Greetings Ladies and Gents! The Shaman of Animation back once again with a new review! The last decade plus, there have been multiple attempts at modernizing The Man of Tomorrow, Superman. Ramping up the Christ allegories in a more cynical post 9/11 world. Giving him children and focusing on the Midwestern values he himself was raised on. Making him a dictator and showing how absolute power corrupts absolutely. But on July 6th 2023, a show would premiere and dare to ask a question no piece of Superman media before it dared to ask: What if Superman was anime as fuck?
This premiere focuses on Clark Kent and Jimmy Olsen as they start their jobs as interns at The Daily Planet. There they meet senior intern Lois Lane and, behind the back of their boss Perry White, begin looking into stolen robots and other weaponry from a Metropolis Army base. As they uncover the mysteries behind it, they come into the crosshairs of the villain Livewire. These events lead to Clark donning his Superman costume for the first time and revealing himself to the world.
One of the biggest things I feel hurts Superman in all forms of media, is the fact that most creatives put in charge of him see him less as Superman the character and more Superman the Icon, the forefather of the superhero as we know it. So much emphasis is placed on how important he is and what he means to the world and so many times it comes at the cost of the character himself. Not enough time is spent in his head or showing his insecurities and that's how folks come to the idea that Superman is boring.
Well I'm happy to report that's not the case with the Clark Kent/Superman we get in the first two episodes of the show. The premiere gives us a nice little throughline as we see Clark start out as a boy questioning his powers and is afraid of his alien heritage to a man who wants to know more about where he came from. Aside from that, the Clark we're introduced to in this show is shown to be vulnerable in a way that I feel a lot of adaptations don't show. Unlike most iterations that have the dual identity on lock by the time he's in Metropolis, this version of Clark still has slip ups with his powers. He's genuinely awkward, and trying but ultimately failing to be normal. On top of that, his interactions with Lois and Jimmy allow him to be a little more multifaceted. All in all, Clark is just a good dude in these two episodes and aside from Tyler Hoechlin's debut in Supergirl, this is the most enamored I've been with a new take on The Man of Steel.
But Supes is just one part of the equation of this cast. Our boy is flanked with the two other leads of the show: Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen. I love Lois's energy in this premiere. She's driven to be a serious reporter and she's very determined to uncover truths and get her story, even if that means upsetting folks. Upon my rewatch of the premiere, there were two things I noticed with her in this show. They aren't really problems just more observations. The first is that Lois isn't as snappy as she's usually portrayed as in other pieces of media. The Lois here is rather quick to realize she was wrong in an argument and quick to apologize for it. Not knocking it because this is a younger Lois and a slightly different take.
The other is just how quick it was that she's into Clark. It's not so much an issue because the way it's handled in the show is so darned cute, but it did surprise me as someone more used to Lois and Clark being the slowest of slow burns with them starting as work colleagues then friends then Lois realizing she likes him.
And of course, there's Jimmy Olsen, who may just be the best interpretation of Jimmy in anything ever outside of comics, mostly because he's allowed to be more than just the funny photographer kid or love interest. Him being an alien conspiracy theorist is a fun take to go with him and he bounces of Lois and Clark well, serving as the wingman for both of them. I just hope they don't push it too far with him in terms of the Clark and Lois romance. The premiere did that thing shows do where right before two characters kiss, someone comes in and ruins the moment. And I'll be honest, bro's only got two more times to do that before he ends up like DCEU Jimmy Olsen.
Since I'm talking about characters, I will say I'm a little disappointed on the villain side of things. The show has a radically different take on Livewire which works fine for the premiere, but for a show that references an old Jack Kirby creation and Electric Blue Superman of all things, I am disappointed it decided to set up Deathstroke and Task Force X as villains for Superman to fight later on in its premiere. Clearly the people working on this show have done their homework. Go a little weird anda little more obscure with your villains. For example, what if, instead of Amanda Waller near the end of the premiere, the woman with Deathstroke is a completely reworked version of The Contessa? And that Deathstroke was a new version of Conduit?
I won't be overly harsh since synopsis of future episodes show we'll be dealing with more classic Superman villains, I am just a little deflated about the choice of villains for its premiere.
And last but certainly not least, I can't go this entire review without talking about how incredible it looks so far. I can't remember where I saw it, but someone aptly described it as "The end result of a bunch of Tumblr artists given a decent budget and were told to go nuts," which isn't a bad thing at all. In fact, The show's animesque style helps give every character its own distinguishable look and helps it stand out from all the DC shows that have come before it. And the animation is nothing to sneeze at either. That first flying scene is fantastic. Not since Man of Steel have I seen anything Superman related capture the wonder of Clark flying for the first time.
But for as pretty and well animated as it is there is a slight problem, and it's another one I didn't notice until my rewatch: the fight scenes, while perfectly fine, feel like the same fights we've gotten in Superman media before, and that's a real shame given the Anime influence. The exaggerated expressions and Superman's magical girl sequence are all great, and the electric blue stuff is a very unique way to portray Supes's powers, but this is the same studio that worked on The Legend of Korra. Bring that energy, bring shonen anime energy to the show's fight scenes.
I want to see Superman going Super Saiyan electric blue while proclaiming his burning hand is telling him to grasp victory. I want to see some Gurren Lagann level nonsense where Superman and a big bad are chucking galaxies at each other while screaming about their philosophies. It's more than just art and expressions My Adventures with Superman! You want to be a big anime influenced cartoon...
But that's all from me folks, if you enjoyed what you read here check out the other posts I have here. Also check out The Outer Rejects: Both the gaming channel and the review channel, where I annually review stuff. I have an Across The Spiderverse review that's written and recorded, I just need to edit the damn thing...
Til next time folks, I'm The Shaman of Animation.
Take Care...
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