going to react. That plays into Ya Boy Kongming so much because Kongming is the kind of person who can see and analyze people very quickly.

I keep thinking about all the master minds who don’t treat the people working under them as anything under then pawns to be used, but Kongming is a character that wants to help everyone and make sure they are in a good place. He knows that everyone wants to succeed at something in their music career. Eiko obviously wins first, but her artist opponents and friends also gain something to put them in a better place. How else would Kongming have done this without him going out to study all the artist that Eiko will faced on her journey? Everyone wins and Kongming was always there to help them. I love Kongming as a character so much. One of the true geniuses of anime right next to Legend of the Galactic Heroes who are similar yet different.

Conclusion

I loved watching Ya Boy Kongming. For a lot of reasons really. the biggest one for me is Kongming himself. He really is just the show itself. He could have been a complete asshole and that would have made the series pointless. This show needed a soft genius from another time to lead people to their potential and/or to be their best. Kongming was that person and that is what is so good about it. The show is enthusiastic and positive because Kongming is enthusiastic and positive. The show is smart and sensitive because Kongming was smart and sensitive. Isn’t that enough?