S01.E08: The Fourth Scroll

[Guest]

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Jin and Wei-Chen must stop Bull Demon's plan to destroy Heaven.

Dropping May 24, 2023

[Camera One]

I was going to watch just two episodes per night, but I ended up watching the final four to find out what was going to happen next.

This finale was well done.  It started strong with the funny dream sequence that brought a lot of the story threads together.  

As I said in a previous post, it was a bit too obvious that Jin was the fourth scroll, and it was a bit too drawn out before he realized it. 

However, the lead-up and the climax to the game was entertaining to watch and provided good payoff.  It was cool to see Jin team up with his anime obsessed friend.  

It was also nice payoff to see the mom and the dad working together to "save" the Monkey King (I can't believe Wei-Chen didn't go back to see if he could find his father in the rubble) and reconciling in the process.

Overall, I enjoyed watching the series.  The story threads and character arc (eg. Jin) were a bit messy and random, though.  There were parallels between various characters and the themes of identity, and confidence, and standing up to prejudice, and being true to oneself, etc., but I'm not sure if it fully worked.  Jin kind of sold out to be on the soccer team and to be accepted by the guys/get the girl.  But I guess he made up for it by helping Wei-Chen and going back to his cos-play roots in the end?   

The show didn't really follow the book arc of a Chinese American boy accepting his cultural identity paralleling the Monkey King accepting his own heritage.  It didn't seem like Jin was rejecting his ethnic roots.

I didn't like how it ended up with a cliffhanger, but hopefully that means they are hoping/planning for a Season 2.  The acting was good, the actors had good chemistry (especially Jin and Wei-Chen) and there was a fun quirkiness in the show in between the less inspired fitting-in-with-the-popular-crowd-in-high-school drama.  I wouldn't mind spending a few more seasons with these characters.

[AnimeMania]

I am not Chinese, nor read the Graphic Novel, but I heard that the supernatural elements are minimal and the story is more about finding your place culturally and what you might give up to fit in.

General observations:

I thought Jin's mother was going to help the old herbalist find new clients and save her business, rather than use her merchandise to make the mother richer.

There were not a lot of different minorities in the show, the coach and the mascot were Black, the protester/newspaper girl was Japanese, and Jin's previous best friend was Middle-Eastern. All the White people, except the Principal and maybe Jin's Father's boss, were not fleshed out at all.

Amelia, Jin's girlfriend, seemed displeased with her parents and her life, even though both seemed perfectly fine. They didn't even seem to mind that she was in her bedroom with a boy with the door was closed. 

TV actor Wong seemed like he was on a different show and they spliced them together, I really thought he was going to reach out to Jin to try and make him feel better when the memes linked them. I didn't really feel bad that Wong never got the roles that he wanted, he was old, not particularly handsome, had a thick accent, and his voice sounds weird, so I could imagine that any of those reasons might prevent him from getting the types of roles he wanted to play.

It was weird that Jin gets into trouble for pushing a mascot that was bothering him even though he asked the mascot to leave him alone, several times. Where was the Principal when a video of a student surfaces where the student appears to have been tossed into a trash can and pushed head first into a glass trophy case, then staggers around while everybody just stares and laughs. Thus sparking protests in the school. OR one of your students posting selfies after vandalizing another school with TP and (putting several "staff" sized holes in the pavement.) 

I didn't think it was all that racist for the Principal to pair Jin with Wei-Chen since she assumed he might speak some Chinese and they did have the same classes, except for Gym and Math.

I might have missed some things, but I didn't really notice the students treating Jin in a racist manner or having any kind of conflicts with anybody whatsoever. The closest I saw was ordering Panda Express, but since they paid for the entire birthday party, you can cut them some slack. I didn't even find the situations of TV show that racist, just the accent and the catch phrase. Full disclosure: I laughed really hard when Wong jumped off the counter and the ceiling fan fell on his head.

I thought the show could have pushed the stereotypes a little harder, other than the scene with the Principal and Jin's parents, they were way too subtle. The Chinese were the ones dissing other Chinese, when someone's child did not become a doctor.