I'll explain why I gave this five stars with no spoilers (pros and cons):
This show is written extremely well. At the pilot episode, it was already obvious to me that the writers took very meticulous time with what they were writing. They made sure to hit all of the beats, and puled it off successfully even with a PG animated film. I was surprised, since I assumed it was made for kids. But this show is great for family or adults. The story never felt rushed. There was a healthy balance between transition and exposition.
The characters in this story are actually compelling. It's the first time that I've seen it in a while. Most shows nowadays don't make the characters interesting or relatable at all. But whether you look at the villains or heroes, there is true humanity behind this show. It's not all about fighting, even though it is inspired from shonen anime. Even the goofiest parts of characters are for symbolic use and have a deeper meaning.
Also, there was a part that made me very emotional, which surprised me since there is only one story that almost made me cry in my entire life. I say this to further support the idea that this show is not just some wacky cartoon. There is true human soul behind this.
As a black man, This is one of the only African-American stories I've seen that wasn't shoving politics down my throat. I could finally watch a genuine story for once that wasn't trying to teach me something and persuade me to tolerate certain things that a large demographic of people do not want to see on TV all of the time.
The animation was something I genuinely was surprised by. It captures the compelling character designs first developed by Disney, but also weave in the powerful animations that drive Shonen anime today. For this reason, anyone can both say that the animation is industry-standard, but also simply "interesting."
Lastly the show is truly funny. For some reason, lots of animations have this half-heated humor that anyone would come up with. It's as if they write the comedy in a rough draft and just publish it in the script without even trying to make the audience laugh. But the humor in this show is very relatable and also unexpected at times.
This wouldn't be a real review if I didn't provide negative feedback as well. The only negative feedback I would have is that there are some moments where I feel the shonen inspiration is unecessary. For instance, sometimes characters talk or think in a way that is almost identical to shonen anime in a way that seems to just break the scenes in an odd way (however the voice acting is on point.) Outside of that, I can only see people have issues with the show if simply the concept does not interest them for whatever reason (whether if it's that they don't like kid shows, or that they don't like the action genre). I personally do not care about wrestling, but I can easily get into this show. Because it is more story and character based than trying to show you something to get your money. With only one season out, this I cannot find any other negative things about the show that would keep someone from watching it.
