Neo Yokio: Season 1 - Review

This is a full non-spoiler review for all 6 episodes of Netflix's new series Neo Yokio - out Friday, September 22nd.

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Neo Yokio’s emptiness goes far beyond its protagonist’s melancholy nature; it lacks needed in-between frames for smooth animation, it disregards dimension in its more grand scenes, and it feigns sincerity in any serious issue it tackles. But most importantly, Neo Yokio is humorless. Neo Yokio is an animated Netflix original series by Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig and stars Jaden Smith as a demon slayer who gets his lofty life turned upside down after his friend is possessed. Instead of feeling like an anime parody, it's easier to see Neo Yokio as a bad show desperately trying to fit in with the rest of the anime on Netflix. A handful of decent moments and a few standout performances don’t come close to outweighing the mediocrity of Neo Yokio.

After an interesting tourism commercial for Neo Yokio, we’re introduced to the rest of the show with a panty shot – Neo Yokio doesn’t waste time in pushing anime tropes. Protagonist and demon slayer Kaz Kaan watches two women play tennis as he laments his girlfriend leaving him to chase her dream job in San Francisco. He does a lot of moping throughout the series. Kaz is selfish, and his melodrama is entertaining at times. I do like that Kaz is seemingly meant to mimic some of the worst anime protagonists out there, though his vain and lethargic personality does drag after awhile.

Even in a six-episode series, it seemed to take a long time before I really understood what Neo Yokio’s muddled story tries to accomplish. Neo Yokio has a demon problem… sometimes. When it does, Kaz is hired to eliminate the dark beasts, but this show is mostly about Kaz’s social exploits. Much of the narrative progression is weirdly rooted in a cycle of women that pass through his life. It also tries to give weight to the gross vanity of the city’s elite. Neo Yokio is one of those pieces that tries to say something progressive or serious only to undermine its point by making it the a butt of a joke. For instance, one of the main characters comes to realize how Neo Yokio’s materialistic culture is toxic to their society. From then on she’s framed as unstable and radical.

Neo Yokio also does a poor job of mixing Japanese culture into a city that’s supposedly a fusion of New York and Tokyo. The Tokyo side rarely shows, and when it does, Neo Yokio awkwardly seems to shove at whatever Japanese thing they’ve got in the viewer’s face. At one point a couple brings out onigiri (rice balls), and the camera focuses just on them as if to say, “hey, Japanese food!” Then when a character uses a Japanese word to describe someone, it’s repeated incessantly, as though Neo Yokio’s team thought that’d help people unfamiliar with the term somehow get it. It feels exploitive.

And though it’s described as a magnificent place, Neo Yokio fails to depict the city as something grand. Scenes that could have been opulent are dull and lack texture. The basketball arena is full but eerily still and flat. A party with the city’s wealthiest is practically empty and the hall is terribly designed. The few action scenes are lacking, too. A lot of that comes from the stunted animation that comes with fewer frames in between key movements. There are a handful of scenes that look nice, but generally, the backgrounds thwart the sometimes fun character design.

While the story at large is all over the place, the characters themselves at least have some redeeming scenes. Kaz traveling to a graveyard to go lay in his own grave was one of my favorite moments early on, and encounters with his rival, Arcangelo, were done well. An episode that skews away from Kaz and his tiring personality was mostly better than the rest because it lets supporting characters steal part of the spotlight. It also focuses on paying homage to a great early 90's anime and gives Kaz a metaphorical slap on the hand for being disrespectful to women. Unfortunately, the sparse good moments in other episodes are often jumbled between boring scenes.

Character animation is on par with the rest of the Neo Yokio; characters are rarely expressive. That leaves Neo Yokio’s impressive cast left with not a lot to work with, but generally, performances are solid and make up for the lacking facial animations. Jude Law as Charles, Kaz’s mecha butler, is unsurprisingly a standout. Jaden Smith does an acceptable job playing the lethargic demon slayer, but when paired with Tavi Gevinson’s Helena St. Tessero, the scenes drag with their more mellow performances.

Neo Yokio goes on to end with an unimpressive twist and alludes to another season. The build-up in the last two episodes feels like actual progression that was needed earlier on. Important characters are introduced annoyingly late, and Kaz starts acting like an adult instead of an emo teen. Once the final set of credits roll, we’re left with what feels like a partially developed season that desperately needed the other half to justify the meandering of earlier episodes.