Trese: Hüterin der Stadt

Trese (2021) is a Netflix series that my daughter and I recently watched together. The storyline follows a young lady for hire with super natural powers she uses to help the police overcome "unique" circumstances. She also looks to uncover how she became who she is...

This series is the first ever Singapore anime series and is set in Manila and based on Filipino ghost stories. I really enjoyed this universe and how the creatures were depicted, both the good and bad guys. The brothers with the masks and weapons were awesome as were the sprits used to help the main character. The story about the spider babies was my favorite. Very well done. The family backstories they deliver at the end is interesting, the primary villain was good and the the conclusion is worthwhile.

Overall, this is a fun addition in the horror anime genre that I would score a 7.5-8/10 and strongly recommend.

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.

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.

Alexandra Trese was a young woman who was called on to investigate crimes attributed to supernatural causes. Armed with her trusty kris dagger Sinag, she was called in by the police to track mysterious events which involved such creatures of Filipino mythology like man-eating aswangs, half-horse tikbalang, and baby-like tiyanak. Other beings also seen include the white lady of Balete Drive, the Nuno, the duwende, lightning beings, wind sprites, zombies, werewolves and the main antagonist Datu Talagbusao, the god of war.

Alexandra was the daughter of Anton Trese, the lakan who forged an alliance between the human and supernatural world, and his wife Miranda, a babaylan or folk shaman. Her current team include twin brothers named Crispin and Basilio (after Sisa's sons in Jose Rizal's "Noli Me Tangere"), her two dapper demigod sidekicks; and Hank (who looks exactly like Filipino boxing legend Manny Pacquiao), bartender of the Trese family nightclub called the Diabolical. She also had a personal fire spirit Santelmo, who lived in her Nokia 3210 cellphone.

The opening scene of Episode 1 already showcased the spectacular artwork with a glittering nighttime scene of the city with its skyscrapers lit up by bright incandescent light bulbs and neon billboards. The next scene of an MRT train stalling on its tracks and the passengers alighting to walk to the nearest station was only the first of many places in Metro Manila that Filipinos will recognize and smile about through out the series, like Camp Crame, Quiapo, the New Bilibid Prison, the ABS-CBN building and the Meralco building.

There was also several scenes with social commentary. In Episode 1, there was a statement against corrupt megalomaniac politicians like Mayor Sancho Santamaria. In Episode 4, there was a statement against abusive policemen who use "fighting back" ("nanlaban" of EJK notoriety) as an excuse for their brutish behavior, like Officer Reyes. Other episodes highlight other activities going on around the city, like rich kids drag racing along Ortigas, fans fawning over movie stars or gamers grumbling slow internet speed.

Aside from effectively using Filipino folklore as the foundation of a solid story, "Trese" will surely delight Filipinos over its references to Choc-Nut or the Novanians. The Filipino dialogue was more authentic with the slang and profanity, but the English voice cast did try to give a Filipino flavor to their accents. At only six episodes and more or less 30 minutes per episode, this is a very quick and easy binge. Hopefully, international viewers will appreciate Filipino culture and talent more after this significant exposure on the Netflix platform. 9/10.

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.