4 Swirlies

“Mind if I finish my drink first?”

Karma Kula continues to deliver… and confuse.

Okay, so it seems at least one of my questions has been answered – this episode suggests they’re in India, and talks about “the assassins from the islands of the Japans.” If our hero is actually Indian, and not white as I thought last time, I can be forgiven because everything is tinted so red.

In this installment, he helps a woman with a well, and fighting ensues. For the first half or so, the style takes over the story and lets it drag a little too much. And then the sword play starts. As our hero himself points out – we have no idea why, or who this new attacker is. I’m sure it won’t be the last time they meet!

If you haven’t already added this series to your must watch list (and you don’t hate fighting sequences) I advise you to consider doing so.

It seems to me that this series makes extensive use of green screen. Does it bother you when you notice green screen use in movies and web series?

4 Swirlies

This opens nice and suspenseful. A guy packing a crate with guns. A student tacking down a story. Her boyfriend looking for her. Something’s gotta happen… right?

And then it does.

While this first installment doesn’t give us much insight into what’s going on, it does give us one thrill ride of a five minute episode – honestly I was a little surprised it was so long, it felt much shorter.

The only reason it missed five Swirlies is the acting is little stilted, and it was essentially all set up. Also the series seems to be about supernatural stuff, at least according to their Youtube tags, and there’s not even a hint of that in this episode. But those are trivial complaints, perhaps, and I’m quite excited to see where this series is going.

The closing tag (thankfully, there’s not 2 minutes of end credits pumping up the length) reads, “No longer a myth.” Count me intrigued.

Does the title make anyone else think of cheese? No? So it’s just me, then.

4 Swirlies

“While the body can be cut into pieces by a weapon, the soul is never slain.”

In a word, ninja-tastic.

This series is all atmosphere and action, short on story and character. But that’s the point. While maybe not breaking new ground the “Ninja Group” made a kickass samurai fighting extravaganza that absolutely nailed the genre.

It looks amazing, and the attention to visual style reminds me of both Samurai Jack and (one of my favorite things ever) the ’70’s Japanese television version of Lone Wolf and Cub. I hope, like both of those examples, Karma Kula evolves to something more than just almost cartoonesque cutting and slashing, although for now that’s more than enough.

The only reasons I held back from giving it 5 full swirlies is the very long opening voice over that verges on pretentiousness, and the fact that I’m not sure whether certain things that took me out of the story were flaws or whether they were intentional. For one thing, the guy’s white. Are we just supposed to accept that, or ignore it? And at the end he quotes the bible. So, is he western or is that an unintended anachronism? Hmm… we’ll all have to keep watching to find out.

Which makes me wonder, should we give webseries more of a pass than we do a movie because we expect it to be a low budget labor of love and requires an extra level of our suspension of disbelief? Or do we hold them up to the same standards?