You're in Control (OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 52) - 'Toon Reviews 19

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You’re in Control

It’s been a blast reviewing this show, and this season finale brings all its strengths together. The result is a spectacle of action, satisfying character growth, and unique interpretations of deep topics. 

The main plot follows K.O. taking logical steps to become a hero by working to control his alter ego T.K.O.  Most of his allies are against this due to the destruction T.K.O. has caused and don’t understand he’s working towards controlling him.  Only Dendy gets K.O.’s motives and has the best logistics of how he can maintain control.  Here, K.O. is at his most sympathetic. He has a good idea on how to move on, but doesn’t have much support. 

While this is going on, Lord Boxman’s super robot is finally constructed.  He gives all love towards the new robot, Boxman Jr built from Professor Venomous' special chip, all because his other robot children keep failing him. This shows how his children are only mere tools for petty felonies.  Darrell, is especially effected when he finds out, and opts to fight back. 

In the meantime, the super robot subplot and the T.K.O. subplot come together for nonstop action.  Unlike the other Boxmore robots who are easy defeats, Boxman Jr. is one destructive baby.  He’s a much more competent fighter and brings the perfect counter attacks.  The situation has K.O. suggest becoming T.K.O. resulting in comments on how K.O. can’t handle that power. 

It’s these doubts from the world around him that get K.O. mad which, as T.K.O.’s debut showed, unlocks his turbo state.  The unleashing of T.K.O. is creatively depicted.  Inside K.O.’s mind there’s a vision of him, representing his positive side, willingly turning to his negative side by letting T.K.O. out of his cage.  On the outside, his negativity turns K.O. into T.K.O. who only wants to fight.  Even when he punches Boxman Jr back to Boxmore, he won’t let up.  The ensuing fight through Boxmore is the biggest action scene by far. There's fast-paced movement along structures, it never sticks to one spot as T.K.O. and Boxman Jr fight through the floors, and banter from T.K.O. is fun to hear.  Still, the real K.O. from inside the mind is conscious enough to notice the damage T.K.O. is causing, especially towards Rad and Enid when they go after him. During their pursuit, Dendy appears and explains how to break through to K.O. when he’s T.K.O. by letting him know that he’s loved and appreciated.

However, it’s K.O. who gets things under control the most.  Instead of caging up T.K.O. again, he lets him roam free, fighting with his own punching bag while he uses his powers.  It’s an interesting visual metaphor for how positive and negative traits have their benefit.  What follows is great support of this when he sets out to use T.K.O.’s power to defeat Boxman Jr.  It makes for a brilliant sequence where he takes on the super robot all by himself backed by a grand display of his power fists.  There’s also a satisfying payoff where his Pow card finally advances to level one and everyone praises him for it.  After watching K.O. work so hard to become a hero, the praise and advancements he ends up with feel genuinely earned, and it’s hard not to feel proud.

As for Boxmore, there’s a twist where Darrell surprises everyone by getting his boss in trouble by telling his investors how Boxman Jr destroyed the factory.  Lord Boxman gets fired into the sun while Darrell becomes the new head of Boxmore as a cowboy.  It’s a random outcome, but it’s still appropriate consequences for Lord Boxman focusing on something insignificant and not being a good parent.  Plus, it offers something to look forward to in the next season. 

We’re left with a season finale that delivers on all the major forefronts developing the biggest plot points and ending with great satisfaction.  It makes this show stand as a uniquely and inspirational constructed marvel.

A+

Cartoon Ranking

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

Plaza Shorts Ranking

1. Life of Darrel
2. Action News
3. K.O.’s Inner Monologue
4. Where in the World is Mr. Gar?
5. Rad vs Enid

Final Thoughts

Going into OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes, part of me expected it to be just a fun little take on superhero shows and not stand out as much as the best animated series.  The more I watched it, the more I found myself getting attached to it and realized that it’s a lot of great things all at once.  It’s charming, funny, has a good use of emotion and endearment, and above all embraces its aesthetic as a cartoon.

The easiest thing to invest you in the series is the art style which perfectly captures a traditional cartoon’s status as moving drawings.  The characters and settings have a sketchy feel to the way they look and are simply drawn with basic shapes and exaggerated facial features.  It’s like a doodle someone might have done during childhood come to life.  This artistic direction makes the show feel right at home as an animated series, which is especially good since this one has many different characters.  The simple designs could be seen as lazy and unprofessional at first glance, but when seeing it in motion, the simplicity works to its advantage.  Because of how the characters are designed, they’re more inclined to give smooth exaggerations and expressions. They uniquely describe how the characters feel or what they’re doing at the moment and not just stay in one pose.  As a result, when a character feels excited, really mad, distressed, or even at a loss for words, it’s not just easy to buy into the emotions.  You're also somewhat entertained by how the way they feel is shown.  Action scenes are another key factor in the appeal of the look of the show.  Whether it’s from the employees of Gar’s Bodega, the Boxmore robots, or side characters getting their time to shine, their fight moves keep the action going at an exciting brisk pace. As a result, what’s on screen is fun to watch and great animated sequences in their own right.  The art style might not be the most extravagant in an animated series, but it’s a unique and wholesome look.  Above all, it shows the appeal of simple character sketches and matches the tone the show is going for greatly.

While the look of the show is great and appealing, it would mean nothing if the basic premise wasn’t strong and effective, and that’s what makes everything work.  Amidst the cartoonish antics, various characters, action scenes, and exaggerated expressions, this is a relatable series that can be inspirational to anyone watching.  Having an excitable kid character as the star brings a lot of endearment to what it’s mainly trying to say.  Within this first season, K.O. greatly shows this sense of relatability with his dreams of becoming a great hero.  However, because he’s so small and young and hasn’t even reached an actual numerical level on his Pow card, the odds are well against him.  Still, K.O.’s path to heroism this season is well put together as he goes through the motions of what it takes to reach his goal.  He starts off thinking he’ll automatically become one by looking the part, but learns that’s not the case the hard way.  Then for much of the series, he strives to work hard to become a hero by simply looking at a convenience store run by the highest leveled hero of all. Starting with doing menial work such as that is a believable beginning point for anyone wanting to make it big.  K.O. becomes well liked among Lakewood Plaza Turbo through his friendliness. In the process his insightful inner monologues show him the benefits in becoming a hero in every little thing he does in and out of the plaza. Even so, he’s still the least fight-capable of the main trio.  The fact that the show makes a point of this and acknowledges that K.O. feels powerless from a lack of genuine praise is a great touch to give the show an honest feel.  This is where his positive attitude is challenged when he’s moved to embrace his negative side in the form of T.K.O. He's a fearsome alter ego with stronger powers but no sense of compassion through only wanting to fight and not caring that he’s hurting people.  Even with the destruction T.K.O. causes, K.O. does ultimately see his benefits and sets out to get him under control while others continuously say he can’t.  By the end of the season, through a unique way of showing that all of one’s emotions matter to live a healthy life, K.O. surprises everyone.  He defeats the most powerful Boxmore robot all by himself and its beyond satisfying for him to level up and receive genuine praise from his friends.  K.O.’s role in this season is a charming and honest look at how achieving greatness is difficult. With the right attitude though, the results can be worth it if you really try which is one of the most inspirational messages to hear.  Coming from a lovable character with one of the most believable little kid portrayals certainly helps.

In addition to K.O., Season 1 of this show also sells its appeal through looking into other characters while also showing that they have much more to them than they may seem.  Two of the other characters who get the most development are those who work the closest with K.O., Rad and Enid.  On the surface, they appear to be very simplistic with Rad being full of himself, and Enid being emotionless around people and just wanting to be left alone.  However, it’s through their bond with K.O. that brings out their hidden layers.  Rad may act like a tough know-it-all, but he does have a softer side.  It includes more humble interests, an intellectual of what makes funny material, and genuine appreciation for how others compliment him. He's even willing to open up about the more embarrassing aspects of his home life.  Also his rude attitude is shown as more of a cover to his more caring side as shown during his first date.  It goes without saying that Enid has most characters beat when it comes to development.  Several cartoons give plenty of reasons why she acts apathetic to life. They include getting a lesson on how to deal with unreasonable customers, getting betrayed by her old best friend, having a bad first date with Rad, living with embarrassing and near-authoritative monster parents, and more.  At the same time, she’s also one of the more reasonable characters.  She knows when it’s necessary to intervene when things are too out of control, and being capable of being a genuine friend to anyone who respects her for who she is.  It’s traits like these that make Enid one of the most human characters in the cast.  Even the man in charge of the whole plaza, Mr. Gar, proves to be more than he seems.  His first appearances make him look like the hero to end all heroes. He's got the highest hero level, impressive powers, strong authority over his employees, and advice that shaped them into who they are now.  As the season goes on, Mr. Gar comes off as far more human too.  It’s first hinted with little scenes of being nervous around K.O.’s mom, Carol who turns out to be his greatest fear, and struggling to tell K.O. he’s proudof him.  Then there are cartoons that explore his past at P.O.I.N.T. which reveal that he was basically the opposite of tough and heroic and only pulled through because of Carol.  You can imagine how things for them really soured when his attempts to tell Carol his true feelings for her got one of the top heroes of P.O.I.N.T. destroyed. Its built up through frequent plays of a random flashback of a sandwich falling down during a storm in many prior cartoons.  It makes his nervousness more interesting and further shows that even those who seem perfect have their own drawbacks.  However, it’s these drawbacks that make the moments where he legitimately bonds with K.O. and ends up on good terms with Carol all the more great to see.

Generally, the whole world of the series is interesting and expansive with Lakewood Plaza Turbo feeling fresh and alive with looks into the characters who frequently show up there.  They may seem like background characters with their own quirks when they first appear, but there are cartoons devoted to them, offering different experiences in this world.  Granted, most side characters get about one cartoon in the spotlight, but those cartoons do their part in branching the creativity and developments beyond the main characters.  There’s the enjoyable hard-worker/slacker relationship between A Real Magic Skeleton and Brandon, the futuristic epics of former Hue Trooper Red Action, an interesting backstory of how Mr. Logic went from a Boxmore robot to a barber, the pressures and anxieties of heroes weaker than K.O. like Colewort and Potato, and more.  Out of all the supporting characters, the one who deserves the most attention is Dendy, K.O.’s best friend.  She’s a charming character who goes through life always thinking intellectually complete with a monotone and analytical voice, yet is still very endearing and fun.  She also has her own hidden depths through being capable of breaking from her studies to have fun with friends and even popping up to explain topics when people least expect.  Because she’s so enjoyable, it’s great that Dendy gains more importance as the season goes on.  It’s because of her K.O. gets the idea to control T.K.O., and by helping him do this, she becomes far more considerate of others and understands him in ways others can’t.

The characters having so much depth to them than one may expect plays into how the main antagonist of the series is handled.  Lord Boxman may just be one of the most one-dimensional bad guys out there for just wanting to destroy Lakewood Plaza Turbo all because he hates friendship.  This doesn’t matter though since he’s absolutely hilarious as a villain of this kind.  His design, exaggerated expressions, and voice work from the legendary Jim Cummings especially during his outbursts generate some of the show’s biggest laughs.  Humor aside, Lord Boxman’s one-dimensionality really works for how the world around him points out how irrational and petty his attacks on the plaza are.  They interfere with relevant factory work, his robot children are put in an abusive relationship where they unjustly have to earn his love, and it hurts his reputation among villains.  Even Lord Boxman himself sees his attacks on the plaza as an obsession instead of something he has to do, but can’t kick the habit anyway.  All the support of Lord Boxman being weak as a villain pays off in the finale when he gets consequences for focusing on irrational matters. It comes with a surprising twist where one of his robots realizes how much he devalues his children for messing up, and gets him fired and takes over the company.  Even more shocking is that the plan was initiated by the seemingly least intelligent, tough, and flamboyant robot, Darrell as a cowboy no less.  Overall, not only are the villains just as fun to watch as the various heroes we follow. They’re also a unique way of showing that to make memorable characters, they need depth to their actions and rely on more than one trait. Any one-dimensional villain gets just what they deserve.

That’s not to say that everything about this show is perfect through this first season.  A couple cartoons can come off as stupid in concept. They include a heist to steal a special candy leading to double-crosses that either don’t make sense or question characters’ established morality, Rad and Shannon falling in love going nowhere, a cartoon where the characters are actors and what they do is a show which is a tone not included anywhere else, etc.  There are also cartoons that turn everyone, including well-mannered and intelligent characters, dumb for the plot to work. They think K.O.’s level 100 despite not proving it, think K.O. is Rad just because he’s wearing Rad’s nametag, go crazy with visual metaphors for guns, etc.  Moments like these are examples of the cartoonish aesthetic going too far which can make people view the show as too dumb to devote time.  Fortunately, the first season brings out successful entertainment in the majority of its cartoons that are worth coming back to.  It shows that it needs to get a few things straight before it can live up to its potential greatness, but its large amount of strong cartoons work in its favor.

Some may say it’s just another action show.  Some may be forced to compare it to Steven Universe with its premise, character archetypes, and certain plot points given the show’s creator.  I say that from the first season, OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes is a series that really embraces its animated aesthetic with its art style and fast-paced humor.  Nevertheless, it manages to leave an emotional response from its theme and character depths.  It's both fun and endearing and I wouldn’t imagine a great show being any other way.  Be sure to check it out if you haven’t already, and I eagerly await the day the currently airing second season is completed so I can do reviews of that. 

So, thank you for coming, thank you for staying, thank you for reading my reviews of this show. 

Highly Recommended

MC Toon Reviews will continue to turn out Rocko's Modern Life Season 2 reviews on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, as well as Steven Universe Season 3 reviews on Saturdays and Sundays.  Also, as it is December, be on the lookout for more festive reviews for Christmas.  That's a lot to look forward to this holiday season but until then:

Stay Animated Folks!