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Animation: The world opens up for Filipino hero Alexandra Trese

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MANILA, PHILIPPINES — As midnight struck on June 11 in the Philippines, denizens of fans of a locally made comic book series as well as thousands of people curious about a series of billboards began streaming a new show on Netflix. The long wait for the animated series Trese was over and all six episodes can now be streamed.

From the moment that dusk falls on Manila and the MRT is shown stopping on Guadalupe Bridge, the audience is immediately welcomed to a very Filipino setting that thousands of the country’s residents are familiar with on a daily basis. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram exploded with Trese content as excitement over the fan-favorite comic finally appearing in animated form reached fever pitch. Despite needing approximately three hours to binge watch all six episodes, it seemed that people did not mind doing so, all for the love of Alexandra Trese.

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From her humble origins as a creation of writer Budjette Tan and artist Kajo Baldisimo in ashcan komiks editions in 2005, the supernatural investigator known as Alexandra Trese has reached new heights as the first Filipino-created property to be released in animated form globally on streaming giant Netflix. It would be easy to just talk about “Pinoy pride” especially with Philippine Independence Day looming in mere hours, but the Trese phenomenon is more than that.

To find things familiar to so many of us became like a game to viewers as images of Jollibee, Mang Inasal, Dela Rosa Street in Makati, the Meralco Compound in Pasig, the ABS-CBN Broadcasting Center along Mother Ignacia, and even the New Bilibid Prison were seen all over the first season. Even something of an afterthought as the size of the Choc-Nut given to the Nuno or the large “BAWAL UMIHI DITO” in the background were being noticed. That’s just how devoted to details the team from Base Entertainment were.

Alexandra Trese (Liza Soberano/Shay Mitchell), the sixth child of a sixth child, is the lone figure that stands between the forces of the supernatural Underworld and humanity. Armed with her blade Sinag, twin bodyguards Crispin and Basilio (Simon dela Cruz/Griffin Puatu) in their trademark masks, and reliable bartender Hank Sparrow (Christopher Carlo Caling/Jon jon Briones), Trese is often called by Capt. Guerrero (Apollo Abraham/Matt Yang King) to assist the police when cases have a more mystical nature. Guerrero had the same kind of relationship with her father, Anton (Eugene Adalia/Carlos Alazraqui), the previous lakan mandirigma who once convened a War Council featuring different supernatural tribes in anticipation of a coming conflict.

Fans of Trese in the comics will find elements of stories like “At the Intersection of Balete and 13th Street,” “Rules of the Race,” “A Little Known Murder in Studio 4,” “The Outpost on Kalayaan Street,” “A Private Retaliation,” “Patient 414 in Mandaluyong,” “The Fort Bonifacio Massacre,” “The Baptism of Alexandra Trese,” and “An Act of War” are covered in the series. Writers Tanya Yuson, Zig Marasigan, and Mihk Vergara were clearly familiar with the source material, though some liberties were taken with plot points and characters that will still leave the audience surprised.

Fan favorite characters like Maliksi the tikbalang (Steve dela Cruz/Manny Jacinto), the Nuno (Christian Velarde/Eric Bauza), and Jobert the gamer ghost (Steven Bontogon/) also appear, albeit with some minor character tweaks. There is a large overarching story that is shown in flashbacks for most of the season, depicting how the war god Talagbusao has tormented the Trese family by way of ritual sacrifice and plotting their downfall.

And though the show itself is generally well-paced, Talagbusao’s exposition in the season finale went a bit long. After all, he had a lot of explaining to do while also presenting some shockers that the audience will not expect. There is even an end credits scene at the end of the sixth episode that promises something none of the readers of Trese have seen in her comics exploits to date.

For Netflix viewers, many of us have gotten used to watching Japanese anime with the Japanese dubbing and English subtitles. That’s all well and good for Trese because the producers seemed determined to provide a good English voice cast. However, the Filipino dub of Trese is, quite simply, stunning. Soberano captures Trese’s largely cool, unaffected persona even when aswangs and otherworld creatures are threatening her. The dialogue is colloquially sound, doesn’t feel forced, and generally avoids words that are too deeply Filipino that you would never hear in daily conversation. That in itself is already a triumph for Trese because authentic dialogue is so critical in making any animated series work.

That combination of dialogue, buildings and settings, as well as food and signages help ground Trese even more in modern day Metro Manila. At its core, Trese is a series stemming from the minds of two Filipino creators who wanted to bring monsters and ghosts from Philippine folklore for a wider audience. With renowned animation director Jay Oliva directing two episodes on top of serving as executive producer, this intellectual property that Tan and Baldisimo have been extremely protective of for so long remains in good hands. Season Two can’t get here soon enough.

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