Season Review: Seis Manos Season One

When I first laid my eyes on Seis Manos earlier this summer, I wasn’t too particularly thrilled by it. It felt like a typical kung-fu beat-’em-up type of series with little regard towards a coherent plot. This being anime-licensee Viz Media’s first attempt at producing its own animated series did not inspire a ton of confidence either. However, the old adage of “don’t judge a book by its cover” comes into full play here.

The series revolves around Isabella, Jesus, and Silencio, three unrelated siblings. Chiu, a refugee from China, takes the flock under his wing and teaches them the ways of martial arts. A dark force looms nearby their hometown of San Simon. Once it awakens, it sets off a chain reaction of mysterious twists and turns that are sure to entertain every step of the way. The story starts off a bit slow, but once it gets going, there’s no stopping it. Each episode features a slew of secrets and mysteries that add a level of excitement to the series. Just when you think one mystery has been solved, another one pops right up in its place.

As one can imagine, a series where the large focus is on kung-fu trained siblings, there’s a lot of action-packed fights throughout. These fights often result in a literal blood bath of mass proportions. Death is a trait the series offers to a tee, though perhaps a bit overused at times as a dramatic cop-out.

The series crafts its central cast of characters with a loving amount of realism. Each one has its own unique personality and traits attached to them.

The first central character, Isabella is often calm, collected one of the bunch. However, she tends to self-doubt herself regarding reality and fiction, especially as the mysteries that start to unravel lay grow ever more convoluted and confusing.

Jesus is the typical comic-relief type of character. Thankfully, the moments of comic relief are often unnoticeable, thanks to the show’s sparing use of them. He seems to have an alarming addiction to alcohol throughout, though it seems to help calm his senses and collect his thoughts in a concise manner rather than inhibiting his mind.

Silencio is the brooding, tragic backstory character (which is where he gets his namesake), though I really did feel for him throughout the series. He struggles with emotions of anger and rage, which lead to him often acting out rashly and selfishly. His character flaw is quite reminiscent of actual human behavior, seeking revenge for wrongdoings instead of justice. This character flaw grows worse and worse a-la Darth Vader-style throughout the season, though for a good reason. It ultimately transpires into the events that set up the next chapter in the series. Hopefully, within the next portion, a resolution towards the better will be explored.

The two officers, Wallace Brister and Garcia, have an enticing dynamic together. In a bit of social commentary regarding the current state of politics in our society, Wallace, a cop from the U.S., is horribly racist and sexist towards his Hispanic partner and many others. Garcia, on the other hand, is the lone woman cop on the force in her peaceful town. Wallace eventually changes his tune upon hearing Garcia’s turmoil in being judged by her equals for being a woman. This brings back hidden memories of disrespect from soldiers due to the color of his skin. Once the two realize they have both gone through similar situations of marginalization, their relationship improves for the better (even leading to a bit of love-in-the-air for the two). The overall development of their relationship into a working partnership is something I wish we would see more of in everyday life.

Chiu, at first, seems to be the wise mentor to the next generation of pupils. And while he is certainly such, his past is what slowly turns the quiet town of San Simon upside down. He’s a complex character that struggles to keep the balance of light and darkness. Some of the mystery surrounding Chiu ended up in the hands of El Balde, a ruthless mastermind of drugs and carnage. He’s a killer who doesn’t give a crap, with a possible exception to a funnily-stated mother figure. Another person also lurks within the distance, with quite a shadowy past themselves, but that’s all I can reveal about them without going into spoiler territory. I’ll just say the mysterious of China is something definitely worth exploring.

One unique portion of the series that stood out to me was how diverse its cast of characters was. The vast majority of the cast were all minorities, a rarity for any animated series. In addition to that, the show particularly gives a spotlight to the disabled and the marginalized. These characteristics really help to build an overall relatability and uniqueness that help the series to stand out from all the rest.

The animation presented within the series certainly reaches its goal of imitating the animation style used by Japanese animation. Unfortunately, at certain times it feels as though it takes its imitation too literally. The animation felt limited and not as expressive as it could have been. The wonderfully choreographed fight scenes are ultimately the only saving grace here. It’s not necessarily a hindrance of a choice, but it doesn’t really alleviate the animation to new, unexplored heights.

The vocal talent presented within the show is quite phenomenal. Each voice actor really brought life into the characters that they played. Each character’s voice felt genuine, adding a sense of realism to the series overall. Danny Trejo in an animated series was certainly a treat, playing the rough-and-tough El Balde to a tee. I also commend Vic Chao’s performance in the series, as he really nailed the wise mentor, father figure character. He also nailed the character’s foil with a commendable combination of mystery and violence in the character’s tone of voice. As to who said foil is, you’ll just have to watch and find out.

Despite all of the positives the show brings to the table, there are a few downfalls throughout. The lack of explanation of certain vocabulary is a major one. It took me four episodes and a Google search to finally realize that El Balde’s profession of a “jefe” was essentially the Spanish term for a leader (in his case, the leader of a drug ring). The fact that it took me half the series to comprehend El Balde’s profession and motives are seriously concerning to me. I could very well be not as well versed as others, but this detail should still have been explained in more detail.

Another pitfall of the series is the lack of establishment of certain relationships. One only needs to look at the relationship between Silencio and Lina. I honestly wasn’t sure what their prior relationship was upon viewing their introduction. There were clues that suggested a romantic relationship, but the interactions between the two characters straddled the line between love and companionship. For all I knew, she could have had a multitude of different relationships with Silencio, from familial to romantic.

The final negative point is under-developing the purpose of certain characters. The character of Domingo is a perfect example of this point. I honestly thought Chiu would take him in and train him under his wing. Due to a wide variety of circumstances, however, this turns out not to be the case. The way the series went with the character makes him feel purposeless. Domingo ultimately does nothing other than introducing the viewers to the main cast.

Overall, the series is vastly a positive output, rather than a negative one. With an enticing set of characters, a slew of action-packed moments, and a large number of mysterious secrets to discover, Seis Manos is a perfect series to journey along with during this Hispanic Heritage Month. With the final episode leaving us on a cliffhanger with tons more to explore, I may just be willing to continue on ahead when and if the next chapter arrives.