The anime genre is filled with demons, ghosts, mecha, and more. While we love all those things, getting a new perspective and mythology in a show is always welcome. Trese brings us stories and monsters from a Filipino comic of the same name. This anime-inspired show does a lot in six episodes, including solving murders, fighting ancient spirits, and talking to sewer trolls. There is a lot of great stuff here but it falls a bit short of being amazing.
Trese follows a young woman, Alexandra Trese, who works on solving crime during the day and solving supernatural crime at night. Alexandra is a powerful character that is both complex and simple to understand. Shay Mitchel, from Pretty Little Liars, dubbed her in English and carries the weight fairly well throughout the show. The plethora of other human and spirit creatures are actually quite impressive. However, I wish the humans were a bit more unique and dynamic, but they are probably that way to balance the wacky and creative supernatural creatures.
The story in the show covers the Trese three comics, combining, adding, and subtracting various parts. I would’ve loved to see another five to ten episodes to round out the lore, deepen relationships, and further the story, but things wrap up nicely here. I was also surprised at how complex the drama got in the show, people betraying others, secrets being revealed, and more like that. While I wish that certain parts of her past and the spirit world were explored more, they’re explained enough to get through the show.
The last thing to address here is the animation and style. At first glance, the show looks very average in its quality and design. But after seeing some action and killer creatures, there are a lot of visual treats throughout the six episodes. It isn’t Attack On Titan, Castlevania, or One Punch Man, but things look really nice overall.
This first season of Trese seems like a great jumping point, and I’m happy to see Netflix put in the money to try out a new show like this. I would love to see where the show could lead, but as of now, it is just testing the waters with a well-contained story. Trese is a great thing to sit down and binge in a night if you like horror, crime, or anime.
