A dark anime with tons of supernatural suspense
Philippine folklore is home to a deep and long library of scary stories. Trese is a wonderful new animated series that dives deep into all of the creatures that live hidden among humanity. The best candidate to investigate their actions is Alexandra Trese. Her beat is a version of Manila that is home to plenty of supernatural beings, many of whom are locked into deals with humans for political and financial gains.
Alexandra is the current Babaylan-Mandiriigma of Manila, a role she inherited from her father. She is aided by The Kambal (“the twins”), Basilio and Crispin, two well-dressed masters of violence. They routinely wear theatrical masks to hide their identities. Their look is among the most signature of the series.
In her role, Alexandra must maintain the balance between the underworld and the human realm. To serve this responsibility, she has trained as a martial artist, but also deep knowledge of the magical arts. One of these is the testigo incantation. This involves placing a victim’s eyeball into water in order to imprint the last thing that they saw onto an object. It’s just one of the many very interesting and unique forms of magic in the show.
The show is based on a comic book written by Budjette Tan and illustrated by Kajo Baldisimo. The Netflix adaptation does an excellent job of translating the visual style and the weird happenings that surround Alexandra and her crew. The first investigation is the crime scene where a ghost has been murdered, which sets the tone brilliantly to build the world and to meet Alexandra.
The voice cast is loaded and includes Shay Mitchell (Pretty Little Liars), Carlos Alazraqui (Reno 911!), Eric Bauza (Ben 10: Omniverse), Sumalee Montano (This is Us), Manny Jacinto (The Good Place), Matthew Yang King (Riverdale), and Griffin Puatu (Spider-Man: Miles Morales.)
Trese arrived on Netflix on June 11, 2021. Season one is (unfortunately only) six half hour episodes long. It is a compelling story with likeable characters and a ton of fantastic forays into the supernatural. This twisted version of Manila is definitely worth a visit.