Marvel's Iron Fist Review

One thing I learned when trying to watch a Netflix show on the first day: If it's a hit, you'd have a hard time trying to watch it even with a very fast internet connection because of the traffic. That was the experience I had with Marvel's Iron Fist, the fourth series of Marvel's lineup on Netflix that will lead up to the much anticipated "The Defenders" series, alongside Daredevil, Luke Cage, and Jessica Jones. I couldn't watch the show on the first day, so I had  to wait it out until the traffic loosens up. I finally got to it about several days later.

Now to be fair, my knowledge of Iron Fist is quite spotty as I never got to read him in the comics. So for the most part, my exposure to Iron Fist was from other media, be it games, animated shows, etc. That being said, I am familiar with Danny Rand's origins and how he became the Iron Fist.

Surprisingly, the entire plot of Marvel's Iron Fist on Netflix is pretty much layed out in the very first episode. Danny Rand, played by Finn Jones, is a rich kid who was supposedly killed in a plane crash along with his parents more than decade ago. He arrives in New York to seek out the only remaining family he has left, the Meachums. The Meachum siblings, played by Tom Pelphrey and Jessica Stroup, aren't keen on seeing someone who is supposedly their childhood friend and thinks he is there for a hostile takeover of Rand Enterprises.  So not only Danny must prove that he is who he is, but also uncover the conspiracy behind his father's company.

As the Iron Fist, Danny Rand is the guardian of K'un-L'un, a mystical place that appears every number of years. Danny was supposed to guard the entrance for the rest of his life from intruders, but left for New York to seek out remnants of his old life. He also has a secondary role of being the sworn enemy of The Hand, which Marvel fans know were the enemies Daredevil encountered not too long ago. The Hand plays a role here as the major antagonist of the show.

Some point out that the overall plot of Iron Fist is very much similar to the Arrow TV series. I am not surprised as there are indeed parallels between the the two shows. Both Danny Rand and Oliver Queen are rich guys who became vigilantes. They deal with an organizations of skilled assassins, etc. I don't see anything wrong with it, and the way Iron Fist is executed differs from what is seen in Arrow.

Rotten Tomatoes gave the show a rating of 18% (as of this review). If you read the reviews from these media outlets, they provide one jarring narrative - Finn Jones sucks as Danny Rand, in part because of cultural appropriation. Or to put more bluntly, because Danny Rand is white. This is despite the fact that this is exactly who Danny Rand is in the comics. But I will tackle that subject later.

Despite all the hate critics give to Iron Fist, it is a huge hit for Netflix. According to Inverse.com, the data, gathered via Parrot Analytics, reveals Iron Fist being the 2nd most viewed show when it made its debut, just behind Luke Cage. You could say Iron Fist is a lot like the Transformers movies. Critics hate it, but people flock to see it anyway and being huge hits at the box office.

There are certain parts critics gave to Iron Fist of which I do tend to agree on. The series was great and it keeps me engaged and wanting to catch the next episode. However, some parts of the writing just seems 'off'.

One example is in the 2nd episode, where Danny revealed that one way of summoning the Iron Fist is if he's taken enough of a beating that would build up the energy or Chi needed to summon it. This was used only in the 2nd episode, but for the rest of episodes, this was thrown out as Danny gets beaten up.

Another is in the final episode, where Danny takes on his parent's killer, Harold Meachum, played by David Wenham. There's a scene in the rooftop where Danny enters via the door, while Harold was already pointing the gun at him, but didn't fire for several seconds until Danny started running and found a hiding spot! And THEN he starts the firing the gun!

There are also several instances where the supporting cast switch allegiances more often than not. Heels become faces, then heels, then faces; while faces turn heels, then faces, then heels again. It's pretty much annoying, to be honest, because not only you don't get as to whose side these characters are, but in many ways, the change of allegiances makes no sense.

But the one thing I completely hated most of Iron Fist, is not its writing or the characters. It's the fight choreography. This is supposed to be a martial arts series, so I expected REALLY good fight scenes like the ones from Daredevil, or The Raid movies starring Iko Uwais. I'm just surprised at how incredibly bad it is.

In an interview with the British news magazine Metro, Finn Jones described the typical shooting scenario and I quote:

It was very intense to begin with. When I first moved over to New York, before I started actually filming, I had three weeks of very intense martial arts and weight training preparation. But then unfortunately once the show started, the filming schedule was just so tight – I was working 14 hours every day, six days a week, days into nights, nights into days – and actually my schedule didn’t allow me to continue the training as much as I really hoped.

So really on my days off, I only had Sunday and half a day on Saturday off, I’d be in the gym and trying to keep up with being flexible and learning martial arts. But really, I was learning the fight scenes 15 minutes before we actually shot them because the schedule was so tight. So 15 minutes before the stunt director would talk me through the choreography and I’d just jump straight into it. It really was a baptism of fire and I just learned on the job and I’ve been doing it for 12 months now. With practice you just get better and better with dealing with that kind of schedule.

 Basically, Iron Fist was a very rushed production, and Finn Jones isn't exactly a natural in martial arts. Even if he is, the extremely short timeframe to discuss and practice before the actual shooting is just bonkers, and it shows in the final product.

Critics say the series "Into The Badlands" is a much better martial arts show than Iron Fist. I agree on the fight scenes part, but Into The Badlands is trying too hard to be a martial arts-styled Game of Thrones with a Mad Max-theme that it stinks. But that's another story.

Despite the poor choreography, I do enjoy the scenes where Danny fights certain characters as though it was a boss fight. My most favorite is one where Danny fights Zhou Cheng, played by Lewis Tan. It was the only fight scene in the series that has done incredibly well.

The series has made several callbacks to Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage, so if you've seen them previously, you will notice them with much excitement. You also get the occassional dialogue humor that's been the staple of Marvel as of late, which are all funny and good.

Now to discuss the controversy surrounding its casting of Finn Jones as Danny Rand. I simply do not see a problem as to why Danny Rand can't be played by a white actor, since Danny is indeed a white character in the comics. I've been reading all these comments from everyone and I fail to see their case of making Danny Rand anyone but what he's supposed to be from the comics.

Let me put it this way. If a white guy cannot be in a lead role in a martial arts film because of his skin color being "culturally inappropriate", does that mean Chuck Norris can't be in a martial arts film, even though he is CHUCK NORRIS? The idea that someone who is of Asian descent should be the one playing the lead role in a Martial Arts show or film is just pure rubbish!

Take a look back at a number of martial arts films that star non-Asian characters in lead roles. Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Cynthia Rothrock, Jason Statam, Uma Thurman. The list goes on. Did anyone complain about whitewashing? Anyone?

Others say Iron Fist isn't as well known as Captain America or Spider-Man, therefore it should not be an issue to have Danny Rand's ethnicity changed. You coulld say the same for the Guardians of The Galaxy. NOBODY knows who they are until the film came out. Did anyone call for Star-Lord to have his ethnicity changed? Of course, not!

The same case can be said for Tony Stark as Iron Man. He wasn't as popular back then until the movie came out. Nobody had any problem with his ethnicity!

To be fair, I am Asian. I was born and raised in Southeast Asia. I am aware of the lack of Asian lead actors in American shows and film, and I do support the campaign for more Asian lead actors in Hollywood. But Iron Fist is not one of them. I agree with Roy Thomas, the co-creater of Iron Fist, who said that if you want a "culturally appropriate" character, just go and make one rather than replace an existing one with it.

Look at Miles Morales for example. He is not a replacement for Peter Parker. Rather, he became a version of Spider-Man is not the de-facto replacement of the original.

To wrap this up. The so-called 'whitewashing' of Danny Rand is incredibly stupid. The choreography sucks. And parts of the writing are just off. On the other hand, the show is nevertheless engaging and keep you wanting to see the next one, you get to see lots of funny moments, and you see how this ties together to Dardevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage. Despite all its flaws, Iron Fist isn't as bad as others paint it to be. I enjoyed it nonetheless and I am looking forward to upcoming The Defenders series. On a scale of 1 to 5, I give Marvel's "Iron Fist" a 3 out of 5.

Happy 25th Birthday, Yusuke!

Studio Pierrot (Naruto, Legend of Korra) has announced a special event on April 7th to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Yu Yu Hakusho. 

Created by Yoshihiro Togashi (Hunter x Hunter), the series is about the delinquent teenager Yusuke Urameshi, who after sacrificing his life to save a child from a vehicle accident, is brought back to life with special powers to serve as a detective investigating supernatural activity in the human world. Yu Yu Hakusho was among the many anime shows alongside Dragon Ball Z that became part of the anime boom in the 1990's. The series has been released in the US and other countries, sometimes under the title "The Poltergeist Report".

Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 2 Review

Call me a late bloomer, but it's only recently that I finally got to watch the 2nd Season of Voltron: Legendary Defender on Netflix. Part of the reason why I put it off for this long is because I got so much stuff to do, I don't have any time to get to watch anything lately, save a few. Furthermore, when it finally came out several weeks ago, I was simply not into it.

Let me put it this way. Voltron: Legendary Defender is one of the two animated series I was paying attention that is of the mecha genre. The other being, of course, Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans. When the latter announced its second season, and there wasn't any trailers or anything other than some designs of the new cast, I was still hyped and my interest never waivered. The same cannot be said in Voltron's case.

If I'm to give a reason why I'm not as hyped now with Voltron as opposed to Iron Blooded Orphans, it's because I have a very powerful assumption that Voltron will not be as good as Iron Blooded Orphans in terms of its narrative. What I mean is Voltron will not contain any of the grand reveal, shock, awe, and the kind of attachment and feel the way Iron Blooded Orphans has, especially given what the latter is doing so far as it nears its conclusion.

If I'm to take Iron Blooded Orphans out of the equation and compare Voltron to something else that's made in America, it would be Regular Show. I don't have to tell you how incredibly epic the finale for Regular Show was. There is just no way Voltron could ever top that. Furthermore, I was already well aware that Voltron: Legendary Defender will have a 3rd Season. So the grand spectacle won't come until that time. Ergo, I really can't expect anything on the 2nd season of Voltron unless by some miracle they surprised me - which they don't.

When the trailer for the 2nd season was released at at the San Diego Comic-con, I recall there weren't that many cheers for it, mainly because the trailer didn't really reveal anything. Sure, they teased that Keith would eventually be the new leader, but other than that, not much else. If there was nothing in the trailer that hooks me in, why would I be hyped for it?

So after being struck by the power of boredom, I decided to finally give Voltron: Legendary Defender, a shot. In a span of the past couple of days, I decided to watch the 13 episodes.

The first episode, I will admit, I felt really awkward, as it features Shiro and Keith working together. This is mainly due to a lot of fan-shipping between the two characters, dubbed "Sheith". It was so commonplace that even the Voltron staff are aware of it, so it's a wonder if the show is going to go through with it and make "Sheith" happen. It never happened, and the closest thing you could ever get is a bro-mance.

Another reason is that, as featured in the trailer, the 2nd Season is grooming Keith to become the leader of the Voltron team. A number of episodes do focus on developing Keith's character for that eventual role. Like I said before in my past videos on the subject, this path goes back to the status quo as in the original Voltron: Defender of The Universe cartoon, and the GoLion anime. So I am ok with this happening. That just leaves the question on how they make Shiro step down as leader of Voltron.

Now, I would've preferred Shiro getting killed off. Shocking yes, but it will push the boundaries both in the narrative, and in the show itself, as it also will go in tune with what happened in GoLion. But knowing that a) Production of Season 2 (if not the series altogether) was finished months ago, b) Despite being a Netflix series, it still follows the standard formula of an Ameican cartoon aimed at a younger audience, and c) Regular Show BROKE that formula with their series finale - I do NOT expect Shiro to be killed off at all in this one.

Aside from Keith's eventual progression to be the new team leader, the 2nd season of Voltron: Legendary Defender also gives us more insight into the history of the Galra Empire. Another which progressed for several episodes is Allura's distinct hatred for the Galra race as a whole. Many of the comments I've seen on the subject tend to project that Allura's attitude towards the Galra makes her a racist.

Granted, the Galra were responsible for nearly wiping out the Alteans, leaving Allura and Coran as the last of their kind. So it is understandable Allura hates the Galra. That being said, Allura's arc can be seen as a relative view of the current political and social climate of the Western world, and not just the United States. As Voltron is aimed at a younger audience, Allura's hatred of the Galra, and later her rude awakening on the subject, is played in the simplest manner possible.

Near the season finale, Coran commented that Allura was a great leader among the group, but that statement was totally false, since she really never did anything in these two seasons that show her effectiveness in leadership skills. For the most part, that goes to Shiro. And slowly, but steadily, Keith.

There is one thing I really didn't like in this season, and that is Zarkon's motivation for turning heel - he is simply obsessed with the Black Lion like it was some sort of drug, and that led him to start conquering the universe just to have the Black Lion in his possession.  I would get this if the Black Lion somehow had incredible power that would make Beerus of Dragon Ball Super wet his pants. Unfortunately, nothing in the 2nd Season shows that is the case. Perhaps in the 3rd season, we will learn more of what the Black Lion has that made Zarkon chase it across the universe. But again, as this is a show for younger audiences, I don't expect much.

As this is just the 2nd Act of a 3-Act play, Everything that is going on here is just one big set up for the next season. Here, the Voltron team and their allies are setting up for that one grand battle with Zarkon and the Galra, as though it is their final battle, which I already know it is not. It's just like Pro-Wrestling where if you know the champion is gonna hold the belt for a full year, then every Pay Per View event the champion's in, you already know the outcome of the match. If the matches before the champion drops the belt are 5-star matches, then it's worth it. But that's not going to happen in every PPV. In the case of Voltron: Ledendary Defender, despite the powerups, the visuals, the drama, and the set up, it failed to get me excited at all. What became of Shiro by the end of the season was disappointing, but expected.

The show does have some good bits. For one, you get to see Voltron more often than last time, as there are more giant Ro-Beasts to fight. As though taken directly from Digimon, three of the five Voltron pilots would have a strong character development that would result in their respective lions getting new weapons. You still get the occasional human adventures, and even though the main focus of this arc is with Keith, there are still a number of episodes to develop the rest of the cast. My favorite episode of Season 2 was in Episode 7, where Lance, Pidge, Hunk, and Coran have an adventure at a mall, which was under the watch of a Galran security guard. This was obviously a parody of the Paul Blart: Mall Cop movies starring Kevin James and the episode was funny and very entertaining.

As a lead-up to the 3rd season, this 2nd season of Voltron: Legendary Defender, in spite of a few good moments, is all just one big tease overall. I'll be honest, had I watched this series first before Iron Blooded Orphans or Regular Show finale, then I probably would've enjoyed it. But as it stands, I find the 2nd Season disappointing compared to the first one. It's not a total loss, as you do get more lore out of it and some others. Hopefully the 3rd season will blow me away, because I do want this show to succeed as the other mecha show Americans get into besides Transformers. On a scale of 1 to 5, I give Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 2, a 2 out of 5.

Samurai Jack 5th Season First Impressions

So this weekend on Adult Swim in the US, we get to see the premiere episode of the much anticipated 5th Season of Samurai Jack. It was the latest entry in the series after it aired its last episode back in 2004. So it's been quite a long 13 years.

While the 5th season of Samurai Jack is intended for those who have seen the original series, those who never saw the show prior to the 5th Season will have no trouble fitting in, as the opening does provide a premise as to what the series is about.

The premise goes like this: Back in Ancient Japan, a demon named Aku was wrecking havoc until he met a Samurai wielding a magic sword. Aku is overwhelmed by the Samurai, but before the latter could land the final blow, Aku sends him to the future, where the demon is now the ruler of the world. The Samurai, given the name "Jack", must seek out a way to return to the past and change history.

I have to give note that knowing the premise of the show in the opening is something that allows newer viewers to get into the show without having to watch previous episodes. This practice is shown throughout the first four seasons of Samurai Jack, and also from the original Powerpuff Girls series. So it's both surprising and a shame that in the recent Powerpuff Girls reboot, this practice is no longer applied and instead the show assumes the viewer knows who the Powerpuff Girls are, even if they never saw the original.

Aside from learning of the series's premise, as told via Jack's own monologue, we also had a bit of the show's lore going on. Turns out it has been 50 years since Jack is trapped in the future, though he has not aged at all. And despite wearing battle armor with lots of weapons and a badass motorbike, Jack grows weary of not being able to return to the past as Aku's dark reign continues.

As if that wasn't enough, Jack lost the Magic Sword, the only weapon needed to defeat Aku. To add that further, the High Priestess of a sect worshipping Aku gave birth to an all-female septuplets. Known as the "Daughters of Aku", they are raised and trained to become top assassins with only one goal - to find and kill Samurai Jack.

Unlike the previous seasons where it's mostly episodic, the 5th season will be very much story driven, as creator Genndy Tartakovsky intends to bring the series's narrative to a proper conclusion. As the 5th season is airing on Adult Swim as opposed to Cartoon Network, the show is given more leeway to take on a more serious tone. This meant the fight scenes being more brutal and quite violent. Even if Jack is fighting robots, the amount of destruction he brings to them is done in such a manner that the show pretends they are flesh and blood.

Thankfully, even with the more graphic depictions of the robots' destruction, and by extension some real life blood spilled, it's not a total gorefest. For the most part, these macabre like depictions blend well with the aesthetics of the show. So I give kudos to Tartakovsky for not making the series a totally Mature-rated show. Nevertheless, the content in this season of Samurai Jack is something that could raise eyebrows if it aired on Cartoon Network instead of Adult Swim.

The 5th Season premiere introduces us to Jack's first villain Scaramouch, one of Aku's assassins, and voiced by Tom Kenny. I'll admit I didn't notice Kenny's voice because he sounds so different here than what we're used to in his previous roles. Scaramouch's design reminds me of the assassin Udo Jin-e from the Rurouni Kenshin anime series. Scaramouch is the first villain Jack faces without his Magic Sword, and although the battle is resolved, Scaramouch was an interesting villain, both by his character and how he fights.

The animation and character design remains true to the original. That being said, one can tell the vast improvements that results in the visuals standing out and being quite stunning, compared to the rest of American animation seen today from other shows.

I will say the 13 year long wait for a new Samurai Jack is pretty much well worth it, as the first episode of the new season is quite amazing from both the animation and the narrative standpoint. Whether you're a fan of the series, or this is your first time, you definitely won't be disappointed. Samurai Jack is airing right now on Adult Swim in the US.

Teaser images for Toei's "Mazinger Z" movie

Club Dynamic, a fan club of the works of Go Nagai, has shown on their Facebook Page the following teaser images of the upcoming Mazinger Z movie by Toei. I cannot personaly confirm these, but if they are indeed true, it's impressive.

About Mazinger Z - Created by Go Nagai and originally published in Weekly Shonen Jump in October of 1972, Mazinger Z is about a teenager named Koji Kabuto, whom after learning his grandfather is killed by a mad scientist who wants to rule the world, must pilot his grandfather's invention - a giant robot designed to combat the mad scientists army of mechanical beasts. The manga would later be adapted into an anime series in December of the same year, which sparked the Golden Age of Mecha Anime.

About Toei - Toei is one of the oldest and largest animation studios in Japan. Founded in 1948, many consider Toei as the Japanese counterpart to Disney. Toei is responsible for many of the most popular anime that aired over the last 60 years, among them Dragon Ball, One Piece, Digimon, Sailor Moon, Precure, and many others.