Trese
Created by Budjette Tan, Kajo Baldisimo
Based on Trese by Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo
Written by Zig Marasigan, Mihk Vergara and Tanya Yuson
Directed by Jay Oliva, Tim Divar, David Hartman, Mel Zwyer
Starring Liza Soberano, Shay Mitchell
Opening theme “Balluha’d Bayauhen” (Hudhud)
Ending theme “Paagi” by UDD
Composer Kiner Brothers
Well, Ok, it didn’t seem like a promising plot premise: plucky and talented healer-warrior works with the police to protect a major metropolitan area from a horde of demons and monsters and other nasties. Stop me if if you’ve heard this before. OK, everyone, put down your hands. We can all name a dozen shows with that plotline without even leaving the realm of anime.
Trese (pronounced Tresé or for you monolinguists, tress-eh) stands out from the more humdrum fare for a variety of reasons. First is that it takes place in Manila, and the writers, artists and most of the voice actors are all from the Philippines. This gives the series an unmistakable air of authenticity. And the Philippines have a rich, dark, almost pervasive culture of an underworld to various entities, both evil and benign, on the sort of level you find in the Caribbean nations, and some parts of central Africa.
The creators of the comic book maintained considerable creative control, ensuring that this would be a labor of love.
The series is described as a dark fantasy, which you may correctly infer to mean the goodies and the baddies are malleable and mutable, and the various personalities are, for the most part, surprisingly nuanced. Exception, of course is the Big Bad, who shows up late in the six part series and is irredeemably and gleefully evil.
But characters are against type. The chief of police, who might easily be stereotyped as the Frito Bandito with a Charlie Chan accent, is an honest, caring and dedicated public servant. Trese’s two familiars may look like gangsters and wear complementary Greek theatre masks, but they are brothers and have a kind of a frattish joie-de-vivre to them that makes them somewhat endearing. Trese herself seems confident and strong, but struggles with self-doubt and guilt. One of the local snitches is a cheerfully depraved daemon who lives in the sewers.
The artwork is careful and professional, and has some beautiful images of a dark and mysterious Manila and its magical environs. All told, it’s three hours long (6 episodes) , and well worth the time spent.