Trese by all means is an achievement for Filipino talent. What started out as a passion project eventually turned into an award-winning comics and now it's the first anime in Southeast Asia streaming on a global platform. With six episodes and a running time of 25 to 33 minutes, even a person with a short attention span (me!) will be able to finish everything in one sitting mainly because of this fascinating world created by writer Budjette Tan and illustrator Kajo Baldisimo where we follow Alexandra Trese, a detective who deals in the supernatural. As mentioned by Tan in the Netflix special Trese After Dark, he cites Batman and John Constantine as influence and at the last minute flipped the character due to the lack of strong female leads at that time. Points for progressive thinking as early as 2005.
As Atom Araullo also mentioned in Trese After Dark, it's really something to finally see the setting and situations of an anime in places you may have found yourself in: MRT breaking down in Guadalupe, the dimly lit eskinitas, a police officer playing solitaire during working hours, etc. When you merge that with the different folklore and mythologies we've heard of in different permutations, it gives the show that extra hold on you to keep watching in anticipation of what else is next to come.
If there are a couple of things one can be hypercritical about, and emphasis on hyper because these are small details that does not in any way make the show any less spectacular, is that the animation is a little clunky but I'm not a hardcore anime consumer so this might be nothing at all, or maybe they wanted to keep the feel of reading a comic, or it could be due to a limited budget, etc. The other is while Liza Soberano did okay, one does wonder if it made a difference if it was say Glaiza De Castro was cast instead. I won't go as far as gatekeeping because we must understand the need to use as much clout as they possibly can if it means guaranteed success for an independent material that has been on the sidelines for many years. This does not only ensure possible additional seasons but as well as influence to look at other unknown local creators to share their art to the world. But for now, enjoy Trese on Netflix and maybe check out a local bookstore for the comic book after.
As Atom Araullo also mentioned in Trese After Dark, it's really something to finally see the setting and situations of an anime in places you may have found yourself in: MRT breaking down in Guadalupe, the dimly lit eskinitas, a police officer playing solitaire during working hours, etc. When you merge that with the different folklore and mythologies we've heard of in different permutations, it gives the show that extra hold on you to keep watching in anticipation of what else is next to come.
If there are a couple of things one can be hypercritical about, and emphasis on hyper because these are small details that does not in any way make the show any less spectacular, is that the animation is a little clunky but I'm not a hardcore anime consumer so this might be nothing at all, or maybe they wanted to keep the feel of reading a comic, or it could be due to a limited budget, etc. The other is while Liza Soberano did okay, one does wonder if it made a difference if it was say Glaiza De Castro was cast instead. I won't go as far as gatekeeping because we must understand the need to use as much clout as they possibly can if it means guaranteed success for an independent material that has been on the sidelines for many years. This does not only ensure possible additional seasons but as well as influence to look at other unknown local creators to share their art to the world. But for now, enjoy Trese on Netflix and maybe check out a local bookstore for the comic book after.