The fact that Cobra Kai is the most popular show on Netflix right now is surprising. I couldn’t help but characterize the show as Americanized anime without the animated aspects (of course) or the gratuitous fan service (thank god). Otherwise, if someone puts a cartoonify filter over the visuals, uses the same dialogue and writes a theme song with actual lyrics, it’s almost indistinguishable from some Japanese anime.
Let’s compare it to the list of tropes from here:
- “Some Girl’s Unexplainably Huge Boobs Are Going To Be Obsessed Over” – Thank goodness this wasn’t as focus.
- “They Go To The Beach Exactly Once” – Check! And even have karate training over water.
- “Parents Basically Don’t Exist” – Literally no, but figuratively, the adults are generally useless with respect to the kids.
- “Every Protagonist Starts Off As An ‘Ordinary High School Student'” – Check.
- “There’s Going To Be A Love Triangle (At Least)” – Check
- “A Mean Girl Is A Hopeless Romantic” – Season 2, check.
- “There’s A Club For Everything, And It’s Always Super Important” – Uh, in fact there’s TWO clubs.
- “There Are Insanely Powerful Student Council Overlords” – Miguel + Hawk/Sam + Robby? Check.
- “There’s At Least One Scene Showing Off Traditional School Swimwear” – Okay, this is more a Japanese anime thing…
- “A Character Who’s Late For School Will Run With Toast In Their Mouth” – WTF. Maybe the corresponding thing in America is being dropped off by the parents?
- “The Teachers Are So, So Sexy” – Thank god no.
- “One Person That’s Over-Determined To Have A Rival, Who Just Happens To Be The Main Character” – LITERALLY THE WHOLE PLOT IS KIDS/ADULTS LOOKING FOR AN ENEMY JUST BECAUSE.
- “A Girl Gets Scarily Obsessed With Someone” – Season 2 finale anyone?
- “They’ll Have Insane Names For Sports Tricks” – Nope.
So out of fourteen, there’s a total of nine. Of the five tropes that aren’t in Cobra Kai, three of them are the stupid sexual fan service nudity…
Probably why it’s so addictive.