The concept of One Season Wonders seems to benefit the best from animated adaptations of popular film franchises. And in our hunt through yesteryear, that may end up being our most visited avenue. And to show that in its full form, we're going to start this trek through film to animated TV adaptations with one based on an iconic 80s franchise, The Karate Kid. The Karate Kid franchise started in 1984. The tale of a New Jersey boy named Daniel LaRusso moving to California with his mother and running afoul of the local bullies, who all learn Karate at the hands of John Kreese and his dojo the Cobra Kai. With the aid of his home's maintenance man Mr. Miyagi, Daniel not only learns karate, but also life lessons that better him as a person. And these ultimately help Daniel win the karate tournament, best the Cobra Kai and win the heart of sweet, sweet Elizabeth Shue.
The Karate Kid proved a box office smash, making 90 million from its 8 million budget. So obviously a sequel would come about. In 1986's The Karate Kid Part II sees Daniel and Miyagi go to Okinawa as Miyagi goes to see his dying father and settle a long standing issue with an old rival and a former love, while Daniel also deals with similar matters. The movie proved to be another massive hit at the box office with 113 million from a 13 million budget, despite less than favorable reviews. The Karate Kid Part II also spawned the infamous LJN NES game (developed by Atlus). With the franchise on a roll, a third movie The Karate Kid Part III was released in the summer of 1989... and flopped in the box office and critically as people felt it was too much of a retread of the original movie.
But that wasn't the only piece of Karate Kid media to premiere in 1989 as in the fall of that year an animated adaptation of the series premiered on NBC's Saturday morning lineup, blocked in with newcomers like Camp Candy, Captain N and of course, Saved by the Bell. It was produced by Dic and Saban and aired 13 episodes from September 9th to December 16th of 1989. So, how do you take a film franchise mostly about life lessons and character based stories? Why fill it to the brim with magic and globetrotting adventure of course? Is that a recipe for disaster, or is this a hidden gem in disguise? Let's find out.
SERIES OVERVIEW
As previously stated, The Karate Kid forgoes the concept of the show and goes for an adventure motif as Daniel, Miyagi and an Okinawan girl named Taki Tamura set out on a quest to find a stolen shrine that grants the holder magic powers. The group would have to deal with the villain of the week, teach whoever has the shrine a life lesson, try to get back the shrine, only for it to be gone again. Basic formula for this kind of adventure series.
Episode 1: My Brother's Keeper. The trio make their way to South America in search of the shrine. Meanwhile, a boy from a jungle tribe named Kala is being attacked by hunters from his tribe. The boy has in his possession the magic shrine which he uses to make animals attack for him. Daniel and Miyagi fight off the hunters (while Taki takes one out with a camera flash), only for Miyagi to intentionally get himself captured to find the shrine. Daniel and Taki meet with Kala who turns out is not just being treated by an outcast by his tribe's ruler, but it actually meant to rule the tribe. The reason he doesn't just face the tribe leader (Nowa I think it's pronounced) is due to being too much of a coward to fight back. Miyagi refuses to train Kala, believing that confidence comes from within, but Daniel tries to teach him instead, to poor results as Kala becomes too confident that he can beat Nowa. Daniel goes in his place, only for the shrine to be stolen and Nowa to gain its powers to...
Turn into a jaguar. That's kinda cool. Not really screaming "Karate Kid", but cool.
Jaguar man tries to kill Daniel and Miyagi, but Kala uses the shrine to take away his power. Unfortunately causing the shrine to end up falling into the river and being swept away. Kala defeats Nowa in a fight and Miyagi saves the former chief from being eaten by alligators. Kala becomes the chief as Daniel and company go back off to find the shrine. For a first episode, it was okay. I do like the character dynamic between Daniel, Taki and Miyagi so far. The action pieces were entertaining as well. However, I do feel the plot was kind of dull and the ending felt extremely rushed. Almost like this story could have been better paced if a magic shrine wasn't involved. Funny how that works, huh?
Episode 2: My Greatest Victory. Hong Kong is this episode's locale where the trio seek the shrine. They also seek the aid of Miyagi's old friend Tanaka, who is training his children to deal with the Dragon, a group of thugs that have been violently extorting the people. While Taki, Miyagi and Tanaka seek the shrine, Daniel and Tanaka's children (including his skeptic daughter Rina) work to try and rally the people to fight back against the Dragon. When they confront the Dragon clan however, the townspeople abandon them and they get their ass kicked. Tanaka finds the shrine and uses it to power them up so they can better fight the Dragon. Tanaka tells his kids not to abuse the shrine's powers, so naturally they abuse the shrine's powers.
When Tanaka gets kidnapped, one of his sons tries to use the shrine to save him, only to end up losing the shrine to the leader of the Dragons. He uses the shrine to brainwash them into working for the Dragon, leading to a fight between them and our protagonists. Daniel and Taki face the Dragon leader (who transforms into some sort of Lo-Pan type character). They manage to defeat him by making him trip on pool balls, and he throws the shrine into his fountain, which then falls through the drain, giving us our second water-related cause for the shrine to be lost. And we end the episode with Tanaka's kids learning to continue to fight against the Dragon through people power. John Laurinaitis would be proud.
This was an okay episode. A lot more action throughout in this one and some good morals about fighting without being physical. But i do feel it only got really interesting by the end, and the main villain of the Dragon boss felt rushed in last minute. I liked Tanaka, but not so much his snotty kids. But, despite that, I felt this is the strongest episode yet.
Episode 3: The Homecoming sees Daniel and company hunting the shrine in New York. However, they soon discover the shrine may have would up in New Jersey, making Daniel excited at the chance to return to his hometown. However, on the subway to Jersey, they run afoul of muggers, one of which he recognizes as his old girlfriend Tina, who since Daniel left has been with Brick, his former bully and someone Daniel is afraid of. After Brick steals the list of antique shops from Daniel, he uses Tina to manipulate Daniel into finding it for him. When Brick learns that he can use the magic to transform himself into what others fear (like turning into a giant spider to scare Tina), he and Daniel face off at Palisades Park. Brick creates clones of himself to fight Daniel, but Daniel learns to face his fear of Brick and easily fights them off. Tina knocks the shrine out of Brick's hands...
Which causes it to get caught in some balloons and fly off. Well, at least it wasn't water related. Brick tries to get the shrine by hopping the roller coaster, but Daniel puts a stop to him without fighting. And the episode just ends there. No resolution for any of these characters, just fade to black and move on to the next part of the world. Which is a real shame because this has been the best episode yet. It had far better pacing, actually gave time to focus on Daniel's character, and gave us an interesting villain for once in Brick, who though he was a generic bully, and clearly abusive to Tina, was still more dimensional than the Dragon boss or the tribe leader. Some things could have been cut to give us an ending, like Miyagi and Taki chasing after a kid on a skateboard, or Daniel and Miyagi dealing with a van full of bees. Definitely could have given us some sort of a definitive ending for this episode.
Next on the itinerary is Episode 4: The Tomorrow Man. The search for the shrine takes our heroes to Paris. They've been stalking a mysterious man named Whiskers who is also on the hunt for the shrine. They find him buying the shrine, but their accidental ambush leads to him getting away with it. Daniel, in too much of a rush, ends up going to a fortune teller named The Amazing Roland to try to find the shrine, while Miyagi and Taki hunt on their own for Whiskers. Roland is a phony psychic who seems to be getting real premonitions, including being able to find the shrine. Everyone converges to the Chalet Cabaret, where Whiskers has the shrine hidden. And shocker of shockers, Roland finds the shrine and steals it. Daniel fights with Roland to get the shrine back, but its magic shows him a prediction bubble of Miyagi on the verge of being hit by a truck.
Now paranoid, Daniel tries to do everything in his power to prevent any signs of Miyagi's fate happening, only to end up making each prediction come true. Despite Taki and Daniel warning Miyagi about it, he's still willing to let fate happen. Believing stopping at Rue De La Morgue will lead to his fortune, Roland ends up accidentally being framed for a robbery. He uses the shrine again to find a better future, seeing him selling the shrine to Whiskers at the Eiffel Tower. Roland sells Whiskers the statue, then runs from the police, stealing a truck. Miyagi chases after Whiskers who drops the shrine in the road where the prediction showed him being killed. Miyagi kicks the shrine off the road, but is still slow to recover. Daniel destroys the prediction bubble and enters the truck, putting a stop to it. But this also causes the shrine to be knocked into a sewer. Counting that as the third damn time that shrine has been swept away.
This was an okay episode. At least compared to the last one it actually had more of a resolution, though rushed. We just sorta get a "I hope Roland learned his lesson" and end on some comedy. I did like this episode's plot about fate and not worrying about trying to change the future. Although I do wonder if Daniel shattering the bubble was what changed the future. Despite that, this one wasn't as action heavy as the past two, feeling a lot slower in the middle, allowing for the story to flow a bit better. Not perfectly as it could get dry in places, but still much better than the first couple episodes at the very least.
Episode 5: All the World His Stage. The trio arrive in London where they learn that the shrine has been bought as a prop for a movie. After Daniel saves someone, he begins to get an inflated ego. Things are made no better when he meets movie star Kevin Woods, who outclasses Daniel in charm (especially with Taki). In the midst of Daniel being rightly owned by Kevin, Daniel unknowingly leaves a sword prop near the shrine, which transfers its power into the prop. Daniel does get a one up on Kevin when he saves him from a stunt gone wrong, and in turn becomes his stunt coach. When Kevin injures his ankle and Daniel then becomes his stunt double, Kevin has enough and grabs the shrine-infused sword, giving him immense power and, I dunno, making him more of a jerk I guess.
The sword also appears to warp Kevin's sense of reality, making him believe that he's a real knight. He kidnaps Taki and challenges Daniel to meet him at the tower bridge. After a joust above the tower bridge, Daniel manages to knock the sword out of Kevin's hand. Miyagi tries to repower the shrine, only for Kevin to knock it out of Miyagi's hand, causing it to, you guessed it, fall in the water below. That's the fourth water-related cause of the shrine's disappearance. Daniel manages to snap Kevin out of it as the two save Taki from falling off the bridge. Daniel then throws the sword off the bridge as it hits the shrine, giving it back its power.
This was an okay episode. Kevin as the antagonist worked well as both being better than Daniel while also being whiny and surprisingly worse, if that makes any sense. The stuff with the shrine-infused sword was interesting and unlike a few episodes so far, this one was better paced. But yeah, my issue remains that this show seems to have run out of ideas on how they lose the shrine because the counter for water-related shrine losses is four.
Up next, Episode 6: The Paper Hero. Mexico is our next locale in the shrine hunt. A group of bandits have recently stolen the shrine, which has given them all super powers. An old priest ends up stealing the shrine from them and hides in in a Mayan temple. When the trio end up having to do battle with the bandits, they get rescued by a man disguised as an old beggar, but in reality is Daniel's uncle Jack, an FBI agent. The group hunt down a map key inside a cantina, while another mysterious man watches on in the shadows. It also doesn't help matters that Jack clearly has an ulterior motive. He takes the map, only to be accosted by the mysterious man, a smuggler with a robot arm called "The Bear".
Daniel, thinking that Miyagi is just jealous of Jack, leaves with his uncle while Miyagi and Taki end up caught by the gang of bandits. But since Miyagi is a total bad ass who can't be stopped, he easily defeats them, saves the priest, and the trio ride off to find the shrine. Everything converges in the temple as the hunt for said shrine intensifies. When Daniel almost falls in a pit, he uses the lesson of the episode about using your hands to guide you when your eyes can't to save himself. When the Bear gets the shrine, Jack reveals that he was no secret agent but just a file clerk who wanted to prove himself by recovering the shrine. Daniel easily forgives him, as he was also being arrogant in this episode to Miyagi. The bandits end up capturing the shrine and using its power to give them back their superpowers. However, Miyagi easily defeats the bandits, only for the shrine to be lost in the saddle bag of a horse that runs off. At least it wasn't water-related. Everyone learns their lessons and the episode ends.
This episode felt a bit too over the place. Nothing really ever gets a chance to build up. From Jack's true intentions, to the stuff involving The Bear, to the bandits. In fact the bandits, who you think would be the episode's main threat feel like an afterthought thrown back into the episode to at least be somewhat conclusive. The pacing felt a bit off too, way too slow in certain spots, and too erratic in others. Far from the worst episode yet, but definitely one of the weaker ones.
We officially make it to the middle with Episode 7: Over the Rainbow. The trek comes to the Himalayas as a magic rainbow above the mountains holds the location of the Shrine. In their search, the trio find a mysterious village hidden in the mountains. A village untouched by the snow of the mountains and populated only by kids. After a whole bunch of Daniel and Taki playing with the kids of the village, things begin to make more sense as the shrine's magic has turned their stream into a literal fountain of youth and the kids are the adults of the village, who after enjoying the fruits of their youth, began to shirk their responsibilities. When Miyagi gets too close to getting the shrine, members of the village attack him and try to take the shrine away. And to make things worse, a snowstorm hits the village. The group manage to rescue Miyagi and, after a fight with the leader of the council, manage to stop them from leaving the village. And in this struggle, the shrine falls off a cliff to the darkness below. In the end, the council now can lead the real kids of the village with their age and wisdom.
I actually kind of liked this episode's premise. Granted, it's your standard "fountain of youth" cliche, but it remained interesting throughout, had some decent morals about teamwork and how age isn't a deterrent. Also, I enjoyed Daniel and Taki's little rivalry with one another throughout the episode, fleshing both characters out a bit more. I will say the pacing was a bit everywhere and it felt extremely rushed in the last few minutes, but, to harp on The Homecoming again, at least we get a conclusive ending.
Episode 8: The Return of the Shrine. Somewhere between all these episodes, the trio have recovered the Shrine and it is back in its rightful place in Okinawa, Japan. Well, that was a quick journey. I guess we can move on... is what I'd say, but we need some conflict to keep this plot moving. We also get to meet some of Taki's family including her mother, uncle Tadashi and little brother Toshio. We also learn that her family the Tamura's have been in a violent long standing rivalry with the Ishida family. Essentially at one point Taki's great great grandfather had entrusted the samurai ancestor of the Ishida with the shrine's secret power. But shocker of shockers, the samurai betrayed their family and stole the shrine, hence where this whole situation with the lost shrine began.
Meanwhile, the grandmother of the Ishida family sends her grandson Yoshi to try to trick Taki into revealing the secret of the shrine, despite the fact that Yoshi isn't actually into this whole rivalry situation and wants to make peace. But since she's evil and whatnot, she sends other family members to crash the shrine celebration. Also, despite being so quick to defend the honor of her family, Taki is quickly smitten by Yoshi and immediately believes that there can't possibly be any ulterior motives to this. This little Romeo and Juliet love story however hits a snag when the Ishidas make Yoshi think that Taki is flirting with others behind his back. The Ishida grandmother gets the shrine, and I guess uses it to give Yoshi the skills of a samurai, and in turn Yoshi also inherits more of a vengeful spirit as she fights to get it back. All while Miyagi teaches her family to fight in case of emergency.
It all culminates in a battle between the two families at dawn. The Tamura family, despite their clumsiness, manage to hold their own against the Ishidas, while Taki and Yoshi engage in a sword fight. Taki is almost defeated, but throws a mound of dirt in Yoshi's eyes, causing him to lose the shrine. In trying to recover the shrine, Yoshi falls over the cliff. Taki saves him (after almost choosing to just let him die by the way), but in turn, this causes the shrine to once again be swept away by the waters below. Water-related shrine loss count is now at five. In the end, the long standing feud finally ends and the trio continue their quest to recover that damned shrine once again.
This was easily the best episode of the series so far, but it's not without its flaws. I do like the concept of the long standing feud between the families, and the sorta Romeo and Juliet relationship between Taki and Yoshi. Also a great final fight scene that didn't feel rushed, unlike so many in this show so far. I particularly liked that this episode gave a lot more focus on Taki's character, which often feels overshadowed in comparison to Daniel. There were some pacing issues, ones that could have been fixed if this was a two parter, plus the whole tease of them finally recovering the shrine just to lose it again feels annoying. This could have worked better as a series finale to wrap things up, instead of being stuck mid-season. In the end, it's definitely the strongest showing for this series to date.
Episode 9: Walkabout takes the trio to Australia. An Aboriginee tribe is suffering through a fire famine, when they come across the shrine (which just cannonballs there like a meteorite crashing into the ground). A girl from the tribe instead goes to find her brother, who has since become a doctor, and meets up with Daniel, Taki and Miyagi. With the girl bedridden from famine, the trio and her doctor brother seek out to find the tribe and the shrine. After a battle with a water buffalo that fractures Daniel's already shattering confidence, the doctor gets accosted by his former tribemen who blackmail him into misleading the trio. He does just that, causing the trio to be caught in a rock slide and their medical supplies destroyed.
With Miyagi suffering a broken leg and stricken with illness, things look bleak, especially with the doctor still misleading them. It's made no better when Miyagi and Taki disappear. The doctor and Daniel end up lost, and it's here that we learn that the doctor, despite being Aboriginee, has never been on walkabout, and as such, doesn't know where he's going. After a battle with a crocodile, the pair find the shrine inside a cave, only to end up captured by the tribe. The chief takes the shrine to the "fire mountain", which is of course an active volcano. The volcano erupts as Daniel recovers the shrine. He manages to escape, but in the fallout, loses the shrine as it gets swept away in the lava. In the end, the tribe is healed and the doctor has technically done his walkabout by showing courage.
An okay episode, but honestly not one I really found to be that engaging. Not sure why exactly. Maybe it's finally the fatigue of sitting through this show nine episodes in, but not even Miyagi being awesome kept my attention. That being said, the story was fine, but really the least engaging so far.
Episode 10: East Meets West. The USSR is the locale this time, as the shrine is being used by scientists in an attempt to unlock its power. While that's happening, a Friendship Games sports festival is going on with sporting events featuring representatives from all over the world. Daniel gets involved, inadvertently joining the hockey team while Miyagi and Taki hunt down the shrine. Daniel also makes another rival in Sasha, whose scientist father is pushing him to be the best hockey player. So his big plan is to screw with the team orders so that Sasha is playing against the weakest players, including Daniel. Later, the trio learn that the shrine is being used in the nuclear science facility as a possible new energy source, which could lead to an explosive disaster if the shrine is mishandled.
Daniel learns about the team switch and gets help from Miyagi in how to skate. We get a training segment that actually does feel like something out of the Karate Kid as Daniel learns to skate while also cleaning up at the same time. Of course, Miyagi isn't teaching Daniel to skate just to get back at Sasha, but to also help in getting the shrine. Sasha learns about the teams being switched in his favor, and this friendly game turns more into a heated war. Sasha uses the shrine to give him more power, despite the shrine becoming more nuclear after all the testing. This culminates in a battle on the ice between Daniel and Sasha. They hit the shrine through a window, and into a stream, causing it to freeze and get swept away. Six. That's six water-related shrine losses. In the end, Sasha's father learns to not interfere in his son's life, so happy enough ending.
It was a better episode than the last one. Much more interesting stakes involving the shrine becoming almost explosive. It does go down a lot of similar routes that several of these episodes have gone however. Giving Daniel a rival who uses the shrine to better himself, Daniel trying to stop the rival, and the shrine ending up lost again by episode's end. This one definitely did the concept better than most at least, with somewhat more interesting stakes.
Episode 11: The Hunt. So, we're just doing Moby Dick with this one. Next destination is Norway in the shrine hunt. A mysterious white whale has been damaging boats in the ocean. Daniel, Miyagi, and a disguised Taki join a fishing boat's crew (since the ad only said it wanted three men for the expedition). Daniel meets the captain's hard working daughter Sigrid (or Sigi as she's also called), and is immediately is smitten. Taki's disguise is quickly revealed as this episode gets oddly super sexist. Sigi gets a bye for being the captain's daughter, but he's quick to call Taki useless despite being on the boat, maybe five minutes? I get that will lead into the moral of the episode, but yikes. Before things can escalate, the ship catches sight of the white whale, and immediately try to harpoon it. Daniel and the others aren't too happy at the thought of the whale being killed however, which gives us even more conflict for this episode.
After Daniel saves Sigi twice, she becomes more trusting of Daniel, and more willing to listen to him about not killing the whale. However, the captain is even more focused on ever in getting his score. Daniel also reveals, shocker to no one, that the shrine is inside the whale, hence why it has been infused with power. The captain harpoons the whale, which somehow causes the shrine magic to travel over the harpoon rope and into him, making him even more insane. He gets knocked overboard and caught in a net, yet still pursues the whale while Daniel and Sigi chase after him while Miyagi jumps on the back of the whale. He manages to get the whale to cough out the shrine (causing it to get swept away for the SEVENTH time), while the whale saves Daniel and Sigi. In the end, the whale is saved and the relationship between the captain and Sigi is strengthened.
I don't know how to feel about this episode really. I did like the last act with the whale hunt. For this show's standards in the latter episodes, this was actually pretty action packed. It just feels like the whole sexism layers to the story weren't very well handled. We get a lot of it stacked on to Taki, yet she plays no part in the final act at all outside of being on kitchen duty. Which is a shame, because that feels more important to me than Sigi learning to stand up for herself, which also feels very tacked on at the end as well. It works for the story and the drama, but it also feels kind of rushed as well. How she quickly goes from someone who seemed to enjoy her work on the ship, being technically adept at everything from the technical side, the heavy lifting and whatnot, to suddenly rebelling by the end because this was what her father wanted and not her. Again, I would have preferred if this was about Taki proving herself to the captain than this sudden rift between father and daughter that happens halfway through the episode.
Penultimate episode time. Episode 12: The Gray Ghosts. San Fransisco is the setting this time around. A group of old people are working to stop their old home from being shut down. This all coincides with the trio arriving and Daniel saving one of the old folks from being crushed by a runaway wrecking ball. It turns out these oldies (naming themselves the titular Gray Ghosts) need to make the money to save their house from being destroyed an old tycoon. A tycoon named Marvin T. Frump. Sadly, looking less like a certain individual, and more your average frail octogenarian tycoon. This also coincidentally falls around the same time that Frump is hosting a race featuring the prize of an old ghost automobile. The old folks think to enter the race, sell the car, then pay to keep their home. Turns out the four called themselves the Gray Ghosts because they all owned that car. They set up that there were five, and it's already becoming clear that fifth was Frump.
The race is underway as Daniel drives the old racer Faith around, only to constantly belittle her for being too old. The race however acts more like a scavenger hunt, with Frump trying constantly to stop the Gray Ghosts from getting any further clues. They start to succeed, but the group all try to find the clues themselves, eventually ending up with them all crashing into one another. We learn why Daniel's so concerned over Faith being reckless has to do with his own grandmother's frailty, so at least it doesn't just feel like he's completely thinking in stereotypes. The Gray Ghosts soon learn why the trio are involved as Frump is in possession of the shrine. Instead of working together, they all split up again to get the shrine. They find Frump's mansion atop a mountain. After Faith nearly falls to her death, Daniel saves her, only to be saved by Miyagi. In the end, they learn that Frump was their firth member and he apologizes for causing them grief. Daniel learns his lesson about old people, and they seem to finally have the shrine...
Until it smashes! Turns out, this was never the shrine to begin with, and outside of a tough lesson about trusting old people, this was kind of for nothing. Well, at least it didn't get swept into the ocean again. This was a decent little episode. I like the concept of the Gray Ghosts themselves, each having their own personalities. The tough biker, the actress, the old farm couple. They at least had more character to them than a lot of the side characters have had on this show. The Frump stuff made me chuckle for all the wrong reasons. Unlike the last episode, they made the moral clear from early on about not judging a book by its cover, or its age. And the pacing was also pretty good throughout. Also, the fake out with the shrine was clever too. Kind of already proving that we don't even need the damned thing to progress the story. Shame it took twelve episodes to realize that, because next is...
The final episode: Episode 13: A Little World of His Own. And sound the alarm, we have a cliche episode.
These "Cliche Alarm" warnings will occur whenever you have an episode concept you see in a lot of cartoon shows. Clone episodes, Shrinking episodes, Big Misunderstanding episodes, those kinds of things. If you seem them in a lot of shows, they fit this space.
We're still in America, somewhere in the south. A young boy named Walter tries to impress a girl named Carrie with what appears to be a figurine of a miniature horse. Walter, being the nerdy kid at school, gets bullied by everyone, to the point that Carrie, feeling pity on him, decides to go on a date with him to a friend's birthday party. We also learn that Walter has been in possession of the shrine, and ever since, things in town have been mysteriously disappearing, including a horse from an old merry-go-round. Much like the one Walter tried to give to Carrie. Essentially, Walter has been using the shrine to shrink things, and making a miniaturized toy collection out of the stuff he's shrunk down. When the trio try to talk to Walter about it, he tries to get them off his trail. Daniel tries to confront Walter, but since the kid's a tad unhinged, he uses the shrine and shrinks the three of them.
Walter traps Miyagi and Taki under a glass, but is unable to capture Daniel. When Daniel learns of Walter's plight of not having any friends, he instead acts as Walter's Jiminy Cricket of sorts, trying to help him to be more assertive at the party in exchange for the shrine. Meanwhile, Miyagi and Taki stow away in a present box just in case Walter becomes mad with power. Everything at the party goes fine until Walter is again accosted by bullies. Walter then begins to use the shrine's powers to get revenge. Before Daniel can stop Walter from going even madder with power, he almost ends up swept away in the garbage disposal, until Miyagi saves him. Meanwhile Walter ends up becoming a full on Evil Kinevel. In the midst of his revenge on the bullies, he creates a tornado that almost injures the other kids. He saves them while the trio try to save the shrine. They end up back to normal size and destroy the tornado with the shrine's magic, but somehow lose the shrine in the process. Probably fell into the sewer, so I could almost count it as number eight. In the end, Walter gets the girl and learns his confidence as this show is finally over.
I actually didn't think this episode was too bad. Much like the previous, it knew what it wanted its moral to be from the outset, and while it got bizarre with the shrinking stuff and Walter's power trip by the end, it at least always felt like it was moving at a solid pace. It probably doesn't hurt that this episode at least feels like it uses the shrine the most as well, in less of a hunt situation like the previous episodes. For a final episode of the show, it of course fails since we get no finality with the shrine, but I'm also not that surprised this is how we finally reach our end.
BEST EPISODE: THE RETURN OF THE SHRINE
WORST EPISODE: THE HUNT
DOES THIS SHOW HOLD UP?: NO
And then there's the shrine. That damn shrine. Sometimes it's integral to the story, often times it's a McGuffin that only exists to give the characters some motivation in the background. And considering it always just gets lost to move the episodes forward by the end, it feels even more terrible. In fact, that's my biggest issue. I would rather a Karate Kid show that was down to earth and focused on character than just a wacky world trip that featured magic whales and shrinking powers. Hell, if not for Daniel and Miyagi involved at all, this could be any cartoon series. It really is The Karate Kid in name only.
DID IT DESERVE A LONGER RUN: NO
FINAL THOUGHTS
FINAL RATING: C
NEXT TIME ON "ONE SEASON WONDERS"...
Nothing can kill the grimace, but ABC could sure kill Clerks.
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