Cobra Kai Season 6
SPOILERS TOTAL. You've been warned.
601: Peacetime in the Valley 2024 July 18
(First watched 2024-07-18) After the way the last season ended, a good breather. At the end of last season, they basically... won. Silver is in jail. Kreese is a fugitive. Miyagi-do / Eagle Fang are on good terms. Not everybody loved each other, but nobody wanting to kill each other.
Johnny funny as ever. Developing a training exercise about out of the frying pan and into the fire: "I'm also gonna need a frying pan."
I guess Johnny really was just squatting that building used for Eagle Fang training, as we see it demolished in this episode. That plus the students' attempt to make a name and logo for "Miyagi Fang" brought the combination of their dojos to a head again, with neither side really wanting to give up what their name meant to them (or make Mr. Miyagi look like a vampire). In the end everyone is mature enough to decide there are more important things than the name, but Johnny's concession is a bit stronger. Paraphrased: Eagle Fang was really just a continuation of Cobra Kai, so to him it would be more acceptable to merge into Miyagi-do and continue a legacy that doesn't include Kreese. Adding the eagle to the bonsai tree on their logo is a great little touch.
Most unexpected thing: Stingray deciding HE can restart Cobra Kai like Johnny did before, but training a bunch of little kids. I hope he comes up with a better name for that thing, because otherwise that's kind of a cute concept.
And Kreese... has gone overseas to try and start up Cobra Kai again.
The flow of time is really affecting the characters, as expected. Especially Kenny. A few seasons back (less than a year in-universe) he was introduced as someone small who ended up able to take on people much larger than him, but by now he's taller than Robby.
The stuff with Kenny and his brother turned out pretty interesting. At first I thought Robby was coming on too hard. He'd said what he had to say, Kenny and his brother told him to leave them alone, and... he didn't. But the way he and his friends handled themselves in the ensuing fight, not going as hard on Kenny as they could've, impressed his brother enough to make him think maybe they WOULD be a positive influence.
At one point Daniel says that after the Sekai Taikai he intends to stop being a full-time sensei. I wonder quite what he means by this. For one thing, as is he's already splitting time between that role and managing car dealerships, so it's already not exactly full time. But what lessened role is he thinking? He thought it was important for the kids of the Valley to see an alternative to Cobra Kai. Does that no longer matter without the imminent presence of something like Cobra Kai? Or does he trust people like Johnny (who at this point in the episode is still Eagle Fang) to be that more permanent positive presence?
602: The Prize 2024 July 18
(First watched 2024-07-19) When they started doing flashbacks with young Kreese, back in season 3 I think, I didn't expect they'd just never stop.
So even Kreese gets a kind of new training from his old... now he's even more coldhearted! Success, I guess.
It's become kind of a joke how in recent seasons Johnny has apparently had no means to support himself, so it's kind of nice that they've forced the issue--with the added complication of his family being a lot larger than it was at the beginning of the series. A job at LaRusso Auto? Ehhhhh we'll see how that goes.
After Kyler both being the initial bully for Miguel and friends, and then being part of the "Kreese asshole" wave of Cobra Kai a few seasons later, it's strange to see them fighting alongside each other. But letting bygones be bygones is a pretty common theme of this show, so at least they didn't have to wait 30 years.
603: Sleeper 2024 July 18
(First watched 2024-07-20) Johnny dumb idea #500: use a slumber party to reignite tensions between Sam and Tory. As these things go it ended up working sideways. Apparently they'd been kind of walking on eggshells not wanting to return things to the previous status quo, but since Johnny pushed the issue they ended up more properly apologizing to each other and moving past that, so they can train with each other properly.
This new Miyagi stuff... I wonder what will come of it. Really there is a pretty big gap in what we know of him between his time in the military in the 1940s and him building the home now used as a dojo.
For people so excited about the Sekai Taikai, the students seem awfully uninformed about it. Like, I doubt that "six member team" thing was new for this year. Clearly entire dojos full of people couldn't be entering a world championship. From a show standpoint it also makes obvious sense to have fewer characters to focus on from what's become a very extended roster. Anyway, given the events of the series up to now I'm guessing the most likely team of six will be: Miguel, Robby, Hawk, Kenny, Sam, Tory. We'll see. Among the cast considered "starring", that would only leave out Demetri.
604: Underdogs 2024 July 18
(First watched 2024-07-21) Good excuse to bring back Barnes, as a karate expert who doesn't have history with the students. The competition to be part of the six brought out the worst in Demetri and Devon, though, who are unexpectedly part of the team--at least for now. Devon's move against Kenny seems like it will wreck things between him and Anthony until the truth is known.
605: Best of the Best 2024 July 18
(First watched 2024-07-22) If this season has a theme so far, it's that maintaining peace is as hard as achieving peace. New tensions arise between people who have previously resolved them.
I thought some of the Sekai Taikai team would get changed before the actual tournament, but it didn't quite go as I expected. Devon is still in and Kenny out. Kenny is still considered a main character, though, so for sure they've got to have some major stuff for him in the back 2/3 of the season? Hawk is back in thanks to Tory dropping out, who has unexpectedly joined up with New New New Cobra Kai, if we can extrapolate from her flashbacks because she doesn't feel like she should be relying on anyone else like her friends in Miyagi-do.
Johnny and Daniel once again supposedly splits forever after the tournament, but... we'll see.
Most interesting revelation, that apparently Mr. Miyagi took part in the Sekai Taikai. As seen on screen he was never a fan of tournaments, so maybe how that went down played a role in his anti-tournament stance.
Hey so... what happened to Chozen? We saw him looking at flights back to Okinawa, but I expected he'd be there for the Sekai Taikai. Well, everyone is in Spain now and no Chozen. What's the deal? Surely if that was supposed to be it for him they would've included some farewell scene?
611: Episode name 2025 February 13
(First watched 2025-02-13) Everyone in strange positions this time. To get the Sekai Taikai restarted, they need unanimous consent from the senseis, which means Terry Silver needs to convince Daniel. I wondered whether he would use the carrot or stick to get what he wants... but so far seems to be playing it fairly straight and just acknowledging that everyone wants the tournament back for their own reasons. Though his apparently include not having long to live and wanting to go out on top fighting. Or... at least having the people he's paying fighting.
Kim is in a bit of a The Force Awakens moment, needing to kill Kreese to prove herself to her grandfather... but instead decides her grandfather is the one that needs to go. While Kreese himself departs from Korean Cobra Kai uncertain what his future holds, other than showing back up at the tournament. Even he, like Daniel, didn't want the tournament resumed, but I guess circumstances changed his mind.
So before I go on to the next episode... we're in the final stretch now. It already seemed that way going into this season, but they had to make time for more temporary drama, flaring up tensions in groups like Daniel-Johnny, Hawk-Demetri, Tori-Sam, Miguel-Robby that it already seemed had run their course. But now we're really down to four episodes left. I would not mind at all if at this point things went relatively smoothly! Even beyond our regular protagonists. In this show it's been rewarding to see people like Mike Barnes, Chozen, and of course Johnny move beyond their original antagonist roles. A few times it seemed like Kreese could've headed the same way, but they were all fakeouts. But I'm a "fool me eight or more times, shame on me" guy. If Kreese is really going to try and turn a new leaf in the last few episodes... go for it. Hell, if Terry Silver wants to just be part of a cool karate tournament before he dies, let him have that too! I don't exactly expect all this, but the fewer irredeemable people the better. I mean, as much shit as some of these guys have pulled, they're still nowhere near being a genocidal space dictator we're supposed to start rooting for.
612: Episode name 2025 February 13
(First watched 2025-02-14) Drama, but peaceful. Most of those pairs I mentioned in the previous episode had their moments here. All topped off with a wedding and birth.
The mixed reality fighting system... mmm, works for the characters but implausible, even moreso when this is supposed to be 5 years ago. Apart from the matter of equipment, having Miguel act as a faux-Axel doesn't make much sense. The computer can tell him what move "Axel" should make next, but in a real fight all of the attacking/blocking/countering comes so fast that listening to audio instructions on what to do next can't possibly keep up. Then there's just the fact that Axel is significantly larger. Different height, different reach... can't virtual that!
There were a few lines that seemed deliberate references to old material. Johnny and Rosa talking about his proposal plans and her saying that it would be right as long as it was from him, very similar to phrasing used by Miyagi to Daniel a few times, about bonsai but as a metaphor for any decision really. Also the mailman commenting on the Miyagi-do backyard was basically repeating what the mailman said in Part II, I think? While similarly delivering bad news.
Gunther is a straightforward but fun character. Fun to see him dealing with the recurring bickering All Valley Sports crew. Unlikelily convenient that the new site for the resumed tournament is the same building used for previous tournaments in this show and the Karate Kid movies, but... appropriate for this show's end.
Bobby as the wedding officiant made sense. And I think this is the first time we've seen Daniel with an old Cobra other than Johnny since the beginning of Part II? Not that they directly interacted.
613: Episode name 2025 February 13
(First watched 2025-02-15) So Terry Silver continues to be a jerkass, no surprise. Kreese's turn for the better seems to have stuck, though. Great moments between him and Johnny.
CG Miyagi is back. Visually he's noticeably fake when you see his face, but whatever they did for the vocals... clips, machine-learned recreation, soundalike... pretty convincing.
I don't like spoilers, but many months ago I did unintentionally run across people discussing set pictures from this season showing Miguel in black and with a captain's headband. So with that in mind, I had a pretty good idea what would happen in response to Robby being forced out of the tournament by dirty tricks. I wasn't expecting Johnny to also return as Cobra Kai sensei, but that makes perfect full circle sense for this show too.
614: Episode name 2025 February 13
(First watched 2025-02-16) No time wasted! On to the two big fights, both of which are won by the new new new new Cobra Kai. The flashbacks during Miguel's fight to earlier seasons was very effective. Of course they couldn't leave a last episode to be just epilogue, so we're still left with Sensei Lawrence vs Sensei Wolf as a tiebreaker.
Wasn't expecting to see strip mall Cobra Kai again. So I wonder how things play out after all this. It seemed for a while that Daniel would step back and it would amazingly leave Johnny as the main Miyagi-do sensei, but that's not happening. Of course Johnny as he is now has Miyagi-do influence, but will anyone still be teaching Miyagi-do proper?
Terry Silver being a shitbag, of course wanted to force Johnny to lose, but... damn. Kreese stepped up. No more Kreese, no more Silver, no more Dennis de Guzman.
615: Episode name 2025 February 13
(First watched 2025-02-17) Probably about as satisfying an ending as you could get for most of these characters. More than usual amount of callbacks to the original movie as well as Rocky, which is appropriate enough.
I kind of figured Kreese and Silver wouldn't come up before the fight so as not to be a distraction to the characters, but feels a little strange that we never get any sort of reaction to it other than Sensei Wolf briefly wondering where Silver is.
Looking at things too seriously again, I wonder how this Cobra Kai / Miyagi-do collaboration works. In that, at least as things worked several seasons earlier, Johnny was charging for lessons and Daniel wasn't. So uhh Johnny teaches students aggression for money, then tells them to go take free lessons elsewhere for defense? And Daniel teaches students balance, then tells them to go pay Johnny to learn how to be less merciful?
Enjoyed the brief talk at the end from I believe Cobra Kai (show) creators cameo, talking about making a Back to the Future spinoff.
It is interesting how they turned Miyagi-do and Cobra Kai into a yin-yang thing. Johnny acknowledges that following strictly Cobra Kai maxims like "No Mercy" turns you into an asshole--but the solution rather than being to get rid of No Mercy is to recognize that there's a time and place for No Mercy. Which really isn't No after all, but who's quibbling. And from the other side Daniel finally gets the rest of the story on Miyagi's jewelry robbery, and gets the message that even his Defense-Only mentor understood there was a time and place for Striking Hard, like when someone has stolen a family heirloom from your dead wife. I do note that at the end the Miyagi-do logo has regressed back to what it was in earlier seasons, presumably since the eagle flew off to do his thing down the road.