Review: DC Super Hero Girls “#SoulSisters”

 

Overview (Spoilers Below):

There’s a mysterious new figure in Metropolis who seems to be targeting villains by taking their souls and leaving their lifeless bodies behind. When Diana meets a new friend named Tatsu Yamashiro from Japan, they bond over their shared love of training, training, and more training. But Tatsu isn’t really a great people person, and comes across as being a bit strange.

When the girls start collecting the villains bodies in order to cure them, they attract the attention of the perpetrator, who turns out to be none other than Tatsu. She takes everyone’s souls except Diana’s. They engage in a hard fought battle, but in the end, Diana sacrifices her soul to save that of an innocent bystander. Her heroism inspires Tatsu, and she frees every soul in her blade and turns over a new leaf.

Our Take:

I hadn’t watch DC Super Hero Girls before, but wow, this is a fun show! Diana and Tatsu have a great dynamic here, as do all the others girls. Batgirl and Supergirl were especially funny (“So we have to hide three bodies, big deal. Back home I’d hide three bodies before breakfast.”), and Batgirl’s dad kind of stole the show with his cluelessness. With punchy visuals, strong writing, and a talented voice cast, this show was a lot of fun to step in and review.

The plot mainly focuses on Tatsu and Diana’s relationship. It starts off somewhat conversarially, with Tatsu showing up in the creepiest way possible and challenging her to a spirited fencing match. (The horror vibes in the start of the episode were great. Soultaker is genuinely spooky!) But Diana’s cheery and positive demeanor wins Tatsu over, who is confused by her opponent’s smile despite the loss. They form a friendship forged through training, lifting weights, running stairs, and even scaling mountains together. Even with this bond, it was clear from the getgo that Tatsu was the new troublemaker in town. Personally, I would’ve liked to see a little more subtlety about this, although granted, it’s hard for it to be a mystery when there’s one new girl and one new villain in town. Also, Soultaker’s mask is basically just the Japanese flag.

The interesting topic brought up by Soultaker’s struggle is a question of heroism and what defines a hero. Tatsu thinks it means taking villains off the streets no matter what it takes (“The strong are driven by discipline, not desire.”), while Diana and her friends advocate a more civil, if less effective, approach. It’s a good question to deal with, even if I’m not sure either party is entirely correct. Metropolis seems to have problems keeping criminals locked up, something Tatsu’s methods remedy. Diana tells her this makes her no better than the villains she punishes, but I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration. The double impact of taking Diana’s soul and almost punishing an innocent man unjustly changes Tatsu’s mind in a good way, though, and was a nice means of resolving the conflict without getting too corny.

#SoulSisters is a very funny episode of DC Super Hero Girls that’s packed with action. While it doesn’t milk the mystery for long, it was still quite creepy in atmosphere. Tatsu is a great new character and the plot wrapped up in a believable, yet entertaining way. Oh, and extra points for that quiet library fighting – such a good scene!