My thoughts: Ejen Ali: I.R.I.S.

Upin Ipin. One of Malaysia’s first full 3d animated show. The show became a hit among Malaysians and had inspired other amazing shows such as Boboiboy and recently, Ejen Ali.

Despite being aired just last year(by the time this was written),  Ejen Ali received a tremendous amount of support from many Malaysians. In fact, in my opinion, more amount of support compared to Boboiboy when it first aired on Tv.

But don’t worry, Boboiboy. We’ll still love you. We always do.

Since Season One of Ejen Ali is coming to an end, how about we stroll down  the memory lane as we take a look at the episode that started it. Yes, folks. You guessed it. I’m gonna give you guys:

My thoughts:

Ejen Ali: I.R.I.S.

Note: I don’t own anything. Everything belongs to their respective owners. Ejen Ali belongs to Wau animation. Obviously. Also, this not-much-of-a-review is based of my personal opinions. And since it’s based on my personal opinions, I have to warn you, there are possibilities of rants. You heard that right, rants.

Plot summary:

Ali, an ordinary schoolboy who frequently gets bullied and performs poorly in class stumbles upon a mysterious item known as I.R.I.S., which is stolen from a top secret agency by two evil spies, Dos and Trez. And unbeknownst to Ali, he will be involved in a secret evil ploy that could change the world….

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Always arrives to school late

Frequently gets bullied

Has a smart aleck best friend who’s in a totally different league from him

Has an “oppressing” teacher who “doesn’t try to understand that the reason he’s late because he’s helping some innocent people, yadda yadda”

Has a cliché smart aleck opposite gender jerkish rival

Performs very, very poorly in school

That’s the immediate impression I had on Ali, the main protagonist when he appeared on screen for the first several minutes. My reaction? Annoyed. And cringed. Urgh! I just hate characters who are Nobita-ish clones. Characters who performed really badly in academics but DOESN’T try to improve their self! He always arrives late and makes no effort of trying to get early to school! He always performed incredibly poorly in exams but doesn’t try to overcome this by studying! All he does is moans to his best bud about how depressing his life is. Pathetic! Annoying! Cringe enducing! Just from the first episode, these feelings had entered in my hearts.

“Oh, but he tries to help an innocent person from getting bullied. Oh, he couldn’t help getting to school late.” Oh, really? That single good quality is supposed to make me love this character? That proves that he is actually a nice good, little kid? Nuh, uh! Zero. If he is really is a “nice” kid, he would make a serious effort to get to school early and improve his results in his exams. But no, he doesn’t. He being lazy. And an annoying character.

Sorry, folks. I’m ranting just now. But seriously, these “Nobita-ish” characters are really annoying. Not just that, there are quite the number of trope being played here which is totally cliché. In the first episode. Story starts with a conflict(in media res)? Check. The bad guy makes a blunder that causes the important thingamajig to fall into the protagonist’s hands? Check. Best friend giving the protagonist a piece of advice(by accident) which will be important later? Check. Jerkish smart aleck opposite gender rival? Urrh…check. 

Looking at these stuff, I had a bad first impression on the series as a whole. I might had stepped away from the coach with a feeling at loathness at this series and given it a-I don’t know-a 3/10 or something. But thank God I managed to be patient and hang on for more. Because there IS more to the series than meets the eye.

 I had to praise Wau animation for this. They pulled off a concept that managed to flip me(and possibly other people) on the head and get invested in the series.

The I.R.I.S. a.k.a Infinite. Retinal. Intelliginece. System.

I.R.I.S. The thingamajig which is stolen from the secret spy agency by Dos and Trez. I.R.I.S. The special thing which the Big Bad of apparently wants to ensure his evil plans could succeed. I.R.I.S. The special thingamajig which accident;t falls into the hand of Ali, which will(supposedly) make him all powerful and awesome so he can defeat those baddies.

At first, I thought this IRIS thingamajig is gonna be an ordinary item. Oridnary, as in cliché or something like that. But, boy was I wrong. When Ali activated IRIS for the first time, we found out that by using I.R.I.S., Ali can predict and expect incoming dangers, and by following I.R.I.S.s’ suggestions, Ali can negate the dangers and even counter it. How cool is that?! Thanks to the I.R.I.S., Ali managed to save himself from getting squashed by those dastardly evil agents into a pancake. By using I.R.I.S., Ali can also analyse his enemies, which is why from the very first episode, we are able to know that Trez had cybernetic arms. Cybernetic arms? Hmm…interesting.

This makes IRIS a very, very cool, amazing and an awesome weapon. In fact, probably the coolest, most amazing, and most awesome spy weapon I had ever seen in spy fiction history. Not just by it's name, but by it's function. Seriously, had you ever seen a weapon that could amazingly predict your opponents movements with precise ease, and even offers option on how to counter them?! I don’t think so. However, it does have a major weakness. It’s power source doesn’t came from batteries or power generators but it came from…the user itself.

No, not his soul. His body energy. Using the IRIS too long will cause Ali to get tired and faint. So, he can’t use it for a long duration. It’s a major weakness, but I’m fine with it. Why? Because it avoids IRIS being an overpowered weapon. I mean, it can predict every single movement from the enemies and provides options to counter every one of them. How powerful is that?! There’s also another fault to the IRIS. When  Ali activated IRIS, it sync with Ali’s…iris. As a result, only Ali can use IRIS as his…iris is the only one which is compatible with IRIS. Other peoples’…irises aren’t compatible with IRIS, so they can’t use it. Oh, well. At least, the bad guys couldn’t use it too.

There’s a mystery going on around this IRIS. You see, M.A.T.A., the good secret spy agency in this series has been undergoing the IRIS project for quite some time. But, they later cancelled the project and abandoned because according to General Rama, the higher ups in M.A.T.A., early tests showed some dangerous risks. What risks? Why would you guys shut down the project to create this ultimate weapon? Is there actually a dark, deep secret behind the cancellation of the project?

At this time, you can bet I’m invested in this series. Thanks to IRIS. The most awesome thing in spy fiction history.

BTW, I guess I hadn’t mentioned yet, but just by the first episode only, the animation is already looking good. The detailing are amazing, especially on those high tech images and the characters hairs. Oh, gosh. The hair. The hair. The hair. The character movements, though sometimes wonky looks good most of the time. It’s obvious, from Upin Ipin through Boboiboy until now, Malaysia’s 3d animation industry is constantly improving and becaming an impressive piece of art. Ejen Ali also has pretty voice good acting. Dos’ voice is my favourite. So, my:

Final verdicts:

I give Ejen Ali: I.R.I.S. a;

9/10

There are quite the number of clichés that can be seen here. Even annoying ones. But the I.R.I.S. concept is something that people probably didn’t expect. It’s concept is so cool and awesome, and in my opinion, saved the show and made it awesome. There is one scene that I’m not particularly fond of. You know, the part where Dos kicks Bakar’s “precious”? But, meh. I’ll just let it slide.

Got anything to criticize or don’t agree with me? Tell it in the comments. And if you like stuff like this, support my blog so I can write more goodies like this in the future. Like, I don’t know, the second episode of Ejen Ali?

So, see you soon folks!