Super Crooks is an anime adaptation of a 2012 four-issue comic series by Leinil Francis Yu and Mark Millar, brought to Netflix after the company acquired the Millarworld production brand. This series takes place in the same universe as Jupiter’s Legacy, and fans of that film will see plenty of crossover. The series was directed by Motonobu Hori, in his solo directorial debut after years of work on projects like Psycho Pass and the trilogy of Berserk films.
RELATED:10 Sci-Fi Anime That Are Underrated
Mark Millar is a controversial writer. Though he wrote some of the most influential Marvel comics of the past few decades, including Civil War and Old Man Logan, he is probably best known for Matthew Vaughn’s film adaptations of his works. Kick-Ass and Kingsman were decently well-recieved comics brought to much higher esteem with on-screen adaptations. Millar is a fine writer, most of the time, but his personal style has a mean-spirited streak that stains much of his work, leaving an unpleasant feeling with even his best works. It can be hard to tell whether the insensitive aspects of his work are meant as comedy or as deeply wrongheaded cultural commentary. Any adaptation of his work will benefit from his better aspects but must contend with his worst impulses, making the overwhelming majority of them a mixed bag by default. Super Crooks is no exception; a solid idea which, with only a couple of weighty missteps becomes a messy series.
Super Crooks is the story of Johnny Bolt, a petty criminal with the power to control electricity. After a brief stint in jail, Bolt and his girlfriend Kacey enter into a colorful crew of fellow superhuman thieves led by an elderly former crime lord. Together, they must evade the Union of Justice, a beloved group of superheroes, and The Network, a powerful organized crime syndicate that holds sway over supervillain activity.
The crew plans a high-stakes heist of a heavily guarded artifact; complete with jailbreaks, car chases, huge battles, double-crosses and all the other expected aspects of the classic heist genre. Most of the action is very well executed, the plans flow in fun ways, most of the characters are fun and likable, and the animation is across the board solid. Voice acting is solid in both Japanese and English, so fans of subs or of dubs will be pleased. The tragic weak point in this piece is in the script.
The writing of this series is hit or miss throughout, a few jokes completely fall flat and a plot element or two goes into unpleasant directions. In a classicly distasteful Millar moment, a character the audience is expected to root for blackmails a man into working for him, by threatening to publicly out him as gay. The show plays with some The Boys-esque elements of satire, portraying many of the superheroes as corrupt or self-centered in many of the same ways as the criminals, but it rarely pays off those themes. Most of the characters are enjoyable to watch, though some of them feel slightly arch or unoriginal. The main antagonist, the leader of The Network, is so functionally identical to Marvel’s Wilson Fisk that it occasionally feels like a direct lift. Unfortunately, the biggest problem comes in on a larger view.
Without wishing to spoil, late into this series, a time skip occurs which brings the storyline to a screeching halt, completely resets the stakes, and really hurts the climax. The series’ runtime is arranged into assembling teams and performing heists, but in its desire to shove in twists and turns, it really kills the flow, and it’s a hard trek to get back to its better moments. Rather than staying in the series most dynamic moment, it slots in a generic “all is lost” moment that feels like wasted screentime. In a series where a single chase could last multiple episodes, time is at a premium, and abandoning the rising action to start all over with new stakes, more secrets, and new group dynamics feels terribly clunky. That isn’t the only decision that hurts the series pacing, but it’s the kind of moment that could see many viewers check out and bail on the final few episodes.
There are some great setpieces in Super Crooks, the animators at Studio Bones find countless fun ways to use the fairly simple powers of the main casts. The studio, known for Soul Eater, Fullmetal Alchemist, My Hero Academia and many more fantastic anime series, makes the show worth a look for the superhero action alone. The best parts of the series come in the execution of the heists, watching the disparate players come together and make their powers work in concert is very engaging. The action is dynamic, and impressively varied. Characters always have multiple goals beyond dueling to the death, and the flowing conflict is fantastic to watch.
Moment to moment, Super Crooks is a seamless melding of two genres with all the aspects fans would expect from each. There’s a ton of fun to be had in this series, but the shaky writing, bumpy pacing, and difficult social aspects could be enough to derail an otherwise great season of anime.
