'Toon Reviews 19: OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 36: Parents Day

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Parents Day (not to be confused with the Hey Arnold cartoon of the same name)

I’m always up for looking into backgrounds of interesting characters.  This includes exploring their families.  This cartoon on Parents Day at Lakewood Plaza Turbo, gives a good opportunity to look into many families though only one pair of parents truly stands out. 

When asked about her parents, Enid says that they’re ninjas who can’t come.  K.O. and Rad decide to go to her house to bring the fun of Parents Day to her.  Lots of cartoons have given believable reasons for Enid’s prominent apathy, and we continue the trend with a more personal reason. 

K.O. and Rad are surprised to learn that she lives in a haunted house.  Fitting for the setting, it turns out that Enid is a witch.  This explains a lot about her main powers of fire kicks and turning into a stump which can attribute to witch spells.  As for Enid’s parents, they add to the feel of the haunted house with a vampire mom and a werewolf dad, two monsters so different yet make a charming married couple.  They give a tour of their home, and as someone who sees haunted houses as a great setting for creative animated storytelling, exploring the house is a highlight for the cartoon. There’s a hall of paintings with moving eyes, legit answers to Rad’s questions of “bats in the belfry” and “skeletons in the closet”, and are aided by their goblin sons.  They may be typical for the setting, but I can’t imagine anything else to capture the feel of a spooky place.  Enid’s parents, despite being spooky themselves, add wholesomeness to make it stand out. 

However, their good qualities can get a little much when they embarrass Enid with an album of her youth.  Also, when word gets out that Enid calls herself a ninja, and her parents disapprove of that because ninjas aren’t spooky.  For how charming they are, it’s hard to buy that Enid’s parents would be this adherent to conformity. 

This attitude doesn’t last long though when two ghosts, who bring to mind old-school cartoons design and voice wise, have some fun of their own possessing K.O. and Rad.  Enid combines her witch self and ninja skills to summon a tornado creature and capture and stop the ghosts.  She impresses her parents so much that they grow more accepting of her being a ninja.  That said, their change of heart has less weight to it since they put more emphasis on how spooky they find her ninja skills to be.  Still, it’s nice that Enid is more willing to bring her parents to the next Parents Day even though they still embarrass her.  She shows that for all the problems she has with them, they’re still her family and nothing will ever change that. 

Adding to the heart of the ending is Rad actually having a nice moment with Enid after teasing her for the whole cartoon. He confides in her since he also has embarrassing parents as seen in the beginning and also says he likes Enid’s parents overall.  This tender moment means a lot coming from a usual egomaniac like Rad.  It presents the cartoon as a good display of heart as well as enjoyable atmosphere. It's not perfect, but it's still very interesting, creative, and fun to experience.

A-

The Ranking

1. Face Your Fears
2. You Have to Care
3. T.K.O.
4. No More Pow Cards
5. Glory Days
6. Legends of Mr. Gar
7. We’ve Got Pests
8. I Am Dendy
9. Let’s Have a Stakeout
10. You Get Me
11. Let’s Be Heroes
12. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
13. K.O.’s Video Channel
14. Jethro’s All Yours
15. Know Your Mom
16. Everybody Likes Rad?
17. A Hero’s Fate
18. Plaza Prom
19. We’re Captured
20. My Dad Can Beat up Your Dad
21. Let’s Be Friends
22. We Messed Up
23. Parents Day
24. Plazalympics
25. Presenting Joe Cuppa
26. Sibling Rivalry
27. Second First Date
28. Stop Attacking the Plaza
29. Just Be a Pebble
30. The Power is Yours
31. Do You Have Any More in the Back?
32. You’re Level 100
33. You Are Rad
34. We’ve Got Fleas
35. Rad Likes Robots
36. One Last Score

The next OK K.O. continues the spooky trend when Lakewood Plaza Turbo is put through a hack straight out of a horror movie.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is Animaniacs Episode 32.

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

'Toon Reviews 21: Xiaolin Showdown Season 1 Episode 5: Shen Yi Bu

If you like this review and want to stay updated for what else I have in store, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter. Now on with today's review:

Shen Yi Bu

The Xiaolin Warrior I find to be the most relatable is Raimundo.  His character flaws make him feel identifiable, especially since he develops past them as the series goes on.  They’ve been present a few times in prior episodes mostly through caring more about frivolous maters and a messing with Omi.  His development past his attitude problems starts here. 

The Xiaolin Warriors represent a certain natural element. This is why the action has often cut to them doing a fight move as they say what they represent against an elaborate backdrop. Raimundo’s element is wind.  The featured Shen Gong Wu, the Sword of the Storm, is wind related, so Raimundo would be the best one to use it. 

However, pertaining to his flaws, Raimundo drifts away to things he finds more interesting such as surfing and impressing beach babes.  He doesn’t listen to the importance of the Sword of the Storm.  As for the Sword itself, it’s an interesting Shen Gong Wu that creates violent wind storms of immeasurable magnitudes while also turning the user’s body into wind.  While Raimundo finds it, because he didn’t listen to the information, he can’t use the Sword of the Storm properly. As a result, he loses it to another villain hired by Jack and Wuya, a ninja named Tubbimura.  Now, Tubbimura may be a standard evil ninja personality wise, but a few things make him stand out.  It’s amusing to see him fight skillfully with such a round stomach, and while not in battle, he’s soft-spoken and civil. 

As for Raimundo, his development kicks in when he regrets his failure greatly.  He brushes up on as much information as he can on Shen Gong Wu and showdowns going late into the night.  This attitude is an impactful and relatable form of redemption.  It’s like brushing up on a lot of information to make up for failing a test so to do better on the next one.  I’ve been through this in school, so I know how this feels. 

As was the case for me, Raimundo’s endless studying pays off.  There's a reveal of another Shen Gong Wu the Shroud of Shadows, and he knows what it does, covering up the user to make him/her invisible, before anyone else.  During the episode’s Xiaolin Showdown with Tubbimura, Raimundo’s knowledge shines through. 

He makes it a Shen Yi Bu Dare, a special type of Showdown where the opponents can wager more than one Shen Gong Wu.  The Showdown itself is one of the coolest.  It’s modeled after a Japanese pond the Shroud of Shadows is found.  Its rocks reach to the sky and the setting becomes stormy. Raimundo and Tubbimura have to use their Shen Gong Wu to knock each other off their rocks while big koi fish randomly switch their Shen Gong Wu around.  In the end, Raimundo impresses everyone by combining two Shen Gong Wu, the Eye of Dashi and Sword of the Storm.  This allows him to move with the wind, give Tubbimura a humiliating defeat, and win a bunch of Shen Gong Wu for the Xiaolin side. 

More development from Raimundo is to come, but how he evolves in this one episode is already impressive.  Starting as a bored lollygagging student and becoming a champion at knowledge in battle, he’s the highlight of the episode. It goes to show the good that can come from the most unlikely of places.

A+

The Ranking

1. Shen Yi Bu
2. Katnappe
3. The Journey of a Thousand Miles
4. Like a Rock
5. Tangled Web

The next Xiaolin Showdown review puts the Warriors' tiger instincts to the test when Kimiko is replaced with a doppelganger robot.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "Face Your Fears" from OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes.

If you would like to check out other Xiaolin Showdown reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.