As everybody else on this planet, I have an opinion. As many people do too, I like to write about it. Share it generously. And I am excellent at keeping score (mentally), so I will try tallying up my fondness of things according to balance.
Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld
So-called western animation seems to be really taking off following Japanese anime popularity. Where Arcane is more of an example of really creating a new type of western animation that can rival with Japanese anime, Jentry Chau feels much more like a Japanese anime with some western elements.
This series seems to combine several standard anime and fantasy elements. From a high school girl being confronted with magical powers that she needs to control, to monster-of-the-week episodes, to a journey of self-discovery and healing. Throughout these story beats, Jentry doesn’t always make for the most sympathetic protagonist, but her ways of dealing with the things being thrown at her do feel very real. At the same time, things can verge un the unbelievable, especially how her grandmother keeps hiding things from her even though she sees again and again how disastrous the consequences are, and Jentry flipflopping a bit too quickly about how much her special powers are part of her.
Although the series starts (and ends) in Seoul, the themes and mythology are clearly Chinese. The Underworld is portrayed in its bureaucratic proportions and all creatures coming from this realm have Chinese names. At the same time, it manages to quite smoothly transfer to an American setting without these elements feeling too tacked on. Jentry’s relationships to the other characters can seem a bit unbalanced at times, but Ed, Michael, Stella and Jin manage to eventually become multi-dimensional characters with their own needs and powers.
In the end, the series offers a fun, though sometimes unbalanced, peek into what western-Asian animation could be. I rate it a not so scary but pretty good journey into the Underworld.
