What happens when you take martial arts, blaxpoitation, pulpy cinema, animation, and a heavy dose of Mexican culture and throw it all in a blender. The answer is Seis Manos, a new Netflix original series that was co-produced by Powerhouse Animation Studios — the geniuses behind the stellar Castlevania series and Viz Productions, which is the branch of manga publisher Viz Media.
I’ll save you the trouble of reading the rest of the review if you want a simple answer to the question of “should I watch this?” If you like all the stuff I just listed above, there’s a good chance Seis Manos will have a place in your heart. It’s a unique blend of genres and mediums that is perfect for your average cinephile, and while it’s far from perfect, it manages to be a whole lot of fun throughout.
Seis Manos takes place in the 1970s and revolves around three orphans — Jesus, Isabela, and Silencio (Played by Jonny Cruz and Aislinn Derbez…Silencio doesn’t talk) — who were taken in by a Chinese martial arts master named Chiu (Vic Chao). When their home is invaded by a band of…for a lack of a better word, zombies, their worlds are thrown into chaos.
With the help of a local cop and U.S. agent (played by Angélica Vale and Mike Colter, respectively) sing their martial arts, they tackle a deep-seated corruption from within their hometown. All in all, it’s a pretty straightforward narrative that follows our heroes as they cut through the layers of the corruption, though there are plenty of surprises along the way. And, of course, we can’t mention all this without mentioning the main baddie El Balde, played by Danny Trejo, who is predictably intimidating.
While the overall premise is simple, they do a good job of keeping the audience on their toes. I wouldn’t call the show dark, but it’s not afraid to throw a few surprise deaths and curveballs at us to make us realize these baddies mean business. All in all, it’s a show that managed to keep me well interested and entertained throughout the four episodes I watched.
It’s not perfect though. While this is very much a mature show, with plenty of blood and guts to spare, some of the humor comes across as a bit cheesy. Perhaps they simply going for comedic relief moments, but oftentimes, it felt a bit lazy and eye-rolling. That being said, as you get deeper into it, those moments pop up less and less, which was fine by me.
The animation is also hit-or-miss. I really enjoyed the choreography of the fights, and the techniques they used to make them feel like they had impact were fantastic. Sadly, it wasn’t enough to cover up what feels like some budgetary restrictions. Some of the movement is choppy, and when dealing with fight scenes that are supposed to feel fluid, it starts to become noticeable. That being said, it’s really hard to ding this when it’s clearly a budgetary deal. It gets the job done and likely only bothers if you’re paying close attention.
The characters are a mixed bag. Ironically, the blaxploitation nod character Brister and the local cop Garcia get pretty decent development in the episodes I’ve seen, and end up being a lot more fun to watch than the main trio, whose backstories feel a bit on the generic side of things. The characters ultimately fall into predictable archetypes of the “good one,” the “goof-off,” and the “angst-ridden one.” It’s not bad, by any means. It’s a good place to start, but I still haven’t found them as engaging as the other two characters, who feel more at odds with what’s going on in the town, and therefore are more interesting to follow.
One last niggle are the ages of the lead trio of characters. They keep referring to the leads as “orphans” and “children,” but to me, they look and seem like grown-ass adults, with one of them pretty much even being an alcoholic. It isn’t a huge deal, but it did stand out to me as a little odd.
All this aside, while there are some issues here and there, Seis Manos succeeds for me where it counts. After a slow start, it strung me along for the following episodes, and by the end of Episode 4, I was fully in, wondering where this conspiracy would go. If you can pull me in and keep me clicking that “next episode” button on Netflix, then you’ve pretty much done your job.
As a fan of grindhouse cinema, martial arts, animation, this really hit me, and as someone who’s been waiting to see a Latino-focused animated show, it also resonated with me. Needless, to say, I think the audience for this is there, though I’m interested to see just how big it is.
Recommended If You Like: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series, Castlevania, Machete, anime, pretty much anything by Robert Rodriguez
Final Grade: B
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