Based on the comic book series by Mark Millar and Leinil Francis Yu, Super Crooks is simply electrifying. Set in the Jupiter’s Legacy universe, we follow a group of lower-tiered supervillains as they plot out the heist of a lifetime. It was nice to see less superpowered heroics and focus on a smaller, self-contained story.

Although the original Jupiter’s Legacy material is held in a generally favorable light, the Netflix adaptation really soured the series for many casual viewers. Super Crooks may be tied to Jupiter’s Legacy, but it does away with any of the weaknesses from the adaptation. The show starts off a little slow, but then it manages to keep you on your toes for the rest of the 13 episode season.

I personally watched the series in English dub, unaware there were other language options. If you fall into the camp of subbing being exponentially better than dub, then Super Crooks has you covered. The series has dedicated Japanese Voice Over for the sub elitist to enjoy. I felt like the English voice acting was more in line with how the characters are portrayed in the comics, but it’s just a personal preference.

Regardless of language choice, the series was wonderfully animated for a majority of the series. The art is very simple, but the animators added top-notch flourishes that contrast the minimal details on characters. There are also fewer frames of animation than your usual anime, so the characters move at a slower pace than what I was used to. That isn’t a knock on the animation, but it took some adjusting and I wished they did a little bit more.

It almost felt like the anime was trying to be stylized as an American cartoon. There was also this curious blurring vignette in most scenes that’s extremely subtle, yet made it kind of hard to focus on anything off-center. It seems like the animators only wanted viewers to pay attention to what was happening in the center of the screen. The biggest offenders were scenes where it’s mainly just dialogue between characters.

For an out of nowhere series that’s as gripping as Super Crooks, I would’ve liked to be able to look around the scene and take everything in. Instead, we’re punished for looking outside of the intended focus. Aside from the animation, the camera work was fluid and pretty well done. The shots for every scene kept me immersed and glued to the binging spree.

The story revolves around Johnny Bolt, a suave overconfident supervillain constantly in search of his next rush. After some unfortunate run-ins with the world’s superheroes, he gets convinced to join in on a heist that promises to be the last he would ever need to do. I loved the smaller scope of the story, focusing on supervillains that had very niche powers to perform an extremely risky heist. Very early on in the show, it’s abundantly apparent to the viewers that these low-tiered supervillains stand no chance against the superheroes.

It really adds a sense of tension to the show, knowing that if they’re caught, they will most likely die. The superheroes of this world are not of the “no killing” variety. Whenever Johnny Bolt took part in a heist, it was always suspenseful to see if the group could successfully pull it off. Wrenches are thrown into the plot that makes sense and fit Johnny’s character to a tee. I can’t promise that you won’t be banging your head against a wall from some of the decisions he makes throughout the series though.

The first episode was pretty boring, as every superpowered being has to go through an “Awakening” for their powers to kick in. We follow Johnny as a kid in high school as he starts to awaken to his new powers. Like most kids doing what they do best, he makes an egregious error wielding his newfound powers and falls into a slump. A few seconds later he recovers and decides that he will forever use his powers for evil.

This introduction felt like they needed to push out some backstory just for the sake of it. It doesn’t really serve its purpose of easing viewers into the story either. After this first episode, we time skip into present day and stay there the rest of the season. Johnny’s origin story is hardly ever brought up again and doesn’t add anything significant to the story.

When we reconvene from the time skip, viewers will have to reinvest into Johnny’s character because he’s entirely different. The series basically restarts in episode 2. After the restart, the show goes nowhere but up. Every scene is accentuated with calm jazzy tunes, synthwave, and early hip-hop influences to set the mood. The action sequences are fun to watch and seeing the characters stage heists is just as enjoyable.

Super Crooks created a very unique anime about western superheroes with an 80’s groove setting the tone. There were fewer frames of animation than anime that’s in circulation now, but it was still wonderful. There was also tension throughout the series when our villains put their lives on the line to not get caught by the superheroes and when the stress affects their personal lives.

Johnny was hard to like as a character due to his drive to satisfy his need for a rush. He does manage to redeem himself, but only after you have lumps on your head from banging it against a wall. The introductory episode did no justice to the series and doesn’t do the job that the writers intended it to do. The supporting cast more than makes up for the obnoxiousness and the aesthetics give the show the jolt it needed.

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Super Crooks

8.5

Score

8.5/10

Pros

• Animation and Art Style
• Awesome Blend of Tension and Release
• Engaging Plotlines
• Layered Characters
• Groovy 80's Synth Soundtrack

Cons

• Pointless 1st Episode
• Disconnected From Main Character Early On
• Dubious Supervillain Origins
• Blurry Vignette in Some Scenes