OK Dendy! Let's Be K.O. (OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 46) - 'Toon Reviews 19

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OK Dendy! Let’s Be K.O.

In most cartoons, K.O.’s best friend Dendy has starred alongside him or popped up randomly to advance the plot, but now she’s the star of one.  Through doing a simple task, she makes it stand out with her likable quirks and charm as a technical analytical genius. 

When K.O. realizes he’s scheduled to visit his grandma and can’t work, Dendy fills in for him.  Her interesting approach to what’s basically doing K.O.’s bodega work are shown through an analytical checklist of everything he does.  True, it brings some stalker implications, but given what’s known about Dendy, this reveal seems fitting. 

It’s also amusing to how strictly Dendy follows her data on K.O.’s routine.   There’s something funny about characters of certain personalities trying to perform traits they’re not accustomed to but can never fully step out of what suits them.  Dendy’s feeble attempts to mimic K.O.’s enthusiasm filtered by her intellectual tone have a charm that’s all hers.  It brings cuteness not often expected from a genius character.  Keeping what Dendy’s trying to do interesting, she breaks from the charade when it gets too uncomfortable or hard.  Instances include keeping her shoes on even though K.O. doesn’t wear them, and awesomely working her technical skills while cleaning the store. 

She may be posing as K.O., but you can’t deny it’s really Dendy.  This is especially true when she calls out an evil robot attack before anyone else.  The attack gives light to a robot frequently seen in the background at Boxmore, but has never been fully explored, named Ernesto. 

Since much of what he’s been seen doing was business work, the fight at first ties into that. Ernesto gets so tied up with reading flashcards of his entrance speech, Rad and Enid take him on without trouble.  It’s during this robot battle where we get a humorous jab at the need for family shows to have life lessons.  Dendy, still striving to be K.O. as much as possible, happens to list learning a life lesson after the section on the evil robot attack.  She responds by openly stating a lesson about the importance of being oneself.  This move plays with the life lesson convention through showing why they’re always saved for the end.  Ernesto becomes a much more brutal fighter because of what Dendy said.  It shows that the convention of lessons coming at the end exists so that no antagonist can take advice to heart and the story can safely end which is what happens with Ernesto. 

Dendy bluntly stating the lesson plays on how characters learning things often feel like they’re going through motions of a formula and don’t mean anything.  This contrasts greatly with how she’s able to help defeat Ernesto.  Through analyzing the fight, she herself genuinely learns to be herself by becoming K.O. in her own way instead of acting exactly like him.  Since her true personality was constantly shown in her few attempts, it’s a fitting lesson for the story. It's topped off with a nice display of her primary technical skills as she mans a K.O. hologram to defeat Ernesto. 

Despite one line suggesting Dendy fill in for K.O. every day from his close co-workers, this scene is just the perfect turning point for Dendy’s role in the cartoon. It builds up to the truly crowing moment of winning a fight all by herself.  It shows how capable she is of starring in a cartoon of her own as she subverts expectations and plays to her own strengths, making the experience adorable in a scientific way. 

A

The Ranking

1. Face Your Fears
2. Let’s Take a Moment
3. Mystery Science Fair 201X
4. You Have to Care
5. T.K.O.
6. Back in Red Action
7. No More Pow Cards
8. Glory Days
9. Legends of Mr. Gar
10. We’ve Got Pests
11. I Am Dendy
12. Let’s Have a Stakeout
13. You Get Me
14. Let’s Be Heroes
15. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
16. We Got Hacked
17. K.O.’s Video Channel
18. Jethro’s All Yours
19. Know Your Mom
20. Everybody Likes Rad?
21. OK Dendy! Let’s Be K.O.
22. Villains Night In
23. Lad & Logic
24. A Hero’s Fate
25. Plaza Prom
26. We’re Captured
27. My Dad Can Beat up Your Dad
28. Let’s Be Friends
29. We Messed Up
30. Parents Day
31. Plazalympics
32. Presenting Joe Cuppa
33. Sibling Rivalry
34. RMS and Brandon’s First Episode
35. Second First Date
36. Stop Attacking the Plaza
37. Just Be a Pebble
38. The Power is Yours
39. Do You Have Any More in the Back?
40. Let’s Watch the Pilot
41. Villains Night Out
42. You’re Level 100
43. You Are Rad
44. We’ve Got Fleas
45. Rad Likes Robots
46. One Last Score

The next OK K.O. review features a collection of Plaza Shorts.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is Episode 43 of Animaniacs.

If you would like to check out other OK K.O.! reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.