Disclaimer: I make no promises that I won’t write anything that could be construed as a spoiler. Heck, even the photo above could be considered a spoiler to some with defined opinions, but I don’t really think it is, given the development brought on in S5.
But unsurprisingly, as rare as it is for me to do in my life, I was on top of, and I’ve already finished watching the first installment of Cobra Kai S6. I knew it was going to be multi-part, because Netflix is diabolical like that, and American media is incapable of finishing any story in a singular, logical, digestible experience, and either makes it abysmally short and rushed like Game of Thrones, or in the case of Cobra Kai, Infinity War, Fast X, Harry Potter, and The Hunger Games to name a few, requiring multiple installments.
However, I was mortified to find out that the final season of Cobra Kai wasn’t going to be just two installments, but three motherfucking installments, culminating probably around this time next year. I don’t know definitively, but I want to say that it’s already been all filmed and wrapped up, and this is just Netflix further creeping towards becoming cable television #2, by making viewers wait instead of the binging everyone prefers to do.
And I really hope that it’s true that they’re done, because the cast of this show is starting to really show their age in embarrassing ways. Kenny looks like he’s gone through puberty twice, and is basically bigger than all of the kids’ cast. Demitri is now like 6’10, and it’s hilarious to hear a character talk about his advantageous size in a fight, when he was literally the worst kid to ever become a regular karate student in the beginning. Daniel’s ridiculously hot wife Amanda is now showing the wrinkles above her lips that come with age. Even Kyler, went from looking like a 22-year old high school underclassman in early seasons to looking like a 36-year old college freshmen trying to pledge for a fraternity.
Needless to say, if they haven’t wrapped up filming and plan on doing it all the way into next year, Kenny might be a divorced father of three by then, Chozen will have turned into Master Roshi, and William Zabka might start looking like old Vin Diesel by then.
As for the story and execution of the first installment of S6, absolutely nothing about it was any surprise. The groups are all going to be preparing for the Sekai Taikai tournament, and of course there’s continued repeated spats between Daniel and Johnny. The kids have seemingly all squashed their prior beefs, and it’s almost as insufferably peaceful like the Power Rangers the way everyone is so indoctrinated by Miyagi-Do.
Frankly it’s only the hints of chaos that seem remotely interesting, like the Mr. Miyagi’s mystery box of his past, and the family issues that befall Tory and the resulting actions, but other than that, the five episodes flew by in a relatively uneventful manner.
The series’ signature of dipping into the past and dredging up old characters wasn’t really that prevalent in these first five episodes, and I still believe that within the final ten episodes over two installments, it’s inevitable that Hilary Swank will show up, with the off-chance that Jackie Chan, Iron Monkey, Jaden Smith or any of the kids from the Kung Fu Kid makes appearances, so that literally every gamut of the previous Karate Kid films can be referenced at some point.
But the one thing that I really wanted to talk about and what spawned the urgency to make this post, was what was shown at the very end of the fifth episode. Okay, **[spoiler alert]**
It took me a few seconds after the big reveal that Cobra Kai was still alive and well, despite the collapse of their American operations courtesy of Terry Silver, that the new and most fucking definitely improved logo, was in Korean. Like when Kwon and two unnamed Cobras came walking out in slow motion in the traditional black gi with the giant cobra on it, I was kind of just like ohhhh shit, but then my eyes did a double take, and I could see that the Cobra Kai wordmark was in Korean, and then I was like OHHHH SHIT
Despite my general fandom of the Karate Kid franchise throughout my life, and general appreciation and admiration for the fire branding of Cobra Kai itself, I never did ever get any shirts or hoodies with the OG logo. The hipster in me defied the all the other hipsters who all swooped up and bought shirts and hoodies, and I kind of didn’t want to just be another one of them.
But a Cobra Kai logo, written in KOREAN, I’m just like, there has never been something in existence more tailor made to well, me, ever in existence of humanity.
This is something that belongs to me, and other Korean people who are fans of the franchise and the brand. This does not belong to any of the Koreebs, the white people, the black people, or anyone else who also are Cobra Kai fans who already have their OG black, yellow and red Cobra Kai stuff.
I was like, I have never needed this logo on a piece of apparel more than anything in my entire life. And at first, I had a tremendous amount of dread that this would not be produced, much like the absolute nuclear gold mine the show and Champion athletics sat on but never did anything with, but upon doing a cursory Google search after watching S6E5, I found some immediate results.
I had concerns that these were probably like some cheap bootleg shit from Temu or Alibaba or some shit, but then I found a link to this Hot Topic shirt, and as easy as it is to dunk on Hot Topic, they still carry some semblance of legitimacy in my opinion, and despite the fact that I typically have choice paralysis and can never pull the trigger on anything, I didn’t hesitate (beyond making sure I made the transaction on my laptop so I could get 2% Rakuten cashback) to purchase it, and eagerly await it’s arrival in the mail.
If for anything at all, the introduction of the Korean Cobra Kai logo, completely sets the season on fire for me, and I wait impatiently for the next installments of the show. I still resent that they’re releasing it like this, but there’s no shortage of shit on my list that I can watch over the next few months to fill the time.
God damn I can’t wait to get my shirt.
