Friday, October 2, 2020

Project Ray Way - (OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 2 Episode 29) - 'Toon Reviews 40

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Project Ray Way

In a continuing trend of building cartoons around day-to-day conflicts, this is one to beef up the rivalries between two of the savviest members in the cast, Rad and Raymond.  It’s an explore of their sense of style and how it plays a big part in their characters.  

All of the plaza are drawn to commercials for a brand new fashion line from Raymond.  Rad is visibly bothered by everyone getting so into these clothes, mainly out of jealousy and believing he’s way better looking than Raymond could ever be.  Supporting at least his stance on the problems with Raymond’s fashion line is a side character getting significant development, Drupe the humanoid strawberry.  Before there wasn’t much character to Drupe, and she hardly even had the most likeable moments.  Here though, she has a few admirable traits through being most concerned about Raymond’s fashion line because it robs any sort of creativity.  It’s nothing more than the same articles of clothing mass-produced that other people head towards like they’re zombies.  

Together she and Rad decide that the best way to beat Raymond is to start their own fashion line.  Unlike Raymond, the creativity of their clothes really shows, as does a very atmospheric promo for them complete with dramatic narration and a look at Drupe’s creative process.  Their clothes reach some success at first, but the evils of mass-production then pose a huge challenge when Raymond doesn’t hesitate to steal the ideas.  His ad for them is even half-hearted except for the dramatic tone of voice, yet people go buy it anyway.  They’re not exactly dense with this decision, but the reason they keep going back for Raymond’s clothes is pretty cheapening too.  He uses mind control on the customers to make them prefer his clothes over Rad’s.  This ends up making human nature of style preferences unbelievable, which is problematic because this show is usually good at being relatable despite its cartoonish nature.  

Either way, the story gets much more stylish when Rad decides to settle things with Raymond through declaring a style battle.  He and Drupe put their fashion line against Raymond’s with the acclaim of heroes everywhere backing them up.  For models, they call upon K.O. and Enid to show their stuff with poses and rocking their clothes.  For them, Raymond is legitimately too attractive as creatively showcased with his clothes emitting a more powerful aura strong enough to blow them away.  Rad then takes him on himself, and while he puts up a good fight, Raymond has his mind control to grant him the acclaim he needs.  

During this moment is when Drupe is at her best.  While Rad is down, she tells him that as long as he has his own creativity and style, he’ll always be better than Raymond.  He doesn’t even need a new set of clothes, but rather what he always wears.  With the ultimate way of being true to himself, that’s just what wins Rad the style battle and Raymond’s reign over the competition to end.  

I have to admit that the idea of being true to oneself inspiring great creativity is a great virtue, and one that can transcend fashion.  It’s an ultimate way to give the cartoon value even if its conflict isn’t perfect in terms of structure or relevance.

A            

Season 2 Rankings

1.      Your World is an Illusion

2.      T.K.O.’s House

3.      Final Exams

4.      CarolQuest

5.      All in the Villainy

6.      Dendy’s Power

7.      Crossover Nexus

8.      Lord Cowboy Darrell

9.      Bittersweet Rivals

10.  Red Action to the Future

11.  My Fair Carol

12.  Are You Ready for Some Megafootball?!

13.  Boxman Crashes

14.  Wisdom Strength and Charisma

15.  Mystery Sleepover

16.  Super Black Friday

17.  Point to the Plaza

18.  Project Ray Way

19.  Special Delivery

20.  Seasons Change

21.  The So-Bad-Ical

22.  Monster Party

23.  Sidekick Scouts

24.  Whacky Jaxxyz

25.  Plaza Film Festival

26.  Let’s Watch the Boxmore Show

27.  Be a Team

28.  Plaza Alone

29.  Soda Genie

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where we learn what happens when you give Jethro a lot of character.
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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