Xiaolin Showdown was written in November 2003 by Christy Hui. The series focuses on the battle between the noble forces of Xiaolin and the evil forces of Heylin, mostly over control of the magical artifacts the Sheng Gong Wu used in the legendary battle by the Xiaolin Master Dashi to defeat the Heylin witch Wuya. I don't know if I was just looking in the wrong places but before watching this series I heard basically no discussion about it whatsoever, although people did seem to react positively to it coming up. I don't want to go so far as to call it a forgotten gem because I don't know how much people do recall this series and how much they talk about, plus I think it would be rather presumptous to say regardless but I do wish this series was talked about more.
3 reasons I love it:
1: So this is a rather simple positive but I just really like the characters. Omi is endearingly arrogant with a funny tendency to mess up saying similar to a lot of other characters I like (Sailor Venus, Starfire etc), Kimiko is really sweet but also funny due to her hot-headedness etc. There's a really cool roster of villains ranging from cool, silent and serious business like Chase Young to lovingly pathetic although can still be important like Jack Spicer. I've heard some people argue the characters are too simple, and I can sort of see that point of view but I don't know I found them really entertaining even if they weren't the deepest, plus even if they don't have hidden depths, they are deep enough and are used well enough that they can surprise you and make you think. I particularly love how in the first episode for instance, each of Omi's 3 friends taught him a mundane lesson reflecting their personalities and it was through them Omi was able to beat Jack.
2: Creator Cristy Hui wanted to create a unique fusion of Western and Eastern Culture and I definitely think she succeeded on that front. The series is a very interesting feeling series that mixes not just drama, action and comedy but the very distinctive Western and Eastern forms of both. Jackie Chan has explained some of the differences between action scenes shot in Eestern action films vs Eastern action films such as how in Western action films there are many cuts, usually after every hit and the camera moves a lot, creating a sense of confusion and chaos while in eastern action films there are less cuts and the camera remains a bit farther away, showing the whole enviornment giving a sense of the more harmonious rthymn of the fight. The final showdown in Xiaolin Showdown alternates between lots of cuts in a chaotic up close environment and few cuts from a more pulled back camera, to give an example. The characters and locales reflect this, the series starring a multi-national team from 3 different continents who regularly travel to locations around the world in search of the Sheng Gong Wu, which gives the series a very versatile diverse feel.
3: The series tone is not just really well balanced but also progresses in a very natural feeling way. The series goes from being mostly comedic with some serious moments in season 1 to mostly serious with some comedic moments in season 3, with the very tail ends of each season being the most clear and the transition feels not just natural with the rising level of threat but also gives weight to what is more rare. The serious moments in Season 1 are all the more dramatic given the normal tone of the series and the funny moments strike harder in Season 3 due to the comic relief factor. The series is very good at alternating the comedy and seriousness or to go even further the proper levity and gravity of an episode, so that the current threat level feels very tangible without every detracting from the sense of adventure of the series.
3 Flaws:
1: This show is kinda shallow symbolically. It's probably the series that I think of the least on my favorites list because while it's great fun to actually watch, it doesn't have a lot of deeper meanings to it. The themes that are in the series are pretty on the surface stuff and while there's a lot of cool Wuxia-type things that happen in it, the series never tries to rise much beyond being a cool action-comedy series aimed at children. Perhaps this is a harsh thing to say for a series aimed at children but some of the other series on my favorites list are aimed at children and a large amount are aimed at teenagers. A good children's series is generally thought to be one that can be understood by children but which has depth to better appreciate as you get older and understand what it was trying to say better. If you watched Xiaolin Showdown as a kid, I imagine will you will probably get the exact same out of it watching it as an adult; it's got action and comedy but nothing deeper only an adult would understand, outside maybe a few jokes which rely on metafictional context to get. This is probably for me the biggest problem with the series, the other 2 points are much more minor.
2: The series particularly near the start of the series can be kinda formulaic. It's characters go after some Sheng Gong Wu, there's some failure because they don't understand a lesson, figure out the lesson, win the Showdown at the end. Although even in S1 there are clear outlier episodes where the plot doesn't go as normal like the Sapphire Dragon or Mala Mala Jong eps, the latter actually setting up the season finale
3: I'm not normally the type to complain about plot holes, because I know obviously if character A actually used power X to it's optimal degree there wouldn't be a show. But for some reason especially with the series I noticed the fact that a lot of the Wu they get could be used in absolute broken ways they just don't exploit or other plot holes. I don't know if there is actually more plot holes then normal, or I am just noticing it more because this series with a pretty clear sense of continuity which specifically pointed out all the broken things one could use the Golden Tiger Claws, which basically creates portals, for and had to temporarily get rid of it because all it's applications. The amount of nonsense one could hypothetically do with a lot of the other Wu kinda raises a bunch of other questions if we're going to bring up realistic usages of them. Why not use Shroud of Shadows (Invisiblity) and Serpent's Tail (Intangibility) to get perfect stealth and inflitration (Jack does use Shroud of Shadows for thievery sometimes but still)? Why don't they use the Sun Chi Lantern like all the time if it gives one all of their powers?
Favorite Part:
My favorite part was probably the ending to Omi Town where after a failed quest to find his parents, his family and being emotionally hurt by a deception, Omi returns to the temple to realize that his friends and those at the temple had become his new family. Call me a sucker for heartwarming moments but I thought it was really sweet.
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