Tuesday, July 31, 2018

'Toon Reviews 19: OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 8: I Am Dendy


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I Am Dendy

A character getting a best friend has potential to add endearment and bring about a new interesting dynamic.  This cartoon introduces us to a potential best friend for K.O., and a whole cartoon spent on them hanging out already feels great and interesting. 
Her name is Dendy, and while K.O. hasn’t known her prior to this cartoon, she falls into a surprisingly relatable category.  She’s not very social and mostly focuses on researching others behind their backs.  Even if not many kids know her personally, she’s still present and it’s always possible to learn about her if they get to know her.  That’s what happens with K.O. when Dendy plays to his desire to help people by asking him to help repair her special backpack she uses to put code on devices called a hackpack. 
Their search for the required parts takes them all around Lakewood Plaza Turbo.  In the process, K.O. and Dendy take part in various activities that strengthen their bond, from getting haircuts from Mr. Logic that give them brief stylized anime appearances, to going to the arcade, to simply playing tag in an ally where all the remains of robots are tossed.  There’s a range of feels from K.O. and Dendy’s time together.  K.O.’s innocence, friendliness, and sense of fun is expected, and Dendy has a lot of likability too.  Her technological knowhow has her point out where all the parts she needs are, and even when she ends up breaking things, she fixes them easily.  Also, while she speaks in a monotone, intellectual tone, Dendy comes off as very charming as it slowly becomes clear that she enjoys K.O.’s company, especially as they play tag.  That’s a nice thing to see from an intellectual who could easily just explain scientific information and nothing more. 
Then when K.O. and Dendy finally get to the alley to retrieve a glowing power orb called a glorb, the final component to fix Dendy’s hackpack, her true feelings for K.O. as a friend are put to the test when he’s eaten by a robot fish.  While K.O. goes about with fruitless attempts to punch his way out, Dendy sits on the sidelines adding to an extensive research file on K.O. showing how interested she is in one common kid who up until now she’s only watched but never gotten to know.  It does get concerning that K.O. remains trapped in the fish when it gets dark, and not only does Dendy become too engrossed in her research to help, but K.O.’s other known allies, including his loving mom, don’t come looking for him.  While the latter characters have little excuse, Dendy’s fixation on research is made better when she’s snapped back into her bonding with K.O. who mentions his Pow card collection while discussing his will. 
Akin to most budding friendships, this turns out to be a common interest that officially brings Dendy and K.O. together as friends.  As a result of their shared interest, Dendy reveals that her hackpack was never broken and uses it to rescue K.O.  This means that for all her interest in research, coding, and being technical, Dendy is fully established as a cute relatable kid just looking for a friend, and her adding her name to K.O.’s list of allies at the end brings great satisfaction that she found one. 
This cartoon is just a fun-loving boy, and a lonely intellectual girl hanging out together as they grow closer, but that’s all it needs to be great.
A


The Ranking
  1. I Am Dendy
  2. Let’s Be Heroes
  3. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
  4. Jethro’s All Yours
  5. Let’s Be Friends
  6. We Messed Up
  7. Sibling Rivalry
  8. You’re Level 100
The next OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes review is about Rad striving to prove that he knows everything about everything when the bodega employees are assigned to get something from a labyrinth of a storage room.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews from Star vs. the Forces of Evil is a review of "Starstruck" and "Camping Trip."
If you would like to check out other OK K.O.! reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

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