Neo Yokio (review)

Kaz Kaan is an aristocratic mage in the city-state of Neo Yokio. Descended from a long line of demon hunters, he patrols the city at the behest of his aunt Agatha, earning money to support his lavish lifestyle. Considering himself to be a true gentleman, he embodies the values of the city he calls home.

A storied family history. Demon attacks. Magic powers. Sounds like an awesome series, right?

WRONG.

Let me make this clear: Neo Yokio is utter garbage. In this Netflix original series, there is no semblance of a plot, the characters are flat, its attempts at political commentary have no depth, and its presentation is amateurish.

The voices are awful, whether we’re talking about Kaz’s emotionless monotone, Sailor Pellegrino’s fake-sounding southern talk, or the bevy of craptastic attempts at foreign accents. None of the voices sounded like they had any energy or effort put into them, making for a bad viewing experience as either flat or overdone deliveries piled up. The dialogue is no better, with several characters over-explaining how they feel or what they do, or spouting a bunch of dumb cliches; a particularly egregious example of bad dialogue is when Kaz lectures an old man about the perfume he sprays on his wife’s headstone, and the old man does not tell him to get lost (though he does stand his ground.)

The plot is a haphazard mess with no overarching goal. Only the first three episodes have demon attacks; the next three are an attempt at political drama with no real stakes (Episode 4 in particular is a cringe avalanche.) A sense of forward progress is essential to short series like this, but the episodes don’t lead up to anything, instead just being one contrived situation after another. At the end, it doesn’t feel like anything has changed.

The political commentary is shallow, mostly consisting of characters saying lines filled with buzzwords. There simply wasn’t enough room to explore any political issues. The series would have been better served focusing on its core conceit of demon hunting and leaving politics for a later season.

I don’t know who thought this work was acceptable. There was no fun factor and few interesting ideas beyond the heritage of demon slayers and the alternate history where Neo Yokio takes the place of New York and is an independent city-state, the Soviet Union still exists, Quebec is its own country, and Italy colonized Japan. This show actually had potential in its setting and concept, but it fell woefully short.

I do not recommend this at all.