We got to know Miko's older sister Nica as well as their relationship in "Collection Quest", and now it's little sister Lexi's turn with "Karate Trainer". Thankfully, the story is about as different as you could get from the former episode, while still providing a satisfying experience.
This is one story that really takes advantage of just about all of Glitch Techs' strengths as a series. You've got the Hinobi technology allowing for immersive, larger-than-life experiences, you've got the well-researched, authentic-looking takes on a famous video game genre that still stand on their own, you've got the personal problem to ground the fantastical elements, and you've especially got the well choreographed and directed action scenes that serve as the main climaxes of each act. These are all impressively mixed together, although the structure does take getting used to. At first, it's not entirely clear what the central conflict is supposed to be. At first, it looks like the stakes are for Lexi to not tell on her parents about Miko's secret duties, but the only time it ever gets brought up again is when Lexi is willing to give up the flash drive containing the evidence... at the end of act 2. On top of that, the actual karate fight the entire episode up to that point had built to is rather underwhelmingly short, only for another climax to come up seemingly out of nowhere.
However, any of the oddities in the plot I found myself not caring about once everything was said in done, because - while it wasn't immediately clear at the time - so much of it thematically works. For example, Lexi wants to get a trophy for her karate skills, and even mocks Miko early on for all of her unlocked trophies being intangible - and yet Lexi is happy at the intangible one she gets thanks to it symbolizing what she just accomplished. Not to mention the true climax forces her to use all the badass skills she picked up on, whereas the real karate fight just kind of had one land a couple punches. This is a very smart way to give someone like her a happy ending without taking the full traditional route. It helps that this is one instance where the personal conflict actively drives the plot and not the other way around like "Collection Quest" and "Castle Crawl" did.
Some parts in the characterization do genuinely suffer, like a handful of likability problems on Miko and Five's ends at certain points, and just the fact Lexi is able to so easily pick up on the Glitch Techs' secret jobs raises a lot of questions to the show's universe that are never really given an answer. That said, the bond between Miko and Lexi is much stronger than you'd think it would be - unlike the one we saw with Nica, where they were usually rather disconnected from each other's lives (which, granted, was the point), their love is constantly present throughout the entire runtime, save for a little quibble here and there. Despite Lexi's guilt-tripping, they make it clear she still *cares* about Miko by showing reluctance, while you get the impression Miko is going through the training out of genuine desire to see her sister succeed with how little the flash drive is brought up. It's probably one of the strongest character pairings we've seen so far, apart from the obvious exception of Miko and Five.
Combine that with some of the most well-rounded humor in the series so far, and you've got a surprisingly strong finish to season 1.
The episode wastes no time in establishing Five's interest in stealth games, which is what most of his role in the episode comes down to. Not a fan of the cover art; you would not see bright yellows dominating a game like Metal Gear Solid. Silhouette's pretty cool, though.
"There's this great movie where a kid learns karate by painting fences and sanding floors!"
"That sounds like the worst karate movie ever."
Pretty forced and standard reference, but I like how it suggests the father here is a little out-of-touch without hammering that idea in.
So Miko pops in for lunch, claiming she forgot to bring her own "again", spits a bite of her sandwich on her plate, and then takes food from her parents' plates for herself. I know Miko can be selfish, but I'd have a really hard time liking her if she had any more moments like this...
Rare look at the Kubota hall. Surprisingly clean and roomy compared to the messy-looking kitchen setup we saw in "Age of Hinobi".
Look at that smug face on Lexi, which is made funnier by how she stays on it when Miko attempts to excuse her cover.
Lexi's video evidence, at least of what we see, is from "Collection Quest". So... how exactly did she get the footage? Does she have this little drone thing follow her around? I don't know how to feel about that...
A couple images from the gameplay we see of Spec-Ops. Obviously less grimdark than the source material, but still has the coolness factor and you can tell the design team had a lot of fun here.
You know exactly what's going to happen with Bergy here, but they manage to make it funny anyway with how snappy the timing is. This is another instance of unusually light shading, suggesting that Top Draw might've handled this scene.
Humorous little visual gag. How much lint can one pocket even have?
I feel like I haven't taken a good Phil screencap in a while, so here's a pretty good one.
Nica and the brothers appear as a fantasy cameo, and I'm pretty sure that's the last we will see of them in the foreseeable future. Shame that we never got to know either of the brothers.
We get a quick look at Karate Trainer over the years, where the first of the series resembles NES artwork, the second (which is called "Karate Trainer Turbo 2" for some reason) is very SNES, and the 3rd seems to combine Sega CD and Gamecube artwork. This is the attention to detail that I love about this show.
We've seen this fighting game layout before in this show, but this is a more full-on display obviously because of how it thematically fits with the episode.
Five shows how much he sucks at being stealthy here, where he gets Phil's attention by saying "Nothing to see here, move along". Then, after a back-and-forth of miscommunications, Phil goes "Hang on, let me come over there." It would've been funny if they left it at that, but then Five decides to tackle Phil because... yeah, that won't get him fired.
And yet surprisingly, all he really gets is this intimidating face. Even Phil noticing the dropped keycard doesn't have as much of a suspenseful payoff as you'd think, he just kind of picks it up and leaves for the remainder of the episode. Okay then...
The best pose when Miko steps in for the chicken style fight. And of course he turns into a roasted chicken.
This is probably my favorite of the Karate Trainer designs here, this lazy-looking frog with an attitude. The fact most of the power is in his tongue is pretty cool too.
This is hilarious. We see him dramatically wind up and launch some fish... only to cut back to the fighting game view where they look much more pathetic.
Five's help when he reenters the plot is of a more Zen-like process, where you have to be "one with the combo, relying upon repetition and muscle memory". This sounds like legitimately helpful advice on both the gaming and fighting side of things, I have to say.
The visual highlight in this episode has to be Miko's anime-style finishing combo, which is flashy, ambitious, and impactful all at once. These two are some of the best images out of it, but there are many more I could've captured.
The monkey fight doesn't leave as much of an impact as the others, most likely because it gets cut short, but the environment is quite lush and this low angle of Lexi is certainly interesting.
The audience has a bunch of designs I don't recall seeing before. I feel like there's got to be some caricatures in there; someone let me know if you recognize any of these.
Five continues channeling Snake by hiding in a box... not that Miko falls for it. Good stuff.
This time, the force being unleashed isn't so much a glitch but the residue energy from the belt. The way it's released doesn't entirely make sense, but I suppose I shouldn't question everything in this universe.
So here's the final boss, combining the powers of the three mini-bosses we saw before. In terms of boss battles within this show, this is probably one of the least memorable from a design and animation standpoint, but they can't all be winners.
Being mostly a Studio 100 episode, we don't get as many chibi references in this show as we did in the previous couple. So this moment stands out more, and it helps the expressions themselves are bleeding with personality. I wish more of them could've looked this good.
Lexi's final form for the climax is given a great reveal, where she comes in out of nowhere to hold back the boss from crushing Miko and Five, and a full virtual body suit forms from there. The ensuing exchange is also incredibly heartwarming - "Lexi, get out of here!" "Sorry sis, that's against the sibling code!" How sweet.
A few screenshots from the final battle. While the show has had better from an animation standpoint, there's still a great deal of strong energy and posing so I certainly can't feel underwhelmed. Plus the amazing orchestration, which wouldn't sound the least out-of-place in a modern fighting game, drives it home.
Probably the most prideful grin Miko has ever sported onscreen, and I really can't think of a better use for it than to embrace the achievement of her little sister.
This may be the last time we see any of Miko's family, but this simple, wholesome image of the two gaming together is probably the ideal note for them to go out on for now. Also for some reason this box *also* contains Five. I don't get it either.