REVIEW: The Kids Are Alright In ‘Jentry Chau Vs The Underworld’

Netflix Animation has been firing on all cylinders. Whether it’s Arcane, Castlevania Nocturne, or even Tomb Raider: The Adventures of Lara Croft earlier this year, the platform has shown how it stands out against others. Now, it has added the teen series Jentry Chau vs The Underworld to the list.

Created by Echo Wu, Jentry Chau vs The Underworld is about a Chinese-American teen living in small Texas town. If growing up isn’t hard enough, Jentry (voiced by Ali Wong) lost her parents when she was young, and oh, there is a demon king hunting her for the supernatural powers she has been trying to repress her entire life.

After she caused a devastating fire when she was a child, Jentry worked hard to contain the power that was thrust upon her. But ignoring them doesn’t do much when old family mistakes come back to haunt her and cause her great aunt’s death.

With the help of her weapons expert great-aunt Gugu (even in ghost form), a millennia-old jiangshi (Chinese hopping vampire), and a life full of best friends, Jentry has what she needs; she just has to embrace it all. But Jentry must now fight an entire underworld’s worth of monsters while balancing the horrors of high school.

Jentry and her friends bring warmth to this supernatural series.

As a protagonist, Jentry is infinitely relatable. She loves K-pop (a fun nod to idol Kim Woosung‘s debut voice-acting role), gets awkward with boys, and just wants to fit in when she’s felt her entire life holding back a part of herself that makes her stand out. Jentry is the typical everygirl who is perfect at the center of any YA series. More importantly, though, while she fits the archetype that we expect, how she navigates the world and the support that she has around her helps make her stand out.

For her friends, Woosung voices Kit, her crush who looks like her favorite idol, Cristina Milizia voices Stella, and A.J. Beckles adds another crush into the mix as Michael. They all balance each other in ways they need as a group. They’re supportive and ultimately avoid the miscommunication conflict we see new showrunners taking on and reconstructing for a new generation of viewers.

Each character, except for maybe Stella, gets their due throughout the season. Their families are explored, their motivations are explained, and they all fit together like puzzle pieces. While I wish the series had been greenlit for the longer 24-episode order that animation sorely misses these days, its 13-episode length and the choice not to release it in parts do wonders to keep the audience invested.

It’s a release method and episode count. I hope we get more of them for future animated series on Netflix. There is enough time to understand the larger narrative as well as each individual character – especially with each episode clocking in at around 30 minutes.

Netflix’s Jentry Chau vs The Underworld has an unmatched animation style.

Jentry Chau vs The Underworld also has a unique visual style on the platform while still showing its inspirations from the era of Cartoon Network series like Adventure Time and Total Drama Island on its leaves. Its color palette and embrace of the creeper side of character design make the series stand out. Sometimes psychedelic and often K-pop music video-inspired, the series has a visual language that makes it unlike anything else that has arrived as a part of Netflix’s animated slate. And that’s important.

While Netflix animation has many offerings for kids, families, and adults,  Jentry Chau vs The Underworld gives the platform a solid Young Adult entry that captures the current admiration of anime-inspired animated sires with an opening theme that stands among even the most celebrated anime openings of the Fall anime season-yes, I’m referring to DanDaDan.

I can’t review Jentry Chau vs The Underworld without commenting on how it is the most Texas I’ve seen an animated series get since Mike Judge’s King of the Hill. Of course, both animated TV shows find themselves speaking to different audiences and generations; they both look to Texan eccentricities and how their characters relate to them to find humor.

Whether it’s jokes about becoming a Texas Longhorn on a vision board, the spot-on extravagance of a mum-filled Texas homecoming, or the skewering of the Alamo (which I found funny as a San Antonio-born person who went on regular field trips to the different Missions) that got too many laughs than I thought it would, and big Tex even makes an appearance, this series hits my Texan heart to its core, even down to Stella’s baby hair.

Texas runs deep in this Netflix Animation series.

Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld has larger themes about culture, identity, belonging, and coming-of-age under parental expectations, and all of it takes place in Texas. That location specificity makes the story stronger, and it also captures the diversity of a state often painted as all white Southerners on horseback with backward politics. In fact, if I were to point to a representation of what Texas is actually like (minus the supernatural powers – granted, my Mexican cuanderismo family may disagree with me), this animated series is it.

Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld is a series steeped in Chinese mythology and folklore, but it also uses the cultures from other characters’ backgrounds to contribute. It’s a melting pot of experiences pointing to the universal coming-of-age themes that it tackles head one. The series may be about fighting demons and the dead, but it is also about how hard high school can be when you don’t know who you want to be or who you are now.

The series explores the complexity of family ties and relationships but never overwhelms the audiences with it. Instead, it lets its young characters deal with their respective situations how they want to and in a way that works best for them, showcasing the importance of healthy conversation and doing it in a consistently different and humorous way.

Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld offers stellar animation and a bumping soundtrack; it has a whole lot of heart, which, like most things, is bigger in Texas. If this is the future Netflix Animation has to offer, it looks extremely bright.

Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld is streaming now exclusively on Netflix.