Trese: Hüterin der Stadt

Overall the show would of benefitted with another 2 episodes that would of fleshed out the characters a bit more as it felt a little rushed and I wish they started off with the backstory of the characters instead of showing inconsistent flashbacks throughout the episodes but overall not a bad show reminded me of Castlevania with a mixture of supernatural 7.5 for me.

Dubbing is not the main issue for me anymore, Liza Soberano may have sounded quite flat but my concern is more about the content... the details and subtleties. I have not yet read the comic book, ergo my comments are solely based on the anime. I understand how Trese as a comic book and an anime represents our pop culture. But for me, it lacked a lot of the folkloric elements as it geared towards appeasing what's pop or trendy as of the moment. Like how the creators could have explored that more, the juxtaposition of the folkloric and modern-day elements. Trese is a Lakan. She's the guardian in between two worlds. She could have an arsenal of tools and weapons that transcends from north to south of the Philippines at her disposal. Trese could have garlic ampoules or bullets drenched in garlic juice , a buntot-pagi or stingray tail lasso also known to ward off aswangs and other mythical creatures, sacred oil potions like the lana. The possibility of showcasing a part of our pre-hispanic culture and beliefs is endless. Though it reminds me of the following...Constantine, the K-drama Haunted House for Sale, and the manga and anime Mushishi. Overall, it is an ambitious take on the renaissance of Pinoy comics and a leap towards the reinvention of our animation, a far cry from the then Disney sandbox we've been trying hard to emulate.

The writing and delivery of dialogue in this show is incredibly wooden. None of the characters feel realistic and I don't care about any of them. It's a shame because the animation is good and the stories are interesting.

So I want to start by saying that I don't know anything about Filipino culture. I also don't think you have to know about a culture to understand if a story is told well. This story wasn't told well.

The dialogue is mediocre. The characters have no depth and nobody actually grows. Everyone explains how they feel without showing it, which is a big problem with most shows tbh. Explaining what had happened just to fill in the blank spots so that the viewer understands characters' motives is lazy writing. We're watching a show Brenda, not listening to an audiobook.

Except for a couple of characters, the designs are not memorable at all. You don't really know who is who and why are they doing the things they do is so poorly explained. The alliances make no sense. Trying to fit in all that info and characters and events in 6 episodes was obviously a bad idea.

I like gore, but strangely even the gore felt out of place sometimes.

It's not the worst show I've seen, but I'm not gonna remember this. Watch it if you have nothing else to watch.

Art and animation: Similar feel to DC cartoons than Japanese anime so it's sharp, crisp but a little stiff on the side. I like some of the action scenes especially the shaky effect. Also love the background art, really good!

Dub: I watched it in Filipino and English. I actually prefer the English not because they were acted better, since I feel like both were done quite nicely but because when the Filipino chants come up it feels more special and magical and also the English dub did different variations of Filipino accents which I find fun.

Plot and delivery: I read the comics first so can't help but compare. I wasn't expecting like a 1-1 adaptation but anyway...I'm 50 50 on the changes. I like how the stories and characters are interconnected now compared to it being episodic in the comics but I kind of miss the emotional impact it left me, learning the different motivations of people, why they did what they did etc..so watching this just feels... a bit shallow and fast but the things they added do give it some good flavor so this or that, can't have both in this case.

I'm also really into "Show don't tell", there was a lot of showing in the very first episode which might be a bit too much backstory flash but I much prefer it to that cliche villain doing 15 minutes of monologue just to explain their motivations and background while the protag just listens obediently which this show is also guilty of. :(

Overall: Giving it a 7. Good start but the end episode... that I am not really into it went cliche as cliche, the comics was done way better. For me overall, it lost a bit of that soul since a lot of the scenes they cut to connect the stories also carried a lot of the emotion, badassery, and smarts so I was a bit disappointed with that. I'd still wait to watch season 2 if ever as the story they're going to cover there really made me feel the tension while I was reading it so a bit excited to see what they'll do with it if we ever get to season 2, lol. Anyway, it's just okay I'd still recommend it.