Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld Review – In Sight of Greatness
COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2024
Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld is almost everything we want in an animated series. A show with a cool art style bringing to life an original story constructed by a wealth of people of colour both on and off screen can be found on the wishlist of a good chunk of animation fanatics. Created by Echo Wu (in her showrunning debut) and featuring the voice talent of Ali Wong and Bowen Yang, Jentry Chau works against the poisonous animation industry trend of having white men controlling POC stories. This story is specific to Chinese culture, and the people behind it reflect that.
Also extremely appealing about Jentry Chau is its ambitious genre mishmash, centring around the titular high schooler who is confronted with the struggles of making friends, love triangles and the responsibility to protect her loved ones from demons invading the mortal realm from the underworld who seek Jentry’s ancient fire-wielding powers. All the ingredients of this 2D animated gumbo come together for a good meal, but Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld is just one step from greatness.
An important rung on that ladder is the show’s visual style which is satisfyingly saturated and dynamically lit for a 2D show. The first episode is a breathtaking showcase for what animation studio Titmouse are able to achieve with lighting. Starting off in Korea, Jentry is immediately lined with neon signs as the sun sets. When she gets into a battle and her powers begin to kick in, that extra light source is used in such a creative way to bring more dynamism to closeups on characters’ faces. The purples and pinks that contrast with the night sky and refract off faces, clothes and props are absolutely gorgeous.
The character models themselves are also full of interesting details. They feel familiar enough for what we’ve seen from 2D sitcoms but have a slight oddness about them in some characters’ chin, eyes and cheek shapes that make them feel distinct and unique to the show. This all complements the backgrounds which are never plain and boring. There’s always something lining the action, whether it’s a table of trinkets or a line of shops.
The fight scenes (sometimes literally) bring the show to new dimensions. Storyboarded to perfection, this exploration of Chinese myth through a Scott Pilgrim-like gauntlet of foes allows Jentry Chau to play with all kinds of imagery conjured by a pantheon of power sets. We’re introduced to Ed, a shapeshifting demon whose transitions between forms happen in a blink of an eye without you ever losing track of the action, we get kaiju-sized demons whose scale is used to communicate the size of the burden placed on Jentry to be a saviour.
COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2024
While the visuals thrive in the big, loud moments that matter, it’s some of the quieter beats that are underserved. As good as the character models look, the face animation can sometimes let down some great writing and performances. There are few too many moments where Jentry’s face is blank and stoic while Ali Wong layers her vocals with sincerity and emotion.
Equally bland is the character animation. Despite having different personalities and backgrounds on the surface, the movement of the cast of characters is uniform, meaning little is gleaned from the animation performance and the script has to do some heavy handed heavy lifting. This is with the exception of Ed, whose otherworldly nature and comic relief allows him to move with a bit more freedom.
This feeds into a larger, hugely subjective, issue with the show – I never fell in love with these characters. There is a concentrated effort from the show to make the main cast extremely likable which comes with the cost of actually giving characters quirks and likes and dislikes and any kind of specificity in case they start to come off as too annoying or too weird. We have to spend seven hours with these characters who (except for a couple) are nice, kind people and not much else.
COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2024
It’s worth comparing this to another animated, supernatural, high school-set series on Netflix – Dan Da Dan. Like Jentry Chau, the characters in Dan Da Dan fall into recognisable archetypes but put them into overdrive. It’s a joy to spend time with these characters because it feels like you’re unlocking new sides to their personality with each episode. They’re all a bit weird, stupid and infinitely more watchable because of that.
Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld is a good show just shy of greatness. Its visual style and grand action is undeniable, hair raising and engaging, even when the quieter moments in the show let it down slightly. Still, it’s a net positive for this show to exist. The streaming model is flawed in so many ways, requiring a deluge of shows and movies to be made at a high rate, but it also allows stories like this, that are culturally specific and would be seen as too much of a risk a couple decades ago, to be made. The future of streaming is uncertain, but I hope it’s full of more Jentry Chau’s.