It’s a plethora of powers this week as the famed Praetorian shows up! It’s pretty clear who will get the beat down in this episode since, so far, our main villains are not the strongest or brightest. But how bad will it be for Johnny Bolt and his gang of misfit villains?
1. Pulling powers out of the air
Praetorian has not one, not two, but two hundred different powers. And he gets a new one every day! Lucky guy. The show tells us that he’s a popular hero with fans all over the world and people making bets about which power he’ll use but doesn’t do anything with this information. Maybe something will come off it as the series progresses? Who knows. Every time Super Crooks does things like this I’m reminded of Tiger & Bunny, another show about superheroes going on television that came about before the Netflix anime push. It grappled seriously with the effect of fame on the heroes and I think that’s what this show is trying to do but it gets lost in the battles, bad dialogue, and random violent happenings.
All that said, Praetorian holds your interest, which is more than I can say for Jonny’s sidekicks. He looks like a bishonen Peacemaker, with cargo pants and a big bird logo on his chest. Character design aside, his personality is that of a bizarrely cheerful sociopath? He’s supposed to be a brutal hero and gives the gang a serious beating but somehow all four survive.
2. Bloody noses all around
Speaking of the battles between the Praetorian and the villains, they look pretty good and they’re nice and bloody. The knockoff Mr. Freeze gets a taste of Praetorian’s fire breath and Kismet gets a taste of his own bad luck in the form of a shark to the face. Literally, a shark falls on his face! Things like this are what I wish Super Crooks would lean into because they’re surprising and fun and weird. But then the tone changes back to a standard anime slugfest and the humor just falls flat. The violence is fun and when the show is the most engaging but it wants to have its cake and eat it too. Characters get brutally beaten and then show up in the next scene just fine. This could work in a self-aware comedy but this show isn’t aware enough to comment on it. It also isn’t gritty enough to actually show the consequences of the beatings the way a show like Fist of the North Star or Berserk would. Even Naruto spent more time explaining how each fight affected its characters and they were silly ninja teens. Super Crooks can’t decide if it wants to be an action show or a comedy. Maybe all the anime comparisons are unfair, since this is inspired by a comic instead of a manga, but it makes for a strange experience when you see anime-style characters but your anime genre expectations aren’t quite met.
3. The girlfriend saves the day
Kasey saves the day with her mind control powers. She plays the disappointed girlfriend but drives the gang home anyway. Lucky for Johnny and his friends, the Praetorian doesn’t have a defense against a psychic villain.
When they get home, Kasey lectures Johnny, understandably disappointed that he lied to her and almost got them thrown in jail. Johnny betrayed her trust and acted like a complete idiot. She tells him so, threatens to break up with him and then… has sex with him anyway. It’s a baffling turnaround that would make no sense for an actual character but Kasey is more of a prop and a plot tool than a character. I wouldn’t mind so much if there weren’t great anime girlfriend characters out there who show that you can have a sexy girl with personality. Winry from Full Metal Alchemist, for example, or Faye from Cowboy Bebop. Kasey is, so far, a character who does what the plot needs and no more.
4. The last job, we swear
To move to the next arc, Kasey drops an exposition bomb, while naked, of course. Game of Thrones may have pioneered the technique of having naked people explain things but Super Crooks has so far used it twice in only four episodes. The cheesecake (and beefcake, to be fair, he’s naked too) doesn’t help make the dialogue any better, though. Kasey tells Johnny about her mentor villain and proposes that they do one last job to get rich and retire. Clearly, this isn’t going to happen but good luck, kids. Why exactly Kasey needs Johnny in her sensible retirement plans, I have no idea, since it seems like she’d be better off without him… But that’s just, like, my opinion, man.
Continued below5. The Old Man and The Heat
The old mentor of Kasey’s is called The Heat, a legendary villain who was never caught, never killed anyone, and then disappeared. He looks like a cranky old man anime character and those can be a lot of fun, so I’m hoping he’s as weird as possible. I do question why Johnny wouldn’t have heard of him before since he played such a major role in Kasey’s life? He learns about The Heat like a clueless point-of-view character but since he’s our main guy, it just makes him seem clueless and out of touch with the world.
Next time on Super Crooks, we’re headed to Chicago to meet some new villains and learn about the big heist The Heat has planned.
