Thoughts: Ejen Ali Season One finale

Hmm…Originally I wanted to write a review on every episode of Ejen Ali. From Episode One to Episode 13. But, due to time restraints and laziness, I decided to just skip to the season finale. Hope you guys don’t mind. Also, thanks to those who had read my blog post about my thoughts on the season pilot, IRIS. I really appreciate it. If you hadn’t read it yet, then please do. Now, before I discuss my thoughts, I like to address a few things. Basically, it’s my observation of the series as it goes so far.

-Wow. Who could knew that Ejen Ali will turn out to be quite a serious and mature show? It’s action scenes surely attracted kids to the tv screen, but we teens(and possibly adults, too) are more interested and intrigued with the story under it. The guys at Wau animations are really good at nailing these emotional scenes, especially with emotional music. So good they are, they gave stuff that seems and looks cliché a fresh new breath. I don’t think it’s far-fetched to regard Ejen Ali as an anime-inspired animation, right(plotwise, of course)?

-Ali is now my favourite character. From an annoying, lazy, hopeless, order disobeying, cringey brat to a less annoying, less lazy, less hopeless, less cringey and a more potent, capable, skilled, cool, and an awesome kid, especially in his skills as an secret agent. He’s so skilled to the point where, during a fairly recent episode he managed to single-handedly fend off Dos and Trez! How cool is that? Yeah, he still slopes in school and disobeys orders during important missions sometimes but he at least tries to improve himself. That’s got to prove something, right/ As the series progresses, we found out that he actually has family issues. You see, his father is actually a very famous scientist who played an important role in the development of the city of Cyberjaya(surprise, surprise), and because of this, he doesn’t spent that much time with Ali at home. While Ali’s mother…is…well, dead. Well actually, she’s supposedly dead. We haven’t quite sure yet how does his mother die, either missing dead ‘type’ or ‘died in front of the eye’ type-which is definitely more horrifying. Whatever it is, it sure did leave an impact on Ali. Now I starting to feel sorry for him. That’s probably the reason why Ali keeps failing in school. The death of your loved ones leaves a very deep impact to your life, you know.

-Alicia…is a jerk. And has father issues, just like Ali. And couldn’t accept defeat. Jeez. She’s not the worse character to ever appear in the series. Oh no, no, no. But she certainly wouldn’t sitting in my top choices. But don’t tell her about this, okay…

-The revealation of UNO’s identity as Rizwan’s mentor is…expected. I mean, it’s pretty obvious. And cliché. But meh, it’s cool so it’s fine. But the reveal of Jenny as UNO’s secret spy? MIND-BLOWING. These guys at Wau animation are really good at pulling off plot twists. They misdirect us by making it look like either Bakar or Rizwan is the traitor. And when, both of them are proven to not be the the traitor, and when we forget about all that whole stuff(because we are too busy watching the action between UNO’s faction and MATA going), they smacked us across the face with the reveal of Jenny as the spy. Bravo, Wau animation. Bravo. It may seem forced but it actually clarifies some things. It explains why Dos was able to take Jenny’s Id card and lab coat and break into the lab in the first episode. Because Jenny gave those stuff to her in the first place. It also explains why in episode 11, when Ali was confronted by the security of MATA when he tried to break into it, the security suddenly shut down. Not because of Comot, but because of Jenny, who shut down the security herself. Yet again, it explains why in episode 12, when Ali tried to contact the HQ, the signal couldn’t get through. Because Jenny blocked it using some sort of device.  Also, what kind of metal is UNO wearing, that renders his data unreadable by IRIS? And what’s the deal with the MATA higher ups? Is there a conspiracy going on? Hmm…mysteries, mysteries…BTW, is UNO wearing a bionic arm? Hmm...more mysteries to be added to the shelves...

-I knew it. I knew that IRIS has more abilities that meets the eye.

No, not this more than meets the eye. 

And the episode: Potential proves my point by showing off more of IRIS’ abilities. But the override mode? Nope, didn’t expect that. The ability to control nearby electronic systems and devices? That’s just too, too cool. And thickens the plot.

-Doctor Aaron is actually a pretty interesting villain. He has a very interesting motive. You see, he wants to advance the ‘human species’ and bring them to an age of prosperity or something like that. To achieve that goal, he has been developing high tech gadgets that he hopes could bring out the full ‘human species’ potential. That’s a pretty noble intention, right? Well, yeah but unfortunately, like every other bad guy, Dr. Aaron’s methods in achieving this goal are quite…unethical, you could say. Wait, what do you mean by that? Well, I don’t know. Like, turning your workers into fellow hard slave labour without any emotions and capability to think and while work non-stop, 24/7 without complaining and will continue doing so until the energy in the body runs out, just like mindless robots?

Yup, you read that right.

It’s a pity though to see him getting bossed by UNO and his associates like he was their hard labour. I hope that in the future, Dr. Aaron will manage break from their faction and starts cooking up a serious plan to ensure his ‘noble’ goal gets achieve, and thus becames a serious threat towards Ali, MATA and the city of CyberJaya.

-Futuristic, modern and highly advanced Malaysia? Awesome…

-I got a feeling that the people at Wau animation(or at least, most of them) believe in the thought that Hang Tuah is not really the hero of Malaysia. The real hero actually belongs to Hang Jebat. Well, we all have our own opinions about stuff like this...

Now that I have made my points, let’s get into my:

Thoughts: Ejen Ali Season One finale

 Override

Hmm…Override…cool…

Wow. Just wow. This episode has to one of the best episode of Ejen Ali that I had ever seen. Intense and epic. Those are the words I would use to describe this amazing episode. The action scenes are very choreographed and animated, and becames intense and epic thanks to the amazing soundtracks and emotional value injected into it. You can feel intensity as you watch the battle unfold between UNO’s faction and MATA. There’s no other way to say it. It’s simply awesome.

IRIS controlling Ali? OH MY GOSH! Why, Wau animation? Why do you constantly try to blow our minds with shocking surprises? The concept of IRIS controlling and manipulating Ali’s body to it’s own will is amazing…and quite dark. Imagine it. A machine, a freaking machine, controls a persons body. And in this case, it’s a 12 year old. A child. Can you imagine what kind of implications it could cause? No wonder the higher ups at MATA decided to shut down this project. Hmm…when you think of it, is it possible that during the project someone got controlled by IRIS and causes severe implication towards him/her? Who knows? That’s a theory for another day.

Though, just a suggestion to Wau animation. If you really plan on making more and more surprises like these, try foreshadowing these stuff. That way, it would avoid making them looked forced. Unless...you did foreshadow these stuff...Hmm...maybe I have to rewatch the entire season One of Ejen Ali for this...

I knew it! UNO does have a bionic arm. Which means he doesn't have a left arm. That's quite dark...I love it.

Well, if I used to thought that Jenny still has an inch of goodness in herself, that thought is long gone. Because in this episode, we see that Cinco(Jenny’s codename, revealed in the episode too) is just a heartless villain like her associates. That mercy in her eyes is long gone, if it even existed in the first place. 

Is this the face of mercy?

Proof? She doesn’t have qualms about brutally beating up Bakar with all four Buster droids which could give Trez a run for money, until Bakar is black and blue and got cracked in the armor all over. She also don’t mind killing Bakar and Ali by self destructing the bunker as a dirty tactic to run away with UNO. But that doesn’t mean I hate her. In fact, I love her…as a villain. I hope she returns with UNO in Season 2 as they start cooking up new plans in order to enact their evil scheme. Huwahahaha…

Surprise, surprise. In this episode, after all the nerve-wrecking action, we see Ali arriving at school on time. Yay! And manages to answer a question from his teacher correctly. Double yay! Finally, Ali improves in his studies. He also tries to go on good terms with Alicia by giving her a friendly hello…which she dismiss off.

Jeez.

Apparently Alicia still isn’t on close terms with Ali, and doesn’t seem open about having a relationship with Ali. No, no, not that other relationship. She even says that they’re both tied. He had saved her life, and she had saved his life as well. So, they’re even. They are done. Jeez, from an emotional view, I really wished she hadn’t saved Ali from the self destruction of the bunker. But plotwise, that’s the logical thing to do. Guess I just have to bear with it.

Derp

The episode ends on a rather light note, and a teensy, teensy bit lacklustre. It seems as if nothing has changed. Everyone is alive and the base is back under working order. The TERAS leaders are getting the hang of things again and Ali gets reunited with IRIS under unfortunate circumstances(but we totally seen that coming, hahaha). Oh, yeah. Ali gets enrolled into MATA’s spy academy. Yay. No, no, no. Don’t midunderstand me. I actually love the idea of Ali entering a spy academy. It shows that Ali has proven himself to be a worthy agent, and his journey as an agent is still going. But if I am to watch another season of Ejen Ali solely and primarily because of this reason, the chances are you seeing me doing so is so-so.

But we all know that there is more than meets the eye here. We know that there is more story hidden under the surface. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Which is why I use the word ‘seem’. Yeah, sure everyone is alive but Rizwan is terribly wounded by this ordeal-physically and emotionally. I mean, his mentor turn evil and tried to conquer MATA. How sad is that? That’s just heartbreaking when you think of it. UNO and the traitorous Jenny is still out there, probably planning another plan on how to take over mentor with the number four agent.

Wait, number four?

Yes. You see, Jenny’s codename is Cinco. Cinco is Spanish for ‘five’. So, we have:

UNO(Djinn/Rizwan’s mentor)=One

Dos(That purple female spy)=Two

Trez(That big shockwave guy)=Three

Cinco(Jenny)=Five

So where’s four? It couldn’t be Dr. Aaron because he came rather late into the group. Besides, he isn’t really a member of it. He was forced to served to under them. Heheh, poor guy. It’s possible that Quantro(Spanish for four) is responsible for providing Dos, Trez, and UNO all those special high tech gadgets, including UNO’s special armor which could block IRIS from reading on him and his bionic arm(which has been destroyed by IRIS, heheh). Also, there is that thing about the TERAS leaders. There seems to be a conspiracy going around them. What does this mean? Are the TERAS leaders the real bad guys? Are they attempting to take over the city? Did they really try to kill Djinn during their mission to retrieve the Azuriums several years ago? This is the real main reason I am excited for Season 2.

Also, we still haven’t know about the fate about Ali’s mother and his cat Labu? Is his mother really dead? Will we see the return of Labu in the future? And what are those mysterious group of researchers who were experimenting on Comot, making her the special spy cat we all know and love? All of this makes me more excited for the upcoming seasons.

It’s a bit weird that ending doesn’t mention at least one of these stuff even slightly. I mean, none of them mentioned about Jenny’s betrayal in the end for goodness sake. It’s as if (strong emphasis on ‘if) Wau animation had forgotten about these stuff. But I’m pretty sure they didn’t. They would never deliberately ruin the show for us, right? Right? So, to make it short the ending was fine but if it mentioned at least a teensy, teensy bit about those stuff that I had mentioned, it would had been more fine.

Except the part about the number four agent. I prefer it to be made subtle. Because it would be way cooler…

So, as my final verdict I give this Season 1 finale: Override:

9/10

Main reason: The fight scenes are freaking epic!

Favourite scene of the day: IRIS-controlled-Ali vs UNO!

Uwargh…boy that’s a lot of work. After this, I’m gonna take a rest and get going with other stuff. Especially those fiction and fanfictions that have been collecting dust on the shelves. So, don’t expect to hear my thoughts on Boboiboy Galaxy: Episode 7 anytime soon. But don’t worry, with God’s will I will do it in the future. So, don’t worry folks.

Got anything to criticize or didn’t agree with me? Did I spoke anything that is quite sensitive and disturbs the feelings of others? Please tell me in the comments. And if you like stuff like this, support my blog so I can write more goodies like this in the future.

So, see you soon folks!

Disclaimer: Everything belongs to their respective owners. Ejen Ali is a property of Wau animation. I don’t own anything. Like really. Nothing.