Seis Manos is a new Netflix original anime series releasing on Oct 3rd worldwide. This series is a collaboration between Viz Media and Powerhouse Animation Studios and features a voice cast with primarily Latino heritage. The-O Network was invited to an early screening of the first two episodes held in Los Angeles that included a brief Q&A with some of the voice actors in the show.

What is the premise of ‘Seis Manos’? It is a simple one: getting revenge on zombies with kung fu. In the small town of San Simon in the 1970s, three orphans are trained in Chinese martial arts by their sifu master Chiu. Suddenly, their master killed by some zombies, and the orphans join an American DEA agent and a Mexican police officer to avenge his death.

This “Mexicanime,” as described by the cast and production team of the series [Brad Graeber, Daniel Dominguez, Angelica Vale, Jonny Cruz, Vico Chao, Carl Thiel], has a few influences behind it. Imagine taking the mystical elements from the Jackie-chan Adventures cartoon, the zombies from Night of the Living Dead, the animation style from The Boondocks, combining them together, and you get Seis Manos. The series also appears to pay homage to martial arts movies by featuring cast names in Chinese during the introduction, similar to films made by Shaw Brothers Studios. The creators also gave their nod to blaxploitation films in the character Brister, a DEA agent of African American, descent voiced by Mike Colter. Brister reminds me of Shaft from the 1970’s along with his humor.

While overall the visuals are appealing, some of the animation sequences appear distractingly choppy as if they are missing some in-between frames or having a low FPS (frames per second). This is not to be mistaken with the grainy video effect as seen in the beginning of the episode during the flashback, similar to grindhouse-style films.

This series might seem confusing but trust me, it’s not a SYFY channel original movie. I personally loved how they paid homage to the Shaw Brothers’ films with the title Seis Manos which follows their naming format. I also enjoyed the fighting sequences in which the orphan students demonstrated different styles of kung fu just like old martial arts movies. Combining that with original music created by composer Carl Thiel (From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, and Machete Kills) makes this a multi-layered series, which can arguably be good or bad. I definitely suggest giving this series a chance by watching the first few episodes.

Seis Manos will be available on Netflix on October 3, 2019 and will be available in English and Spanish audio.
http://netflix.com/seismanos