Angered at being openly ridiculed by a group of children in their simple make-believe game of Jack vs Aku, the real Aku decides to have all the children in the land brought to his cavernous lair where he makes a ridiculous attempt to win the kids' hero worship over to himself by regaling them with absurd and badly strung-together tales that all star himself as the hero, but of course the kids don't buy a word of it! This is one of the most comically-toned episodes, one that ended the first season on a very lighthearted and fun note, this show was truly one with a lot of appeal and potential for new ideas and the visual style as easily lent itself to the humorous as it did the epic and awesome. Jack himself never really appears in this one, this is all Aku's show and he's especially hilarious, his tales have utterly crazy and nonsensical twists that try everything to paint the demon in the best light. My favourite story is the bizarre Goldilocks parody that features bears who call each other brother and comrade and also has an oafish, ill-mannered, clumsy demented and pot-bellied Jack who's in complete opposition to everything the real samurai acts like. I love when it shows him wrecking the poor bears' home and doing random things like eating a live goldfish and stealing a festive snow globe, and it's really funny when the bears wake him up and he's all scowling and red-eyed and stubbled and screams at them to shut up! The tales are packed with references, including one to The Shining, and it really goes a mile a minute near the end as Aku grows greatly agitated with his lack of progress at swaying the kids and blathers through about twenty classic fairy tales in a matter of moments and contradicts himself again and again as the kids keep interrupting to call him out on his mistakes and confuse him until he just gives up, tells them the simplest tale he can think of, declares "The end!" before they have a chance to argue, and zaps himself away! And then I really love the tale that the kids think up themselves, it wraps up the episode in a very satisfying way. For a long time I thought that cool little story would be the closest thing the show ever got to a finale, till this year.. Great episode, you simply can't go wrong with an Aku anthology! x
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
