what's good nerds? It's Jeff Black Extreme, and today's topic on the zone podcast is Shaolin Showdown, also Shaolin Chronicles, but, but without further ado, let's go ahead and zone in on it. I was really digging Shaolin Showdown back when it came out back in. What was it? 2006, no, no, no. Uh, it was 2003, back when it was on kids wb, but then it got transferred over to cartoon network around 2006, 2007 and something like that, yeah, and then it came back on and boomerang back from 2015 to 2018.
Speaker 1:But by now everything's pretty much on well, not everything, but also the good shit is like our streaming services. Like I'm gonna be honest with you, I just don't know what's be going on with cable. Like at this point. Is there anything on broadcast television that's worth having cable? At this point, you know like blame all you want to about netflix, hulu, uh, disney, plus all those other streaming services, all of them and it's like the same price as cable. But at least you have the choice of picking whatever you want to watch, like instead of hoping that your favorite show and that certain episode comes on and you're just like there's nothing on. But that's what I kind of appreciate about streaming services, even though with the increased pricing.
Speaker 1:Anyways, let's talk about challenge showdown. So essentially we have four young monks there's omi, kimiko, raymundo and clay, and they are practically forced into uh, cooperating with each other at the Shaolin Temple under Master Fong and they have their Companion Dojo. And here's the thing. Let me talk about these characters real quick. Omi, naive, sheltered, but as he progressed in the show he comes up kind of condescending, but I want to believe that he didn't mean anything by it, but I don't know, it just only kind of annoys me sometimes, but I don't hate him. Kimiko, oh, kimiko, tech savvy, and she always had that drip on her Like every time they go out to hunt for Shingonbou and I'm not going to explain Shingonbou in just a moment, but yeah, like drip on, like every fucking time. And I was just digging it. Raimundo, he was the cool guy and he eventually becomes the leader of the four. But that gets like stripped away when you get to Shaolin Chronicles. That's why I say that Shaolin Chronicles just did the whole thing dirty, even though technically with Shaolin Chronicles it was under new management per se. So they can't really recycle everything that Shaolin Showdown had, and I'm going to explain that a little bit more.
Speaker 1:But let's talk about Clay just a minute. Him, even though he's a kid, I kind of see him as that gentle giant. You know, he seems tough but at the same time he's a gentleman. That's hard, so I was digging him too.
Speaker 1:Uh, dojo, he gives me mushu vibes. Uh, you remember mushu from mulan? And, funny enough, we're gonna talk about mulan at a later time. But essentially, dojo is that wise, cracking dragon. Except the one thing that Dojo can do that Mushu can't is enlarge himself to be able to have all the people, all the four monks, riding on his back as they travel to all these different areas of the world to hunt down the shingon woo. Now, shingon woo are magical items that have like some special property going on, like, I say, the orba tsunami just pretty much create a torrent of water. Uh, the golden claws that pretty much creates a rift in space-time. So you can like travel kind of like rick's portal gun, but not universal. I mean literally a whole bunch of cool shit, I'm not gonna lie. Uh, what else? Sword of the storm was a good one. That was a whole bunch of honestly. And once again, dylan chronicles renamed some of the pre-existing shingan, which is weird, like it would be one thing if you just introduced brand new shingan and just called them whatever, but you're recycling ones that are like staples in this franchise, but renaming them.
Speaker 1:And let's go ahead and talk about the villains, the bad guys and all this. So, first off, we got Jack Spicer, the first nemesis. First off, we got Jack Spicer, the first nemesis and, dare I say, the comedic relief out of all the rose gallery that the four Shaolin warriors have to face. Uh, he is a robotic engineer. Uh, he had these long rants. Uh, he likes to overuse the word evil, and that's another thing. If you are truly evil, you won't even believe that what you're doing is evil. That's true evil, right there to where it's like. You know how they say is that the devil's greatest trick is, uh, convincing the world that he never existed. That's what I'm talking about. But you know, and he also got this repetitive proclamation of being an evil boy genius, but a lot of his plans kind of fall apart.
Speaker 1:And then you have Wuya, this 1500 year old hailing witch. By the way, the enemy side is called Hailing and the good side is called Shaolin. Enemy side is called halen and the good side is called shaolin. And she's this halen witch that's like the main antagonist of the whole thing, like, yeah, you're gonna have like secondary antagonist but she's like the main one, like at first she starts off as this ghost-like form. At first she starts off as this Ghost like form, but when she gets her body back, thanks to Raymundo and I will explain that she's not a bad, not gonna lie, she's not a bad. And then on top of that, she doesn't really Need the scroll of the Shingon Wu To determine what it does when it comes to Sensing Shingon Wu, to determine what it does when it comes to Sensing Shingon Wu, and also she's unaffected by the effects Of Shingon Wu.
Speaker 1:Season 2 Premiere. And the Shaolin monks were trying to attack her and it was like to no avail. Yeah, oh, let's talk about chase. Young now chase. I thought he had potential. Well, at least he had great potential in shaolin showdown.
Speaker 1:But then get to shaolin chronicles and I'm like I kind of don't like the direction that this took. But essentially he is a threat that's even bigger than Jack Spicer himself, and he was once turned to the Hayland side by Hannibal Bean preventing him from drinking the Lao Mong long soup and returning for remaining forever young, which is kind of funny. Chase Young, forever young. Yeah, so essentially Chase controls this army of terror from anthropomorphic warriors uh, like you know, jungle cats and he has this ability to shapeshift into this komodo dragon, like creature, and he rarely uses shinganwu because, honestly, if he can turn into a dragon, do you really need shinganwu? I don't know. But basically he refuses. He rarely uses Shingonbou because it distracts him from his martial art skills, which I can I commend him for that. See, that's why I'm saying like he's kind of cool, even though he's the villain. He's like he's kind of cool. Come on from design to what he's about in the core. Yeah, I kind of feel in him. But then Shaolin Chronicles just remixed it to where I guess Hannibal Bean wasn't even involved or anything. It's just, basically, he was just power hungry, just for the hell of it.
Speaker 1:We have Master Fong, who is the master of the Shaolin Warriors, the trainer, the guide and all that. And Master of the Shaolin Warriors, the trainer, the guide and all that, and he does get a little annoyed by his apprentices but he tried to stay calm despite their behavior and mistakes. There was Master Mark Wan, who was this legendary tai chi master traveled the world doesn't time to beat many opponents. You have this famous spirit guan which was given to omi later. Uh, which was the, was actually a copy his favorite copy of the spirit guan was given to Raimundo, so, hmm. So yeah, he was also intended to use uh, the loud man, long soup uh by chase, but to get the uh spirit one back. And he also aids the young monks in combat training every now and then. He have his own temple, so you don't see him a whole lot, but essentially like a another place for Shaolin. We have Grandmaster Dashi, who's the Grandmaster Shaolin Monk, who's the one who imprisoned Wuya to the past and seeking the second puzzle box and was friends with Master Monk Wan and Chase Young and met Omi when he assisted the three in the battle against Wuya.
Speaker 1:They have Hannibal, roy Bean, whose small bean-shaped demon southern accent, for reasons I don't know, spends a lot of time plotting evil and world domination. Blah, blah blah, first shown imprisoned in the yin yang world by chase young, but tricks the shaolin warrior into releasing him. And sometimes he wears his pseudo armor to appear more intimidating and use the mobi morpher, the shingon wu, that allows him to shapeshift into other forms and change size, which is fair, because you know kind of hard to find a small bean-shaped demon intimidating. I'm sorry, I'm just not that impressed. It's almost like Austin Powers, the second one, the Spy who Shagged Me. But essentially you have Dr Evil, got the mini-me clone and then you look down like whoa, that's what it feels like. It's kind of hard to find you intimidating.
Speaker 1:And here's jermaine. Now he's a supporting character. But here's what pissed me off, to where jermaine is such a cool character. Uh, you know, black kid from new york city became me and he at first declined joining up with the Shaolin monks, but eventually he went on to become a Wudai warrior level Shaolin monk after being trained by Chase Young, and that's the thing is like. Oh well, I don't think Chase is that bad. I'm like you're about to find out. But what pissed me off is that we could have had germaine and shaolin chronicles, but instead we got ping pong. And let me talk about ping pong a little bit. Ping pong is just a smaller version of omi with green glasses and his Element is wood.
Speaker 1:But Like some people argue that well, clay is the monk of earth and why Can't you just give clay like a Buff to where? Oh, his Abilities Would too. Instead of just making you know what I mean, like I don't know, just, I just feel Like selling Chronicles Was a bastardization Of what Shaolin, shodan was Supporting enemies. We have Catnappe, basically a cat woman, clone and Lamine Come on Self explanatory. But you know, the main difference is he has magical abilities when creating his illusions. Per, say, we have Chubby Mura, basically like a Sumo, like Ninja that was promised by Wuya and Jack Sparrow that if he retrieved the Sword of storm he would be able to join the haylin about it. Uh, we have cyclops, not the mutant from fucking x-men, but a little one job, one giant, one-eyed monster. That's. Excuse me, sometimes my headsets go off on me. We got Vlad, a Russian on the Hale-Inside, panda Bubba, a crime boss from Hong Kong, gigi from France, the Chameleon, bot, rakshaha, a snowman, and Dyrus, this mermaid type character. So, yeah, that's pretty much the characters I kinda talked about.
Speaker 1:The Shingon Wu. Yeah, there's a whole lot of them. Look them up if you want to, but wait, hold on. What about Tornami? Hey, that's another thing. It's like you could have called it the orbit tsunami, but whatever. Uh, the orbit tournami, the sword of storm fits up tibby gong and the monkey staff, many of those shingun who got redesigned and even renamed.
Speaker 1:But yeah, and what makes this show interesting to me is how the Shaolin monks and the Hale-en warriors I guess you can call them warriors, because half of them are like criminals, I don't know essentially, whenever a Shingon Wu has been detected, the Shaolin monks will fly there, the Heian side will fly there, and they will like, try to grab the Shingon Wu at the same time. And when that happens, it's like, oh, I challenge you to a Shaolin showdown and it's basically gambling. It's where if I win, I it all, and if you lose, you lose it all. Well, not all of it, but it's one-on-one. Sometimes it's a two-on-two or four-person free-for-all showdown. And there was an eight-way challenge showdown at one point. Uh, like four on four. So, and oh, there was one that was like a cosmic clash. So, and oh, there was one that was like a Cosmic Clash.
Speaker 1:Okay, but yeah, like, for the most part this was a pretty good show. Well, shaolin Showdown, but Shaolin Chronicles I don't know what to say about that fam. I really don't Like. At first I kind of glossed over everything. I'm like, okay, it's not not that bad. But re-watching it, yeah, I should throw this in trash. Like you see, that's the thing.
Speaker 1:Shaolin shodown was canceled for reasons unknown, but they brought it back with shaolin chronicles. But the thing is, shaolin chronicles don't know whether it wants to be a Reboot or a, a sequel series or a Reimagining, whatever it's like. I don't know what the fuck they were going on with that, but Eh, it is what it is. It is what it is. Um, I'm gonna say there was a bunch of good episodes For the most part. I'm not gonna bore you, it is what it is. Um, I'm going to say that was a bunch of good episodes For the most part. I'm not going to bore you with all else, but that's pretty much my impression For the most part. The um. Oh, can I talk about how? Because with Shaolin Chronicles it was being Produced in Canada.
Speaker 1:You have to have Canadian Residency, or, like, you have to be From Canada or have a Some sort of Residency in Canada and introduce that, and the only people who had that going on for them was Tara Strong, who was voicing Omi, and Jennifer Hale, who was voicing Catnappe. So that's why they're the only ones with their original voices. But everybody else got recast and, not gonna lie, even though Jennifer Hill did fairly well with Kimiko, it was almost like, ah, it feels kind of weird, even if they were supposed to be like older per se. But oh man, I don't. Tara Strong also voiced Ping Pong, and nothing against. Tara Strong also voiced Ping Pong, and nothing against Tara Strong. She's cool. But I was just not feeling.
Speaker 1:Boris, antonio Raw with Jean-Pierre, called LeGrand the Boris, and they were like uh, uh, fuck all that go Ping Pong. Michael Donovan was voiced in Dojo Master Fong. Jennifer Hale also voiced Shadow, who was being like a spy For the Shaolin Monks as the name Willow. But here's one thing that Kind of bugs me you could have made that whole arc where Willow was just chilling with. You could have made it like Terra from fucking Teen Titans where, oh, you thought you had a new friend in the Shalann Temple but turns out she was a spy for Chase Young the whole time. But it's like nah, y'all made the whole double agent shit way too fast-paced where like, okay, now we know that she's a villain, but y'all could've like Low cook that shit. You know what I mean. I kinda did like how Um Wuya Instead of being voiced by Susan Silo.
Speaker 1:Nothing against her, but I'm more familiar with Kreese Summer Because she was doing a whole bunch of shit Like you remember Number 5 from Conan Kiss Next Door. She was Susie from Rugrats. She was Elmira from Tiny Toon Adventures. She was also on Inspector Gadget. Like To me, chris Summer is a legend in my opinion. That felt like an upgrade to me personally.
Speaker 1:Nothing against Susan, but yeah, let's talk about some of these new characters that was introduced into Dallin Chronicles and you know what, let's talk about some of these new characters that was introduced into Shaolin Chronicles. Now that I'm on to, we have Sabador Kumo, who is this charming villain that can transform into Kumoto Dragon. I can see how this is getting a little repetitive, because you already have Chase Young for that shit, but he was once allied to Wuya, and Repentant because you already have Chase Young for that Shit, but he was once allied to Wuya and have some sort of mysterious Connection to Chase. So there's that. Oh, can I talk about how In Shaolin Chronicles they said that oh, omi, check this out. Related what? Really? Nah, fuck all that.
Speaker 1:And another thing about shaolin chronicles six of the last episodes like the last six episodes didn't even come out until the show was on netflix. So if you ever felt like and this Shaolin Chronicles kinda ended on a weird note, then yeah, because the whole fucking thing was weird. Like me personally, I'm sorry, but y'all could've threw Shaolin Chronicles in the trash, like and Raymundo becoming the leader of the Shaolin Monks, despite the fact that he felt a little jaded by, okay, when there was trouble in the first season of Shaolin Showdown and he disobeyed Master Feng's order, and when everything was resolved Master Fong rewarded Omi, kimiko and Clay but reprimanded Raymundo for following orders. So Raymundo was tempted by Wuya to join the Heilan side. He was reluctant at first but then he was like hold on, like let me reconsider, and then eventually he just decided to have this whole evil arc Started, wearing his hoodie over his head and all that shit. And I found that kind of interesting because it kind of reminded me of Tommy Oliver from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to where except Tommy was introduced and he wasn't part of the team at first but then he became the Green Ranger and tagging out to Power Ranger for five episodes and then joined their side, eventually became the White Ranger.
Speaker 1:Blah, blah, blah. Y'all know that, but with Raymundo it just felt interesting but also kind of weird how it's like he betrayed the Shaolin monks but eventually he became the leader. I mean, I understand that he needed a character arc art, but so kind of weird how a traitor became the leader. Yeah, oh yeah, challenge showdowns, it can be anything. The talents can be anything. It could be a fucking basketball game as far as we're concerned, like it could be a sumo match. It could be a game of tag or just a straight up fight, just straight boxing or some type shit. But overall, what can I say? I was digging shaolin showdown, don't care for shaolin chronicles and with that being said, that's pretty much all I have to say on shaolin showdown. Shaolin chronicles watch, if you will I believe it's still on netflix and remember to stay nerdy and that great things are coming. We whoops. I am zoning out. Take it easy, y'all.