"The Boys Presents: Diabolical" John and Sun-Hee (TV Episode 2022) Poster

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7/10
Don't skip meals.
Pjtaylor-96-1380446 April 2022
'John And Sun-Hee (2022)' is about an elderly man who takes extreme measures to save his dying wife, unconcerned with the potentially dangerous consequences of his actions. It's a relatively meditative piece, at least in comparison to some others in its series, and it makes a point of being somewhat gentle in its tone, themes and aesthetic. It's primarily about grief and denial, and it deals with these elements really well. It's actually quite touching and, even, somewhat poignant. Perhaps that's because it isn't afraid to be serious and doesn't concern itself with being 'edgy' for the sake of it. It tells its story earnestly, using violence when it needs to and restraint when it can. It is a little slow, but it's ultimately a quietly affecting experience. 7/10.
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8/10
sweet
gianmarcoronconi27 June 2022
Very nice and very sweet episode that manages to entertain and amuse even with a very heavy plot and even deeper and more complicated implications, all wisely mixed with the classic violence that distinguishes this series.
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8/10
It's gotta be your cup of tea
fredw-3402625 March 2022
If you liked the poop episode then this one is probably not for you. It's emotional. What I think is interesting is Adam Samberg is the writer in this one.
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6/10
Terrorist Cell.
southdavid18 August 2022
The penultimate episode of this season of Diabolical is a middling effort both in terms of technical and storyline, but it is elevated a little by its sweet allegorical central idea.

Desperate to save his wife, who is dying from inoperable cancer, John (Randall Duk Kim) steals a syringe of compound V from the Vought building, where he works as a janitor. He gives her the injection just as Vought's security arrive. They decide to kill the elderly couple and make it look like a natural death, but giant tentacles come from Sun-Hee's (Youn Yuh-Jung) body and kill the agents instead. They escape to the forest, where Sun-Hee's cancer leaves her body and begins to destroy the surrounding area and a few more Vought agents in their trail. John wants to leave the cancer to it, but Sun-Hee knows that it's her responsibility to defeat this threat.

Written by Andy Samberg, the fighting of an external giant cancer cell is a fairly explicit simile for a person's internal battle against cancer, one in which others may support you, but ultimately you do alone. The central performances are sweet, but I didn't notice either Khary Payton or Samberg himself whilst watching it. The animation style is something approaching a Studio Ghibli style, though for clarity's sake I should say that it's not actually them.

As I say, it's a fine, competent piece of work but perhaps lacking that real memorable moment to make it more worthwhile.
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10/10
The relatively low ratings are wrong
cuzcatleco-3690720 March 2022
This is was easily one of the better episodes on the series. And yes it was extremely sad. I'm not understanding some of the other reviews I'm seeing on here saying that this episode feels out of place in The Boys universe, it's almost as if ppl want to really believe that the live action show doesnt have it's fair share of sad moments. This was a great episode, extremely emotional, great animation and storytelling. This one is a 10/10 in my book.
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7/10
A Strong Old Couple
ZegMaarJus1 July 2023
Warning: Spoilers
This Episode begins with John, he is in the hospital visiting his wife Sun-Hee. John is crying at home. John tazered down Gary. John entered the Vought department. John and Sun-Hee killed all the Vought guards together. Sun-Hee got superpowerd after she took the blue liquid. Sun-Hee saved John from dying. Sun-Hee left John behind in the woods. Solid Episode of The Boys Presents: Diabolical Season 1, this Episode was just okay. Not special but also with a lot of action. The problem was the storyline that i didn't understand. Now on to the last Episode of this miniseries! Sun-Hee and John were a strong couple!
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9/10
Superheroes and Gods are used to tell human stories
stickoo11 June 2022
Beautiful, simple, straightforward and effective. An elderly man makes a rash decision to save his terminally ill wife and faces the consequences. Ultimately it's about coming to terms with grief and accepting inevitability, and it does so well. The art is effective and in many shots beautiful, and the voice acting conveys the tenderness the titular characters hold for one another. The script is pretty brutally depressing, but not all stories need to be about half-deranged manchildren shouting profanity while blowing each other up. That's obviously the calling card and draw of the series, but not every episode of the experimental side series needs to fit that formula.

In short, it's a very human story that happens to involve gore and superpowers, but it makes for a refreshing exploration of the depth of the Vought universe.
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5/10
Competent, but too forced to be effective
RogerBorg5 March 2022
This anthology series appropriates different styles and tropes from previous productions, and here we get the Akira-meets-Studio-Ghibli episode.

The art is a decent take on anime, all age lines, tentacles, and distinctive characterisations, full points there.

However, that's about all there is to praise. The plot is absolutely wafer thin, with no nuance or twists, and the dialogue is sparse, stilted and formulaic.

The problem is that the voice leads don't quite manage to rise above the scant material. Kim and Youn turn in credible performances, but that's all - they're not distinctive, memorable or effecting.

Their story is too short for us to come to care for them: we're simply told that we should, because they are tropes. The score also over-sells what's on screen to try and up the emotional ante, but I found that more annoying than effective.

It's a competent enough short episode, but - unlike Boyd in 3D - it doesn't do enough within its runtime to rise above average, and there's not enough substance to provoke any further interest. It's filler, but little of it.
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9/10
Deep, emotional and excellent animated storytelling in the spirit of Akira and Elfenlied
Shadowboy_25cm10 March 2022
What a stunning, gripping, emotional episode, masterfully told in its limited running time.

Great character development and storytelling, gripping atmosphere, touching score, excellent animation.

Watch it!!!

Highly recommended.
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5/10
It just doesn't belong here.
bblockr15 March 2022
I think it's a beautiful little short film, the writing is good (especially by Andy Samberg standards), the animation is gorgeous. It works on its own, but not in this universe.
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9/10
One of the best episodes easily.
encinasbrandon-8759022 March 2022
I totally disagree with the rating for this one so far. Yea it was a bit odd in comparison to the rest of the episodes, but it was still really great.
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10/10
That Ending Though.
austinpruitt17 June 2022
It's a slow burn for it's short run time. And that's a good thing. The story is simple and sweet. You don't really need more.

The animation and final scene is what's sells it in my opinion. The final lines send it home straight to the heart. I'm a sucker for these moments and the colors and lights were beautiful. I was speechless.

Andy Samburg I'd love to see more stories like this from you.
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5/10
Pretty boring and again not unique
stevenmonkeydishwasher24 March 2022
I've been seeing a disappointing trend with last few episodes of generic concepts with minor addictions of super powers and while the gore is fun to see it's all in all an incredibly generic unoriginal episode, you've definitely seen something close to this same actions and same emotionally manipulative "sad" ending.
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10/10
Emotional and short
jreglz8 March 2022
The animation is on point and regardless the story is short, it has a good approach on something real and you can even think that there's a background story there. Interesting visuals.
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8/10
It was nice.
Kobayoyee17 July 2022
Honestly wish this one was longer. The animation was nice and i'm surprised that Andy Samberg wrote this episode. Good episode.

Finding it really hard to make 150 character reviews when i don't have much to say.
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