After the second movie, I honestly did not have a lot of expectations from the franchise. The second film felt like a super-sized Avengers ripoff, with no real sense of urgency to the conflict. I’ve bitched about it before, so I’m not going to bother repeating myself here. Instead, let’s talk about the new Netflix animated series: Pacific Rim: The Black. Thankfully, this series redeems the franchise, delivering an experience that is closer to the one presented in the original film, while also deepening the mythos and giving viewers a new viewpoint of the world of Pacific Rim.

The animation style is anime-ish, taking cues from other Netflix originals such as the similarly impressive Voltron reboot. It’s also appropriate, since the franchise was inspired by the super robot series made by the Japanese. The visual palette is pretty bright, especially with the main Jaeger, Atlas Destroyer, which definitely makes it look very anime inspired. The story itself, however, is not as bright. It deals with a post-apocalyptic setting where Australia is lost to the monsters of the franchise, the kaijus, and despite massive evacuation efforts, people are left behind. Specifically, the show deals with Taylor and Hayley Travis, two children of Jaeger pilots who get left behind; the fate of their parents are left unclear, though both assume that their parents passed away fighting kaiju. After tragedy falls on their little settlement, they resolve to try and look for their parents, with the help of an intact Jaeger. That premise sounds like a great beginning for a light, episodic, kaiju-of-the-week series, with the siblings battling, and beating, a monster every episode while going on their journey. That was what I was expecting. That was not what I encountered.

The show, despite the bright colors, is not a light story. It is, as it should be, a dark, tense story. Young viewers should be cautioned because there are deaths, violent ones, in the show. Think of the story as more Mad Max than Voltron. The protagonists struggle with the dangers presented by the setting, which isn’t only the environment, but the people they encounter in the environment. That surprised me, because the plot was much more sophisticated than I expected. Interweaving storylines, flashbacks, new concepts, and mysteries are presented, which not only complicates the story, but it also refreshes the storyworld, something which the cinematic sequel failed to do. There is also some deep characterization being done. The protagonists deal with trauma and repressed memories. There are conflicts that are internal, and are, at times, hidden from the other characters. Society is radically changed; it isn’t just humans vs. monsters but human factions vying for dominance against each other. There are clear shifts in the politics of this different world, called “The Black,” and it can be disturbingly different from what we understand society is, or how it should be. In that sense, it’s clearly a post-apocalyptic story, again more like Mad Max or The Walking Dead. Parents of very young viewers should take note of that.

The dark tone of the story, along with the associated traumas the characters go through, does make the choice of having relatively young characters as the protagonists a little problematic from the point of view of a young viewer. Do we really want teens and pre-teens watching a show where people kill other people in cold blood, never mind the massively destructive monsters? That said, older viewers would appreciate the choice, I think, since it makes their plight a bit more desperate. Also, who doesn’t resonate with the quest to find your parents, and unfortunately, that loses a lot of its appeal if the characters were in their thirties.

As a giant robot fan, what impressed me most in Pacific Rim was the dedication director Guillermo del Toro had on rendering weight. In the original film, the mechs moved ponderously, reflecting the massive weight that the machines had to carry just to do things like walk or throwing a punch. The effect was that, if one saw the Jaeger landed a punch on a kaiju, the impact felt much more devastating. This disappeared from the second film, where the machines were suddenly moving so much faster, to the point that the, for lack of a better word, impact experienced by the viewer was diminished. The machines felt weightless and, thus, less believable. I suppose they wanted faster action scenes but it sacrificed that sense of weight that made the first movie so impressive. That sense of weight is back in this series. The main Jaeger in The Black moves slowly, and does not jump around or do any flying kicks. Instead, like the first film, it builds up its momentum to throw a punch. While not as spectacular as the film, the series does acquit itself quite well in showcasing the scale that these machines have. Also, Atlas Destroyer, despite the name, isn’t as badass as it seems, which, again, fits in very neatly with the pared-down, post-apocalypse story.

The show also pushes some of the existing ideas introduced in Pacific Rim forwards. The Drift’s capabilities and uses are expanded beyond being the technology that allows two pilots to synchronize their thoughts so that they are able to pilot the massive Jaegers. Here, it’s much more than just an interface; it’s becomes a way to see into, or even manipulate, other people’s minds. As a storytelling device, it allows the viewer a wider understanding of the inner worlds of the characters without the need for a lot of explanation. It’s also used in innovative ways which promise other possibilities for the technology moving forward. It should prove to be as exciting as the giant machines themselves. Then, there are the kaijus themselves. Without spoiling things, let’s just say that the kaijus now come in many shapes and sizes, including the intriguing idea of a Jaeger/kaiju hybrid. There’s a lot of promise and possibility with these ideas and I do hope that the show will be able to capitalize on it moving forward.

In the end, one can think of this as the real sequel to the original film. It carries similar tones and has the same respect for the base material as the first film. It also adds new ideas and twists to the storyworld that move the entire franchise forward. Warning, though. The first season ends rather abruptly, and will leave you asking for more. I do hope there’s enough of a following to warrant another season. Kudos to Netflix for producing this, it’s a good watch.