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Saving Omi
Not only does Season 2 close with a great adventure, but this
season finale is perhaps one of the greatest animated spectacles ever. With so much at stake from one of the most
moral characters in the cast turning to the dark side, it’s just one exciting moment
after another. Despite running the risk
of being too much for its runtime, it never happens, and all events happen
smoothly never detracting from the main story.
There’s a desperate feel to Raimundo, Kimiko, Clay, and Dojo finding the
truth of Omi’s sudden change with all the destruction laid to the world outside. Even worse is exactly how powerful Omi’s dark
side is. When in downtime, he’s beyond
energetic as he runs about Chase Young’s lair, humorously wanting to do nothing
but fight. Then in actual battles,
whether his opponents use Shen Gong Wu or elemental powers against him, he can
easily counteract any blow. It’s clear
that Omi’s swift takedowns are a huge stake-raising highlight to intimidate our
heroes. Not to mention it gets the dark side
the Shen Gong Wu needed to turn Wuya human for good.
Amongst the investing action and intensity,
answers to Omi’s condition are the most appropriate. They come from just the random scenes of Dojo
tending to Master Fung while he’s comatose.
A missing piece of the Shen Gong Wu scroll brought up in the last
episode is found between his toes, containing information about the Ying
Yo-Yo. Apparently, there’s another part
of it called the Yang Yo-Yo, and anyone who goes into the Ying Yang World needs
both or their good side will be dominated by their bad side. Since Omi only went in with the Ying Yo-Yo,
his good side was left behind, further denying Chase’s claim that he chose the
way of evil.
Regardless, the episode
reaches grand new heights once Omi’s friends grab hold of the Ying Yo-Yo, go
after Omi’s good chi, and also search for the Yang Yo-Yo hidden there. The Ying Yang World, is shown for all its
creative potential, upping itself with the layouts changing from one
imaginative design after another. Omi’s
presence also influences the world as his giant head shows up absolutely
anywhere and serves as a guide for his friends to find his good chi. After they find it and ponder where the Yang
Yo-Yo could be, there’s a plethora of creative styles as the focus shifts from
one character to another. It turns out
it was in Dojo’s ear all along though, which is kind of impressive hiding if
you ask me.
The big action
sequence ends with Omi getting his chi back and he’s all set to go home. However, Chase Young uses Omi swearing his
loyalty to him while evil to his advantage.
It makes it seem like Omi must stay, and like Chase’s crew, he turns
into a cat minion. Still, the last scene
of watching his friends fly away shows his true loyalties, making it highly
emotionally investing.
These big genuine
feels, exciting action scenes, and creative directions present this episode as Xiaolin Showdown at its fullest animated
potential to amazing results.
A++
The Ranking
1. Saving Omi
2. Citadel of
Doom
3. The Last
Temptation of Raimundo
4. The
Apprentice
5. The New
Order
6. The Evil
Within
7. Enter the
Dragon
8. The Deep
Freeze
9. Days Past
10. PandaTown
11. Dangerous
Minds
12. The Emperor
Scorpion Strikes Back
13. The Return
of PandaBubba
14. The Sands
of Time
15. The Year of
the Green Monkey
16. Master Monk
Guan
17. Judging Omi
18. Screams of
the Siren
19. The Demon
Seed
20. Crystal
Glasses
21. Dreamscape
22. The Shard
of Lightning
23. Something
Jermaine
24. Hear Some
Evil, See Some Evil
25. Sizing Up
Omi
26. The Black
Vipers
Final Thoughts
With the second season of Xiaolin
Showdown, I’m pleased to say that it’s successful in taking what was
established about the show and expanding upon it to interesting effect. The material is mostly very similar to what
the show offered before, but there are still a couple of standout elements to
the experience that make for a welcome backbone. As a result, there’s still plenty of creative
setups, solid action, and enjoyable characters and relationships to follow.
Right at the start, the season adds something huge to the
formula by starting off with a direct continuation of the dark ending of the
previous season. The result is a
two-episode story arc of Wuya’s rise to power and a big rush to stop her reign
featuring creative twists on time travel, a dark atmosphere, and a genuine
redemption. By the end of those
episodes, you’d think that the series formula would be shaken up majorly. The truth is though, even if those episodes
end with Wuya looked away again, she’s freed almost immediately and the
majority of the season turns out to be more of the norm. One or more of the Xiaolin Warriors have a
personal problem, a moral is stated, a new Shen Gong Wu magnifies their
problem, and they retrieve and learn the moral in the end. The formula isn’t exactly the problem,
especially since for the most part, each episode has individual elements of
standing out like the new Shen Gong Wu and overall adventure.
Still, there isn’t much room for true character development for
them from the previous season to this.
The most noticeable development comes from Raimundo, which is fitting
considering that he went bad at the end of the first season. Through realizing his friends are more
important than power, he only gets better from there. Several instances have him make the smartest
decisions in the group culminating with him genuinely achieving his coveted
position of Xiaolin Apprentice five episodes in. He even keeps up his strengths afterwards by
continuing to make smart decisions and acting rashly only when it’s
appropriate. There are a few reckless
moments here and there, but they’re greatly outnumbered by those that reflect
his state of maturity. While Raimundo
has noticeable changes though, the rest of the protagonists are more or less
the same as they started out. Kimiko and
Clay retain their general nice personalities and in some cases character
flaws. There is some interesting
information of their family backgrounds, but that’s not really the same as
having memorable traits. Omi, as a main
protagonist, especially disappoints with how interchangeable he is between
seasons. He believes in peace and is
devoted to his culture, and when he’s not showing those qualities, he’s just
saying how he’s the best or flubbing up a slang phrase. The latter two traits often tend to get
overbearing by the way. It also doesn’t
help that several episodes have them learn the same things again and
again. Keeping count of how many times
the Warriors learn to get along, work as a team, and taking care of what
they’re guarding becomes far more difficult than necessary. Sealing the deal of this flaw is how they’re told
they’re eligible for the next level, yet act immature by fighting over who gets
it, suggesting they don’t really deserve promotion. Moments like this hinder the universal appeal
the show is going for which holds it back from the top-tier animated
shows. Yet, there are still a good many
things that make the show worth checking out which make themselves known with
this second season.
While the protagonists of the series aren’t the best
developed or the most interesting, the villains who drive the conflict are
bursting with imagination and diversity.
A few episodes are devoted to the returns of a few supporting villains
like Katnappe, Tubbimura, and even Mala Mala Jong. Keeping up with the villains’ sense of
imagination, Season 2 introduces a new set of villains of varying
characteristics. There’s the totally
infantile like Cyclops, the seemingly friendly and undeniably stereotypical
Vlad from Russia, and sinister crime boss PandaBubba. Now despite being around since the start,
Jack Spicer is also worth a mention here.
For the most part, like the Xiaolin Warriors, he’s largely the same as
he was before right down to Wuya sticking around him for half the season, and
their dynamic also has little change.
This isn’t as much of an issue because Jack’s always been one of the
most entertaining characters just as he is, not to mention, there are hints of
depth throughout the second season. As
all the villains form somewhat of a community, Jack’s eccentricities as a
character don’t give him the best reputation.
It starts bringing to mind how pathetic he truly is as a villain. Also, while he does have the utmost desire
for world domination, there are times when he knows that the only way to
success is a truce with his enemies.
Along with working with them to stop Wuya and some instances of the
Xiaolin Warriors taking pity on him, Jack’s biggest development comes from an
episode called “The Apprentice.” After
failing to get the titular position, he appears to want to join the Xiaolin
Warriors, uniform chores and all. Later,
it seems like it was all a trap just to get their Shen Gong Wu, but it takes
what may be the most visually pleasing Xiaolin Showdown to reveal that there’s
more to it than that. He’s really only
evil because he’s insecure about himself, and his attempts to be good really
were genuine. These facts make perfect
sense for his character and his actions, and make Jack stand out as more than
just another villain. For that, it’s
really no wonder that instead of always proclaiming himself as the greatest of
all villains, there’s one villain he looks up to.
This leads me to the biggest baddie introduced in Season 2,
Chase Young. He is perhaps the biggest
reason the show grows such a backbone here.
While all the other villains in this show have some light-hearted
eccentricity or sass to them, Chase is much more cunning and calculating. His character design is much more down to
Earth and his restraint is something not to be messed with. That’s pretty remarkable to catch enemies off
guard from his powerful army of jungle cats who later turn out to be warriors
imprisoned by him. While many other villains
are dark in the name of a mad lust for power, Chase has the morality
practically down to an art. He hardly
needs Shen Gong Wu as a crutch for all his strength, only using ones that are
necessary, and is mature enough to believe that true evil comes from choice not
mind control. His practices are best
displayed in his interactions with Omi.
In Chase’s earlier appearances he suddenly appears to teach Omi
beneficial fighting moves despite Omi not being sure if he can trust him. With how helpful these teachings turn out to
be, something big is set in motion. Chase spends other episodes watching Omi in
his adventures, and Omi frequently going to Chase for help. This is enough to lead to Chase frequently
trying to entice Omi into joining him.
It’s certainly a much more reasonable practice than making him join by
force, although this seems to be forgotten in the last few episodes. Chase says that true evilness is achieved
through choice, but Omi ends up not really getting the choice. He has to be tricked into going into a weird
place called the Ying Yang World where he loses his good chi and comes out bad. To be fair, there’s a legit reason for this
with Chase wanting to act fast before Omi overpowers him, but it’s still
hypocritical. Thankfully this move is
made up for with an amazing finale of intense staging, fast-paced action, and a
bittersweet emotional cliffhanger. While
it is a fair point that Chase Young making the show darker goes against the
original light-hearted intentions, his character is still mostly impressive as
a villain. Plus in my mind, raising
stakes in the tone isn’t too bad considering that they’ve been legit since the
beginning and are becoming more realized with every new season.
In Season 2, it’s clear that some things haven’t developed
much, while some have a deeper understanding and make the darker elements even
darker. However, there’s one element
that’s truly undeniable about much of the material, and it’s one that turns out
beneficial to this show’s status in animation.
While there’s somewhat of an arc to these episodes, especially when it
comes to remembering who has what Shen-Gong-Wu, there’s literally a new
adventure every episode. Before, the
variety solely came from the different locations, the different Shen-Gong-Wu’s
powers, and the Xiaolin Showdowns. Now,
different episodes bring different challenges for the Xiaolin Warriors to face,
and they don’t have to be premieres or finales to go all out. There are all kinds of grand scale threats to
the Earth. Some of them build upon
characters like Dojo going on a mad rampage of finding Shen Gong Wu and not
letting anyone, including his allies, stop him.
Others bring about very imaginative one-off enemies like an innocent
mermaid who’s actually a hideous monster, or a sentient plant with the power to
turn all life into vegetation. Most
threats come from what happens when villains get their hands on Shen Gong Wu
which was seen a little in Season 1, but is fully realized here. When Jack gets the Sands of Time, he assembles
an interesting band of villains from throughout the ages. When he gets the Lunar Locket and drops the
Heart of Jong down a mountain, the result is an imaginative yodeling snowman
with the power to freeze the world. He
manages to trap Chase Young in the Sphere of Yun, and somehow, the jungle cat
army is much more vicious under him than Chase, suggesting things were better
as they were. Even when he loses an
important Shen Gong Wu, the world is at major risk from spiders who eat
everything highlighting the dangers of villains even when they don’t mean to. The most creative escapade is
saved for last when saving the world and Omi involves going into the Ying Yang
World. This makes for a significant
amount of time spent on a place that goes all out with creative staging. The layouts, the use of color, the scene
changes, and everything give it a fascinating unpredictable atmosphere brimming
with animated life. It’s like a
culmination of every creative instance building up to this and almost makes up
for the sadness the season ultimately ends with. As you can see, Season 2 of this series shows
that playing to the infinite possibilities on animation don’t just come from
the Shen Gong Wu and Showdowns. They’re
starting to come a lot more from the general stories as well.
As should always be the case with new sets of episodes,
Season 2 of Xiaolin Showdown builds
upon the strengths of what came before to great effect. While most of the protagonists and the morals
still aren’t very interesting, they’re made up for by upping the villains’
presentations, raising the stakes, and bringing more creative stories. It’s ultimately below the big leagues of
animated shows, but it embraces its medium enough to make itself worthy of your
time. As for how things turn out in the
next and final season, well that’s for another day….
Highly Recommended
Next time on MC Toon Reviews, we'll return to the cul-de-sac for another season of Ed Edd n Eddy. Until then:
Stay Animated Folks!
and this is an amazing way to send off an awesome season finale. The clip you chose really worked well with your points.
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