The Last Hero
by guest contributor Jennifer Fang, originally published at Reappropriate
(Hat-tip to Angry Asian Man)
Like most of y’all, I am desperately addicted to Heroes. I mean, where else can I get my dose of smart drama, good acting, good plot and comic book geekdom all in one sitting. Even though most found the Season 1 finale anti-climatic, I loved the emphasis on familial bond, the emotional evolution of The Flying Man, and the cheeky tinge of pre-destination. Who needs an epic battle? I was good with brief Peter vs. Sylar showdown, a certain foreshadowing for even more epic battles to come.
So, it is with great anticipation that I look forward to Season 2 next year, when we will pick up with amiably incompetent time-traveling Hiro, potentially trapped in samurai era Japan. However, I’m a little miffed with the news released that among six new actors hired for recurring roles for Season 2 of Heroes is the unmistakably Caucasian David Anders, formerly of Alias cast as the legendary samurai, Takezo Kensei. Angry Asian Man speculates that Anders might have been cast as some sort of bizarre yellow-face verrsion of Kensei, however, I believe that this will be a Last Samurai twist to the Kensei legend: the greatest master of Asian martial arts and a legendary Japanese figure will be a White man. Either that or Takezo Kensei will be a “figurehead”, with different men assuming the mantle at different times or according to some sort of mantle-passing tradition.
This is just the kind of plot device that White writers think are clever, and it certainly is in keeping with a long line of similar characters in Marvel and DC comics. After all, the writering staff of Heroes includes Jeph Loeb, a huge name in the comics world. And in both DC and Marvel, many of the genre’s best martial artists trained in Asian fighting styles are White; Batman, Nightwing, and Black Canary to name just a few from the DC Universe.
More promising about today’s announcement, however, is that the show’s creators are keeping up with their reputation for cultivating one of the most diverse casts in a primetime television show. The other actors that have been announced as joining the show include (left to right, top to bottom) Barry Shabaka Henley, Holt McCallany, Eriko Tamura, Lyndsy Fonseca, Dianna Agron, Nick d’Agosto, and Dania Ramirez.
I can’t believe we’re going to have to wait until next year to find out about who all these new heroes are! Although I’m not too thrilled about the Anders/Kensei plot twist, I’m still optimistic that the show has a long ways to go before it jumps the shark.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
LW wrote:
Just for speculations sake, I wonder if Eriko Tamura might actually be Kensei. It would be a wonderful twist if the legendary swordsman was a woman. I’d rather that storyline, but we shall see when the new season starts. -LW
Posted 28 Jun 2007 at 8:35 am ¶
Kai wrote:
Hmm, I didn’t know that most found the finale anti-climactic — I thought it was briliant. I thought Nathan’s redemption and sacrifice was a powerful and courageous ending.
I might be giving the producers too much credit because I enjoyed much of the season 1 writing (to my surprise, being one who holds corporate TV in general scorn), but I’m having a hard time imagining that they’re so clueless as to cast a white dude as Takezo Kensei. May it not be so.
Posted 28 Jun 2007 at 9:22 am ¶
Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:
Sweet I have an excuse to geek out publicly now over Heroes. Here goes…
I actually did find the finale anti-climactic too. After all that, it seemed like it was too easy for Hiro to kill Sylar. (Although I guess Sylar slithered away down that manhole right?)
SPOILER ALERT
Also, from what I’ve heard, both Petrellis will be back next season. If Nathan isn’t dead, then the whole thing didn’t seem like that much of sacrifice to me.
END OF SPOILER ALERT
I kind of felt that way about HRG too. When the Haitian (btw does he have an actual name?) erased his memory, I thought it was really moving because I thought he would completely erase all memory of Claire existing from his memory. (”Go deep.”) But then it turns out just the parts about her whereabouts were erased. So that seemed a bit eh to me.
Also, when are they gonna kill off Niki/Jessica??? She is the most pointless character. Seems like she’s merely a vessel that gave birth to the hybrid vigor wunderkind Micah. And what the freak is her superpower? Having a split personality is not a power, I’m sorry.
Posted 28 Jun 2007 at 9:33 am ¶
Kai wrote:
Carmen, hehe yeah we’re totally geekfesting now.
True, if the Petrellis didn’t actually die, maybe it was not as much of a sacrifice; but what if they didn’t know that they would survive? Then the act has the same noble quality, and the survival is incidental to the sacrifice, right?
And yeah, the nameless “Haitian”…eh…
As for Nikki/Jessica, I guess the power is superhuman strength and kick-assness, which only Nikki really deploys but which I suspect Jessica will learn to harness once the personalities re-integrate, or something like that. Not that I’d mind if she got offed, but whatever.
I guess the truth is that although I find the writing enjoyable (probably especially because of my very low expectations from salespitch TV), I still think it’s deeply flawed, from both the multi-ethnic and pure storytelling angles. But hey, boy are we nitpicky!
Posted 28 Jun 2007 at 10:40 am ¶
gandalf mantooth wrote:
Bah. The show continues to bite from the manga Jo Jo’s Bizarre Adventures (then, bites from a biter, The Matrix). Anti-climactic isn’t even the word.
Posted 28 Jun 2007 at 12:13 pm ¶
Kai wrote:
Hehe, thank you Gandalf, I was starting to nervously wonder, Where are the sommeliers of manga eager to flex their disdain? ;-P
Posted 28 Jun 2007 at 2:25 pm ¶
gandalf mantooth wrote:
Didn’t know it was a trend, Kai. No matter; a biter is a biter.
Posted 28 Jun 2007 at 3:03 pm ¶
Jenn wrote:
I think Eriko will be Hiro’s new love interest. She is supposedly cast as a Japanese princess, and I’m not sure that she will be revealed to be the real Kensei.
Nikki’s power is the superhuman strength — I dunno, I think her dualism remains pretty interesting. And I think I’m okay if both Petrellis come back, since I thought the whole act was about perceived sacrifice. Certainly Nathan Petrelli didn’t think he was going to return.
Also, he sacrificed his political career for his brother, by revealing his power. For that character, that’s a HUUUUUGE sacrifice.
Posted 28 Jun 2007 at 9:16 pm ¶
Shawn wrote:
Seriously, how are they going make the show credible with a white samurai? I am not watching.
Posted 28 Jun 2007 at 9:48 pm ¶
Andrew/Animelee wrote:
Carm, I read in an interview earlier this year that Nikki/Jessica represent The Hulk — superstrength that comes at the price of a split personality.
I agree though, that they should’ve explained more about Nikki/Jessica.
Hopefully, with the theme of season two being “Generations” (the ancestors and children of current characters), we’ll see Nikki and her sister, Jessica’s, past.
By the way, if you guys happen to have any unanswered questions, they might be answered in the Heroes comics on NBC’s website. There’s a new comic every week, and I must say, it’s very informative. Much better than the ARG we during the first two seasons of LOST. (Wonder why they didn’t bother with an ARG for season three?)
About the article itself: I agree, if that guy turns out to be Kensei, it’ll be… cliched. That’s pretty much the reason why I hate The Last Samurai. Someone in an earlier comment mentioned the idea that Eriko turns out to be Kensei. I think that’d actually be a pretty good twist, but if done poorly, it might reinforce the “dragon lady” stereotype as well (Lucy Liu in Kill Bill). It’s all about being careful.
To be honest, I’d rather them choose a Japanese or Japanese-American guy to play Kensei, and at the same time, make sure he doesn’t perpetuate the “silent, serious, war machine” Japanese stereotype that we see so often in media today. Examples: Oroku Saki/Shredder from Ninja Turtles, and the many “you have brought great shame and dishonor to your ancestors” men we’ve seen so many times in the past… and present.
Posted 29 Jun 2007 at 5:41 am ¶
ciji wrote:
You leave Nightwing and his fine behind out of this!
Posted 29 Jun 2007 at 6:34 pm ¶
Jeremy Pierce wrote:
But if it’s an Asian guy who uses martial arts, then they’re stereotyping. What is a writer to do? Perhaps they should make all the martial arts experts black.
Posted 30 Jun 2007 at 3:49 pm ¶
Eun-jung wrote:
I have to say that when I found out that David Anders would be cast as the role of Takezo Kensai I sorta freaked out. Much like I freaked out when Tom Cruise was in “The Last Samarai”. What is this crap? That we, as Asian people, cannot even save our own culture from extinction? That we need some geeky Asian-obsessed, kimono-wearing white dude to save our civilization?
Maybe I am being too dramatic. (Quite possibly) But in all honesty, it just upsets me.
Posted 02 Jul 2007 at 6:45 am ¶
A Nony Mouse wrote:
That pic of “Nick D’Agosto” is actually Reese Thompson… They were in the movie “Rocket Science” together and looks like someone didn’t research much when putting images together…
Posted 01 May 2008 at 4:00 am ¶