Trese

The quality of anime was great!!! Great backgrounds and art. The voice actors were top notch.

The dialogue felt a bit rushed at times, although a great story overall. Still many unanswered questions which could prompt another season or concluding film.

So I want to start by saying that I don't know anything about Filipino culture. I also don't think you have to know about a culture to understand if a story is told well. This story wasn't told well.

The dialogue is mediocre. The characters have no depth and nobody actually grows. Everyone explains how they feel without showing it, which is a big problem with most shows tbh. Explaining what had happened just to fill in the blank spots so that the viewer understands characters' motives is lazy writing. We're watching a show Brenda, not listening to an audiobook.

Except for a couple of characters, the designs are not memorable at all. You don't really know who is who and why are they doing the things they do is so poorly explained. The alliances make no sense. Trying to fit in all that info and characters and events in 6 episodes was obviously a bad idea.

I like gore, but strangely even the gore felt out of place sometimes.

It's not the worst show I've seen, but I'm not gonna remember this. Watch it if you have nothing else to watch.

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.

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.

As other reviewers have said, the artsyle is highly reminiscent of DC animated projects. For a story that "Trese" has, the artsyle fits like a glove. Character designs are unique and captures the eeriness of the supernatural beings. Casting a female lead instead of the stereotypical male "bridge-between-two-worlds" lead was an excellent move.

Excellent vocal performance, including the Japanese dub. The Filipino dub however, particulary that of Alexandra's, leaves much to be desired.

"Trese" suffers greatly from flaws that bring the animation's quality down. To name a few, these are the abundant presence of plot holes, filler scenes, unexplained events and devices that the show expects the viewers would have prior knowledge about, unnecessary scenic shots, and "info-dumps"

A cookie-cutter style of storytelling with a rushed plot development hampers the potential "Trese" could have reached.

Comprehensively, "Trese" is a show that would keep you entertained throughout; provided that you would be viewing it at a superficial level to ignore its faults. It has a generic concept that was made interesting by its setting and characters. Nonetheless, I am optimistic that if a second season was to be made, it would fix its preceding deficiencies and deliver an excellent show than its predecessor.