 Tapusin na natin tongay. Now, it's a very typical crime drama feel where some underground crime organization starts terrorizing all the people and almost neo-noir detective feel. Think Daredevil, Psychopath, Ghost in the Shell. Actually, you know what it really reminds me of? Dresay is basically the Filipino version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So let's take a look. The first we have Aswang. In this universe, Aswang are scary creatures that eat humans. The closest thing that you can compare it to are probably vampires. Then we have the Tikbalang, which are an ancient race of half-horse, half-human creatures, basically an inverted centaur. Human on the bottom and sexy horse on top. Then there are the Bagyong people, lightning elemental basically. Bagyo means storm or typhoon, so they're like storm people. Nuno, which are basically small creatures, usually depicted as old men living on dirt mountains. Only in the anime he's living in a pothole. So upgrade, I guess? Manananga, basically flying demons that separate half of their body. Then we have the Capre, hairy giants that live in trees. They're usually depicted as smoking a fat, honking cigar. It also features deity and gods from Filipino mythology. Ibu, a goddess of the underworld, and Talibusau, a Filipino god of war. One thing Trese really aimed to do was introduce the rest of the world to creatures and mythology of the Philippines. Growing up, we all heard the tales of Hercules and the Greek gods. Thor chugging down his ale with Loki and Odin in Norse mythology. We know of the stories of ancient Egypt, Anubis, Osiris, the Sphinx, the Pyramids. As a kid growing up in America, nobody really cared about Filipino stories, including other Filipinos. That's why I appreciate Trese. So I'll be honest with you, the animation and writing leaves a lot to be desired. The series starts off slow, but when you get the bearings of the world that they created, the series turns up and definitely gets a lot more interesting. Even for a Filipino, I can see the world and story of Trese being a little overbearing and too much to handle sometimes. As a non-Filipino, it would be very easy to get lost and feel confused watching the series. I wish the series would have done a better job introducing the different characters, species and just overall setting of the show. The greatest example of world building in literature and cinema, of course, are the big three. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Star Wars. The world is vast and epic, but even though the creatures are strange and plentiful, they're properly introduced and as an audience it's easy to fall in love with the world. Trese, I feel at some points just grabbed a bunch of lumpia in a dobo, threw it in our face and was like, alright, here it is, enjoy. You know, I want to enjoy my lumpia. I want to take the time to dip it in the hot chili sauce, saver the bite, saver each crunch. Hey, can we get some lumpia in here? But even though it wasn't a perfect presentation, it was a great introduction to the Filipino physiological world that we all love. I also love the effort they put to present the Philippines as it is. It wasn't some glorification of the Philippines through some rose-tinted glasses, you know, as some Filipino dramas and movies sometimes show the Philippines. Trese showed the ugly parts too, the poverty, the houses made of tin and branches, the crime, the corruption. We see brands like Jollibee. And of course, the best Filipino restaurant, Manginasal. Speaking of Manginasal, before there was BTS or EXO or even SB19, do you guys remember 143? The original boy band that serenaded you and stuffed your face with chicken and rice soaked in that delicious oil. Manginasal. Yo, 143, I know you guys are still active. Let me audition. If you remember my review of Rey and the Last Dragon, I was a little annoyed with how sparse the Southeast Asian representation was. So what I really appreciate about the series was the effort they had to provide Filipino voices and a Filipino cast in the series. Of course, we had Liza Soberano and Shane Mitchell voicing Alexandra Trese. Boys, time to go hunting. Kaya ang ating pamily ang nagingduray sa pagigan ng sang pataohan at sa mundo ng karitan. Manny Jacinto from The Good Place, Jaan Jaan Griones from Ratched, Nicole Scherzinger from The Pussycat Dolls, Dary Chris from Glee. And of course, my favorite, my boy, the prince and pride of the fire nation, Keltay Basto. I'm kind of sad they only used them for one episode and killed them off. Minor spoilers, by the way. That's rough, buddy. And of course, the whole entire Filipino voice cast was Filipino. Even for the English cast, the non-Filipinos, you can hear that they tried their best to do a Filipino accent to preserve the authenticity of the Philippines. Anime and cartoon voice actor veteran Stephen Blum, of course, delivered a great performance. He got the accent down. Ay, tatu talagusaw, the God of War, harbinger of both destruction and creation, Lord of annihilation and rebirth. What's so iconic about Trese is that it's the first Filipino anime or even story to really shine in the mainstream audience. Sure, we've had other Filipino anime before, other Filipino shows and movies, but nothing that was really noticed on a global scale. Trese is the first. Overall, it was a decent series. Not great, but not bad. But I'm hoping that Trese can serve as a stepping stone and a catalyst to seeing more Filipino stories in mainstream media. If you want to see more Filipino stories in the media, check out this book I wrote called Istaman. It's a children's story about a little Filipino superhero. There's a link in the description box below. Let's help elevate Filipino stories all around the world. Thanks for watching.